I did the same thing when I leveled thief.
Putting only 1 merit into dagger, I hoped to get dancing edge at 59. Upon reaching 59 I had the correct 200+ for the WS, but my actual skill was lower... and I couldn't use dancing edge. After that party I went and skilled my actual dagger skill to 200 and it said "Eriu learns Dancing Edge ect ect." Switched back to thief... and I could use it.
Now the odd part. I expected the same thing to happen for shark bite. Upon reaching 65 I assumed I wouldn't have shark bite yet since my actual skill was not up to par. Went on like that for 2 hours, thinking I didn't have shark bite. Then I decided to check the WS list... and there it was, I was able to use Shark Bite without actually "learning" it.
I'm still stumped about it.