Page 71 of The Ringmaster’s Daughter

‘Where’s Kacper sleeping?’ Michel suddenly realised he had not seen him all day.

‘He’s got a cold so he’s sleeping in with Jean and Giordano. The monkey is driving Giordano crazy!’ Hugo said.

‘I wish I could have had my own caravan.’ Vassily lit his cigarette. ‘I would have liked that very much.’

‘Why didn’t you get one?’ Michel asked.

‘Giordano had some money ferreted away. Gave it to Werner. It was only supposed to be the women and Werner who got a house on wheels. Giordano is a precious soul – cannot and will not camp lest he ruin his clothes!’

Serge laughed. ‘I do like his clothes though. He annoys me, but the clothes – I always wanted to have nice clothes like that.’

Michel watched Serge as he spoke of clothes, shoes, a house with nice furniture. The alcohol had relaxed his features, so his jaw did not seem tense and the permanent crease between his eyebrows had disappeared.

‘I think one day, I will have all those things,’ Serge finished, and drank back some more génépy.

‘I had those things once.’ Hugo swayed a little. ‘But then I became poor – lost my job, my home, my wife…’ He burped.

‘But now you have us.’ Vassily patted his arm. ‘And all this!’ He opened his arms as if he had just conjured the barn from thin air.

‘Then I am a lucky man!’

‘Come now. Bed, no more of this talk.’ Serge stood, and Michel saw that the crease between his eyes was back, his jaw set once more.

‘Always the first to leave the party. Always the one to ruin the fun.’ Nonetheless, Hugo allowed Serge to help him up and lay him down on a blanket. He covered him like a baby then lay down, turning off the lamp so that Michel had to find a place to sleep in the gloom.

The troupe travelled inland for two more rain-filled days with no indication from Werner as to where they were heading.

‘I saw a sign not long ago that said Paris was three hundred miles away,’ Jean told Michel, as he rode next to the caravan.

‘You don’t think we are heading to Paris?’

‘Who knows? Can’t carry on like this much longer. I think Giordano will kill Gino if he has to sleep with him in there another night.’

‘How is Kacper?’

‘Better. He gets a cough easily – especially with this weather. Bisou is driving Giordano crazy too. We have him settled at the rear, but he thinks he is a dog and wants to sit on the bed.’

‘He wouldn’t be able to manage the distance if we walked him.’ Michel thought of Bisou’s stumpy legs.

‘I know. I don’t mind him. It’s just Giordano. Says his clothes are full of horse and monkey hair.’

Michel chuckled.

‘It’s not funny. It was at first, but now it’s tiresome. Giordano’s right – it’s like living in a zoo.’

‘I feel for Aramis.’ Michel looked to the small crate being pulled behind Werner’s caravan. ‘He’s not been let out of that thing for days.’

‘He’s sick, Michel. I doubt he would go out even if we let him.’

‘Sick?’

‘Has been for a while. Werner has tried his best – got him medicine when he could afford it. But he’s old and tired. It won’t be long now. The last of the wild animals gone.’

‘Apart from Gino.’

‘That’s if he survives Giordano.’ Jean smiled weakly.

Michel was surprised to see that he remembered the road on which they now travelled. The row of trees, the dip in the land from the rocky outcrop that jutted out over the small village like a welcoming sign. They were back in Vodable. And Michel’s heart soared as he thought of Lucien, of the dog Coquette. He almost felt as though he had come home.