The Winter Ground (34 page)

Up at the castle, Ina was one rosy, happy day nearer to the fulfilment of her dreams and Albert, looking on bewildered, was tense and miserable, all his bustle quite gone. He could not even summon his usual lecture when Ina patted the sofa beside her and bid me come and sit near the fire.

‘Oh, oh,’ he moaned, but Ina only rolled her eyes at him – or rather not at him but at me, about him, which was schoolgirlish and nasty and set an answering nastiness going in me.

‘My dear,’ I said in a low voice, once Alec and Albert were safely talking and could not overhear, ‘I’ve been unable to stop thinking about you and I hope you don’t mind me butting in, but it just occurs to me – the more since I see you are burning your boats here – I suppose you have had a definite proposal, haven’t you? A definite offer of marriage?’

Finally, Ina’s happy bubble was pricked and it vanished. She glared at me but I was unabashed for it was not sheer cruelty that made me say it, not just a quick desire to see her chastened as she sneered at her poor silly husband; the possibility really had begun to press upon me overnight as I thought things through. I was sure that Robin Laurie was equal to seducing Mrs Wilson away from her respectable home for a short dalliance and a swift drop, and I was a great deal less sure that sweet Ina would think of it.

‘Thank you for your concern,’ she said, ‘but I know what I’m doing.’

With a sinking inside, I took that to be a no.

‘Oh, dear,’ I said, far from diplomatically. ‘Are you sure?’

‘We’ll get around to it, but we are both a lot less bothered about such things than you are, or Albert is,’ she said, and I am sure that linking my name with his was designed to annoy me. ‘We have both thrown off the shackles. There really is more to life than that, Dandy.’

I could not have been more convinced that she was wrong; Robin Laurie keeping her in the background all these years while his brother held the reins showed a great deal of concern for the mundane matters of wealth, name and property, and although it was true that his set was a rackety one I wondered if Ina realised how much more the lapsed ladies in it were made to suffer than the rakes. Well, I had voiced my worries and I was not so keen to be lectured any further about the great wondrous expanse of life beyond my tawdry reckoning that I was going to press the matter.

‘And what are your plans for tomorrow?’ I said in a more normal, carrying voice. ‘Do you have guests for Christmas Day?’

‘We
never
have guests,’ she replied and a dip in the conversation of the men told me that she had been overheard. ‘I’m going down to the winter ground,’ she went on. ‘They’re having a roasted pig and fireworks.’

‘My love, my love,’ said Albert Wilson, ‘I implore you. You are not yourself, dearest, please let me call for the doctor.’

‘I have never been so well in years, Albert,’ said Ina. ‘I have never been so well in my life before.’

Alec got to his feet and cleared his throat.

‘Dr Walker can perhaps prescribe you something calming,’ said Albert. ‘Just until after the New Year and then maybe a little holiday? The seaside?’

‘In January?’ said Ina.

I too stood up then and began to rebutton my coat, which I had not the chance to remove.

‘Perhaps we’ll just go straight on down to the ground,’ I said.

‘Yes!’ Alec exclaimed. ‘Splendid idea, Dandy.’ We both began to move, with a show of casualness that we did not feel, towards the door.

‘Unless by “seaside” you mean that sanatorium again,’ Ina was saying.

‘Redroofs is a rest-hotel,’ Albert answered, ‘and it’s always done you such good before. Your nerves, dear …’

We closed the door behind us and crept away down the marble stairs to the front door and the peace of the circus instead.

We were not, however, in luck; very far from it. Pa Cooke, evidently having heard the motor car, came striding out of the performing tent in his ringmaster’s coat and britches.

‘Looking forward to the show?’ he asked, slapping his whip against his boots. All around the ground, heads were popping out of doors and faces appearing at windows. Tiny and Andrew were the first to emerge fully, coming out of their wagons in their bright suits and red shoes, already with their faces white and with the gaily checked bowlers on their heads above the red wool of their wigs. Behind them from her wagon came Topsy, in crisscrossed tights and with her hair piled high on her head and stuck with feathers, but wrapped in a wool cloak and with galoshes on over her slippers.

‘Should be a good one,’ said Pa. ‘Greatest show on earth, as they say.’

Now Ma Cooke descended the steps of her wagon and came over to us, satin skirts swishing and gold earrings glinting and jouncing at every step.

‘Cooke’s Family Circus bouncing back bigger and better than ever,’ said Pa with his arms spread wide.

Charlie, he too in his wig and make-up, had come out and was staring at his brother, his expression impossible to read behind the enormous painted grin and red-circled cheeks.

‘So come on with you,’ cried Pa. He wheeled round and glared at them all. ‘Look lively.’

Zoya and Kolya Prebrezhensky were here now, wrapped in cloaks like Topsy and looking strange and startled with their black and white make-up gleaming in the darkness.

‘The show goes on,’ Pa Cooke shouted, whirling his whip around himself.

Bill Wolf joined us, standing in his leopard print costume and his long leather boots. He looked a perfect savage with his hair deliberately knotted and teased until it stood out from his head in a tangle.

It was Andrew Merryman, of all people, who spoke up at last.

‘No thanks to you,’ he said.

There was a moment of silence while everyone stared at Pa, waiting.

‘What’s that, boy?’ Pa’s voice was light and easy, more terrible than if he had bellowed it. No one said a word. ‘Speak up,’ said Pa again, and now his voice was shaking. ‘I said,
speak
!’ He cracked his whip and it sounded like a gunshot. I flinched and Alec did but the others stood their ground.

‘You’re killing this circus off, one act at a time,’ Andrew said softly.

I grasped Alec’s arm but said nothing.

‘That’s right,’ said Bill. ‘Like my adagio. Where was the harm in that and you put your foot down and said no.’

‘Who wurr you going to work up an adagio with?’ Ma asked. I stared at her. Why was she making this chit-chat after what we had just heard?

‘With Anastasia,’ said Bill. ‘But
he
said no, like the fool he’s turned into.’

‘Now here,’ Ma scolded him. ‘I won’t have him spoken to like that.’

‘I don’t need your pity, Poll Cooke,’ said Pa. ‘You save it for them as wants it.’

‘You tell him he don’t need an act?’ said Zoya, to Pa. ‘How is this fair? And you.’ She turned to Bill. ‘Should be a good example to your children, like Kolya and me. Should work, should show them what circus is.’

‘No, you’re missing the point, Zoy,’ said Tiny. ‘Bill works for his place, don’t you? He sits up for Pa like a little dog begging scraps. Keeps his nose clean.’ He was mocking Bill now, his hands held like paws under his chin and his tongue out as he panted and wagged his behind. Bill took a step towards the little man.

‘Don’t you dare!’ said Topsy, stepping between them. ‘Size of you, you big bully.’

‘I can fight my own damn battles,’ said Tiny, shoving her aside. ‘I’m a man, not a pet lamb.’

‘Man?’ said Topsy. ‘You’re worse than a schoolboy with all your games.’

‘Is that where
you
learned them?’ said Andrew. ‘Helps a man to be treated like one, you know.’

Topsy rounded on him.

‘Oh, you’re so good at telling us all how to behave, ain’t you,
Andrew Merryman
. Seems to me you need to decide whether you’re one of us or not before you start throwing your mouth around.’

Andrew’s face fell and he turned to Tiny.

‘What have you been saying?’ he demanded.

‘Don’t start on him,’ Topsy said. ‘I see plenty for myself. I see you sneaking around like we’re not good enough for you. I see plenty of sneaking around folks might wish I didn’t.’

‘You mind your mouth, Topsy,’ Charlie said.

‘Scared she’s seen you where you shouldn’t have been, eh?’ said Pa. ‘My own brother!’

‘
You
can talk about sneaking around,’ said Bill to Tam.

‘What?’ said Ma. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean the horses,’ said Bill. ‘No, I’ve had it, Tam. I’m done with it. Ana was right. He sold Bisou. Roped me in to stand there and look threatening and get him a good price. And I couldn’t refuse, could I? It’s like Tiny says. A dog begging for scraps.’

‘But why?’ said Ma, looking at her husband. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘To keep Ana down of course,’ said Charlie. ‘To stop her looking like what she was. The star of the show. He hasn’t got the sense he was born with.’

‘Don’t you talk to me like that,’ Pa shouted at him.

‘But why you shoot Harlequin then?’ said Zoya. She had been gabbling furiously to her husband, relaying the words as fast as they came.

‘Aye, the poor maid was dead by then,’ said Bill. ‘What was that about?’

‘He didn’t,’ I said.

‘Hold your tongue!’ thundered Pa, but I went on just as loud if a little less steadily.

‘He’s at my house. Pa just wanted him out of the way.’

‘What you up to?’ said Ma, staring at him hard.

‘Don’t you see?’ Andrew gave a heartless laugh. ‘Can’t you see it? A circus isn’t a circus without animals and look around … what are the only animals left? Pa’s prads.’

‘Tint just the beasts,’ said Tiny. ‘He’s holding us back, holding us down. Me, Andrew, Bill and Ana. Topsy’s the only one he’s any time for and only because she won’t say boo.’

‘Keep your nose out of my business,’ said Topsy. ‘It’s none of yours. You’ve made that quite clear.’

‘Quiet,’ Pa shouted at the top of his voice. ‘Quiet, the lot of you or you’ll all be out on your backsides.’ He looked around them. ‘Every. Last. One. I’m the boss of this circus.’

‘And the mess you’re making of it now,’ said Charlie, ‘the things that are coming out now, I think it’s time for a change.’

‘Aye,’ said Ma. ‘Me too.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ said Pa, wheeling round to face her. ‘Don’t you dare stand there and say that.’

‘You never had a hope!’ Charlie shouted at him. ‘You couldn’t have beaten her. You couldn’t keep her down. She would have been the boss of you all, in’t that right, Ma?’

‘You!’ said Kolya in a thunderous voice, making us all jump. He was glowering at Charlie. ‘You trick us. You make fool.’ Zoya was nodding feverishly fast at his side and she began to shout too.

‘You tell that bad, evil girl she going to be the queen of me?’ she said, jabbing her finger at Ma.

‘But that’s the last thing she should have heard, Charlie, you old fool,’ said Andrew. ‘Her fantasies were bad enough without you giving her more.’

‘Don’t speak like that about her and her not cold,’ bellowed Charlie, wheeling round on him. ‘Show some respect.’

‘You dare to talk about respect,’ Pa shouted, rushing at him. ‘My own brother.’ He took hold of Charlie by his lapel and shook him. ‘After what you’ve done,’ he spat. He swung his fist back and Charlie braced himself for the blow, staring Pa down, fearless.

Just then we heard the noise of the Wilsons’ motor car rumbling down the track towards the ground. Pa dropped his hand to his side.

‘Time for the show,’ he said.

Charlie left first, Zoya and Kolya each giving him a look of venom as he passed them. Then they followed. Topsy watched them leave with tears standing in her eyes and then turned to Tiny and stared hard at him. He spat on the ground, not at Topsy exactly but too near her for politeness, and went trotting after Andrew who, for once, did not check his stride to match his friend’s at all. Bill stood looking at Pa for a long time, both with their chests heaving, then he gave a scornful laugh and turned on his heel, Lally scurrying after him. Pa’s face was bleak, his eyes dead, not even flickering as I crossed in front of him.

Alec and I took our seats in stunned silence.

‘What was all that about?’ he asked me. ‘Do you know?’

‘Not all of it,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong between Ma and Pa and where Charlie comes into it.’

‘It’s pretty serious whatever it is,’ said Alec, ‘to fire up such passion.
What
?’

I had grabbed his arm. An idea had struck me, as irresistible as it was unbelievable.

‘Passion!’ I said. ‘Exactly! We wondered what manner of cahoots Ma and Charlie were in. We wondered why Pa was so worried about being shoved out of his place. And Charlie’s so-called wooing of Topsy was, as Tiny suspected, just a blind. Well, there it is.’

‘There what is?’ Alec said.

‘Ma and Charlie Cooke,’ I told him.

‘You’re joking!’ said Alec. ‘She’s married. She’s sixty. You think Pa’s jealous of his own brother and his own wife?’

I was married and almost forty and Hugh was not a man to stride about with a whip and I should rather have died than point any of that out, but I still thought I had hit on something.

‘And what does it have to do with Anastasia?’ said Alec.

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘Oh, God. Speaking of love’s young dream.’

Alec looked behind himself and groaned. Ina Wilson was picking her way along the row to sit beside us.

‘Albert isn’t coming,’ she said, ‘what with one thing and another he’s not in a very festive mood.’

I rather thought it would not be a very festive show and Albert Wilson could have joined us without any threat to his low spirits.

At the side of the ring, Sallie Wolf wound up the Panatrope, Inya and Alya popped out in their spangled suits and opened up the ring doors, Pa strode into the middle and cracked his whip, then with a cacophony of stamping and snorting the black liberty horses began to fill the ring.

Strangely, Ana and her rosy-back were hardly missed at all; the ring was as dazzling and bursting with action as ever. Andrew, not needed to hold hoops and garters now, was weaving amongst the horses on his unicycle. Bill Wolf was carrying Tiny, who leapt around until it seemed the giant man was almost juggling the little one. Every so often the dwarf would fall, timing each drop with a cymbal crash, and would tumble around amongst the horses’ hooves until Andrew, weaving on his cycle, scooped him to safety again. Kolya was tossing Alya high in the air and catching her on his feet, while she rolled like an otter. Meanwhile Inya and Tommy Wolf cartwheeled around the edge of the ring and Charlie juggled enormous silver hoops, Topsy catching them and setting them spinning around her sinuous body until she had seven, from her neck to her knees, so fast they began to blur.