A Mother's Wish (8 page)

Effie awakened to the delicious aroma of frying bacon, but her pleasure quickly turned to panic as she realised that Georgie was missing. She fell off the bunk and ran to the door but she stopped, holding on to the doorpost as she saw Georgie playing happily with a group of children. His laughter was a sound that she had not heard for some time and her eyes unaccountably filled with tears.

Leah was turning bacon in a soot-blackened frying pan and she looked up, waving the fork at Effie. ‘Come and get your breakfast, ducks. There’s tea in the pot if you’d like to help yourself. Zilla’s had hers and she’s gone to wash her beard in the stream. She says there’s nothing like fresh water to keep the hair soft.’

Brushing her long hair back from her face, Effie was suddenly conscious that she must look a fright and she needed a wash, but she was hungry and she did not want to offend Leah by retreating into the van to make herself presentable. A quick glance around the encampment was reassuring in the fact that no one appeared to be in the least bit interested in her. In the distance she could see a man juggling brightly coloured wooden clubs,
although he did not seem very good at it as he kept dropping them and starting again. Effie was about to turn away when a tiny woman, little taller than Georgie, clambered down the steps of a nearby caravan. Effie couldn’t help but stare at the little person, who had the body of a child but a rather disproportionate head and a face that was lined and anything but youthful.

Leah slapped some bacon on a plate and thrust it into Effie’s hands with a knowing grin. ‘That’s Margery, the midget. She may be small but she don’t like to be reminded of it and she don’t like people staring at her, which is odd because that’s what they do all day when she’s on show as the World’s Smallest Woman.’

Effie felt the colour rise to her cheeks and she averted her gaze as Margery turned to look at her through narrowed eyes. ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to upset her.’

‘Don’t worry about it, ducks. You’ll find it a bit strange here at first but you’ll soon get used to us and our funny ways.’ Leah took a chunk of bread and tossed it in the bacon fat. ‘Eat up, Effie. You could do with a bit more meat on your bones.’ She stuck a fork in the fried bread and passed it to Effie. ‘Get that down you and then you can help me unpack a box of fairings and set them out on me stall.’

With her mouth filled with bacon, Effie was not in a position to argue and she felt obliged to repay Leah’s generosity. By the time she could speak Leah had wandered off to speak to a tall man with a bare chest that rippled with muscles as he performed a series of exercises with much jumping and swinging of his arms. Effie doubted whether he had much breath left to answer the questions that Leah appeared to be putting to him, but eventually he stopped leaping about and stood with his head bowed as he paid attention to her, all the while mopping the sweat from his torso with a none-too-clean towel. Effie turned her head to look for Georgie, not liking to take her eyes off him for more than a few moments, but he was still larking around with the other children and a couple of mongrel puppies. Their shouts and laughter echoed round the encampment together with the happy yapping of the small dogs. There had been little to laugh at on the
Margaret
and this was the first time that Georgie had been able to play with children of his own age. She did not want to spoil his fun.

She finished her food, washing it down with a cup of strong, sweet tea. She was immensely grateful to Leah but she knew that she could not stay here for long. She must renew her search for Tom. She would tell Leah the
moment she had finished speaking to the muscular gentleman, who wore only a pair of ankle-length trouser drawers which left little of his manly shape to the imagination. Effie averted her gaze quickly, hoping that no one had noticed that she was staring at the extraordinary fellow, whose body seemed to bulge in most unexpected places. She concentrated her attention on the children, smiling at their obvious enjoyment of the game, which looked rather rough and tumble, but Georgie did not seem to mind. She was so engrossed in their play that she jumped at the sound of Leah’s voice calling her name. Effie looked round and saw her new friend striding across the springy turf towards her. The muscular man had picked up a set of dumb-bells and was striking poses to an imaginary audience while the rest of the camp seemed to ignore him.

‘Who is he?’ Effie asked, when Leah drew close enough for her to question without raising her voice.

‘Him?’ Leah shrugged her shoulders with a dismissive snort. ‘Thinks he’s somebody, but he’s not. Calls himself the Great Arnoldo but his real name is Arnold Hicks and he comes from Hoxton. He’s the strong man act and the punters are impressed, but it’s all show. He’s afraid of his own shadow.’

‘Oh!’ Effie digested this piece of information
in silence, staring at Arnoldo and frowning. He looked every inch a man, but Leah was clearly unimpressed. ‘Don’t you like him then? You were talking to him for ages.’

‘He owns two vans, his and the one that was used by the two-headed lady before she run off with the lizard man. Anyway, it gave me an idea which I’ll put to our head man, Frank senior, when I’ve got a moment, but I’ll not say any more for the time being.’

Effie was too concerned about the fate of the odd couple to take much notice of Leah’s mysterious pronouncement. ‘Did she really have two heads and was he really a lizard?’

Leah gave her a pitying look. ‘Of course she didn’t have two heads, one was stuck on, and he was only half lizard, all scaly and horrible. I dunno what the attraction was there.’

‘At least they have each other,’ Effie said, sighing.

‘Forget them; we’ve got work to do. The punters will be arriving as soon as they’ve done their duty and been to church.’

Effie had quite forgotten that it was Sunday, but now as if to confirm Leah’s statement church bells began to chime, their differing tones and timings making them sound as though they were calling to each other as in the old nursery rhyme, ‘Oranges and Lemons’, which Effie had learned at her mother’s knee.
She closed her eyes, picturing her mother’s sweet face and the soft sound of her voice as she sang.

‘Stop daydreaming, Effie. Leave the boy here, no harm will come to him.’ Leah marched off, hitching her skirts above her knees to accommodate her long strides.

Effie glanced anxiously at Georgie. She couldn’t leave him here. What if he missed her and panicked, thinking his mother had deserted him?

‘It’s all right, dearie.’

Effie looked around and couldn’t see the woman who had spoken, until someone tugged at her skirt. She looked down into Margery’s grey eyes. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t—’ Effie clapped her hand to her lips. She had almost admitted that she had not seen the tiny woman, but just in time she remembered Leah’s warning.

‘You could leave the boy here, ducks,’ Margery said with a smile that transformed her stern features. ‘I’ll keep me eye on him for you. He’s having a lovely time with the other nippers. Why spoil it for him?’

‘I’ve never left him before,’ Effie murmured.

‘There’s always a first time. I got a nipper of me own. She’s asleep in the van with her pa looking after her, but your little ’un will be safe here. We’re like one big family and we
all looks out for each other. You go off and help Leah. Your boy won’t even know you’re gone.’

Reluctantly, Effie left Georgie under the watchful eye of Margery, but she kept glancing over her shoulder in case he should suddenly realise that his mother was not there and start to cry. She was almost disappointed when Georgie showed no signs of missing her, but Leah was already out of sight and Effie had to quicken her pace as she tried to remember where the fairings booth was sited. She wended her way through narrow gaps between stalls selling everything from sweets to quack medicines. The stallholders were getting ready for a busy day’s trading and the sun was already high in a clear sky, giving the promise of continued hot weather. The gilding and gaudy paintwork on the merry-go-round sparkled in the bright light and the wooden horses seemed to smile at Effie as she paused to admire their sleek beauty. Their names were painted on their necks and she found herself thinking of Champion, and hoping that Salter would treat him kindly.

She moved on and the warm grass crushed underfoot gave off the scent of new-mown hay. The sugary scent of toffee, boiled sweets, liquorice and peppermint made a heady concoction when mixed with the faint whiff
of leather and horseflesh, cheap cologne and woodsmoke, but the sudden powerful odour of wood alcohol and a loud whoosh brought Effie to a halt as a plume of flame erupted from the mouth of a man holding a flaming torch. She uttered a faint scream, thinking that he must have exploded.

He gave her a toothless grin. ‘Ain’t you never seen a fire-eater afore, lady?’

Effie swallowed hard, holding her hand to her heart as it pounded against her tightly laced stays. ‘Good heavens! Is that what you are? How do you do that?’

He pulled a flask from his belt, filled his mouth and expelled a fine mist into the torch which exploded into a fireball. He wiped his lips on the back of his hand. ‘That ain’t nothing. You watch me when I swallow flaming swords. I’ve entertained all the crowned heads of Europe in me time.’

Impressed and still feeling a little weak, Effie could hardly speak. ‘Well, I never.’

‘No, you never saw a fellow to equal me, I’ll warrant.’ He held out his free hand. ‘Elmo the fire-eater.’

Effie shook his hand. ‘I’m Effie.’

‘Yes, I know. News travels fast around here.’ With a dramatic wave of his torch, Elmo bowed and sauntered off leaving Effie staring after him, but a shout from Leah brought her
back to the present and she hurried over to the fairings stall.

No sooner had they unpacked the crate of china ornaments and arranged them on the white cloth than the first punters began to wander through the fairground. Soon the place was alive with the sound of excited chatter, laughter and music. Effie watched in awe as Leah shouted out her wares, exchanged banter with the customers and persuaded parsimonious husbands to part with their hard-earned money in order to buy a pretty china ornament for their wives. Effie worked diligently, wrapping the delicate objects in brown paper and taking money while Leah concentrated on selling, but Georgie was constantly on Effie’s mind and at the first opportunity she hurried back to the encampment. She found him sitting side by side with Margery on the steps of her caravan. From a distance they looked like two children, but Margery was holding a baby in her arms and she smiled proudly when she saw Effie.

‘This here is my little ’un, Victoria, named after her majesty. Ain’t she just the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen?’

Effie nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, she’s just perfect. Thank you so much for minding Georgie.’ She bent down to scoop him up in
her arms and give him a cuddle, which he resisted, squirming and demanding to be put down.

‘He’s a fine boy,’ Margery said, chuckling. ‘He’s got a mind of his own, I’ll warrant.’

Effie set him back on the ground, watching him toddle off to disturb one of the puppies which were enjoying a nap in the warm sunshine. ‘He takes after his pa,’ she murmured, blinking away the tears that sprang to her eyes when she thought of Owen.

‘Run off, did he?’ Margery patted the baby’s back as it began to whimper. ‘Happens all the time.’

‘He died before Georgie was born. He never saw his son.’

Margery made a sympathetic sound in her throat. ‘That’s hard, that is. Never mind, ducks, you got a lovely little chap there, and I don’t doubt there’ll be someone else waiting round the corner to sweep you off your feet. Unless, of course, it’s Toby that you fancy and I wouldn’t bet on him.’

‘I don’t want anyone else,’ Effie said hotly. ‘And it’s not like that at all. I’m looking for my brother and I think he might be with Toby, who is just a friend.’

‘All right, don’t get in a miff. I was just surmising and meant no offence.’ Margery scrambled to her feet, hoisting the baby over
her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. ‘Now I got to get dressed for me first show.’

‘Who will look after your baby?’ Effie asked, suddenly anxious. ‘I can’t go back to the stall if there’s no one to keep an eye on Georgie.’

Margery paused as she was about to enter her caravan, pointing her finger in the direction of a much older woman dressed all in black, who was stirring something in a cast iron pot over the camp fire. She looked so much like the illustration of a witch that Effie had once seen in a picture book that she caught her breath, but Margery seemed quite unperturbed. ‘That’s Gert. She used to be the fortune teller but she’s getting on a bit now and her daughter, Laila, reads the cards. Gert watches over the nippers while the rest of us goes about our work.’

Effie bit her lip, staring anxiously at the old woman. ‘Can she cope with small children? I mean, she might not be able to move quickly enough if they were in danger.’

Margery cackled with laughter. ‘She’s a fortune teller, ducks. If she don’t foresee danger then no one can. You leave young Georgie with me and I’ll make sure that Gert keeps an eye on him.’

Despite Margery’s confidence in Gert’s prowess as a child minder Effie spent an anxious afternoon, and when Leah put Myrtle
in charge of the stall so that they could return to the caravan for their supper, Effie raced on ahead. She found a group of young children seated on the ground close to Gert, who was in the process of telling them a story. For a dreadful moment Effie was convinced that Georgie was not amongst them, but then she saw him sitting beside a girl of about six or seven. He was covered in dirt from head to foot, which made his eyes look even bluer when a smile of recognition lit his small face and he scrambled to his feet, running towards Effie with his arms outstretched. She caught him up and held him close. He lifted his face to give her a sticky kiss and she rubbed her cheek against his dusty curls. ‘My goodness, Georgie Grey, what a state you’re in.’

‘It ain’t nothing but what a tub of water won’t wash away,’ Gert said, apparently overhearing Effie’s softly spoken remark. The fortune teller might be old, Effie thought, but there was nothing wrong with her hearing, and if it were true that Gert could see things in her crystal ball, she might just know where to find Toby.