Chapter 4

Chapter Four - South of France, 1802

​It was only eight o'clock in the morning, and already Dianna Desmond was tired. Inna's Fair took a lot of work to set up on a regular day, but now with all the popular travelling fairs gathering together and setting up, it took a lot more work.

​Dianna felt a sudden pang in her chest, but she did not think much of it. These pangs usually came when she thought of her old life in England. Now, she thought of how calloused and blistered her hands were, when before they had been soft and clean. She used to think writing out school assignments was painful for her hands, but now with a year's experience with the fair, she knew what real work was.

​The pangs had become less painful throughout the tough year, but Dianna never stopped thinking about Manchester. Or about her father. Every day, she regretted asking him to take her to the fair he didn't even want to attend. She regretted asking to see the dance show. There, in the dark, smoky, crowded room, someone had grabbed Dianna from behind, covering her mouth with one large, chapped, smelly hand and dragged her out of the tent. No one realized she was gone, even her father who had been right next to her.

​Dianna remembered what happened that night after she was taken from the tent:

​"Let me go! Help!" Dianna had tried to shout under the thick hand that smelled like the manure in the petting zoo. The person who dragged her out suddenly let her go, and she felt someone push her forward and down to her knees. She looked up to see a dark man, with a scar on his chin down to his neck. When he spoke, his accent was not one Dianna could tell which country he came from.

​"Calm down, girl. I just want to see you," She shivered and found that her voice was gone. Dianna realized they were behind the tent, but not close to an exit where people would be coming out of. She was surrounded by two burly men, one of whom must be the one who dragged her out. Other than them and the scarred man with an undetectable accent, there was also a woman who looked vaguely familiar. Then, Dianna recognized her as the woman who had given Dianna and her father directions to find the food carts, or Dianna thought she was; she couldn't remember since she had not paid much attention to the woman and her father as they spoke.

​"Yes, she is pretty," the scarred man said. Pretty? Now Dianna was really scared.

​"Who are you? What do you want?" The man smiled at her, as if her fear and questions were amusing.

​"You see Jasmine here?" The man asked and nodded his head towards the gypsy girl. Dianna gave a small nod in response. "She wants to retire. But I have a rule in my fair: If you want to leave, you need to find a replacement. In Jasmine's case, her replacement needed to be a pretty girl who can walk around and give people directions and boast about what a great fair this is. You're a pretty girl, and you seemed to think this fair was nice." The man smiled again.

​"This is kidnapping!" Dianna shouted. There was a whole rant going on in her head, but this is all she could say. It felt as if her rapidly beating heart had jumped in and clogged her throat.

​"Yes, but I've done this before and now I'll do it again," the man began, then continued, "My name is Inna, and this is my fair. You will play by my rules, and don't you dare think of leaving, because I will catch you."

​This had been true. The couple of times Dianna tried to escape, Inna and his bodyguards would always catch her. After a while, she just expected the fact that she could not run away, and she knew her father would try everything he could to look for her. Already a year had gone by, but Dianna refused to give up hope for her father.

​Oh, her sweet, caring father with so much heart. He was never the same after Mother died, and she constantly thought of how he was dealing with her absence. Was he able to move on after one whole year? Was he sick and depressed? Did he become so sad that he...? No; she couldn't bring herself to imagine her father buried in an oak coffin next to her mother in the Manchester cemetery.

​Instead, Dianna liked to think of her father searching for her, never giving up. She knew if anyone could find her, it would be her father Walter Desmond.

​Sometimes, Dianna felt guilty for all this. She remembered the night of her birthday, a day before they went to the fair; they had a dinner party with Tobias Franklin and his family. Dianna always liked Tobias, since he had acted as a sort of second father to her all her life. But his bland, shy, and quiet wife and son Arnold were always so dull to be around. Dianna knew Tobias and Walter had betrothed Dianna to Arnold in marriage when they were born, but she never thought she would have to marry him so soon. When Walter and Tobias mentioned that Dianna was now a woman and Arnold a man, and they should think of planning their wedding, Dianna had felt as if the long, adventurous life she had planned had been ended too abruptly.

​She had prayed that night that she would get more time for adventure and excitement before she had to be tied down in matrimony. Dianna sometimes thought that in a sick, twisted way her prayers had been answered when she had been kidnapped. Of course Dianna wanted to be rescued and taken home to her father, but life working for the fair had been so exciting and new for her. She had been able to see all kinds of amazing countries and cultures, and experienced so many new foods and traditions and styles.

​And even though she experienced it all with a hundred other fair-workers and gypsies, she had been so alone. None of the gypsies were very close, and they liked to keep secrets about their past and about many things that happened to them in the present. She had spent a year with people who hardly ever talked to her.

​The only one who ever really talked to anyone was Inna. And everyone was scared of the big boss, so they were forced to talk to him, too.

​"Hello, beautiful." Speak of the devil, Dianna thought as she turned to see Inna and his two bodyguards standing behind her. She gave a weak curtsy in response. Inna gave a combination of a sigh and a chuckle. "Oh, Dianna, can't you ever just admit you want me?"

​"No, because that would be lying, and well-bred ladies don't lie," she replied coldly.

​"But you are not a well-bred lady," Inna shot back with a nasty grin on his face.

​"I was. Before you kidnapped me," Dianna retorted, anger flooding her vision.

​"Oh, darling! Will you never let that go?"

​"No."

​"Well, there is no point in brooding about it. You're still stuck here with me forever," Inna whispered the last part and laughed hysterically before moving on to torment another one of his employees. Dianna prayed and wished and hoped to the Dear Lord that Inna was wrong. Somehow, she just knew her father was going to pull through and save her.

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