Free A Mother's Wish by Dilly Court Page A

bacon fat. ‘Eat up, Effie. You could do with a bit more meat on your bones.’ She stuck a fork in the fried bread and passed it to Effie. ‘Get that down you and then you can help me unpack a box of fairings and set them out on me stall.’
    With her mouth filled with bacon, Effie was not in a position to argue and she felt obliged to repay Leah’s generosity. By the time she could speak Leah had wandered off to speak to a tall man with a bare chest that rippled with muscles as he performed a series of exercises with much jumping and swinging of his arms. Effie doubted whether he had much breath left to answer the questions that Leah appeared to be putting to him, but eventually he stopped leaping about and stood with his head bowed as he paid attention to her, all the while mopping the sweat from his torso with a none-too-clean towel. Effie turned her head to look for Georgie, not liking to take her eyes off him for more than a few moments, but he was still larking around with the other children and a couple of mongrel puppies. Their shouts and laughter echoed round the encampment together with the happy yapping of the small dogs. There had been little to laugh at on the
Margaret
and this was the first time that Georgie had been able to play with children of his own age. She did not want to spoil his fun.
    She finished her food, washing it down with a cup of strong, sweet tea. She was immensely grateful to Leah but she knew that she could not stay here for long. She must renew her search for Tom. She would tell Leah themoment she had finished speaking to the muscular gentleman, who wore only a pair of ankle-length trouser drawers which left little of his manly shape to the imagination. Effie averted her gaze quickly, hoping that no one had noticed that she was staring at the extraordinary fellow, whose body seemed to bulge in most unexpected places. She concentrated her attention on the children, smiling at their obvious enjoyment of the game, which looked rather rough and tumble, but Georgie did not seem to mind. She was so engrossed in their play that she jumped at the sound of Leah’s voice calling her name. Effie looked round and saw her new friend striding across the springy turf towards her. The muscular man had picked up a set of dumb-bells and was striking poses to an imaginary audience while the rest of the camp seemed to ignore him.
    ‘Who is he?’ Effie asked, when Leah drew close enough for her to question without raising her voice.
    ‘Him?’ Leah shrugged her shoulders with a dismissive snort. ‘Thinks he’s somebody, but he’s not. Calls himself the Great Arnoldo but his real name is Arnold Hicks and he comes from Hoxton. He’s the strong man act and the punters are impressed, but it’s all show. He’s afraid of his own shadow.’
    ‘Oh!’ Effie digested this piece of informationin silence, staring at Arnoldo and frowning. He looked every inch a man, but Leah was clearly unimpressed. ‘Don’t you like him then? You were talking to him for ages.’
    ‘He owns two vans, his and the one that was used by the two-headed lady before she run off with the lizard man. Anyway, it gave me an idea which I’ll put to our head man, Frank senior, when I’ve got a moment, but I’ll not say any more for the time being.’
    Effie was too concerned about the fate of the odd couple to take much notice of Leah’s mysterious pronouncement. ‘Did she really have two heads and was he really a lizard?’
    Leah gave her a pitying look. ‘Of course she didn’t have two heads, one was stuck on, and he was only half lizard, all scaly and horrible. I dunno what the attraction was there.’
    ‘At least they have each other,’ Effie said, sighing.
    ‘Forget them; we’ve got work to do. The punters will be arriving as soon as they’ve done their duty and been to church.’
    Effie had quite forgotten that it was Sunday, but now as if to confirm Leah’s statement church bells began to chime, their differing tones