Free Olivia's Enchanted Summer by Lyn Gardner Page A

that had crept into their relationship felt like a tiny drop of poison polluting a clear blue lake. She knew she had to ask him straight.
    â€œDad,” she said slowly, “you don’t have any other children, do you, besides Eel and me?”
    For a second, Jack just stared at her, a mixture of astonishment and puzzlement in his eyes, and then he threw back his head and roared with laughter.
    â€œWhat on earth made you ask that?” he said. “No, Liv, as far as I’m aware I have no other children. You and Eel are quite enough.”
    Jack stopped laughing when he saw something was still troubling his daughter, but at that moment Georgia ran up and said that the circus-skills workshop was about to start and they were needed immediately.
    Jack stood up and put out his hand to Olivia. “Come on, partner, let’s go teach some tightrope walking.”

Chapter Nine
    â€œThis is such fun!” said Georgia, chasing after yet another ball that Becky, the café owner’s daughter, had dropped. Pablo and Will were teaching her group to juggle, and Georgia had dropped almost as many balls as Becky. But everyone was enjoying themselves.
    Pablo had planned the session really well, aiming to make sure that all the children left the workshop feeling that they had achieved something. The Swans had started the session with an impressive skipping demonstration, showing off their fabulous footwork from years of dance training. Kylie and Eel could skip and tap dance at the same time, which had attracted admiring “Oohs” and “Aahs” from the watching children. Although some of the localboys had initially complained that skipping was for girls, they had soon joined in when Kasha and his mate, Jazz, showed how fast and hard they could skip.
    It was a clever move on Pablo’s part. Everybody can skip a bit so the children quickly made progress and by the end everyone had a new trick they could show off in the playground. Later, he planned to show them how to build the first couple of layers of a castell , the human towers that hailed from the Catalan region of Spain.
    Now, under the watchful eye of Alicia, Eel was teaching a small group of girls how to do a perfect cartwheel and Pablo was teaching simple juggling. At one side of the ring, Jack and Olivia were setting up a wire just centimetres off the ground so those who wanted to could get a taste of tightrope walking. As she was securing the wire at one end, Olivia heard a little bark. She turned around to find the collie dog, wagging its tail and panting happily.
    â€œHello, boy,” she said, ruffling the fur on his head. “Do you want to learn circus skills?” He raised a paw to her and she shook it, laughing. The dog licked her hand. Olivia glanced up, andsaw the two sisters sitting on the side of the ring. She was still feeling wary of the younger girl but she knew it was important to make everyone feel welcome. It was part of the Swans’ training. Besides, she was curious about the sisters. So she gave both girls a little smile and wave. The elder girl waved back, but the younger one scowled and just went back to the intense conversation she was having with her sister. Olivia gritted her teeth and ran over to them anyway.
    As she did so, she caught a snatch of what the girl was saying. “It’s perfect, Tati. It’s so lucky you got one of those leaflets. He’d never think of looking for us here. Not with a bunch of amateur circus kids…” There was a scorn in her voice that made Olivia prickle with annoyance. What did she know about the circus, anyway?
    The older sister looked anxious. “But what if he finds out? It could bring down trouble on them all…” She broke off when she realised that Olivia was hovering nearby.
    Olivia took a deep breath and tried to be nice. “Hi, I’m Olivia,” she said, and she added shyly: “I remember you from the Mound. The magic