Let the Dance Begin by Lynda Waterhouse

be!’
    Cassie fell into a deep, happy sleep.
    And then the storm came . . .
    The next thing she was aware of was an arm gently around her shoulders and Madame Rosa’s voice saying, ‘It’s all right, Cassie. Everything is all
    right.’ She realised that she was shaking from the top of her head to the tips of her fluttering wings, and that everyone was staring at her.
    ‘Sometimes, dancing has the power to awaken deep emotions and memories in us,’ Madame Rosa said. Cassie slowly felt calmer and the other sprites turned back to their dancing. Madame
Rosa looked at her gently. ‘After you’ve eaten supper I want you to come to my study. There is something Id like to show you.’
    Cassie could not believe her luck. She was speechless. She was actually being invited into the principal’s study – the room which she thought might well hold the key to her mother’s
disappearance.
    Over supper Lexie said, ‘That was amazing. I have never seen you dance like that before. But are you feeling all right, Cassie? You look drained.’
    For a moment Cassie thought about telling her more about her mother, and confiding why she was really at the dance school – but then Shell arrived, and the moment had passed.
    Shell put her plate down. ‘Great performance this afternoon. Do you think Madame Rosa is about to offer you the role of prima dune dancer?’ she teased.
    ‘She’s probably going to lecture me about showing off. No doubt there’s a Rule about displaying too many feelings.’ Cassie stood up. ‘I’d better get
going.’
    ‘Good luck, and if you’re leaving that soup, I can help you out!’ Lexie was already slurping before Cassie had left the dining hall. As she went downstairs, she smiled to
herself as she passed Miss Youngsand Jnr’s science lab. This was something to tell Rubus! She tapped lightly on the door of Madame Rosa’s study.
    ‘Enter!’ came the voice from the other side.
    Madame Rosa sat behind a large, highly polished driftwood desk. She was writing.
    ‘Forgive me, but I must finish writing in the Day Book. All events in the dance school must be recorded.’ As Madame Rosa dipped her pen in a pot of squid ink and wrote, Cassie looked
around. The study was smaller than she’d imagined it would be, but it shimmered and glowed with candlelight. The walls were mother-ofpearl, and Cassie noticed a strange narrow ledge running
along the top of the wall. The small peephole had a large seat covered in different shades of abalone. Opposite the peephole was a shelf filled with exercises books and a large copy of The Sands
of Time. On the shelf below it was a row of small hessian-backed books all labelled Day Book.
    Madame Rosa finished writing, looked up and smiled at Cassie. ‘How are you settling in at Sandringham?’
    ‘I am finding learning the steps hard, but I am enjoying it,’ Cassie replied.
    ‘I have been impressed by your application and attitude to work. You have a rare talent for interpretation of feelings – a quality that is essential in a sand dancer. Watching you dance
today reminded me of someone, and I want to show you something. Come along.’
    She stood up and walked into the back of the study. Cassie followed her.
    ‘Take a seat.’
    Cassie sat on a chair by an old table, on which there was a large lantern. Madame Rosa opened a small wooden box and took out some painted glass strips. She fitted them around the lantern, lit
it and pulled long drapes across the window to make a screen.
    ‘You might be surprised to know that your mother also struggled to master the steps at first,’ she said.
    ‘No!’ Cassie gasped.
    ‘Marina never gave up, and spent hours practising so that eventually she was able to perform the Triple Silica Jump. No one had ever performed it perfectly before.’
    Cassie watched the lantern flicker and the image of her mother dancing floated across the room.
    ‘I am showing you this because I do not want you to give up hope and lose heart in your