Marlena's Past

Rosie stole lemonade. August is off teaching her a lesson again. Marlena tried to stop him, but it was no use. I held her as she sobbed.

Marlena met August at age seventeen, the age at which she was first being introduced to possible husbands. She had been in the menagerie with the animals when August first spotted her. "August was a force. Charming, gregarious, and handsome as the devil... he radiated both authority and irresistible charisma." He proposed to her, leaving the fate of the Benzini Brothers' circus in Marlena's hands.

She never finished her story. She dissolved into tears and asked me to leave.

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