The Ringmaster (Harrow Faire #4) - Kathryn Ann Kingsley Page 0,81
couldn’t keep going. Her voice cracked.
“Oh, cupcake…” He pulled her into his arms and cradled her head to his chest. He shushed her gently and kissed the top of her head. “It’s all right.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I know. But that’s what I’m supposed to say, isn’t it?”
“Jackass.”
“I was trying to say the nice thing for once!” He sighed. “I get no credit for anything.” He tilted her head to look at him. Tall bastard. “I know you’re frightened, Cora dear. But perhaps it’s better not to linger in all this indecision. Perhaps it’s better to rip the bandage off, as it were.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“I trust you’ll make the right choice when you need to.” He smirked. “Come. There is much to do.” He turned and began pulling on his shoes. He wore shiny black dress shoes with thin laces, naturally. She finished dressing and went to the bathroom to at least comb her hair and look a little human.
“What is there to do?”
“Get ready to open the Faire to patrons, naturally. What did you think?” He chuckled and leaned on the jamb of the bathroom. “Tonight you’ll perform for the first time.”
“What? No!”
“Yes.”
“No.” She glared at him. “I’m not going to get on stage and be all bendy when we’re about to die.”
“You’ll get on that stage, you’ll perform, you’ll see how wonderful it is to be part of Harrow Faire, and you’ll realize the only choice you have is to murder Turk. Then we’ll get Rudy, and he and I will pin the fat bastard down to the ground as you suck the seity out of him.” Simon grinned.
“You have this all planned out, don’t you?”
“Naturally.”
“I’m not doing it. I won’t.”
He frowned. “Which part?”
“Any of it!”
“Why not?”
“Because—because—” She sighed and slapped her hands onto the edge of the sink, rattling her toothbrush in the cup on the rim. “This isn’t me.”
“Yes. It is.” He stroked her back slowly. He stepped behind her and, with his hands on her shoulders, straightened her up. “Look at yourself. What do you see?”
“I see someone tired and afraid. Someone who isn’t a killer, or a performer, or a leader. Someone who doesn’t know what to do.”
“I see a woman who has taken every punch thrown at her and rolled with it. I see someone who knows how to withstand every burden given her to carry.” He kissed her temple. “And when I see you on that stage, I see a woman so sublimely beautiful that she could command an army. You are a performer, Cora. You will get on that stage tonight. You will hear their gasps and their applause. You will see them look at you in wonder and adoration.” He kissed her cheek. “Then, I will need to kill several of them with a baseball bat when they try to sleep with you afterward.”
She laughed and smacked his hand. He had been so close to being sweet, then he had to go and ruin it at the end. But it was Simon, after all. “Jackass.”
“So you’ve said. Come, now. Enough of this silliness. If we have a week to live, then I have a week to convince you of the right decision. I’m not going to let you sit in here and wallow in a puddle of misery like Hernandez.” He took her hand and pulled her along behind him, not giving her much say in the matter.
As they stepped out of her boxcar, she squinted up at the blue sky. He pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. “Ah, yes. How wonderful it is to have weather again.”
It was beautiful. The air was cool and crisp. It felt like early fall. Like one of those first days in September when the air just began to turn. The trees were still green, but she wondered how long it would last. She smiled.
She missed having real air. Real wind. Real temperatures. Birds. Clouds. And sky. She watched a few more birds dart through the air overhead, landing on the roof of a nearby tent and hopping about. The world felt alive again.
Too bad it meant she was going to have to decide whether she could kill a man. But for all the harbingers of doom she could have been given, she supposed a beautiful, crisp, early fall morning was about as nice as she could ask for.
People were already bustling. She stood there in awe as she watched the whole place bursting back into life. Donna and