Rory stiffened. As soon as he was done, she stepped quickly away from him. When she turned back to face him, he had that funny look in his eyes again, that look that she had surprised there too often of late, the look that Rory wanted to pretend didn’t exist.
Suddenly Rory felt awkward. “I must look a regular mark,” she said, trying to cover her embarrassment.
“No,” Tony croaked, “You look swell. A real daisy.”
Rory picked up a pair of gloves and pretended to examine them for loose threads, anything to avoid Tony’s eyes. She didn’t want to look like a real daisy, at least not to her childhood friend.
“You’re pretty enough to be the bride yourself.” Tony’s voice took on a teasing note. “Maybe you should make it a double wedding.”
“Go on!” Rory gave a toss of her head. “Where would I find the groom?”
“I might do it. Your ma would have approved of me—a good Catholic boy.”
“But my father wouldn’t have. You’re not even one quarter Irish.”
Beneath all the joking, Rory detected a vein of seriousness in Tony that made her uncomfortable. Tugging on the gloves, she assumed a brisk manner.
“Is the balloon ready?” she asked.
“Almost.” Thankfully, Tony took the hint and dropped the subject of weddings. He didn’t say any of those words Rory feared he would insist on saying, words that would ruin their easy camaraderie forever.
Tony returned to the original source of his grievance. “It’s a shame your dress is going to be wasted, Rory, but I really think you’re going to have to scrub this one. There’s a storm coming.”
Rory peeked out the tent flap to see for herself. The sky was looking a little overcast and there was rain in the air. She could smell it. The flags adorning the other circus tents snapped in the breeze. Over the heads of the distant crowd, Rory could see the Katie Moira tugging at her moorings. No matter how many times Rory had seen one of the great balloons readied to take flight, it always moved her. She felt almost dizzy with excitement, the longing to soar free.
Rory stepped back from the flap. “The storm will hold off,” she said. “I’ll be back safe before you know I’m gone.”
“That’s what you always say. That’s exactly what your old man said when—” Tony broke off and flushed.
He didn’t have to remind Rory what her father had said on that last morning. Every word of it was engraved on her heart forever.
“The eternal optimism of the Kavanaughs,” Rory said with forced lightness, ignoring the lump that rose in her throat.
“Eternal foolhardiness.”
“That too,” Rory agreed with a smile. “But, if I don’t go through with this, we break our contract with Mr. Dutton and we don’t get paid.”
“Yeah, well, there’ll be other jobs, other ways to get money.”
But his voice carried little conviction. He knew as well as she how badly the Transcontinental Balloon Company was running in the red. Whatever financial backers there had been had vanished after Seamus’s death. Not even the most daring speculator was willing to risk capital on a company with a twenty-one-year-old girl at its head.
Rory still had some hope of a contract with the government. The U.S. Army was thinking of reviving its balloon corps. One of their agents was supposed to arrive in New York this week for a demonstration. But it would do little good if the agent arrived tofind Rory’s balloon company evicted from its warehouse due to nonpayment of the rent.
“Dutton’s paying us too much money for this stunt for us to back down now,” Rory said. “Besides, Tony, you surely don’t want to disappoint a bride on her wedding day.”
Before he could object, Rory seized Tony by the arm and steered him toward the tent opening.
“I still don’t like it,” he grumbled.
“What an old hen you can be sometimes, Anthony Bertelli. Will you quit your worrying? It’s not even as though this is going to be a free flight, is it? The balloon’s going to be attached to a winch the whole time, for pity’s sake. You’ll have complete control. If you think the weather’s getting too bad, all you will have to do is order Pete and Angelo to wind in the rope and haul me back down.”
“Haul you down before you are ready to come? I can imagine what you would have to say to me.”
“So it will be the first time all these good folks ever heard a bridesmaid swear. Now be off with you and make sure that blasted Angelo doesn’t pump in too much gas again.”
The last time she’d gone up, Tony’s enthusiastic younger brother had generated too much hydrogen, not allowing for the expansion of the air as the balloon rose. One of the seams had ripped open, making for a very short flight and, for Rory, almost a very short life.
The reminder sent Tony hastening back across the fairgrounds. As he went, Rory heard him mutter that he should wash his hands of all this craziness and go get a real job down at the docks like his mother wanted. Since it was a familiar strain with him, Rory paid no attention to it.
