‘Oh, I’m sick of talking about it,’ said Penny, meaning it. She wondered if Elle would ever come back, or if she and Ned would have to travel to London to meet up in the future. Some awkward reunion in the restaurant of a hotel, nothing to look forward to but a cramped shower and a hard bed afterwards. She guessed that if she and Elle hadn’t been able to become close again, like real sisters after all this, then they probably never would.

She and Colin watched the band play, an old-style show-band that you couldn’t help but tap your toes to.

‘Let’s dance,’ he suggested.

‘Oh, I couldn’t, I’m awful,’ said Penny. It had been a long time since those dance classes in her school days and as much as she loved it, she’d never kept it up. It wasn’t as if there were many opportunities for dancing in a small town like this anymore. ‘Can you dance?’ she asked Colin.

‘Didn’t you know, my dear? English schoolboys are taught to dance on pain of death. I learnt to dance the foxtrot with a broom for a partner.’

She laughed. ‘Ah, I’m too clumsy, I’d probably be all over your feet.’

‘After the experience of dancing with an inanimate object, you could sever my toes and it would still be a pleasant evening for me,’ said Colin. He had a way of expressing himself that made her laugh. She couldn’t really tell if he was joking or not. You would think that writers would be more serious. She was even starting to think his ridiculous university professor coat actually suited him.

As she gradually overcame her hesitation and she and Colin jived very badly on the floor in front of everyone, she couldn’t help but think this was the kind of band that would have played at the hotel, once upon a time. She idly remembered that Arthur Ryan from the antiques shop and a few of his old cronies used to play there now and again, Arthur on trumpet and Johnny Chips on the guitar, she mused. But there was little appetite for such a group now and she imagined their instruments had long since been retired. It was a shame really.

She and Elle had liked to sneak out of bed and sit on the staircase and watch people go in and out of the ballroom when the hotel used to host ballroom dancing sessions on Sunday nights. She had dreamed that one day she would be one of the women in the sparkling dresses, spinning and whirling. The sisters had tried to learn the steps from watching the movements of the revellers in the ballroom, but they moved too fast.

In the end, like Penny’s dance lessons, it had all just become a forgotten dream.