The Painted Tent (3 page)

Smiler guessed – and later learned – that the Duke had been the Duchess's husband. A lot of things had become clear to Smiler before he went to bed. While they were having tea in front of the fire Scampi had come into the room followed by another Siamese cat. The two had settled on the hearth and the other cat had started to groom Scampi. The other cat was Yin, Scampi's wife, who was showing her pleasure at having him back from his travels with Jimmy.

Later, while the Duchess was getting the supper, Jimmy had taken Smiler up to his room and explained to him that the Duke had been dead for five years. The Duchess, who had travelled the circuses as a fortune teller, had retired to this farm where – apart from the normal farm work – she took care of a few retired or sick circus animals and boarded others when some circus acts were off the road. Her busiest time, Jimmy said, was just after Christmas when most circus acts took a rest before starting the Spring travels. At the moment there were very few animal boarders at the farm.

Jimmy said, ‘After you've had a chat with the Duchess tomorrow and if you want to stay and like animals there's a job here until you get yourself sorted out. And –' a distant look came into his eyes – ‘sorting things out sometimes takes a long time, as you'll learn as you grow older. Now, unpack your gear, and then you can take a stroll round the place before supper. There's over a hundred acres, mostly wood and hill pasture and over a mile of the Bullay brook. But don't go poking into any of the barns yet or the Ancients will take against you.'

‘The Ancients?'

‘You'll meet 'em. I wouldn't spoil your pleasure.'

Lying in bed now, seeing through his window the October sky stippled with bright stars, Smiler remembered how, coming back from his stroll around the brook meadows, he had walked into the farm kitchen and had found the Duchess and Jimmy talking to one another. But it was in a language that meant nothing to Smiler – though later he learned that it was Romany, for the Jago family were of true gypsy descent. Just for a moment, before they saw him, he had the feeling that an argument was going on between the two. The impression had been brief but the memory lingered with Smiler. He wondered now if the Duchess and Jimmy had their troubles just as he had.

Outside a little owl called to its mate and the sound of the brook over its stony bed came in a ceaseless murmur. Smiler began to drift off into sleep and, as he did so, he had a feeling of loneliness which could not be fought down. Behind him in. Scotland he had left all his friends … the face of Laura, his girl friend, floated before him, cheeks sun-tanned, dark hair lifting in the loch breeze and her deep brown eyes alive with laughter. How long would it be before he saw her again, how long before he could get out of trouble and do all the things he longed to do? And then his father … He sniffed, then tightened his lips against the misery that threatened to claim him. Five minutes later, when the little owl called again, Smiler was deep in sleep.

The next morning Smiler had breakfast in the farm kitchen. He had porridge, two fried eggs and four rashers of bacon, three slices of toast and marmalade, and a large mug of milky coffee, all of which he polished off with ease.

The Duchess nodded approvingly and said, ‘That's the way I like to see a boy eat. Some folk treat their food as though it was going to bite them. Now then, come along with me and we'll get you settled.'

She led the way out of the back door and across a yard to a little walled garden which lay behind one of the barns. There was a small green lawn in its centre and flower-beds all around. Standing on the lawn, almost covering it, was a tent. But it was no ordinary tent. Its shape reminded Smiler of illustrations he had seen in history books of the battlefield pavilions knights in armour had used. It was supported at its four corners by stout poles and its roof was domed, the canvas stretched over a cane framework. From a tall spiked flagpole on the top of the dome a red and white silk pennant flapped in the morning breeze. The tent canvas was striped in red, yellow and blue and over the half-open door was a wooden signboard inscribed:

THE DUCHESS OF MINTORO –
THE FUTURE AN OPEN BOOK
Patronized by Royalty

Seeing the look in Smiler's eyes, the Duchess said, ‘Beautiful, isn't it? I've spent more than half my life working in it. But not since the Duke died. Except for the odd friend now and then. Stands there all through the good weather.'

She went into the tent and Smiler, a bit nervous, followed her. She sat down at a cloth-covered table and nodded to him to sit opposite her. She draped a small silk scarf over her red curls and said, ‘Give me your hands, boy.'

Smiler held out his hands and the Duchess took first the left one and then the right one and studied their palms and after a while said, ‘Young hands, young heart and the future only just beginning to write itself there. But the lines are good, the signs are right. You'll have your share of troubles and your share of happiness. At your age – even though I could tell you more – there's no need to know more. But this I'll tell you – you'll never work inside four walls, but you'll work with your hands and your head in a way no countryman or farmer does.'

‘I want to be a vet,' said Smiler.

‘Maybe. Wanting comes before doing and the future is first shaped by the past and the present and then tidied up and fixed by the Great One.' The Duchess released his hands and after a smile and a chuckle added, ‘And I'm glad to see you keep your nails clean, boy. That's a good sign. Hands are the tools God gave us. We must respect His gift always. Now then, let's get down to the present troubles and see what we can see.'

The Duchess reached out to a sidetable and lifted from it a small stand on which stood a crystal ball. It was covered by a silk cloth which she took off. She made Smiler put the palms of his hands about it for a few moments. Then she signalled to him to take his hands away, gave the crystal a quick wipe with the silk and began to stare in it, saying, ‘Keep quiet. Don't interrupt, and shut your eyes.'

Obediently Smiler shut his eyes. Although he was not quite sure in his mind whether he really believed that the Duchess could read the future and the past, he decided that it would be bad manners to decide that she couldn't. So, he began to think about Laura in Scotland, and his father who had missed his ship at Montevideo, and about the day which seemed so long ago now when all his troubles had begun back in Bristol, of the afternoon when an old lady had been jostled off the pavement by a fair-haired boy and her handbag stolen. A policeman seeing the act had gone after the thief. Rounding a corner he had spotted the boy running down the pavement and had finally caught him, still holding the handbag.

The boy had been Smiler, but it was not Smiler who had taken the bag. He had been standing round the corner when a boy he knew – with fair hair like himself, one Johnny Pickering, and no friend of his – came rushing past him and had tossed him the handbag, shouting ‘ Hide it!' Smiler had been caught running away because he was running after Johnny Pickering to make him take the handbag back. But in the juvenile court the parents of Johnny Pickering had sworn that their son had been at home all afternoon and that Samuel Miles was lying to save himself. Smiler had been sent to an approved school but had quickly run away, determined to keep his freedom until his father came back on his boat, the
Kentucky Master
, and could sort things out for him. But Smiler's father had failed to rejoin his boat at Montevideo and the police in Scotland had caught up with Smiler. He had had to go on the run again which was when he had met Jimmy Jago …

Smiler heard the Duchess's voice coming to him, a dreamy far-away voice cutting into his thoughts.

‘I see water … nothing but water. No … now there's a boat. A small boat and a girl in it. She's brown-haired and holding – drat, the boat's gone … Now then, what's this? More water and another boat. But a big one this time and there's a lot of men all lying around in the sun on the deck and one of them's got something … Oh, yes – it's a mouth-organ, and he's playing to them–'

Smiler opened his eyes and said quickly, ‘That's my father. He plays the mouth-organ. Is he all right?'

The Duchess said nothing; she just stared at the crystal ball. Her dark brown eyes were fixed as though she were hypnotized, and her big, jolly face was slack and expressionless.

Conscious that he had disobeyed her orders, Smiler closed his eyes and kept silent. After a moment or two the Duchess began to speak again and her voice, now sounding far, far away, gave Smiler an eerie feeling.

‘… Everything's whirling, like coloured snowflakes … Birds, animals, people … Ah, there's a room, a big room, the ceiling so high it's lost in shadows, and a grand stairway … and oil-paintings of fine ladies and noble gentlemen … and suits of armour. There are people there, and holly and mistletoe hanging … The girl is there, and the man on the boat, and another man, tall and white-haired and bearded … And, yes, yes – you're there Samuel Miles … You're all together and there's happiness around you – Oh, no!' The Duchess's voice suddenly broke off. Then, her voice quite different, she went on, ‘ Blood … Oh, I don't want to see … suddenly such darkness over the bright morning sun … and there's a man running … running … running for his … No, no, I don't want to see it.'

The Duchess gave a sudden groan and stopped speaking. Smiler, scared, opened his eyes. The Duchess was leaning back in her chair, her hands over her eyes, her shoulders shaking.

Not knowing what to do, Smiler reached out and touched her and said. ‘Are you all right, ma'am?'

The Duchess dropped her hands from her face, gave herself a little shake, and then suddenly smiled.

‘I'm all right, boy. There's nothing to worry about. Sometimes the ball goes wild and mixes up the futures. You know the girl and the tall man with the beard?'

‘Yes, ma'am.'

‘And the man with the mouth-organ?'

‘That's my father.'

‘Then you need have no worry. Time is going to bring you all together. Whatever happens between now and then, there's that happiness waiting for you.'

Smiler considered this and, although he certainly hoped it was going to be true, he didn't see how anyone could ever really see into the future. He said, ‘You really know that from the crystal ball, ma'am?'

‘Of course, boy.'

‘But … well … can there be a magic like that? I mean –'

‘I know what you mean, boy. You can't understand how anyone can believe in magic?'

‘Well, only in a sort of a way, ma'am.'

The Duchess smiled. ‘Then you want to open your eyes, Samuel Miles, and see the magic right under everyone's noses every day of life. You live on a great ball called the earth that spins through space like a top and nobody falls off – that's magic. The sun rises and sets each day, and the seasons come and go – that's all magic. The swallows fly to Africa for the winter and then back here in the Spring – that's magic. But the greatest magic is life itself. The fact that you and every other living thing is alive is the greatest magic of all. Nobody knows how or when it happened except the Great One. What's more, if we can remember the past and live the present, what's so odd about some of us being able to look into the future? It's just a gift, like other people can make music, write poetry, or invent machines that take others to the moon. Magic, Samuel Miles. Every breath we take is part of magic. And my magic is to be able to see a little farther ahead than most other people, and so far as you are concerned you've been told that one day you, your father, that girl, and the tall white-haired man will all be together. Does that chase your worries away?'

‘Yes, ma'am, it does. But … well, what about the man that was running?'

The Duchess gave Smiler a steady look and then said evenly, ‘You don't have to worry about him. Just for a moment his future got crossed with yours. Just as telephone calls get mixed up sometimes.'

The Duchess took the silk cloth and draped it over the crystal ball. With a warm smile she said, ‘Right, Samuel Miles – now I want to hear all about yourself and your troubles. Take your time and start from the beginning.'

So Smiler told her everything about himself and of all his troubles; starting from the time when Johnny Pickering had come running around the corner and tossed the old lady's handbag to him, through all his adventures since he had run away from the approved school, right up to the moment that Jimmy Jago had picked him up on the road in Scotland.

When he had finished the Duchess said, ‘Well, you aren't the first that's come to this house with the police after them. Circus and Romany folk sometimes have to follow their own laws – and the police don't like that. But if you keep your fingers crossed and your eyes open you should have no trouble here. The local policeman is a friend of ours. You'd like to stay here, would you?'

‘Yes, please, ma'am.'

‘Well, the wages are small, the work hard, and the food good. And since, if you're going to begin something, there's no time like the present, I'll take you over to the Ancients because you'll be working under them.'

A bit diffidently, Smiler asked, ‘Who are the Ancients, ma'am? Are they men?'

‘Of course they are.'

‘And are they very old?'

The Duchess chuckled, her fat chins bobbing and her curls shaking. ‘They're both old – that's why they're called the Ancients. Bill and Bob Old. That's their name. And a word of warning – never play cards with them for money.'

1. See Flight of the Grey Goose.
   

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The Duchess took Smiler across the yard to one of the stone barns where he met Bob and Bill Old. They were twin brothers in their early fifties, small, sturdy-looking men with weather-brown, wrinkled faces, bright, mischievous-looking eyes and the perky, cheeky air of a couple of Jackdaws. So far as Smiler could see, there was no way of telling them apart except by the clothes they wore. Above his gum boots and corduroy trousers Bob wore a green sweater and on his head, cocked saucily over his iron-grey hair, was a green woollen bonnet with a white bob on the top. Bill's dress was the same, except that his sweater and bonnet were red. But after a few days Smiler realized that the clothes were no sure guide because they swopped clothes some days according to their fancy. They lived a bachelor life in a small cottage up the hill from the farm. Smiler never learned where they had come from or what they had done before they began to work for the Duchess, except that he could guess from their talk that they had both been travelling men and knew a great deal about circuses, fairs and gypsy life. This last he knew because when they didn't want him to know what they were saying they would talk in the Romany language that the Duchess and Jimmy sometimes used.