Georges de la Motte was the youngest son of a youngest son, a French noble by birth – if only there’d been enough estate for him to inherit. While his elder brothers were destined to become masters of country houses and lands with tenant farmers to keep them fat and indolent into their old age, there was very little for the youngest de la Motte to inherit – and instead Georges was expected to join the Legion, or enter industry, or even to dispose of his talents in some charitable endeavour. Destiny, however, had had other plans – for Georges had fallen in love with dance instead. His family, he would later confide in Raymond, had rather disowned him for it. Who, after all, would forsake his fine family for the life of a travelling dancer? But for Georges it was the world. In a ballroom, he was not a noble’s forgotten youngest son; he was the noble himself, and the ballroom his inheritance. All of life was in the ballroom.

Raymond had never known why Georges took such a shine to him that night. In the years that followed, he never dreamed to ask, for fear that the spell would be broken and the friendship soured. But de la Motte invited Raymond to the mansion where he was staying and first taught Raymond the true arts of balance and poise. It was de la Motte who had shown him how to weave from a promenade position, how to hold himself in a double reverse spin, or the trick of truly timing the hover corte. A year later, when Georges was due in London to accompany some lesser Flemish princess in the ballroom at the Savoy, he had made a personal call to Ray Cohen and – on seeing his down-at-heel East End surroundings – suggested he accompany him on a great adventure.

And that was how Ray Cohen had left the safety of the Whitechapel Road behind, swapping it for the hotels and ballrooms of Paris and Berlin. That was how Ray Cohen had seen corners of the world of which his brother Artie would only ever dream. It was all down to the tutelage and friendship of Georges de la Motte – everything from his closed wing and contra check, to his role at the Buckingham and his new name: Raymond de Guise.