Olivia's Enchanted Summer (11 page)

Chapter Sixteen

“There's a brilliant review in the
Scotsman
!” shouted Aeysha. “Five stars! Look!”

There were whoops of delight as she waved the page that included a big picture of the Swans in the silks sequence. The Swans had been busy warming up for the lunchtime show but at Aeysha's words they'd all stopped what they were doing and crowded round. Aeysha began to read the review out loud. She glanced apologetically at Olivia as she read out:
“The highlight of the show is undoubtedly the tightrope
Tempest
scene with Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, which was played out with thrilling grace by the famed high-wire walker, Jack Marvell, and the astonishing thirteen-year-old Evie Purcarete, a real circus star of the future.”

The others cheered delightedly, and Olivia put on a bright, fixed smile so that nobody would see how much it hurt. She stiffened when Jack put a discreet but sympathetic arm around her and whispered that reviewers often didn't really know anything about the circus. She looked at Evie, expecting her to look horribly smug at the glowing review. But in fact she looked really worried, and Olivia heard her anxiously asking Pablo how the critic had known her name. Pablo explained that they'd given him a special sheet detailing each segment of the show and listing all the performers' names.

Evie chewed her bottom lip and went rather quiet. A few minutes later, while the other Swans were all still poring over the review and dissecting every detail, she sought out Jack, who was standing with Eel while she rang Alicia with the good news about the review. Olivia had kept her distance to avoid having to speak to her grandmother and therefore bursting into tears, but when she saw Evie go over to Jack she moved in closer.

“But how can you be sure it's safe?” Evie was asking, her dark eyes full of anxiety.

“Well, I can't be completely certain, of
course,” said Jack. “I was worried about the big top myself at the start. Thought it might be a target for vandals. But it's been fine so far, so I've no reason to think it won't be in the future.” He peered closely at her anxious face. “What's suddenly brought this on, Evie?” he asked kindly.

Evie shook her head. “Nothing. I just wondered.”

“Well, don't worry about it,” said Jack, with a smile. “If somebody wanted to get into the big top at night I guess it would be relatively easy. But who on earth would want to do harm to a circus?” He patted her on the shoulder as Eel handed him the phone.

Olivia didn't move.

“I can think of someone,” she heard Evie mutter grimly to Tati.

Tati's eyes widened anxiously. “You think he might see your name in the paper and come here to find us? Oh, I'd never forgive myself if…” She put her hand over her mouth as she realised that Olivia was listening. The two sisters moved away.

Olivia watched them go, thoughtfully. It sounded as if Evie and Tati were mixed up with
some pretty nasty people.

The excitement over the review refused to die down. Kylie Morris was reading the best bits out loud for at least the fourth time to the Swans' delight. Olivia was so afraid that the others would see tears glistening in her eyes that she said she had to go and help Georgia's mum. She didn't want her friends to feel sorry for her, so she made herself scarce until the show began and she didn't even reply when Eel sent her a text saying,
Are u all right? Dad worried u might be upset. PS Evie is no way as good as u, all of us think so
.

Olivia finished counting the money in the cash box, locked it and dragged her feet towards the big top. The show had been on for over twenty minutes and she couldn't expect any more latecomers. It was quite a good house. More than 150 people, many of them families whose children had attended the circus-skills workshop that morning. The numbers were an improvement but still not enough to break even. She could tell from Jack's tense face how worried he was about money. Maybe the review would make all the difference?

Olivia shivered as she crossed the grass,
the first big drops of rain plopping on her head from a dark, threatening sky. The brilliant spell of good weather, so unusual during an Edinburgh August, was clearly breaking with a vengeance. She shifted her arm in its sling. It wasn't broken. Just badly bruised. At the hospital they'd said she should rest it but she would soon be right as rain. It was a funny expression, thought Olivia, because rain was seldom right, unless perhaps you lived in a desert.

The weather fitted her mood. Lightning flashed above the castle as Olivia dipped inside the tent. She handed the cash box to Georgia's mum and settled herself in the darkness in a seat right at the back of the ring. When the interval came she would be expected to help serve drinks and snacks to the audience. She could feel the audience like an animal in the dark. An audience might be made up of many individuals, but somehow when they came together in a theatre or big top they seemed like one big, powerful creature.

It should be me up there,
thought Olivia fiercely as Kasha's music swelled and Jack and Evie stepped on to the wire. She could hardly bear to watch them. Since she'd been tiny, she'd
dreamed of doing a double act with her dad and now Evie had usurped her. She thought how often she, Aeysha and Georgia said, “I'm so jealous,” when one or the other of them had got a fabulous new pair of shoes or something, but of course she had always been really pleased for the other person's good fortune. But she didn't feel like that about Evie. Her bad luck had been Evie's lucky break. If it had been bad luck? Maybe Evie had pushed her deliberately?

The crowd broke into applause as Jack lifted Evie effortlessly on to his shoulders and the girl stood there proudly without even the hint of a wobble. A boy a few feet in front of Olivia said very loudly: “That girl is brilliant, Mum, isn't she? Do you think that man's her dad?” Olivia's eyes glazed with tears and she fled the big top, running blindly across the car park before banging straight into someone who was also hurrying away from the circus.

“You!” said Olivia, forgetting to apologise to the boy-magician in her surprise. “What are you doing here again?”

The boy blushed, and pushed back his unruly hair. He looked more like a young version of Jack than ever. “How do you know
that I've been before?” he asked.

“I spotted you in the crowd when I was up on the high wire,” said Olivia.

“I just really wanted to see it again.” The boy looked dreamy. “It's so magical. It makes me feel as if someone has cast a spell over me.”

“Then why are you leaving so early?” asked Olivia. “We haven't even got to the interval yet.”

The boy looked embarrassed. “I'm supposed to be at home. I slipped out without permission. I'm going to get into big trouble. And anyway, it's not the same without you. I can see that girl's very good, but I don't feel the same when I watch her. When you were on the wire I felt as if I was up there with you.” Olivia's heart gave a little skip. He glanced at her hurt arm. “Is that why she's doing it instead?”

Olivia nodded. “I had an accident,” she said, before adding darkly: “If it
was
an accident.”

The boy was wide-eyed. “Don't you believe it was?”

“I don't know what to believe any more,” said Olivia in a small voice.

“Is that why you're crying?” The boy's likeness to Jack and his directness unnerved Olivia, but she smiled and nodded. The boy
might be a good couple of years younger than her, but he was so easy to talk to. She felt as if she had known him all her life.

“That, and because I'm so jealous of Evie being up there with my dad.” From the tent they could hear the music reach the crescendo that marked the end of the double act, followed by a brief silence and then rapturous applause. “I feel…I feel as if she's pushed me out like a cuckoo pushes an egg out of a nest.”

“You don't look like an egg,” said the boy with a smile. “You're much too pretty to be an egg.” He sighed. “It must be amazing to share something like high-wire walking with your dad.” Olivia's stomach tightened. She wanted to ask about the boy's father, but she was also desperately afraid of what she might find out. What if he
was
Jack's son? It would make her feel as if they had all somehow been living a lie, that they weren't the family she had thought they were. She'd never be able to trust her dad again.

“You said the other day that you aren't allowed to go to the circus,” said Olivia. “Why is that?”

The boy shrugged. His phone bleeped and
then immediately started to ring, but he ignored it. “I don't know. My family are just really against it.” His phone bleeped urgently again.

“Do you live in Edinburgh?” asked Olivia.

“Yes,” said the boy. “I live in one of those big houses in Stockbridge. You could come visit if you like, if you get time off from the circus.” His phone bleeped furiously again.

Olivia took a deep breath. She was desperate to ask more questions, but she didn't want to frighten him away. “Do you have any brothers and sisters?”

“I'm an only child, worse luck. I don't even have cousins,” said the boy. He smiled. “If I had a sister, I'd want her to be like you.”

Olivia felt on the verge of blurting out her suspicions. As casually as she could, she asked: “What about your mum and dad?”

“My mum died,” said the boy. Olivia's stomach lurched again. “You do ask a lot of questions,” he said. His phone bleeped, then began to ring. He looked at it and frowned. “I'm sorry, but I have to dash.”

He set off at a run. Olivia realised that she hadn't asked him the obvious question. She sprinted after him. “Your name! What's your
name?” she called.

The boy didn't stop, but he shouted back over his shoulder: “It's Alfie. Alfie Marvell.”

Olivia's legs suddenly gave way. She uttered a little mewl of pain and crouched on the grass holding her stomach. Her phone began to ring. She noticed that the call was from Tom, but she still pressed ignore.

Chapter Seventeen

Olivia walked out of the toilet block with her washbag under her arm, and passed the campsite's little shop with its closed sign. It was a few days after her conversation with Alfie and the weather had turned really nasty. She was busy struggling to open her umbrella when she realised that there was somebody talking in the old red telephone box by the shop. The windows were all steamed up so whoever was inside couldn't see out and she couldn't see in. The door wasn't quite closed and Olivia was certain it was Evie's voice she could hear. She wondered why she was using the old-fashioned telephone box when she had a perfectly good mobile phone.

“Tonight. The Imperial Hotel. Be there.”
Olivia heard the clunk of the receiver being replaced, and drew back into the shadows. The door of the telephone box opened and Evie and Tati emerged, looking furtively around.

“What if they can trace the phone call?” asked Tati.

“I wasn't on long enough,” said Evie.

They set off towards their tent. Olivia waited a few minutes until they'd disappeared inside and then she put up her umbrella and plodded across the field to her own tent. The rain had eased a little, but the sky was heavy with thick, black clouds and from far away came a growl of thunder. The wind was whipping up too, so Olivia had to angle her umbrella carefully to stop it blowing inside out. As a result a rivulet of rain was running down her forehead and on to her nose, where it dripped mournfully off the end.

Olivia was looking forward to the warmth of the tent, which was glowing cosily, but as she came nearer, she heard Eel's voice. What she was saying brought Olivia up short.

“I think Livy's really unhappy about something.” Her sister's voice sounded sad. “Dad's really worried about her. He thinks she's
avoiding him.”

Then Aeysha said: “Well, she
is
behaving very weirdly.”

Olivia quietly clicked off her torch and stood frozen to the spot. They were talking about her! She knew no good ever came of eavesdropping, but she couldn't help herself. It was becoming a bit of a habit.

“It feels a bit like when she fell out with you two and Tom over
The Sound of Music,
” said Eel.

“It does,” said Georgia, “but in that case Katie Wilkes-Cox was being a witch and stirring things without any of us knowing. So what we thought was happening and what actually was happening were two quite different things.”

“I spoke to Tom earlier,” said Aeysha. “He's worried, too. He said that she's not returning his calls.”

“What can we do?” Georgia's voice came next. “Livy is convinced that Evie and Tati have something to do with the scam and the man who swindled Jack out of his money.”

“Well, what do you think, Georgia?” asked Aeysha. “You're the one who's been going around with her like you're in some spy novel.”

Olivia guessed that Georgia was blushing at this. “I don't know. Some of Evie and Tati's behaviour
is
a bit suspicious.”

“Are you sure that Livy isn't just jealous of Evie?” asked Aeysha. “I think there's something more, something we don't know about. Something is gnawing away at her. I can't put my finger on it, but I have a feeling it goes right back to the day the others arrived here in Edinburgh.”

“I think it might have something to do with that magician boy,” said Georgia excitedly. “Livy started to say something about him the other day but she didn't finish.”

“Maybe you could ask her about it?” said Aeysha.

“I dunno,” said Georgia. “Since the accident she's almost stopped talking to me too. I wish Tom was here. He'd get through to her, and find out what's going on.”

Outside the tent, Olivia shuddered as water ran off the umbrella and down the back of her pyjama neck. It roused her. Since she had learned Alfie's name, she'd felt more and more disconnected from her friends, the other Swans, the circus, even from Eel. Everyone was behaving
as if the world still turned in the same way, but for her it didn't. It had changed. Her arm was much better, and Jack had suggested that she rehearse with him tomorrow and maybe even take part in the evening performance. But she didn't want to. She couldn't bear the thought of being up on the wire with him, the two of them putting their complete trust in each other, trust that was built on a lie.

Olivia sighed. She wished that her gran was around. But Alicia was still suffering badly with her arthritis and Olivia didn't want to bother her with the stuff about Jack. She was just going to have to have it out with her dad. Tell him that she knew about Alfie and that he couldn't keep it a secret any longer. He'd have to come clean.

Right,
she thought, and coughed loudly to let the others know that she was coming in. Silence fell in the tent. She stumbled inside, smiling brightly, and began pulling off her wellington boots.

Everyone turned to beam at her and began talking at once.

“There you are, Livy!” said Aeysha, a little too brightly.

“Hello, stranger, where've you been?” said
Georgia, a little too loudly.

“Cleaning my teeth,” said Olivia shortly.

“Lydia says that Will Todd's teeth are going to drop out. She's convinced they haven't seen toothpaste since the day he arrived,” said Aeysha.

“Yes,” said Georgia, “he's driving Mum to distraction.”

“Maybe that should be
extraction
,” said Aeysha, with a grin. Georgia shrieked with laughter, and even Eel got the joke. But Olivia just sighed.

There was an awkward silence, and then Eel said: “I'd better get back to my own tent. Emmy and the others will be sending out a search party.” She stuck her head outside. “It's starting to blow a gale,” she said. “See you in the morning.” She looked back at her sister and said very solemnly: “I love you, Livy. Loads and loads.”

“We all do,” said Aeysha, quietly reaching for her friend's hand.

Olivia knew she was going to cry but fortunately everyone called goodnight to Eel and Aeysha turned off the torch. The three of them lay in the dark.

“It's great you're going to be able to go back on the wire tomorrow,” said Aeysha into the darkness.

Olivia knew that Aeysha was being kind and trying to be a good friend, but she felt so fragile she could hardly speak. She longed to confide in her friends and tell them why she was angry with Jack and mistrustful of Evie, but she knew that if she did she would break down completely, so she just said gruffly: “I'm tired,” and rolled over with her back to the others.

She lay staring into the darkness for what seemed like hours, until she could hear the steady breathing of the others. The rain was lashing down and the wind tore at the canvas as if it had claws. She heard a party of Scouts, who were camping further down the field, pass by on their way back to their tents, laughing and joking. For a while it was quiet, apart from the rain hitting the tent like tiny stones and the howl of the rising wind. Then she sensed movement outside and heard two men talking in low voices. She listened harder and realised it was her dad and Pablo.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Jack?” asked Pablo.

“Anything that gets me my money back is a good idea,” whispered Jack fiercely. “We're really low on funds, Pablo. Things are desperate. I know audiences are picking up very nicely, but it's not enough. This may be nothing, but it's a lead and it's worth following.”

Their whispers faded away, and a minute or two later Olivia heard a door slam and the bus's distinctive engine start up. It lumbered along the rutted track that led to the road. Olivia's heart was beating faster. She hoped they would both be safe, particularly on such a filthy night.

Then Olivia heard another noise outside the tent. More people were passing by, despite the rain. Somebody tripped over the edge of the tent, and Olivia heard Evie say something rude before Tati shushed her. Aeysha stirred in her sleep, coughed, turned over and fell back into a deep slumber.

Olivia sat up. Where were Evie and Tati going at this time of night? They were heading for the road. She remembered what she'd heard Evie saying on the phone – they must be going to meet someone at the Imperial Hotel that night!

She eased herself out of her sleeping bag,
unzipped the tent as quietly as she could and slipped on her wellies. She crept into the cold air, shivering in her thin pyjamas. At least it had briefly stopped raining, although the sky was ominous and the wind evil. She had her torch in her hand, but she didn't dare turn it on. She kept her distance, worried that Harry would scent her presence.

Evie and Tati were almost at the end of the track. She heard a car coming down the lane and stopping. There was the faint click of doors opening and closing. Olivia hid behind a tree and saw that the car was a taxi that reversed into the track and then turned back towards the city.

There was a sudden flash of lightning followed by a loud clap of thunder. Olivia jumped. She felt frightened: for her dad and Pablo, and for herself standing under the trees when a storm was coming. She ran back to the tent and clambered inside just as more rain began to fall, coming so thick and fast it was as if somebody had trained a machine gun at the canvas. The wind had whipped itself up into a frenzy. Olivia was amazed that the others could sleep through such a racket.

She lay awake, listening to the storm. The
walls of the tent felt so thin and insubstantial. She wished she was in her nice warm bedroom back at the Swan where she felt safe and protected; she wished they had never come to Edinburgh. The wind caught the front of the tent and it began to flap wildly where she hadn't quite secured it properly. Aeysha woke up and groaned, then there was another flash of lighting immediately followed thunder so loud that it made Georgia sit up and scream.

“What's happening?” asked Aeysha. There was a note of panic in her voice.

“It's all right,” said Olivia, on her knees trying to secure the flapping canvas. “It's just a really bad storm. I'm sure we're safe.” But as she said the words there was a strange roaring sound, followed by a bright flash and terrible rumble, and the entire tent seemed to lift off the ground. Olivia fell back on top of Aeysha and the three girls clutched each other in terror, screeching in alarm. They heard a terrible tearing sound as if a mad-axe murderer was hacking at the canvas, and a gaping hole appeared in the side of the tent. The wind came screeching like a banshee through the hole and whisked the tent away as though it were made of tissue paper.
The girls found themselves sitting in the middle of the field, the torn tent in tatters and the rain battering down on them.

A strange sight met their eyes. The mini-hurricane had blown a path right through the part of the campsite where the Swans had pitched their tents, but the rest of the campsite was virtually untouched, the tents still intact, if a little battered. The Swans were in complete disarray. Several of their tents were in shreds while Connor and Will's had disappeared entirely. Somehow, Will was still fast asleep in his sleeping bag, snoring gently, and blissfully oblivious to the rain and all the people running around him trying to retrieve their scattered belongings.

Lydia was trying to gather everyone together and simultaneously comfort Emmy, whose teddy bear, Mr Bossyboots, had been blown into a prickly bush and couldn't be retrieved. Connor shook Will, who sat up and looked around him with a dazed expression. “Where am I?” he kept saying, as if he had awoken to find himself on the moon.

“Where are Jack and Pablo?” Lydia was asking. “We need the keys to the bus; we can
take shelter there while we dry off and work out what to do.”

“They've gone off somewhere in it,” said Olivia shortly.

“What?” Lydia shook her head in irritation. “Well, they should have said where they were going,” she said sharply, reaching for her phone. There was no answer from either Jack or Pablo's phone, so she left Pablo a curt message. “Georgie and Livy, help me herd everyone into the toilet block out of the rain and then we can count heads and check nobody is hurt.”

Several other campers had staggered out of their tents and were trying to help. One of the Scout leaders fetched Mr Bossyboots from the bush, while Olivia and the others ushered the younger children towards the toilet block. At least the wind had died down now, as if it had worn itself out with all the huffing and puffing, and the rain had turned to a steady drizzle.

It seemed astonishing that just a few minutes before the weather had wreaked such total devastation, then returned to normal so quickly. Everyone was soaked through and miserable, and Eel was shaking with cold and crying because she couldn't find her favourite
tap shoes.

“I'll go look for them,” said Olivia, giving her a hug. “But really, Eel, if all you've lost are your tap shoes, you should count yourself lucky. Kylie's clothes are halfway up a tree. If the storm had been any worse we might have lost our lives.”