LITMIR.BIZ

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was what he had to do now, he told himself. Do what had to be done and get out of here.

      So he did.

      He filed his papers together, making sure every page was in order and the file was complete. He rolled down his sleeves, he buttoned his shirt and he put back on his grey silk tie.

      He put on his cashmere coat and walked out of the caravan, out of the circus, out of personal and back to the controlled world of Mathew Bond, banker.

      Henry was lying in his hospital bed, and he looked old and white and defeated. Bella just looked sick.

      The doctor she’d met on the way in had given her good news. ‘There doesn’t seem to be any damage to his heart. We’re fairly sure it was simply a bad attack of angina, but your grandmother says he’s losing weight. He’s running a slight fever and we need to get his angina under control, so we’d like to keep him in for a few days, run a few tests, see if we can get him looking a bit stronger before we send him back to the wilds of circus living.’

      He won’t be going back to the wilds of circus living, Allie thought drearily, but she pushed the ward door open with her smile pinned in place and spent the first few minutes telling her grandparents of the unlikely success of their banker as a ringmaster.

      It made them smile—but the big issue couldn’t be avoided.

      She didn’t have to bring it up. Mathew was right. Both Henry and Bella had a clear idea of what was happening, and why.

      ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she whispered, holding her grandpa’s hand, and he snorted.

      ‘Telling you wouldn’t have made a difference. We figured we’d keep the circus cheerful and functioning right up till the moment they pulled the rug.’

      Great, Allie thought bleakly. They had two weeks of advance bookings. Almost every show for the time they were in Fort Neptune was sold out. She couldn’t conceive of folding the big top tomorrow and leaving a gap in the heart of the town at the height of summer.

      She couldn’t bear thinking today had been their last day.

      And wages? To go back to the crew now and say it’s over, no more pay as of now …

      Was there any money to pay wages already owed? She should have asked. She should have demanded to see what powers Mathew had.

      Her head was spinning, and Bella put her wrinkled hand on hers so there were three hands combined, Henry’s, Bella’s and Allie’s. ‘It’s okay, dear,’ she said. ‘Something will come up.’

      ‘Something already has come up,’ she muttered. ‘Mathew Bond.’

      ‘But he has to be a nice young man. He’s the great-nephew of Margot and Margot’s lovely. Why don’t you talk to her?’

      ‘Mathew says she’s dying.’

      There was a pause at that. A really long pause.

      Then …

      ‘Just because you’re dying, it doesn’t mean you’re dead,’ Bella said at last, with a lot more asperity than usual. ‘Your grandpa and I are almost eighty and if people treat us like we’re on our last legs we might as well be. Don’t you think Margot would want to know how appallingly her nephew is acting?’

      ‘He has the right …’

      ‘The moral right?’ Bella said. ‘Maybe he has and maybe he hasn’t. We’ve given his aunt a lot of pleasure over the years. At least he can let us have our last two weeks here without refunding tickets. Bond’s is huge. Our loan must be a drop in the ocean. Go and see Margot, love. Talk to her.’

      ‘But she’s dying,’ Allie repeated, horrified.

      ‘Yes, but she’s not dead,’ Bella repeated impatiently. ‘Just like our circus isn’t dead until we take down the big top. And just like your grandpa isn’t dead yet. He’ll be fine, Allie, love, as long as he has hope.’

      ‘That’s blackmail. You want me to front a dying Margot and her cashmere-coated nephew so Grandpa will get better?’

      ‘That’s the one,’ Bella said and beamed.

      ‘You’re such a good girl,’ Henry said and gave a wee feeble cough and sank further back into his pillows.

      Allie glared. ‘You’re a fraud. Grandpa, was that collapse real this afternoon?’

      ‘Of course it was,’ Henry said, affronted, possibly with stronger affront than the wee feeble cough signified should be possible.

      ‘Go and see Margot, Allie,’ Bella urged. ‘It’s the least you can do.’

      ‘I …’

      ‘At least talk again to the nephew.’

      She did have to do that. There were so many complications.

      ‘Do you know where Margot lives?’ Henry asked. ‘The second house from the point along the esplanade. It’s a little blue fisherman’s cottage.’

      ‘You’ve been there before—asking for money?’

      ‘I had to keep the animals safe,’ Henry said, and suddenly his old eyes were steel. ‘I did that for you.’

      And he had, Allie thought. Henry was an old-fashioned ringmaster, with old-fashioned views on circus animals. It was her distress that had made him retire them.

      It was her distress that had put them into this mess?

      ‘They’re still okay,’ she said carefully, feeling weird.

      ‘We know. We get updates,’ Bella said, beaming. She dived into her purse and produced photographs, and Allie found herself staring at pictures of lions and monkeys and two gorgeous, healthy elephants. Maisie and Minnie. She’d adored these animals as a kid. She’d fought for them.

      That fight had got them into this mess. What would happen to them now?

      ‘You need to talk to Margot,’ Bella urged again, and Allie shook her head.

      ‘I need to talk to Mathew.’

      ‘Same thing,’ Bella retorted. ‘He’s staying with her.’

      ‘How do you know?’

      ‘Of course we know. We were expecting …’

      ‘Enough.’ Allie put up her hands in surrender. ‘I don’t want to know what you were expecting. At least, I do want to know, but I’m not the least sure I can trust you two. I may not want to trust Mathew Bond either, but at least he gives me facts. I’ll see him. Meanwhile, you stay well, both of you, and no more conniving. I’ll do my best to see what I can save, but you need to leave it in my hands.’

      She kissed them both and left. She headed down to the beach and took herself for a really long walk. She thought about elephants and lions and monkeys. She thought about a circus she loved, a team she loved. She thought about a circus sold out for two solid weeks.

      And then she went to face Mathew.

      CHAPTER THREE

      MARGOT’S HOUSE WAS adorable. This whole town was adorable, Allie thought, as she walked past the long row of fishermen’s cottages to reach Margot’s postcard-perfect cottage.

      The rain had stopped. The late afternoon sun was shimmering on the water and the boats swinging at anchor in the bay looked clean and washed. Fort Neptune had once been a major defence port, and the fort itself was still a monolith on the far headland, but the time for defence was long past. The town was now a sleepy fishing village that came alive each summer, filling with kids, mums and dads eager for time out from the rest of the world.

      It was Allie’s very favourite circus site, and the thought that Henry and Bella had planned their retirement here was a comfort.

      Or it had been a comfort,

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