"Bravo!" Dante cried, applauding vigorously. Maria beamed at him and then, with a flash of light and a puff of smoke, disappeared herself. The group continued applauding until Maria came out from behind the curtain she'd set up and again curtsied. As her audience stood and went back to cooking whatever dinners they had mustered up, Maria gathered her performance items and went into her own tent to put them all away. Dante poked his head around the tent flap, then walked in.

"Wonderful show," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. Maria forced a smile and put her arms around his neck.

"Wonderful audience," she replied to him, right before he kissed her softly.

"I think you're ready to perform for the town," Dante said. "Really. You could be the main attraction."

Maria's smile disappeared as she brought her arms down and moved away from Dante. "I don't think . . .no, I'm not ready to perform," she said, turning her back on him.

"Why not?" asked Dante. He moved to stand right behind her, his breath on her neck. That position always used to make Maria's head reel. Now it just left her with an overwhelming urge to kick Dante in the stomach.

"I'm just not!" Maria said, pushing her way past him. She left the tent and made her way through the gypsy camp, hoping Dante wouldn't follow her. She wasn't that lucky.

"What do you mean, you're not? I thought the whole point of you learning those tricks was so you could perform at the festival," Dante was saying as he huffed to keep up with Maria. "Don't you want to?"

Maria turned on him, stopping in her tracks. "I don't know what I want, Dante!" she said, suddenly frustrated. She sighed. "I don't want to perform for the town and I don't want you following me, all right? So just leave me alone." She turned around and continued on her way, leaving Dante a little taken aback. She paused her pace once to make sure he wasn't still following her, but Dante was nowhere to be seen. Maria finally stopped walking when she came to Talia's tent--all the way on the other side of the camp. She stuck her head inside, surprised to find Martina and Arianna sitting on the ground cover beside Talia. They were all laughing.

"Maria!" Talia said, standing up. She gave Maria a friendly hug. "Join us! Your performance was fantastic! When are you performing for the town?" She handed Maria a pillow to sit upon. Maria sat down across from Arianna and shook her head.

"I'm not," she said, her hair bouncing with the shaking of her head.

"What?" asked Arianna. "Why not? It was perfect!"

"I just don't feel ready," said Maria. "And if I don't feel right about it, then I shouldn't do it, right?" The three nodded hesitantly.

"But it was really good," said Martina. Maria shook her head at her, so Martina added, "but if you're not ready, you're not ready."

"Did you tell Dante?" asked Arianna. "Cause he really wanted you to perform."

"I told Dante," said Maria, rolling her eyes shortly.

Talia caught the eye-rolling. "What's with that look?" she asked.

"Nothing," said Maria. "I just . . . can we talk about something else?"

Arianna giggled. "Tell her about your great escape, Talia." She popped a few grapes in her mouth.

"Hey, I worked real hard to steal those!" Talia said teasingly. Arianna gave her a sheepish grin through her chewing.

"What great escape?" asked Maria, grabbing a grape for herself. Talia looked disgusted.

"Well, Mario and I did an impromptu show in the plaza this afternoon. But we didn't notice the guards standing nearby. And since you know how much the guards love gypsies . . . well, we had to make a run for it." Talia sipped on her water flask.