Mario laughed as they moved away. “One thing never changes. You want to find the Santellis, listen for somebody raising hell,” he said.
Angelo was standing at the edge of the ring. He stepped forward and held out his hands, and Mario grasped them, the old reciprocal hand-to-wrist grip, for a moment. Angelo’s grin was enormous, proud. Tommy thought, Hey, he looks a little bit like Papa Tony, too.
“Nice work, ragazzo,” he said. “I wish Papa could have seen that. My heart damn near stopped, though. You scared hell out of me!”
Mario smiled at him, locking his eyes with Angelo’s in teasing intimacy. He said, “I always did scare hell out of you, Angelo, didn’t I?”
“Yeah,” said Angelo, drawing a deep breath and letting it go. “More ways than one, kid. That was all the trouble. Hey, you go and get a towel or something—you’re going to get chilled, and you got a matinee to do. See you later, kids.” And he was gone, leaving the three of them alone together, isolated in all the ferment of the circus.
Mario turned around to Stella. Smiling up at him, she said softly, “That was beautiful, Mario,” and he touched her cheek lightly.
“Thanks, sweetie. From you, that means a lot,” he said. “Listen, why don’t you get hold of Lucia? Get her to bring Suzy down for the matinee.” He laughed aloud in sheer exuberance. “I think she’ll do it, if you put it up to her like that. Suzy’s a Santelli. She might as well see the family business. She’s going to be up there someday, too, so she might as well find out what it’s all about.”
“I’ll do that,” Stella said, smiling, and hurried off toward her own dressing room.
Then they were alone together, and for a moment the gaiety slid off Mario’s face. He said gently, “I scared you too, didn’t I, kid? I’m sorry, Lucky.” He hesitated and smiled, the rare smile, the different smile that made him, once again, the shy boy Tommy had first known.
He never lets anybody else see that. Not anymore. That’s my responsibility. I’m his catcher. I can hold him, now, on anything. I know, now, who I am, too.
“It’s okay,” he said, linking arms with Mario, careless of who might see. “It’s okay, Mario.” Together they went down the corridor toward the dressing room, but Tommy knew, now, that they were going toward the future. As he had said, now it was okay.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1979 by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Cover design © 2014 by Daniel Barradas
The song lines in Book Three, Chapter 2, are from Lost Highway by Leon Payne. Copyright © 1949. Renewed 1976 by Fred Rose Music, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
The excerpt before Chapter 1 is from ALL BUT MY LIFE by Stirling Moss and Ken W. Purdy. Copyright © 1963 by Stirling Moss. Reprinted by permission of the publishers, E. P. Dutton.
Proofreaders: Deborah J. Ross, Steven Harper Piziks
Ebook Formatter: Vonda N. McIntyre
Also by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Darkover
Rediscovery
The Heirs of Hammerfell
The Planet Savers
The Sword of Aldones
Darkover Anthology
The Keeper's Price
Sword of Chaos
Free Amazons of Darkover
The Other Side of the Mirror
Red Sun of Darkover
Four Moons of Darkover
Domains of Darkover
Renunciates of Darkover
Leroni of Darkover
Towers of Darkover
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover
Snows of Darkover
Hunters
Hunters of the Red Moon
The Survivors
Occult Tales
Dark Satanic
The Inheritor
Witch Hill
Standalone
Warrior Woman
Falcons of Narabedla
The Complete Lythande
Genuine Old Master
Bluebeard's Daughter
The Brass Dragon
The House Between the Worlds
Castle Terror
Endless Voyage
Night's Daughter
Souvenir of Monique
Seven from the Stars
Survey Ship
The Catch Trap
The Colors of Space
The Dark Intruder
The Door through Space
Tiger Burning Bright
Watch for more at Marion Zimmer Bradley’s site.
The Catch Trap Page 84