Olivia's Enchanted Summer (7 page)

Jack was so taken aback by her calm coolness that he nodded. “And you are…?”

“Evenga Purcarete, but everyone calls me Evie. This is my sister Tati.”

“Purcarete? You're not Nicu Purcarete's daughter, are you?” Jack gave a little whistle of amazement and then his face broke into a big grin. “What an extraordinary coincidence! I was only telling Liv about your dad this morning, wasn't I, Liv?” He turned to Olivia, who nodded, so livid at Evie's stunt that she couldn't speak.

“Yes, the Magnificent Purcarete. He was the best,” said Evie, and her dark eyes shone with pride and unshed tears.

“Ah,” said Jack softly. “So he's no longer with us. I'm so sorry, Evie. He was a special talent.”

And reckless like his daughter
, thought Olivia.

There was an awkward pause, and then Jack asked: “So where's your mum? How is she? I'd love to see her again.”

“I'm afraid you can't,” said Tati in a quiet, quavering voice. “She died a few weeks ago. Leukaemia.” A tear dripped down her cheek. Murmurs of sympathy went round the listening children. Olivia's throat tightened and she thought she might cry, too.

“Evie,” said Jack gently, his face serious. “You do realise what you did was unbelievably, unforgiveably dangerous. You can't behave in that reckless way in a circus. You might have hurt other people and you might have been killed if you'd fallen.”

“I never fall,” said Evie, with a shrug that got Olivia riled up all over again. Evie Purcarete really was one of the most arrogant people she had ever met in her entire life. She expected Jack to say something along the lines of “pride comes before a fall” and read Evie the riot act, but to her surprise a twinkle had crept into his eye.

“Well, Evie, you're certainly not lacking in confidence!” he said. “And from what I've just seen, you have every right to be confident. What you did was wrong, very wrong, but it was a wonderful display. The last time I saw you, you were a bawling scrap of a thing, a tiny little baby. Your father taught you well. If you're interested,
I reckon we might have a spot for you in the Swan Circus.”

“Dad!” exclaimed Olivia. How could he just offer a total stranger a job in their circus without asking the rest of them first? In her outrage, she conveniently forgot that she'd done exactly the same thing with the boy-magician. But Jack's hand silenced her, and judging from the admiring, sympathetic looks on the faces of the other Swans, they weren't fussed about the lack of consultation. Evie grinned at Jack and her dark, watchful eyes were suddenly full of light. She looked at her sister, who nodded and smiled.

“We would like that very much,” she said.

“Good,” said Jack, “because you're the best high-wire walker of your age that I've ever seen.”

Olivia felt as if she'd just been slapped. Evie and she were almost the same age, there couldn't be more than a few months between them, and Jack was suggesting that Evie was a better tightrope walker than she was, his own daughter, the person he had been teaching almost since the day she could walk. She felt utterly betrayed. And it felt all the worse because Olivia
was now certain that she knew who had booed her during their Swan Circus performances. She felt as though a snake was settling into an uncomfortable coil in her stomach, and as she tried to contain the sandpaper itch in her throat, Olivia realised that she was jealous.

Chapter Ten

“How could he? How could he do such a thing?” raged Georgia. Her face was tear-streaked and her fair skin blotchy from crying. Olivia and Aeysha were sitting just outside the tent that the three of them shared.

“My poor mum!” wailed Georgia. “I'm never going to talk to my dad ever again. He's toast as far as I'm concerned.” Her rosebud mouth was set in a mutinous line.

“Oh, Georgia, you don't really mean that,” said Aeysha carefully. “I can see that it's really upsetting, and it's a shock, but it's not as if your mum and dad were ever going to get back together again. Your mum seems fine about it; she's only upset because you're so upset. Only the other day you were saying that she was
relieved that the divorce was almost through so she'd be able to get on with the rest of her life. You said that she said that she and your dad had both moved on. You even said how much you liked your dad's girlfriend.”

“Maybe I did,” said Georgia, “but that doesn't mean I want him to marry her and for her to have his baby. It's all too soon.”

“But you'll love having a little brother or sister, Georgie,” said Aeysha. “You've always said that you wished you had a bigger family and that you weren't an only child. Now you won't be.”

“Dad and Leonie and the baby will be a real family. I'll just be the half-sister. The outsider who comes to visit. Since Dad left, Mum and I have only been half a family, like the last couple of bits of stale cake in the tin that nobody wants!” Georgia burst into angry tears again.

Aeysha patted her back, and Olivia drew circular movements with her finger on the inside of Georgia's elbow. It was something that Eel and she did when the other one was really stressed, and they always found it soothing. She knew that if Jack suddenly announced that he was getting married again and having a baby
with his new fiancée, she would feel just like Georgia, but she could see that Aeysha was right too.

“Well, I think you're lucky to have two families. You'll be able to choose the bits you like best from both of them. Most of us don't have a choice. We just have to make the best of the family we've got,” said Aeysha, who was the eldest girl of seven children and often joked that she liked coming to school because it gave her a rest from the noise and mayhem.

“But you wouldn't want to swap your family for another one, would you?” said Georgia, sniffing.

“Of course not,” said Aeysha. “But I also know that one day, when I'm older, I will want to leave them and set out on my own. My brother cried on the day he went away to college and said he didn't want to go, but my mum made him go, even though I knew she was dreading her eldest child leaving home. She said it was the next step in his life and he'd regret it if he didn't take it. Now he loves it, and can't stop talking about uni and his friends when he comes back to visit.”

“I'm never going to leave my mum,” said
Georgia fiercely. “Not ever!”

Aeysha glanced at Olivia over Georgia's head. “You may say that now, Georgie, but you wouldn't want everything to stay the same for ever. Imagine if your mum still treated you like she did when you were four or if you were never allowed to go up a grade in ballet or got any better at algebra. Although in your case, Georgie, it would be hard to get any better at algebra than you already are.”

Georgia gave a pleased, embarrassed little smile. It was true she was very good at maths, just like her accountant father.

Olivia knew that Aeysha was right and that change could be a good thing. She had hated leaving the travelling circus and coming to the Swan but it had been the best thing that ever happened to her. But maybe Aeysha's willingness to embrace change came from the fact that she felt so secure in her own family, or the clan as she called them, a great network of cousins, aunts and uncles as well as her own siblings.

Olivia didn't have a clue who her great-grandparents were, and as far as she was aware she didn't have any cousins at all. Her mum
had been an only child, and Jack had never mentioned any brothers and sisters. In fact, now she thought about it, Jack never mentioned much about his childhood at all, except that his parents had died within months of each other when he was seventeen and he'd got his first job in a circus shortly after. “I was an orphan,” he'd said. “The circus became my family.”

“Maybe,” ventured Olivia, “family seems more precious when you don't have much of it, like Georgia and me. You want to hold on tight to the bit you've got.”

Aeysha laughed good-naturedly. “That might be true. My family love each other but they're always falling out with each other and having feuds.”

“What sort of feuds?” asked Georgia, who had long stopped crying. She was fascinated by Aeysha's big family and loved hearing stories about them.

“Well,” said Aeysha, “my mum and her sister, Hema, are tight as anything now. But they didn't speak to each other for almost eighteen months once.”

“Why?” asked Georgia. “Did one sister betray the other in some dreadful way?”

“Oh no,” said Aeysha cheerfully. “They fell out over a game of Monopoly. Auntie Hema refused to swap Bond Street for all four stations and the get-out-of-jail-free card that my mum was offering her. They didn't speak for ages. It's lucky it wasn't over something more serious or they might still be feuding. There's one part of my family that still isn't talking to another because of a dispute over ownership of a goat in the nineteenth century. No one can remember anything about it but they still don't speak.”

Georgia and Olivia stared at her in astonishment. “You are joking, right?” asked Olivia.

Aeysha grinned. “Of course it might be a family myth, but there's probably some truth in it. Grown-ups can be really stupid some times, and these things get out of control.” She turned to Georgia. “It's why you should call your dad and tell him that you love him and you know that he loves you even if he is getting married again and having a baby with Leonie.”

Georgia looked bashful. “That's what my mum said I should do, too.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” asked Aeysha. “Come on,” she said to Olivia. “Let's
go sit in the bus. It'll be leaving in ten minutes to take us into town for rehearsals. Georgia can ring her dad in peace and quiet, and you can sit next to Auntie Aeysha and she'll solve all your problems for you.”

Olivia stood up with a smile, but inside she wished that Aeysha could do just that. There was a gulf between her and Jack, and since Evie's arrival at the Swan Circus, it was getting bigger by the minute.

Chapter Eleven

“So,” said Tom down the phone. “How many jugglers does it take to change a light bulb?” Olivia was so engrossed in watching Jack talk to Evie that she didn't really hear what he'd said.

“Liv?” said Tom into the silence. “Are you still there?”

“Eh, yes,” said Olivia, her eyes fixed on Jack and Evie. “What was the question?”

“It's not a question, it's a joke, Liv,” said Tom patiently.

“Oh,” said Olivia, still not really listening.

“How many jugglers does it take to change a light bulb?”

“I don't know,” said Olivia, scowling as Evie put her hand on Jack's arm as if she owned him.

“Only one, but you need an awful lot of light bulbs,” said Tom. There was complete silence from the other end of the phone. “Liv?” said Tom. “That's supposed to be funny.”

“Sorry,” said Olivia. “I'm not really listening.”

“I got that impression,” sighed Tom. “Liv, is everything all right? You just don't sound like yourself at all.”

Olivia gave a long, low sigh. “Everything's fine. Sort of.”

“Why don't you tell me what's bothering you?” Tom sounded so sympathetic that Olivia longed to tell him everything. But Jack and Evie were now whispering together conspiratorially and she was desperate to know what they were saying.

“I will,” said Olivia. “Sometime. But not now, Tom. I've got to go. Sorry.”

She closed her phone without even saying goodbye and walked over to her dad. As she came closer, Jack threw back his head and laughed at something that Evie had said, and several of the Swans standing nearby laughed too. Eel's laugh was the loudest of all.
Little traitor!
thought Olivia, somewhat unfairly.

Evie reached out and lightly touched Jack's arm again. The cheek of it! Evie was behaving as if she was Jack's daughter. And Olivia was sick of the way that everyone seemed to think Evie was so marvellous. Even Georgia and Aeysha had taken a shine to the dark-eyed girl who was so nimble and natural on the wire.

“She's so ethereal,” enthused Georgia, watching as Evie pranced across the wire, tossing her mane of dark hair like a pretty pony.

“And what am I, then? Some great elephant?” snorted Olivia, meaning it as a joke, but it came out all wrong and sounded like an accusation instead. Georgia went bright pink and said that she hadn't meant that at all but Olivia had gazed at her so stonily that she gave up. In truth, Olivia did think that Georgia was being disloyal. You were supposed to stick by your friends and stand up for them, close ranks if necessary against outsiders like Evie.

Not for the first time, Olivia wished Tom were there. He'd understand how she felt, she was sure. She wouldn't even need to tell him; he'd just notice. It was all too hard to explain on the phone. But everybody, even Eel, seemed to be welcoming the interloper into the Swan Circus
with open arms. Not only had Jack announced that Evie was a better tightrope walker than she was but he'd been delighted to discover that her older sister, Tatiana, was an excellent contortionist who could pack herself away into a small suitcase and put her legs behind her ears.

Olivia had heard him and Pablo talking excitedly about the sisters.

“This is going to make all the difference to
Enchantment
,” said Jack. “Evie and Tati will bring variety and real skill that the show was badly lacking,” said Jack. “I've been worried all along that we were just faking it, faking it rather well, but faking it nonetheless…”

Olivia stalked away, unable to bear to listen to any more. So she missed Alicia's arrival and what she had to say.

“Yes, it's good to have more talent on board,” Pablo had replied to Jack, turning to watch Evie clowning around on the wire and making the Swans laugh. “Even if Little Miss Evie treats wire-walking like a clever party trick.”

“Jack, I hope your excitement at having new talent won't make you neglect the old,”
said Alicia. “I saw Livy's face when you praised Evie so extravagantly in front of everyone the other day. She looked as if you'd just run her over and then reversed back over her body.”

“Oh, come on, Alicia, Liv knows how much I rate her!” said Jack defensively. He hated it when Alicia tried to interfere with anything to do with his daughters. But in his heart he knew that she had a point. Liv had seemed so moody since they had been in Edinburgh; and he had been so busy and stressed he hadn't given it much thought. It was as if something in their relationship had shifted. He thought back over the last week and realised that sometimes when Liv looked at him, it felt as if she was judging him in some way.
Perhaps she was just growing up?
thought Jack. After all, she had just turned thirteen. But it felt like something more, as if she were growing away from him, and it made him sad. He had to try and reconnect with her again, but he had so much on his plate he felt quite overwhelmed.

The most pressing thing was a rehearsal to try and integrate Evie and Tati into
Enchantment
, but he also needed to do something to try and get his money back. So far the police had
entirely failed to come up with any leads. If they couldn't snare the scammer, he would have to do it himself. Funds were running desperately low, and the last thing he wanted was to have to ask Alicia for a loan. His pride just wouldn't allow it.