Read I Hope You Dance for Free Online Page A

actually missed Dad.
    â€œWhere is Dad?” I had to ask this three times before Mum stopped pretending she couldn’t hear me.
    â€œOut.”
    Timothy looked confused. “Didn’t he know Maggie would be here?”
    Everybody froze. Except Maggie.
    â€œNo, little cousin. He knew I would be here, which is why he isn’t. Haven’t you heard? Pop can’t stand to be in the same room as me because I’m a bastard, and the irrefutable evidence that Auntie Ruth had sexual intercourse outside marriage and is therefore a fallen woman.”
    â€œMAGGIE!” I dropped my spoon with a clatter.
    â€œWhat’s a bastard?” Timothy smirked.
    â€œWhat’s sexual intcourse?” Arianna stopped crying, and tried to prize Esther’s hands off her ears.
    â€œWhy did Auntie Ruth fall down?”
    â€œTimothy. Enough.” Esther gave him that look , and he squiggled down lower on his chair, delightfully watching to see what would happen next.
    Mum slammed the ice-cream scoop decorated with four tiny red hearts onto the table top. It was somewhat muffled by the tablecloth, tablecloth liner and two-inch-thick heat-resistant mat, but the force of her slam made up for it.
    â€œMaggie. How could you possibly say – how could you possibly think – such a terrible thing?” She shook her head, distraught. “Pop loves you. We were sorry and sad you lost your dad. Devastated you had to leave your lovely big house. But this is a wonderful blessing to us, to have you here. To have you home!” She waved her hands at the rest of us, blinking back her tears. “We love you, Maggie. Pop loves you. He has a prior engagement tonight, that’s all.”
    â€œYeah. He’s had a lot of those in the past fourteen years.” Maggie got up from the table and walked over to the door of the dining room. “Thanks for dinner, Nanny. I don’t want any ice-cream.”
    I followed her upstairs. She let me sit on the bed and put my arm around her. But really, what could I say? She was right.
    â€œYou know Nanny’s telling the truth. If Pop has issues, they’re with me, and they are wrong, and it’s because of me he stayed away, not you.”
    â€œWhat’s with him, anyway? Hardly anybody gets married these days.”
    â€œOh, Maggie, it’s not really about that. It’s way, way more complicated. One day I’ll tell you, but not tonight when we’re tired, and Nanny is upset, and Esther has to try and explain what a fallen woman is to her over-protected six-year-old, who already thinks you’re a witch.”
    And when I can maybe get the words out past the huge lump of broken glass wedged in my chest.
    â€œWhy don’t you come and teach them how to play poker?”
    Maggie blew the hair out of her eyes. “That would be cool. To have a witch teach you poker. Plus, it would really annoy Auntie Esther.”
    I grinned. “Esther will just be glad to see you getting along. Uncle Max – he’ll blow the roof off when he finds out.”
    I left the kids in the sitting room practising their poker faces in the gilded mirror above the mantelpiece. Esther was helping Mum clean up the kitchen.
    â€œSo, what’s with Maggie’s hair? Are they going to allow that at school? Doesn’t colouring it like that wreck the condition? What will the other kids make of her with hair like that? Won’t they think she’s weird?”
    â€œI wouldn’t lose sleep over it. It will probably look totally different by the start of term.” I started rummaging in drawers for something to wrap the leftovers up in.
    â€œBut why would you allow it? Next thing, she’ll be having a tattoo, or one of those things in her ear that stretches a hole until it swings about near her shoulders.” She wiggled her hands underneath her ears to demonstrate where Maggie’s lobes could end up.
    â€œNo, she won’t.