Pegasus: A Novel

by Danielle Steel

  Nick rode Nina after that, to warm her up, and then Toby got astride her when Nick dismounted. They had given themselves an hour to loosen them up. And by ten o’clock Nick knew they were ready. And just as he thought it, John Ringling North appeared, crossed the ring to where Nick was standing, and shook his hand. Nick didn’t know it, but North had never done that before. It was a sign of respect, and then he discreetly took a seat in the stands, at a good vantage point to watch Nick and his horses perform.

  Lucas put a recording of Mozart on a phonograph they had plugged into a light pole next to the ring. And their act began with Nick galloping elegantly around the ring on Pluto, going ever faster, and ending with the spectacular white Lipizzaner doing a levade, where he stood on his hind legs and held the stance for a seemingly endless time. The beautiful horse had never done it more smoothly or better, and then he hopped easily into the courbette, where he moved forward in little jumps. Then Nick galloped with him again, as Toby joined him on Nina. The two Lipizzaners looked like poetry in motion, as they moved with infinite precision through their ballet, mirroring each other’s movements perfectly around the ring. Nick dismounted just as Toby did, and they left the ring, leaving both horses standing side by side, as Nick began the liberty commands. They executed each movement and exercise with flawless precision, doing exactly what Nick wanted. They didn’t let him down. And after half an hour of impeccable exercises, Nick got onto Pluto’s saddle again and led him into the challenging capriole, where the splendid horse kicked his hind legs out in midair, and then transitioned instantly into the croupade, where Pluto literally flew through the air, with all four legs tucked under his body, as though the powerful beast were weightless, and he landed as gracefully as he had left the ground.

  The people who had watched him, handlers and a handful of acrobats, gasped when they saw it. Pluto had been exquisite, and Nick looked like the most elegant rider in the world astride him. The performance had been perfect, and Pluto took a bow, as Nick sat erect and took off his top hat in the direction of John Ringling North, and then Nick and Pluto left the ring, and he dismounted. It had been a grueling performance for rider and mount, but Nick knew that neither of them could have done it any better. It had been the best that Pluto had ever given, and Nina had done extremely well too.

  As Nick stood there, breathless with excitement after his performance, stroking Pluto, John Ringling North left the stands, and came to where Nick was standing. North was wearing jodhpurs and riding boots and carrying a crop with a silver handle, and he was beaming.

  “They’re the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. And perfectly trained. They’re as good as the Lipizzaners I saw at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Welcome to Ringling Brothers, Mr. Bing.” He smiled broadly at him and held out his hand, and shook Nick’s. He turned to look at Pluto then, barely winded by what he’d done. He was powerful and young. “He really does fly, doesn’t he?” And then he turned to Nick again. “That’s it. That’s his name. Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek legend. And Athena,” he said, glancing at Nina. “You have your act, Nick. They’re perfect. Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth. You’re worthy of the name.” And with that, he took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Nick. “I’ve already signed it. You do the same, and drop it off at my office. I want you in the center ring as our second act after the tigers, in the first performance after the winter break. You’ll open in Madison Square Garden.”

  And then he turned to Toby with a warm smile. “Good work, son. You looked great,” he said, and Toby beamed. There were tears in Nick’s eyes when John North left. They were safe, they were home, he had a job. And Pegasus and Athena had been born. He smiled as he turned to Pluto and tried out the new name. The horse whinnied as though he were laughing, but didn’t seem to mind.

  “Thank you,” Nick whispered, as he stroked his head. “Thank you, Pegasus, for taking care of us. I won’t let you down. Sorry about the new name.” But the newly renamed Pegasus just tossed his head and whinnied again, as though he approved. And as Nick turned to lead him from the ring, he saw the elfin girl from the low wire standing beside a post, half hidden, where she had been watching him perform. She had enormous vibrant blue eyes, like his own, and a halo of pale blond hair. Her eyes met his for a minute, but she didn’t smile, she just stared at him, as she had at the astounding horse, and then she seemed to float off and disappear, and she was gone. She was like a vision, as though he had imagined her and not really seen her, a benevolent spirit that was observing him.

  “Pretty girl,” Nick said casually to one of the handlers who was helping them get the horses back to their tent, to cover the fact that he had been staring at her as intently as she had watched him.

  “She’s a Markovich,” the handler said with a shrug, as though that would explain everything to Nick, but it didn’t. He knew nothing of circus lore, or the names of the performers, except for the few Lucas had met. “They’re Polish. They’re all crazy. High wire. Without a net. Her father’s in a wheelchair. He killed her mother that way—she was a beautiful girl. They’ll kill her too. She was just practicing on the low wire today. She works up there,” he said, pointing to the top of the tent. “The crowds love it. I think it’s a terrible thing to do to a young girl. He doesn’t care,” he said about her father. “He does it to thrill the crowd. And if she winds up in a wheelchair like him, or dead like her mother, he thinks it’s fine. She has four brothers who do the act with her. Her aunt’s in a wheelchair too. I can’t watch them. They make me sick,” he said as they left the tent.

  “What’s her name?” Nick asked, intrigued by what the handler had said.

  “Christianna. Christianna Markovich. She’s the grand finale, the last act before the parade at the end. It keeps people in their seats till the end of the show, waiting to see if she’ll fall and die.” The way he described it sounded grim to Nick.

  “She looks like a child.” She appeared to be about fifteen when he saw her at close range.

  “She’s older than she looks. She’s twenty-one. She’s been in the circus since she was born. They’re one of the oldest circus families here. There’s another high-wire act that’s been here for four years. Czechs. Big rivalry between them. The others work with a net most of the time, so the Markoviches treat them like dirt,” he said with a grin.

  Nick was beginning to learn about the circus and the people he now lived with, the intrigues between them, the jealousies and the dangers, but he had been struck by the ethereal-looking girl he had seen practicing, commanded by what must have been her father. Her eyes had electrified him, and then she had disappeared. He wondered when he’d see her again, and if he’d have the courage to see her act. It horrified him to think that she worked without a net and might fall. And even more so to think that her own father was willing to take that risk.

  He and Toby fed and watered the horses, and Lucas helped them, after the handlers left. He had been excited to see his brother and father performing, and even more so when one of the handlers had taken him to see the elephants afterward, and he got to sit on one of them. His new life was full of thrills and wonders for him. And as they walked back to their trailer, still in top hat and tails, Nick felt suddenly more at ease, among the odd people walking past them. Several of them smiled at Nick and the boys, and Lucas waved at the dwarf he knew, who was standing with a group of his friends in the distance. It wasn’t a bad place to have landed after all, just very different. Rosie was sitting on their front step, waiting for Lucas when they got home.

  “Where’ve you been?” she asked him, in English this time.

  “My father and brother had to work,” he explained in German, and she nodded, and Nick noticed then that she had brought an older girl with her, who was obviously her sister. She gazed at Toby adoringly as he blushed beet red. He looked very handsome in his top hat and tails.

  “This is my sister Katja,” Rosie said, lapsing into German, as Toby tried to look nonchalant and couldn�
��t pull it off. He looked mesmerized by the beautiful girl Rosie had brought with her. She was wearing a simple blue dress, she had dark hair, long graceful legs, and looked like a young ballerina. When Toby started talking to her in German, her face lit up. It was an international community of dozens of nationalities living together, a microcosm of the world.

  Nick invited the sisters to join them at the mess tent for lunch a little while later, and the girls went to ask their parents and then returned and said they could. They were very well behaved and very polite to Nick as the five of them chatted in German on their way to eat. Katja was fifteen, like Toby, and they had only been with Ringling Brothers for four years, since she was eleven, she said, so her English wasn’t as good as her little sister’s, who had spoken it since she was two. They had been with a circus in Czechoslovakia and one in Germany before that, until scouts found them and brought them over to the States. Katja said she liked it very much, better here than at their old circus in Europe, and Rosie didn’t know any life other than this.

  “They’re very nice to us here,” Katja said to Toby, and he was fascinated by her. She was a very pretty girl. She told them her father was training her on the trapeze. Their family were the Markoviches’ archrivals, Nick realized as he listened, and the girls’ mother was the other high-wire act, but she usually used a net in her act, unlike the Markoviches, who never did. Nick realized he had a lot to learn about the intricacies of the circus, what these people did, the risks they took, and how they lived.

  He slipped away from lunch for a few minutes to drop off the contract he had signed. He left it at John Ringling North’s office, with one of his secretaries. He was one of them now. He had been reborn. He even had a new name. Nick Bing. And so did Pluto. He was Pegasus, the flying horse, and he was worthy of the name. Their new life had begun that day.

  Chapter 9

  “I had a letter from Toby today,” Marianne said to her father mournfully, three weeks after they had seen them off at the ship, and her father looked at her in surprise. Germany and all of Europe were still reverberating with the stories of the destruction on Kristallnacht, and the people who had disappeared, all of them Jewish. It had proven to Alex and Paul how wise they had been to urge Nick to leave quickly. They were both relieved to know that he and the boys were safely in Florida now. They had nothing to fear there.

  “Already?” Alex answered her. “He must have written to you the moment he arrived. I had a telegram from his father when they landed in New York, to tell me the horses were all right, but I haven’t heard from him since. How are they?”

  “Toby sounds sad. It was the day they got to Florida, and he said everything there is very strange.”

  “Well, life in the circus certainly isn’t familiar to any of them, but at least they’re safe. Being in a circus in Germany would seem strange to him too.”

  “I suppose so. He said they’re living in a trailer smaller than our boxcar for the horses. It must be very hard.” Marianne sounded sorry for him, and Alex nodded. He was sure it was difficult, but less so than a labor camp, and he was grateful they were safe, particularly after Kristallnacht had stunned the entire world.

  Alex went to see Nick’s father the next day. Paul had been sick for the past two weeks, and looked as though he had aged twenty years since Nick and the boys left. His solitude now was hard on him, with no hope of seeing his son and grandsons anytime in the near future, if ever again. The turmoil in Germany appeared to be increasing, and certainly not diminishing. Paul had a bad cough, and Alex thought he looked feverish and said he should call the doctor. But Paul insisted he was fine. He didn’t look it, but Alex didn’t want to make a fuss, or send the doctor to him against his will.

  “Marianne had a letter from Toby,” he said before he left, hoping to cheer him up with news of the boys, but Paul just looked sadder, and hearing about them made him miss them more.

  “Are they all right?” he asked, and Alex nodded, and didn’t want to tell him they were sad, or at least Toby had been when he wrote.

  “They’re fine. He wrote it the day they got to Florida, so they hadn’t settled in yet. It’s all very new to them. They’ll adjust.” Paul nodded, and thanked Alex for the visit when he left. The house felt so empty to him now, whenever he went to the main schloss. It echoed and seemed ghostly without his son and the boys. It was a lonely life for him now.

  Alex was equally sad without his friend. Marianne wrote to Toby now every day, with news from home, however little there was. She didn’t tell him that Kristallnacht had frightened everyone. It had been so violent, and so many people had gotten hurt, been put in jail, or simply disappeared. She was happy to be in the countryside, where none of the chaos and turmoil in the cities affected them. She did mention that her father had decided not to give their Christmas ball that year. It was only a month away, but with so much disruption in Germany, and people being taken away and losing their homes in the cities, he had decided that it seemed wrong to give a ball. And without his friend Nick to share the festivities with him, he said it wouldn’t have been fun anyway, and Marianne agreed. She wasn’t in the mood either. Nick and the boys moving away, and so suddenly, felt like a huge loss to all of them. And the winter seemed cold and dark. It felt like a time for mourning, not joy.

  She told Toby that she had gone hunting with her father, but even that hadn’t been enjoyable, and like a bad omen, the fox had gotten away. She told him, too, that the little Lipizzaner foal was growing, and loved to run now, and he was still coal black as he would be for several years. And they were expecting another one soon. She said that she hoped that Pluto and Nina and the other horses were doing well. She told him whatever she could of her daily doings, which seemed very dull to her now. She didn’t tell him that her father seemed sad, and so was she, that life without her friend Toby and his little brother seemed empty to her. They had seen each other almost every day since they were born. And the days were so lonely now without him.

  When Marianne got Toby’s letter, it was the day before Thanksgiving in America, and by then Nick and the boys had been in Florida for almost two weeks. Nick had been assigned a rehearsal schedule, to develop his act, in one of the rings in the huge tent, and he was practicing there every day, with Toby most of the time. Sometimes he just went there with Pluto and Nina—Pegasus and Athena now, he was getting used to their new names. He was practicing their liberty commands and the precision training, and he was learning a great deal every day. And Toby’s skills were improving too. The Arabians were easier to work with, although less interesting to watch.

  Nick hadn’t run into Christianna Markovich again. She was obviously practicing at a different time, and he hadn’t thought of her since his performance for Mr. North. Thanks to Lucas, he was meeting many new people, Eastern Europeans, and Germans, and some French. Through Pierre, Lucas had met many of the clowns, and brought some of them back to the trailer to meet his father and brother, and he always had fun with them. He had finally met the tattooed lady and was thrilled. And he and his little friend Rosie had become inseparable, and whenever possible, got up to mischief together. They played marbles and hopscotch, hide-and-seek among the trailers, and all the games other children did around the world, and they visited the elephants and got a ride on them whenever possible. They went to watch a new contortionist, and Lucas wanted to learn to walk on stilts, and Pierre the clown showed him how. He brought him a small pair, and Lucas practiced with them every night. All he wanted to do was use them to perform during intermission with the clowns. Nick tried not to comment on it, because this was the world they lived in now, but the prospect of his son becoming a clown one day didn’t sound like a worthy goal to him. But like it or not, they were circus performers, just like everyone else there. Nick tried to accept it as their destiny for the time being, although it was hard to imagine being there forever.

  Nick finally met Rosie and Katja’s mother one afternoon when she came to pick up the girls at Nick’s trailer. She wa
s wearing a leotard and a tutu, and had just come from rehearsal herself.

  “Thank you for being so kind to my girls,” she said with a warm smile. Her name was Gallina. She was a strikingly pretty woman, as lovely as her daughters, and she moved with agile grace and had a lithe athletic body.

  “They’re beautifully behaved and lovely girls,” he said kindly, and meant it. He liked them both, as did his boys.

  She and Nick chatted for a few minutes, and he noticed that despite her Czech accent, she was well spoken when she spoke German, as though she had been properly educated when she was young. He was curious about them. She explained that she was from Prague, and her father had sent her to boarding school in Germany as a child, while her parents traveled with the circus. She had only come back to them at fourteen, and she had insisted on training for the high wire, despite their protests. Her parents had been gymnasts and trapeze artists, not a high-wire act like the Markoviches, and she had eventually married the girls’ father, Sergei, whose family was famous for their work on the trapeze. Nick was beginning to understand that there was a real hierarchy in the circus, a kind of nobility, depending on which acts they performed, where they came from, and how long they’d done it. Her husband’s family was Czech too. He had five brothers who had come to Ringling Brothers with him, and his parents had since retired. They stayed in Czechoslovakia, as had her own, and her brother and sister were still working with her parents, as gymnasts in a German circus.