“Well now, that simply isn’t an option.” He gripped the trapeze again, urging me to take it. “As I told you before, everyone falls. It only matters what you do about it. Now, take the bar again. We’ll see if you’ve improved.”
“By rolling through straw? Hardly.” I crossed my arms.
“Give her a try. For me.”
“You think I’d do anything for you? You have quite the swelled head, Mr. Dorian.”
He stepped closer, challenge lighting his eyes, extended one palm, and shoved me again.
With a cry I grabbed for something to hold, but tumbled over the edge again, landing on my back in the straw. I lay there and frowned up at him, blowing hair off my face. “And what was that one for?”
He looked down at me with a shrug. “Just making room for my big head up here.”
I climbed again and stood before him, arms crossed. “I’ve had enough of this madness. What’s next?”
He pulled the trapeze close, folded my hands over the bar, and turned to face me, his earnest face mere inches from mine. “What is it you want most? Your dream as a dancer. Something distinct that does not include the word ‘perfect.’”
I blanked under the intensity of his gaze.
He softened, as if coaxing a wild animal out of hiding. “Come now, I need to know the shape of that hole in your heart if I’ve any hope of filling it.” He leaned closer, eyeing the details of my face. I half expected to feel the brush of a kiss. The light in his eyes had turned tender. Intimate.
My throat tightened.Breathe.
So this was how women fell for such men. How Mum had likely fallen for Father.
“Well?” His eyes danced.
I gripped the bar. “Philippe.” The word came hurtling from the depths of my heart in the face of Jack’s nearness, wrested out by a combination of deep utter longing and a sense of loyalty to the man who’d been betrayed before. “I wish to dance opposite Philippe Rousseau.”
His eyes narrowed, the gold flecks bright. What he saw when that stare bore into my face, with my heart on full display, I’ll never know. Perhaps it was best that way, for I’d just revealed a great deal.
“Very well, then. Philippe it is.”
I turned away from his gaze, focused on the bar.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
I steeled my arms and stepped into nothing, with my eyes closed. Cool air washed over me, and my chest felt strong, only lightly sprinkled with fear. I blinked and looked down as I swept across the barn to the other side. With a kick against the other platform, I sailed back and relished the feel of free-falling, of truly soaring. The curtain of fear had been drawn back, and it was both frightening and exhilarating.
This time when Jack pulled me toward him, I fell back against his chest, breathless with wonder and almost eager to do it again. I turned in his arms and his wide grin told me he’d read my thoughts. “There now, you see? Quite different, isn’t it?” His breath felt warm and pleasant on my face. “It only takes a few falls to realize falling isn’t so bad.”
I laughed. It was like a release, a delicious freedom. There was a liberating delight in that swing, in flying through the air that wasn’t so far off the ground, as it turned out.
“Come, shall we try again? This time I want you to move your legs, point your toes, pretend you are onstage.”
With a slow inhale, I once again held the trapeze and released my firm footing. I allowed myself to glide halfway across before daring to arch my back into position and lift my right leg a little behind me. I was sore from the tension and the carriage ride, and the stretch felt delicious through my muscles. I pushed off the opposite platform and sailed backlike a swan skimming the surface of a pond, moving my legs and pointing my toes.
I reached Jack and, with a bold smile, kicked off his platform as well and sailed back, delighting in the weightless dance performed in the air. On the next swing, Jack caught my jittery body up in his arms and spun me around with a delighted laugh.
“I knew you could do it.” He twirled me again and bowed as if we’d just waltzed, then lifted that devilish smile. “What magnificence has been trapped in you all this time. It’s a wonder they didn’t completely train it out of you.”
Distant claps sounded below, and I looked down to see a small gathering of remaining circus entertainers, watching the performance. I swept up my straw-covered skirts and bobbed a silly curtsy, earning a smattering of laughter and even more clapping.
If only every audience was as easy to please as this one.
As I climbed down the ladder, a flash of moving stripes caught my attention. I paused two steps from the bottom and blinked toward the cage in the dark corner. “Is that...”
“An oversized cat? Why yes, it is. He even catches mice for us.”
