Kiss an Angel(44)

Despite her exhaustion last night, she’d awakened sometime just before three from a dream in which she and Alex had been floating through an old-fashioned tunnel of love in a pink swan boat. Alex had kissed her, and his face had been so filled with tenderness that she’d felt herself melting into the boat, the water, into his very body. The sensation had awakened her, and she’d lain on the couch until dawn thinking about the painful contrast between her beautiful dream and the reality of her marriage.

When they’d arrived at this new lot in a High Point, North Carolina, strip mall, the trailer hauling the elephants hadn’t yet appeared, so she’d stayed in the truck for a short nap. Two hours later, she’d awakened with a stiff neck and a headache.

As she reached the top of the ramp, she saw that Digger had nearly finished mucking out the trailer. Mixed with a sense of relief, she felt a stab of guilt. That was her job. “I’ll finish up for you.”

“The worst part’s done.” He spoke like a man who had long ago grown accustomed to getting the short end of life.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

He gave a sniff that told her he’d wait and see.

From her vantage point at the top of the ramp, she had a good view of the new site located between a Pizza Hut and a gas station. Most of the performers, Alex had told her, preferred the smooth, regular surface of a parking lot to grass, but setting up on asphalt also meant that the holes left by the stakes had to be repaired before they left.

As the stake driver thumped rhythmically in the background, she looked toward the backyard and saw Heather sitting in a lawn chair outside the trailer, with Sheba standing behind her putting a French braid in the teenager’s hair. Yesterday she’d caught glimpses of Sheba helping Heather with her gymnastics. She’d also seen the circus owner patching up one of the workers and trying to console the Lipscomb’s six-year-old after he’d taken a fall. Sheba Quest seemed to be full of contradictions: a wicked witch with Daisy, earth mother with everyone else.

A feisty trumpeting brought her up short, and she looked down to see Tater standing at the bottom of the ramp gazing adoringly up at her through his ridiculously curly lashes.

Digger cackled. “Your boyfriend’s come to visit you.”

“He’s going to be disappointed. I’m not wearing perfume.”

“ ‘Spect he’ll have to figger that out for hisself. Take him over with the rest, will ya? They all need to be watered.” He jerked his head. “Bull hook’s right there.”

She gazed at the object leaning against the side of the truck with loathing. At the bottom of the ramp, Tater trumpeted again, then began to turn in a tight circle, performing just as he did in the center ring. When he stopped, he lifted one leg and then the other in his baby’s tap dance. Unless she was very much mistaken, he was showing off for her.

“What am I going to do with you, Tater? Don’t you realize you scare me to death?”

Gathering her courage, she moved gingerly to the bottom of the ramp where she reached into the pocket of her jeans and gingerly extracted a withered carrot she’d found in the refrigerator and brought along just in case. Hoping he’d follow her if he knew she had food, she held it out with a trembling hand.

He extended his trunk and took a delicate sniff, tickling her palm. She stepped back, using the carrot as bait to draw him toward the others. He snatched it from her hand and carried it to his mouth, where it disappeared.

She watched in apprehension as his now empty trunk came toward her again. “N-no more food.”

But it wasn’t food he wanted; it was perfume. He burrowed into the neck of her T-shirt searching for the scent he loved. “S-sorry, fella. I—”

Swat! With a dramatic squall of betrayal, Tater swiped her with his trunk and knocked her to the pavement. She let out a yelp. At the same time, Tater lifted his head and announced her treachery to the world. No perfume!

“Daisy, are you all right?” Alex materialized out of nowhere and crouched down next to her.

“I’m okay.” She winced from the pain in her hip.

“Damn it! You can’t allow an animal to keep doing that to you. Sheba told me he knocked you down yesterday.”

Naturally Sheba couldn’t resist passing on a tidbit like that, Daisy thought, flinching as she shifted her weight.

Out of the corner of her eye, Neeco strode toward them. “I’ll take care of this.”

She sucked in her breath as he snatched up the bull hook. “No! Don’t hit him! It was my fault. I—” Ignoring the pain, she scrambled to her feet and leaped forward to put herself between Neeco and Tater, but she was too late.

Horrified, she watched as Neeco struck the baby on the tender spot behind his ear. Tater squealed and backed away. Neeco advanced on him again, bull hook raised for a second blow.

“That’s enough, Neeco.”

She didn’t hear Alex’s soft words of warning because she was already throwing herself at Neeco’s back. “Don’t hit him again!” With a cry of indignation, she lunged for the bull hook.

Startled, Neeco stumbled and then, regaining his balance, cursed and spun around. As she lost her grip on his shoulders, she felt herself slipping, but instead of falling to the pavement for the second time that day, Daisy felt Alex catch her under the arms. “Easy, there.”