"If you can dance this waltz, I'll adopt you."
Annie Bell felt every eye in the ballroom land on her at once.
"I'm little," Annie said. Although her voice was soft, it carried across the floor because no one in the room dared interrupt her. "I don't know how to dance like the ladies do." She glanced toward the center of the floor. "They've all got pretty dresses. They belong out there. I don't. I'm just waiting for my mama near the side aisle."
Lena Bell nearly dropped the heavy silver tray in her hands. "Annie," she whispered, her voice cracking before it had the chance to rise.
Charles Whitmore took one measured step forward. "You don't need a pretty dress," he said. He looked around the ballroom once, almost as if dismissing all the silk, velvet, and diamonds in it with a single glance, before returning his full attention to Annie. "You don't need lace. You don't need satin. You don't need anything glittering at all. If you can dance this waltz, that will be enough."
Annie stared at him. At the rear of the room, Margaret Doyle, the banquet supervisor, stopped dead with folded linens in her arms and muttered under her breath, "Oh, Lord."
Charles's gaze sharpened. "I already told you," he said to Annie, his tone quiet. "I saw your joints move with the music. Your feet knew the count. Your body answered the turn before anyone asked it to. A child doesn't do that unless the dance is already in her." Charles tilted his head slightly. "So tell me the truth. Are you afraid?"
The question made the ballroom go entirely still all over again. Annie lifted her chin. "No, sir."
"No," he repeated. "Then perhaps you only feel out of place."
She nodded once.
"That can be fixed faster than fear."
Lena finally stepped forward from the service edge of the room. "Mr. Whitmore, she's only a child," she said, her voice respectful but tight with panic. "She didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sorry. I'll take her out."
But Charles went on as though the entire room had narrowed down to a single point between him and the little girl. "What if I make you a promise?" he asked Annie.