Practice Mishaps

He wasn’t making much progress on his own. It came as a great relief, then, that he would be having a friend to go to the masquerade with him. A friend who would be there at any minute to begin their dance practice. Malcolm paced, hooves clicking along the wooden floor, followed by the clicking of four smaller hooves.

Francis bleated as he trailed after Malcolm.

“Oh? What is it?”

The herald bleated again as he pointed to the door with his nose.

“Did you see him through the window? He’s close?”

Francis huffed an affirmation, and guided Malcolm to the door where he could see Lennox entering the threshold of his yard. From the corner of his eye, Malcolm could also see Francis’s head held high, clearly full of pride for detecting their oncoming guess so quickly.

“Thank you, Francis,” Malcolm praised. He knew better than to pet the haughty killy and sully his pride. Properly thanked, Francis moved out of the way of the door so that Malcolm could open the door, a mere moment before Lennox could knock on it.

“Lennox! Thank you so much for coming, it’s good to see you, as always.”

“Ye know I’ll always try tae help ye out,” he answered as Malcolm beckoned him inside.

“And I’ll always appreciate it,” Malcolm returned, smiling warmly as he closed the door. He chuckled almost nervously while they walked to the area he set up for their practice. “Especially since I know this isn’t something you’re comfortable with.”

“As if yer comfortable wi’ this?”

“No, but-” Malcolm cut himself off. “Well, let’s just practice. I’m sure we won’t have to dance too much, but I’d feel better if I was prepared.”

He picked up the book from his desk and propped it up at an angle. The angle, aided by the size of the book, made it so that they didn’t have to hover over the desk to check the instructions provided by the diagrams. Once the book was set up, he got the music ready. “Okay,” Malcolm affirmed, returning to Lennox. Gingerly, he took Lennox’s hand and placed his other hand on Lennox’s shoulder.

As always, Lennox was tense, but followed Malcolm’s lead by properly holding onto his hand and putting his other hand on Malcolm’s waist.

“I think we should start with a slower dance to get a little more used to... well, dancing. Then once we’re comfortable, maybe we can try one of the faster dances, I hear there’s one coming into fashion but I don’t know how necessary that will be at the ball.”

As they began to follow the simple steps of the waltz, as the book instructed, Lennox’s eyebrow fell in a familiar furrow. “Is this really something they expect from ye? An author has tae know dancin’?”

Malcolm shrugged. As they swayed to the music, eyeing the book every few beats to make sure they didn’t forget a step, the music’s pacing slowly increased, prompting them to up their own tempo.

“I don’t suppose I’ll ever understand why formal social functions have to be a part of this life. I know that you’re meant to build business relationships to make publishing easier, but I would think the quality of the work was what was most important.”

The music continued to pick up.

Lennox clicked his tongue. “Yer the best author they’re ever going tae meet, they need tae get their priori- ack!”

Distracted, neither of them were paying attention to the dance or the book. Francis bleated his disapproval too late. One misstep and the pair came crashing down.

Having fallen down on top of Lennox, Malcolm became reoriented the quickest - and quickly moved aside to kneel next to Lennox. “I think we forgot about the learning bit - maybe we need to get our priorities in order,” Malcolm laughed bashfully.

To his surprise and relief, Lennox chuckled a response. “I think ye might be right. Let’s get this over with, an’ then ye can tell me about yer new book. Sounded like ye were excited about it in yer letter.”

Getting up, Malcolm extended a hand to Lennox, smiling warmly. “I’d love that. Shall we?”

Lennox took his hand, and they got to work.