Marie had raced to help as the fire had raged, getting buckets and taking a spot at the end of the line filling them from the camp's water pump. But as soon as she was no longer needed, the burned balloon having been reduced to a charred, soggy pile, she slipped away.
Her beautiful favorite skirt was waterlogged and muddy, and she longed to just strip it off and run around in her bloomers, but there were interesting things afoot and no time to go get cleaned up. She saw Alexandra sweep up her cards, wishing she could hear what they'd said; When Colette announced it to the group, Marie gasped. She was hardly naive enough to be surprised at sabotage, but she'd have preferred friendly competition with the cute acrobats, rather than fiery destruction. She mostly ignored the rest of Colette's speech, knotting her damp skirt up around her knees as checking to see that the knife she wore tucked in her garter was still there when the ringmaster mentioned not going out unarmed.
By the time she'd accomplished this, Colette had finished addressing the circus and was speaking to Asmondeus, close enough for Marie to eavesdrop, bringing her attention back immediately as she listened.
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