The Dancing Girl

She was surly; he thought he could almost feel the heat rising from her flushed cheeks, she was so close. Her skirts billowed, white flashing under as the crimson outer skirts flared. The village folk sang with the music and danced occasionally in the smoke filled common room, but mostly it was the two outsiders who spent their night in the cleared corner. By the time they both sat, sweating and exhausted, his legs like jelly. He ordered two drinks, and cooled his forehead with the chilled clay mug. This was not an expected evening from such a small town.