Page 23 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
Her face warmed as she stood and waited. “Those are the first steps. Would you like me to show them to you again?”
“There’s nay need,” he replied, before moving through the steps, executing them perfectly, albeit with some clear reluctance in his limbs.
She blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected a man of his size and power to be so graceful or able to learn the dance so quickly.
He is a warrior, remember. Maybe dancing and fighting aren’t so different.
“Very well,” she said. “Let’s attempt the next steps.”
She eagerly showed him the second part, moving closer to him. From her position near his side, she leaped back and forth in a sideways ‘V’ before skipping around him in a horseshoe and coming back to face him.
“Of course, it must be done in such a way that we don’t knock into each other,” she explained. “And your palm must rest against mine the entire time. Shall we try the two parts together?”
Hunter shrugged. “Aye, if I must.”
At the table, her friends continued to beat out the rhythm of the dance. Grace didn’t waste a moment. She threw herself into the intricate dance, secretly astonished by Hunter’s lithe movements. He didn’t miss a single step or beat, nor did he knock into her or trip her as they whirled around each other, coming back to face one another.
Though she was already breathless and exhilarated, he could have just woken up from a nap, entirely unbothered.
“Now, for the third part,” she said, jumping into a complicated series of hops and leaps and skips, twirling left and right in dizzying spins.
Nothing fazed Hunter. He performed the steps with ease, but as he came back to face her, there was a frown on his face.
“This is what ye consider a dance?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.
“You don’t like it?” she replied.
His lip curled slightly, as if he’d smelled something unpleasant. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? How so?”
She should have been insulted that he wasn’t enjoying her favorite dance. Instead, she was elated, and all because of the grimace he was still trying to cover. If that wasn’t disgust, then she didn’t know what was.
He wasappalledby the English way of dancing!
I did it! My goodness, I did it!
“It’s nae dancin’ at all,” he replied gruffly. “A dance shouldnae be so regimented, else there’s nay use in even havin’ musicians. Ye dance to what a musician plays, nae the other way around.”
His disgust lingered for a moment longer, and it took everything Grace possessed not to turn around and grin at her friends to make a point of what she’d done. They had surely noticed it too; she didn’t need to make a great fuss about it when there was still dancing to be done.
“Ah, well, the musicians are here,” she said, gesturing to the doors, where a bewildered group of fiddlers, flautists, and a drummer had just stumbled in, led by Thomas. “Let us find out which is true. I think you might find that the English way is infinitely better.”
Hunter’s lip curled again, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “The English way isneverbetter.”
I did it again!
Had she known that all she had to do was insist that the English were better than the Scots, she might have had all the time she liked to enjoy her dinner. Yet, standing before him, prepared for the dance, she was perfectly content with how things had played out.
“A middling-paced song, if you please,” she instructed the musicians.
The five men—two fiddlers, two flautists, and one man with a round, handheld drum—had a brief discussion between themselves. A moment later, music floated through the hall. It was the kind she had heard often enough at English balls, but with a rougher edge. Scottish and English traditions combined to make something new.
“And… begin,” Grace said, leaping into the dance.
Hunter joined her, mirroring her movements without fault, remembering each step as if he had been taught long ago. Though his limbs were graceful and capable, his expression remained stony. Whether that counted as a third instance of disgust, Grace wasn’t sure, but as the dance continued, exhilaration pounding in her veins, she found she didn’t care.
I have always wanted to perform this dance with a partner, and here I am.
