The Ladies of the Secret Circus Constance Sayers (e books free to read .TXT) š
- Author: Constance Sayers
Book online Ā«The Ladies of the Secret Circus Constance Sayers (e books free to read .TXT) šĀ». Author Constance Sayers
āWell, try.ā
Lara studied a leaf with a ladybug on it.
The bush rattled from Audrey picking on the other side of it. Then there was a pause. The berry bushes were still, her mother thinking.
āWhen I was six, I first saw him in the field. He was with a womanāyour mother, Margot. They were talking about whether I was āthe one.ā Sylvie told me never to tell anyone.ā
āYou should have told me,ā said Audrey.
āI know I should have, but SylvieāCecileāwhoeverāspecifically said to tell no one. Also, the day you showed me the spell, I should have told you that heād been at the gala the night before.ā
āAt the Rivoli gala?ā Audrey shrieked, pulling the bushes back so she could see Laraās face.
āHe said I needed to come to Paris. If I did, heād give me answers about Todd.ā
Audrey laughed and shook her head. āOf course, heād never do anything without something in return. I told you that I wanted no part of him. I wanted us to be normal.ā
āHe called you a clever little minx.ā
āDid he, now?ā
Lara could hear the contempt in her voice. āHe honored his part of the deal,ā she said, plucking at clumps of ripe indigo berries, the smell of them wafting up as she pulled them from their stems. After years of doing this, she was fast. Lara tossed the berries into her bucket and pulled two lawn chairs down from the tractor and unfolded them. āItās just you and me out here, so can I ask you something?ā To be safe, Lara had decided to keep the fact that Cecile was hidden inside her a secret from everyone. āDid you read Cecileās diaries?ā
āI did.ā
āAt the circus I found out that EsmĆ© likes to kill the men we loveā¦ a sort of revenge against Cecile. She started with Ćmile. Then there was Desmond, Peter, and Todd.ā Lara bent down to pick at a blade of grass and let the last name hang in the air. She didnāt want to be looking at her mother when she asked her what she knew she had to ask. āDo you want to tell me something about Peter Beaumont?ā
Lara gazed over to find her mother staring up at the sun coming down through the trees. The cicadasāthe soundtrack of a Virginia summerāwere fading in and out. Audrey looked to be absorbing everythingāthe story, the sunālike it was precious. It was such a serene setting, the green hills lush and ripe.
āHe and Jason were in the band together. They were best friends. I met Jason first, but when Peter walked in a roomā¦ā She paused, lost in thought. āIāve never loved anyone like that in my life, Lara.ā She looked over at Lara. āNever.ā She took a deep breath, like she needed it to keep going. āBut Peter was a wandering soul, untamed. Not unlike Todd.ā
Audrey stopped to let that sink in. As if a layer of an onion was peeling away, Lara was seeing a side of her mother that sheād never imagined. Her mother picked at something on her shorts. Lara was sure nothing was there, it was just giving Audrey something to do as she unpacked her history, something sheād tightly stored away from everyone.
āI knew from the beginning that he was wild. For the summer that year, it had been a bit of a triangleāJason, Peter, and meābut I knew they were going to Los Angeles after Thanksgiving. Iād be left here.ā Finally, Audrey put her hands on her hips. āIāve wanted to tell you this for a long timeāforeverābut I didnāt want to ruin any part of your relationship with Jason. You clung to him so tightly. Peter is your biological father, Lara, not Jason. The day before he went missing, I had told Peter that I was pregnant. Honestly, when he disappeared, I just thought heād bolted. Like you, I was confused. And until Todd went missing, I think some part of me always thought Peter had left to avoid the responsibility. We didnāt know what to think. Jason and I were both devastated. The police were involved, of course, but they always thought heād just up and left. His mother pushed them for years, finally getting him declared dead in the early 1980s.ā
āYou didnāt think it was like Desmond Bennett? No one did the math?ā
Audrey laughed. āYou have no idea what it was like back then. Simon and Cecile were so secretive about Mother. Now, knowing what youāve told me, it was probably Desmond disappearing that undid Motherāalong with Althacazur. Iām sure he didnāt help.ā
āWhy didnāt either of you tell me that Peter was my father?ā
Audrey lowered her sunglasses and met her daughterās eyes. āI never told Jason. I didnāt see the pointāand I still donāt.ā
Lara inhaled sharply. Jason Barnes was not her biological father. Worse yet, he didnāt even know it. There were things that Lara had clung to about her identity. That Jason Barnes was her father was one of them. Sheād inherited her musical talent from him, sheād thought, but it hadnāt been him at allāit had been Peter Beaumont. Then she remembered the way heād looked at her as sheād played Peterās song. Like heād seen a ghost.
āAre you sure?ā Lara, too, sank in her lawn chair. āThat heās my father?ā
āHave you ever seen a photo of Peter? I mean everyone always said that he and Jason looked like brothers, but I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. You look like Peter.ā
Sheād seen the one photo. The one Jason had shown her when theyād closed on the radio station. Something had pulled her to Peter that day, but sheād thought it was just that he was the focal point of whoever had taken the photo. Sheād been wrong. It had been something else, a familiarity.
Audrey stood and began tugging furiously at another patch of bushes,
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