Sawdust Season

the long version

Toni had been perfectly happy for years helping her Uncle Matt to run his circus, and she was deeply resentful when her uncle told her he had taken on an assistant manager — one Dave Bradley. She disliked Dave from the first, finding him overbearing and far too pleased with himself, while Dave for his part looked on Toni as a silly, wilful child. But Toni had to admit that Uncle Matt's health was failing, and realised that for the time being at any rate she would have to put up with Dave and he with her. And only when she began to suspect that Dave's real reason for joining the circus was to be with his old friend Annette did Toni realise that she would be only too glad to put up with him indefinitely — if she had the chance!