“But you didn’t, right?” Cope asked.
“Right,” Ten agreed, but knew it was only a matter of time until it came back for him. “I don’t know what to do about it. Do you have any idea what the dream is trying to tell me?”
Cope sighed. “I don’t, but, looking at Celestina in that glittering gown, I wonder if she’s the one in your dream with the pink dress. If we find out she plans to wear a dress like that this week, then we may have a Bingo.”
Nodding, Tennyson headed toward Celestina, who seemed deep in conversation with a man dressed in brown Carhartt pants and a dirty tee shirt. As he got closer, she turned around and offered Ten a bright smile.
“Tennyson, this is my husband Hank Myers. He grew up in the circus with me and is working maintenance for the show.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Hank.” Ten offered his hand. When the man shook it, Ten was jolted by a vision. A young woman, dressed in blue, in lay in a heap in the grass at Hank’s feet. He could hear Hank shouting at someone, but he sounded as if he were underwater. When Hank dropped his hands, the vision faded.
“I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll catch you later.” He bussed a kiss to Celestina’s face and hurried away.
“You saw something, didn’t you?” Not waiting for an answer, Celestina led Ten to the arena seats and settled him in to one. She sat beside him. “Are you okay?”
Ten managed to nod. “I always feel a bit off balance after I have a vision.” Off balance was an understatement. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to throw up.
“Can I get you anything? Water or juice?” Celestina laid a hand on his arm.
“Water would be great, thanks.” As Celestina headed off toward a large cooler, Ten took a deep breath. He’d been too overwhelmed by the vision to have read anything from her touch.
“Here we go,” Celestina said, handing him an ice cold bottle of water and a snack package of chocolate chip cookies. “I figured you could use a little energy boost.”
“Thank you.” Ten tore into the cookies and gobbled them down with several sips of water. As he ate, his heart began to slow down and he was able to think clearly again. He turned to Celestina, who’d been watching him closely. “My daughter said you have gifts like ours.” He figured this was the best way to get her talking before he revealed what was in his vision and how he thought it might be connected to his nightmare.
Celestina nibbled her bottom lip, as if she were trying to figure out how to respond. “I wouldn’t say I have an actual gift, she began. “I occasionally get glimpses of things that are about to happen, like the way Wonder Wolf is going to flop out of the trapeze net like a floundering fish.”
Sure enough, that exact thing happened. Jude caught his laughing son and swooped him into the air. Tennyson hadn’t seen what was about to happen to Wolf.
“According to your daughter, your gifts are much stronger than my little bit of intuition. Everly is lovely, by the way. She’s going to grow up to be a beautiful woman. Ronan’s going to lose his mind when young men show up wanting to take her out on car dates.”
Ten snorted. “Ronan’s threatened to not let Everly date until she’s in her forties. I’ve gotten him to begrudgingly relent to thirty-five.”
Celestina laughed. The sound was musical, sounding like windchimes in a summer breeze. “What did you see when you shook my husband’s hand?”
Ten was jolted back to reality by her question. “I saw a woman crumpled at Hank’s feet. Your husband was shouting at someone, but I couldn’t hear the words he was saying.”
“Was the woman wearing a blue dress?” Celestina asked quietly.
Ten nodded. “The woman was you?” He knew from the tone of her voice that this was a hard moment for Celestina to recall. “It was your father. He hit you.”
“Hank had just kissed me for the first time. I thought we’d managed to get away from my father for a few minutes, but I was wrong. He ripped me away from Hank. He called me a slut and slapped my face. I wore his handprint for two days. My mother had to put extra makeup on me so that no one would see the bruise. She’d spent years doing the same thing for herself after my father hit her, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he’d turn his rage on me one day.”
“What was he so angry about?” Ten asked gently.
“Everything,” Celestina offered a mirthless laugh. “He hated being passed over for ring master. Hated when other men so much as looked at my mother. He was angry when dinner was too cold or too hot. You name it.” She shrugged carelessly.
“Are you still a part of his life?” Ten asked.
Celestina nodded. “Vincent didn’t give me much of a choice. Someone has to be there to protect my mother from him. She’s frail and old before her time. My father did this to her. All of his years of abuse and mistrust have turned my mother into a shell of herself. I’d kill him myself if I thought I could get away with it.”
Ten could feel waves of hate coming off Celestina, like heat from a hot stove. He absolutely believed she would come for Vincent and honestly, didn’t blame her one bit. “I’m so sorry you and your mother were forced to live this way.”
“We weren’t given much of a choice. All I can do is be strong for her now.”
“Is she here in Boston?”
Celestina pointed across the arena where a woman dressed in a red sweater sat in a wheelchair. Blankets were piled onto her lap. Her eyes were cast downward, away from all the bustling action of the circus rehearsal. “There’s no way he’d let her out of his sight for the week we’re here in Massachusetts. She should be home resting. After all these years, she deserves a little peace. I wished he’d just drop dead. I swear if I saw that happen with my gift, I’d turn away and let him die.”
