Olivia's Enchanted Summer Read online

  “Do you want to play rounders?” asked Will. “You can be in my team, as long as we can have Harry as well.”

  Tati screwed up her nose, but Evie took her sister by the hand and pulled her towards the game. Olivia, who was kneeling down unseen beside her tent doing up her trainers, heard her say: “Come on, Tati, show willing. We want them to like us and trust us, remember?”

  “You’re one to talk, Evie. You’ve been so rude to Livy. You even booed her!”

  “We got off on the wrong foot at that magic show, that’s all,” said Evie, a little stiffly. “But the important thing is that Jack and the grown-ups like us. They’re the ones who will be able to help and protect us. Olivia doesn’t know that I booed her, and I never would have done it if I’d thought at the time what a good cover the Swan Circus would be for us. I’d have been nicer than apple pie and even licked her shoes for her.”

  “I think she’s rather lovely, and she’s talented, too,” said Tati. “You’ve got a lot in common. Maybe you could still be friends?”

  Evie sniffed. “She’s all right, I s’pose, and maybe in other circumstances we might have been friends. But it’s obvious she can’t stand me, so we should just stay out of her way and play the sympathy card as much as we can with everyone else.”

  “Oh, Evie,” said Tati, suddenly tearful. “Maybe we should just tell them the truth? They’re nice people. Even that scary Miss Swan. I’m sure they would help us.”

  “We’ve already agreed, it’s too risky,” said Evie fiercely. “Come on, stop crying, and let’s go and play.”

  After they’d gone, Olivia stood up, a puzzled expression on her face. Why was Evie so keen for the Swans to trust her and what did she mean about the Swan Circus being a good cover? Why did they need help?

  Olivia joined Georgia and Aeysha sitting under a tree eating strawberry laces. They watched the rounders game for a bit. Will’s team was winning by miles because Harry kept on making spectacular catches. Evie was pretty good too, running out Kylie Morris with a casual swagger that brought admiring glances and cheers.

  “Not just great on the high wire,” said Aeysha, “but also pretty good at rounders, too. Is there no end to that girl’s talents!”

  “If she’s so great, what’s she doing living in a garage?” asked Olivia shortly.

  Aeysha looked at her. “Are you quite certain about what you saw in the garage?” she asked cautiously.

  “Certain,” said Olivia. She watched Evie run to home base to the cheers of the others. “I don’t trust those Purcarete sisters. Why are they trying to worm their way into the Swan Circus? What do they want?”

  “I’m not sure they want anything,” laughed Aeysha. “They are circus people, it’s not surprising that they were attracted to a circus. It must be like home from home for them.” She gazed hard at Olivia. “I don’t want to upset you, Livy, but are you sure you’re not just a little bit jealous of Evie? It would be natural if you were. You’ve never had any competition at the Swan. The rest of us, we’re used to being surrounded by other kids who are as good or better than we are. We measure our talent against other people’s every day. But you don’t, and then this strange girl waltzes in and suddenly you’ve got a rival. I know I would probably be madly jealous in your shoes. Particularly as Jack does seem very impressed with her.”

  Olivia bristled. With her usual clarity, plain-talking Aeysha had touched a raw nerve and it hurt. Olivia didn’t want to be seen as a jealous person.

  “Of course not,” she said hotly. ‘Why would I be jealous of Evie Purcarete? She’s rude and she’s a show-off. But I don’t trust her. It’s just too much of a coincidence, her and her sister turning up at the Swan Circus.”

  “You’ve got to admit, Aeysha, that Livy has a point there,” said Georgia. “Don’t you think it’s fishy that they are living in the garage where 13 Jekyll Street should be and where we should have been staying, and then they turn up at the Swan Circus, too?”

  Aeysha sighed. “Coincidences do happen. I just think that you shouldn’t assume they’re untrustworthy when you have no evidence.”

  “But there’s more,” said Olivia triumphantly. “I overheard them talking about someone called Mitch, and Mitch is the name of the man who swindled Jack! That can’t be just a coincidence, surely?”

  “Oooh, that does sound odd,” said Georgia. “There’s definitely something mysterious going on. We should investigate.”

  “Actually, Livy,” said Aeysha, very seriously, “if you really think Evie and Tati know something about the scam, then you should tell Jack immediately.” She stood up. “I’ve got to go and help Lydia with the cooking now, but we should talk about this more later. It’s important.”

  Olivia bit her lip as she watched Aeysha walk away. She knew that her friend was right. She’d had every intention of telling Jack what she’d overheard as soon as possible after the circus-skills workshop, but then after Evie’s display and what Jack had said about her prowess at walking the wire, she had felt so hurt and angry that she’d been avoiding her father as much as she could.

  “Aeysha’s right, you know. You should tell Jack,” said Georgia tentatively.

  “I will tell him,” said Olivia slowly. “But I want to wait until I’ve got some evidence. Otherwise he might just think I’m jeaous of Evie, too, and I’m trying to get her into trouble. If I have proof, he’ll realise that he should never have been taken in by her in the first place and be grateful that I was the only one who saw through her.” She looked at Georgia. “You can help me. We should keep our eyes and ears open for any more clues; do a bit of investigating if we get the chance.”

  “Like real detectives!” said Georgia excitedly.

  “Exactly,” said Olivia.

  “Count me in,” said Georgia, with a grin.

  A good while later, everyone was sitting chatting and chilling out around the campfire. They had just finished a supper of jacket potatoes cooked in the campfire embers, which Lydia had served with grated cheese, tuna mayonnaise and a big green salad.

  “Does anyone want more apricot tart? There’s still a couple of pieces left,” she asked. “Tati? Evie?” The girls shook their heads and their damp, heavy hair swished. They had already had two pieces each. Jack noticed that they had both eaten ravenously, as if they hadn’t had a good meal for days. He was pleased that he and Alicia had invited them back to the campsite for supper.

  The Swans didn’t really need a campfire, the weather was still balmy, but there was something so magical about gathering around it as dusk fell. Only Pablo and Alicia were absent. They had left immediately after supper. Pablo was driving Alicia back to her B&B because she wasn’t feeling well. Her arthritis was really bad, and Olivia knew from past experience that her gran might be confined to bed for the next few days.

  The Swans were all eager to find out more about Evie and Tati. Initially, the girls seemed quite reluctant to say much and they had to really push them to open up, but after some prompting they started to talk about their dad and what had happened after he’d died.

  “Mum, Evie and I stayed with our aunt Zsa Zsa in Romania for a while, but then she got an animal-training job with a touring circus and left to travel across Europe, and Mum said it was time we moved on too. She had never really settled in Romania and there was nothing to keep us there,” said Tati. “We joined a circus too, but then Mum got sick. She was tired all the time. She couldn’t do her contortionist act any more.”

  “I think she knew something was seriously wrong,” said Evie fiercely. “She knew she had to think about Tati and me if the worst happened. So we left the circus and came to Scotland, where she’d grown up.”

  “Wouldn’t the circus have looked after you and Tati, even if your mum couldn’t work?” said Olivia.

  “Not the kind of circus we were with. They were commercial ventures, not the family-run outfit like your dad’s, Livy. That old way of circus life is dying out,” said Tati.

  Jack nodded sadly. “T
hat’s true. Lots of circuses are now big businesses, not a way of life. Artists get contracted for a season or two and then they move on to the next job.”

  “What happened when you came back?” asked Aeysha.

  “We didn’t have much money,” said Tati. “We moved around for a bit. We were in the Highlands for a while in a commune. That’s where Evie got Harry, when he was just a puppy. Then we went to Aberdeen for a bit, then Glasgow. Mum was getting worse and that’s when she brought us here to Edinburgh, where she had lived as a girl. Her parents died in a fire when she was little and Mum was sent to live with her aunt, Rhona, in a little flat in Morningside.”

  When Tati mentioned the fire, Olivia nudged Georgia and whispered, “See, I was right! There is a solid connection between them and 13 Jekyll Street. Cora must have been the little girl who survived the fire that woman with the poodle told Dad and me about.”

  Evie and Tati were so bound up with their story that they didn’t notice Olivia whispering. “Mum always said that Aunt Rhona was kind but she didn’t understand children as she’d never had any of her own,” continued Tati. “She packed Mum off to boarding school as soon as she could. She and Mum had just about kept in touch over the years, but it wasn’t a close relationship. But Mum was desperate and hoped Aunt Rhona would help us.”

  “Only it turned out that Aunt Rhona had died just a couple of weeks before we arrived in Edinburgh,” said Evie. “Which was awful for her but awful for us, too. So we stayed in a horrid fleapit B&B. The money was running out. Mum was getting worse by the day; a few weeks later she had to go into hospital. I think she knew she’d never come out again.”

  There was a short, charged silence, and then the Swans started murmuring how sorry they were. Aeysha squeezed Tati’s hand.

  “You poor things. Who’s been looking after you?” asked Eel, with wide-eyed sympathy.

  Olivia noticed that Evie shot her sister a warning glance, and quickly said, “We don’t need looking after. Tati is eighteen. She is grown up.” Tati said nothing. She didn’t look grown up, thought Olivia. Certainly not eighteen.

  “But surely you must have some relatives to stay with, however distant?” insisted Aeysha, thinking of her own large clan.

  A strange look crossed Evie’s face and then she said neutrally, “We have an uncle.”

  Olivia shot Georgia a look. So the man in the graveyard had been telling the truth! He was the girls’ uncle.

  “Oh, you are lucky,” said Eel. “I haven’t got any aunts or uncles.”

  “Come on, Swans,” said Jack hastily, as if changing the subject. “Lydia and I need some help clearing up.”

  “Actually,” said Evie, “it would be good if Tati and I could camp with you all for a while. It would be more convenient for everyone now we are part of the Swan Circus, and you have a spare tent.”

  Olivia glanced at Georgia again and then she said loudly, “We’re only camping because some despicable person took all Dad’s money and didn’t come up with the house he’d promised to rent to us. It was an Internet fraud.” Olivia looked directly at Evie as she said this.

  “Oh! It was yo—” said Tati, putting her hand to her mouth in surprise and shock. She glanced at her sister and Olivia saw Evie shift her foot against Tati’s leg as if to silence her.

  “Oh, Jack, what a terrible thing to happen,” said Evie smoothly, but Olivia was certain she detected something guilty in her manner.

  “Anyway, why on earth would you want to camp when you’ve got your uncle’s nice warm house to stay in?” Olivia said it so sharply that Jack looked at her, surprised.

  “Evie, Tati,” he said, “you’re more than welcome to stay with us at the campsite. But you need to get your uncle’s permission. Perhaps I should ring him? Camping’s not very comfortable and it can get rather cold at night, but we’d love to have you stay with us, wouldn’t we, Swans?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “It would be brilliant!” said Eel. “Emmy and I are planning a midnight feast on Thursday night.”

  “I didn’t hear that,” said Jack.

  “Me neither,” said Lydia with a smile.

  “Ace!” said Evie. She turned to Jack. “My uncle will be happy for us to stay with you; he’ll be pleased to have us off his hands.” She glanced at Olivia, looking at her from under her eyelashes with what Olivia interpreted as a look of triumph.

  At that moment, Pablo arrived back. “What took you so long?” Jack asked him.

  “I got caught up in a police operation. Caused a big traffic jam,” said Pablo. “Apparently, there was another one of these robberies this afternoon, but the jewel thieves got away.” He looked hard at all the Swans, a smile twitching on his lips. “I hope everyone can account for where they were around five o’clock this afternoon?”

  Everyone laughed, but Tati blurted out: “It was nothing to do with us…” She turned beetroot-red and tailed off. Everyone looked at her, a little surprised by her over-reaction.

  Pablo laughed. “I was only joking, Tati, don’t panic! Ooh, apricot tart! I’ll have those last slices if no one else wants them…”

  Later, when Olivia, Georgia and Aeysha were lying in their sleeping bags in their tent, Olivia suddenly piped up: “Didn’t you think it was odd how Tati reacted when Pablo mentioned the robbery?”

  Aeysha sighed. “She just didn’t realise it was a joke. It’s obvious that Evie and Tati aren’t jewel thieves. They’re just a couple of kids.”

  “They were gone all afternoon, too,” said Georgia excitedly.

  “Remember the sapphires Evie had at the boy’s magic show? Where did she get them from?” asked Olivia. “If they’re connected with the housing scam, maybe Evie and Tati have got connections with the criminal underworld too?”

  “Oh, come on, Livy!” cried Aeysha. “We don’t know that they’ve got anything to do with the scam. The fact they’re living in the garages isn’t proof. And if you really want to know about the sapphires, why don’t you just ask them? I’m sure they’ve got nothing to hide.”

  “But what about the Mitch coincidence?” pressed Georgia.

  “It’s just that, a coincidence! Look,” said Aeysha wearily, “if you two want to cook up some kind of mystery, don’t mind me. Go ahead. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. And,” at this point she propped herself up on her elbow and looked hard at Olivia, “maybe you should think about why you’re so eager to prove that Evie and Tati are not to be trusted.”

  Olivia blushed. She felt annoyed with Aeysha, but also a bit ashamed of herself. She had never been the kind of person to hold a grudge but Evie just seemed to rub her up the wrong way.

  “We just want to get to the truth, don’t we, Georgia?” she said defensively.

  But Georgia hated any kind of disagreement between the friends and she swiftly changed the subject.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Eel tugged at Olivia’s sleeve. “Look!” she squealed in delight. “It’s the White Rabbit. Let’s follow him.” The Swans were at a promenade version of Alice in Wonderland, one of the hottest shows at the Fringe. The show’s director, Allegra Featherstone, was a former pupil of Alicia’s and had offered the Swans free tickets.

  It was unlike any show they had ever seen before. For a start, there was no stage and no auditorium with seats in neat rows. Instead the show was taking place in an old warehouse and the audience was free to wander around all four floors. There was a room where the Mad Hatter’s tea party was taking place, another where a caterpillar sat on a toadstool smoking a hookah, and an entire space lined with tiny bottles full of jewelled liquids. Each of the bottles were labelled “Drink Me” and if you were brave enough to do so you were ushered into a hall of mirrors that reflected back big and small versions of yourself.

  There was another room laid out like a nursery with lots of cots, and in each of these was a little swaddled felt piglet in a baby’s bonnet with a dummy stuffed in its mouth. As they wandered around the building they kept getting distant glim
pses of Alices of differing sizes or an angry, red-faced cook with a rolling pin. At one point, they turned down a corridor and came face to face with a projected image of a giant striped cat that kept disappearing from the screen until only its smile was visible.

  “It’s the Cheshire Cat!” said Aeysha delightedly.

  It was a totally magical and topsy-turvy ninety minutes. “It’s as if we really have fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland,” sighed Georgia, her eyes shining with excitement.

  “It’s like being in a completely parallel universe,” said Aeysha. “I can’t believe that outside there’s a real Edinburgh. This feels realer than real. Sitting in a normal theatre is going to seem so dull after this.”

  “Not if there’s dancing,” said Eel solemnly. “Dancing is never dull.”

  “Gran said it’s called immersive theatre,” said Olivia. “She told me that Allegra Featherstone was always an oddball even when she was at the Swan. She once staged The Little Mermaid in the bath in Alicia’s flat for an audience of two at a time, and she transformed that little cupboard in the girls’ cloakroom into a jewelled cave for her version of Aladdin.”

  “I’ve heard Sebastian Shaw talk about that in class,” said Georgia. “He said that for years after there were rumours that some people went into the cupboard and never came out again.”

  “I’m going to check inside when we get back to school,” said Eel seriously.

  “I think he was probably joking, Eel,” said Aeysha, with a smile. The White Rabbit suddenly appeared again, scurrying along the corridor, looking worried and murmuring: “I’m late, I’m late.” He started herding them towards another room and on the way they were passed by a furtive Knave of Spades carrying a plate of jam tarts. He offered them to the children. As they licked the jam from the pastry, the girls found a room that had been laid out like a croquet lawn. A game was underway. Georgia waved at Will and Connor, who were over on the other side of the lawn, and Olivia found herself standing next to Evie and Tati.