He was a big snake, more than eight feet long, and it was eight feet of heavy muscle. Hester sweated when she lifted him above her head, little drops of water ran down the sides of her face, and Phillips would suddenly turn in her grip and push his face close to her, rubbing against the oiled surface of her skin, looking dangerous to anyone who hadn’t watched the act a hundred times.
The music began to fade and Nell went to the machine. She took the record off and turned it over. As the music swelled Hester held up her arms, and showed how, in wrestling, she had somehow managed to wind Phillips
round her body, only she always took care not to let him anchor himself with his tail because, she told Nell, that was how a boa constrictor killed his prey in the wild: he squeezed it to death. And even Phillips’s fun squeezes could make you gasp louder than the audience.
‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Snake Girl will charm Venom into a deep sleep …’
That was Ruddy, whose rendering of the story of Hester and Venom was enough to send Nell to sleep, for he was not a gifted narrator. Usually Al did the job, but this was only a small village and Al was busy getting the fair into shape before they descended on the coast in a few days. They had been having trouble with the engine of the biggest lorry, so Ruddy Fred, who was no good with lorries, had taken over barking for Hester.
‘Sing ’im a lullaby, folks, for he’s gone up the wooden stair to Bedfordshire,’ Ruddy said facetiously. ‘Ain’t that a pretty sight?’
On cue, Nell stepped forward and flung the starry cloak over Hester and the snake. Hester bowed deeply, blew kisses to her enthusiastic audience, and disappeared behind the screen. The men and their girls waited for a moment, murmuring to one another, then began to file out of the tent; another performance successfully concluded.
Now, Nell thought gleefully, we’ll go back to the trailer and have that gorgeous plum duff Mum made earlier.
‘There’s a fair on in the village. Daniel Clifton went last year, he said it was prime. Do take us down there Daddy, please, please!’
‘Can’t, sweetheart. But I’m sure Mummy will take you tomorrow. After tea, probably. Fairs are always best in the evenings. Tell you what, why don’t you invite Daniel? He could take care of you while Jamie looks after Mummy.’
JJ was sitting at the dining table with Anna perched on his knee, nibbling the cheese and biscuits he had left and occasionally stroking his cheek. JJ had dined alone because his wife had gone into the city to see her own mother, which meant Anna had an opportunity to get round him without her mother putting a spoke in her wheel. But it didn’t look as though it was going to work; Daddy had been delighted to see her, had kissed her, let her sit on his knee, offered her cheese and biscuits and a sip of his strong, horrible black coffee, but he didn’t seem about to be wheedled into taking her to the fair. His suggestion that Mummy might take them could be treated with scorn; Anna was very sure that Mummy would not go to anything so vulgar as a fair, particularly a small one. But it was a
good
fair, Daniel and the servants said so; there was a merry-go-round, dodgem cars, side-shows. Anna felt that the marvellous start to the summer holidays, weatherwise, would not be complete unless they went to the fair.
‘But Daddy, Mummy hates things like that. Why can’t you take us? Oh do, do,’ Anna coaxed. ‘We’d be ever so good, Jamie and me.’
Jamie was usually good. He was an angelic-looking little boy of four with tiny pearly teeth, big blue eyes and an affectionate disposition. Anna loved him because he was her little brother, though sometimes she thought it unfair that he should be so pretty when she was undoubtedly rather plain. But such feelings never lasted. There was no point in feeling jealous of Jamie’s blond curls and pink-and-white complexion and anyway he would grow up one day and change from a dear little boy into a tough, or so Daddy told her sometimes.
‘Darling, I can’t; don’t you listen? I’m going out in about ten minutes and tomorrow evening I’m attending a dinner in Bury St Edmunds.’ He lifted her up by her elbows and stood her down beside him. ‘Ask Mummy
when she comes home, or better still, get Jamie to ask Mummy.’
The two exchanged conspiratorial grins; little girls weren’t supposed to know their mothers had favourites, and Daddies, even if they knew, weren’t supposed to acknowledge the fact. But my Daddy is different, Anna decided. Besides, I’m his favourite, which makes it fair. And Jamie was rather a darling so you could scarcely blame Mummy.
‘All right, I’ll get Jamie to ask then,’ Anna said. As her father stood up she skipped ahead of him to the door. ‘And I’ll mention it to Daniel, just in case.’
‘Do. Tell Mummy I suggested it. I’m sure she’ll play along.’ JJ looked at his watch. ‘Heavens, look at the time – I must fly! Cheerio, old thing.’
They walked along the village street, the four of them in two pairs: Mummy and Jamie went first, Anna and Daniel followed. The fair was in full swing:
Last night here
, screamed the posters.
Moving down to the coast tomorrow
.
They were to be allowed a couple of rides, the merry-go-round, the dodgems or the swingboats. Jamie loved the horses with their wide nostrils outlined in red and their vivid saddles. He clambered aboard the chestnut stallion – at least that was what Jamie pretended it was – and Mummy climbed on to the horse next to him, a black one with fiercely open eyes and an emerald green saddle. Jamie, at almost four, was scarcely old enough to ride his mettlesome steed unattended.
‘Come on, Anna, don’t be a scaredy-cat,’ her mother called, but Anna, though offended, pretended not to hear.
‘I don’t want to go on the round-about, it’s for babies,’ she said to Daniel. ‘Daddy said any two rides we liked and if we go on the horses Mummy will only let us have
one more go, I know she will. What do you want to do, Danny?’
‘Dodgems,’ Daniel said so promptly that Anna guessed he’d been longing to be asked. ‘Come on, they can’t do much, the ride’s beginning to turn.’
Anna, hugging herself, ran across the flattened grass. The dodgems was the biggest ride easily, with pictures of racing cars all around the roof part and three wooden steps up; the electric light bulbs gleamed scarlet, purple, white.
Anna grabbed Daniel’s arm as he stepped out on to the shiny, dusty surface of the dodgems track. ‘Can I go in the same car as you? We can have two goes like that. I wonder where they get the ’lectricity from? The church hasn’t got it, nor the hall.’
‘Generators; they make their own, that’s why there’s always such a row,’ Daniel said briefly. He shoved her into the passenger seat of a scarlet car with silver bumpers and slid behind the wheel. All around them others were getting into cars as well. Anna recognised Bert, their garden boy, and Ruth, the kitchen maid, as well as villagers whose names were unknown to her. ‘Come on, let’s see if we can hit Bert, or Georgie over there.’
The cars began to move. Daniel, who obviously knew how to go about things, held up a hand with some money in it. A tall skinny young man, filthy dirty and with fingers blackened through constantly handling money, leaped on to their bumper and took Daniel’s proffered largesse. The car jerked, then zoomed off. Daniel’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles whitening as he gripped. Anna, taken by surprise, shrieked. Daniel glanced at her. ‘That’s right, the girls always scream, you yell as loud as ever you can,’ he advised. There was a bone-jarring crash as the scarlet car bashed into Bert’s maroon vehicle. Ruth out-screamed Anna, hand over mouth, eyes laughing at them.
‘Two can play at that game, Master Daniel,’ Bert shouted. ‘Watch yourselves, the pair on you!’
Anna shrieked again as Daniel, manoeuvring to get their car out of Bert’s path, was rammed in the rear by Peg from the post office. Peg was driving and her young man, who worked for Farmer Hissop, encouraged her to ram vehicle after vehicle, which she did merrily, laughing and shouting rude remarks at the top of her voice.
‘I hope Mummy stays away from here,’ Anna said rather nervously. ‘Did Peg say a swear then, Danny?’
‘I’ll say she bloody did,’ Daniel replied breathlessly. ‘Old Dave caught her a right smart one – must have made her arse tingle.’
‘
Danny!
’ Anna was genuinely shocked. It was bad enough for Peg, a woman, to swear, but for Daniel to do so was a lot worse. Even Daddy would have been shocked, she thought, then Bert careered sideways into them, locked bumpers and carried them round with him and she, too, fell into the prevailing mood.
‘Oh, bloody gosh,’ she shouted at Daniel. ‘That made
my
…’ she flinched from using the word in cold blood, however. ‘That made me tingle all over,’ she finished.
The cars were slowing down though, slowing right to a stop. Some people jumped out and made their way across the floor, but Daniel sat fast and when Anna would have climbed out, caught hold of her skirt and tugged her back down again.
‘We’ve got three more goes left; I reckon there isn’t much else on the fair as good as this,’ he said. ‘You can drive next time if you like.’
Making their way tiredly home, having dropped Daniel off at his house in the village, Jamie asked Anna the question she was waiting for.
‘What did you do else, Anna, as well as the dodgy-cars?’
‘Well, nothing, except walk round and eat some candy-floss and watch people having goes on the penny-rolls and the darts and things,’ Anna admitted. ‘But the dodgems are fun. Really exciting. I liked them best of everything.
Mummy, wandering along holding a hand of each, said nothing; she seemed to be in a world of her own.
‘How d’you know you liked them best, when you didn’t try nothin’ else?’ Jamie asked reasonably. ‘The roundy were nice, so it were, and so too were the snake lady.’
‘Oh, did you go into the snake lady?’ Anna said, wishing, just for a moment, that she had done the same. ‘That must have been fun; tell me about it.’
‘Well, there were a man with a drum-drum, and inside came him, and there was a little girl with a grass skirt who held the snake lady’s sparkly mackytosh …’
‘Sparkly cloak, dear,’ Mummy murmured, so she was listening, or half-listening at any rate.
‘Uh-huh, sparkly coat,’ Jamie said obediently. ‘And the little girl played music on a gammy, and the snake lady fighted the snake, and Mummy said she were goin’ to faint, only she didn’t, she just stood there with a sickish sorta face and then comed out wi’ me,’ he ended disappointedly.
‘Was it good, Mummy?’ Anna said. ‘I’d have liked to see the big snake. Still, the dodgems are the best, honest.’
‘It wasn’t bad; the girl with the snake was … quite clever,’ her mother said. She had a dreamy little smile on her lips. ‘But you’ll never guess, Anna, I saw an old friend in there. While your brother was squeaking that he wanted to touch Venom – only he said Vermin – we arranged to meet for a drink later. So I’ll have to hurry you home now, and let you put yourselves to bed.’
‘I always put myself to bed,’ Anna said rather indignantly. ‘Is Nanny out? I’ll give Jamie a hand then, if you like.’
‘Thank you, dear, that would be a real help. Nearly home now, Jamie, so step out, there’s a good lad!’
8
ANNA KNELT ON
the windowseat in the nursery, peering down through the white-painted bars at the big side lawn and the cedar tree; in two days’ time she would be ten years old and she would be having the biggest birthday party ever. On the twenty-first of April 1936 you’re into double figures, so we shall have to celebrate in a special way, Daddy had said, coming into the nursery to read them a story after tea, though she could easily have read the book he had chosen. But Jamie, who was not quite six, enjoyed the stories and Daddy liked reading them, so Anna never said anything. Besides, it was a treat to get him to themselves for a little while, so the after-tea read was their favourite time of day.
After a great deal of solemn discussion, the form the party was to take had been decided. They were to have a conjurer, with a magic hat and a white rabbit, a Punch and Judy Show, and tea – with ice-cream – on the lawn under the cedar tree, which was a bit brave in April, only Daddy said he would hire a marquee if it looked like rain.
Jamie, sitting on the dumpy while Nanny ran his bath, had got very excited, bouncing up and down and clapping, even though it wasn’t his party. But Mummy, when she heard about it, hadn’t been nearly as enthusiastic. She had come up to the nursery for a word with nanny the evening Daddy had announced the special party, and immediately her expression, which had been all smiles, had changed to a look which Anna rather dreaded. Not because it was a cross look; Mummy was rarely cross with either of them and never cross with Daddy so far as Anna knew. It was an anxious sort of look, the sort of look grown-ups wore when they had lost a very important letter or missed the last bus home.
‘Oh, but what about Jamie? He’s awfully young for a big party, a conjurer will go right over his head and he’ll be tired out well before bedtime,’ Mummy said. She had plumped herself down on the windowseat, the very one on which Anna now knelt, and then put her head on one side, and looked across at Daddy, pulling a pretty, rueful face. ‘I’ll be the one who’ll end up doing all the work, JJ; you’ll have lost interest in parties by the time the great day arrives. Besides, won’t Anna want a special party before she goes off to boarding school? And Jamie really is too young for all that excitement.’
Jamie was Mummy’s favourite. Still an angelic-looking little boy with blond curls and big blue eyes, he had yet to go through any of the ‘ugly’ stages which Anna had suffered mainly due to horrible things called teeth. She had lost her baby pearls and had hated her bare pink gums, knowing toothlessness did not help her appearance. Then her grown-up teeth had arrived, much too big for her mouth and making her feel like a walrus. The family dentist, a lovely man when he gave you pink drink and rides in the chair, an ogre when he jabbed at your sensitive mouth with his prodder, decreed she must wear a horrible metal brace to make sure they grew straight. And as if this wasn’t uglification enough, her hair had become darker, so that she was no longer truly Daddy’s golden girl. Yet here was Jamie, with curly golden hair and tiny white teeth, everyone’s favourite – even Anna’s.