Chapter 11

Departure

It was the morning after the final show at Hasebury. The girls had taken the Gimps from their cages. They worked together to strike the performance tent and take down the ticket booth so that all could be put back into the trailers. Somehow it all came down much more quickly than it had gone up.

It was a cold morning but they were used to being exercised in just their harnesses and hoods and were happy to make the most of the chance to move freely before, as they knew they would be, being returned to their cages for the upcoming journey.

Adelaide took Henry to one side. This was not a conversation she was looking forward to but equally it was not one could ask any of the others to have, nor one that could be delayed. “These were good shows, Henry,” she began.

“Thank you Mistress,” he responded. “Although I made some errors, on the first night especially.”

He had always been modest and self-critical, Adelaide thought. In some ways that made this harder. “I am sure none were noticed. But what I have noticed is that you seem less comfortable with your time in the cage. Perhaps the shackles and straps are too much of an encumbrance?”

“I’ve known nothing else these last five years. It’s true I’m stiffer than I was but I expect no special treatment.”

Of course you don’t thought Adelaide. “Maybe not, but you deserve a quieter life. I have arranged a place for you with Lady Henderby. This show was your last. Perhaps your best, but certainly your last.” She wasn’t sure what to expect. She was certain that the best approach was to be quite clear and quite definite. He would accept what she said of course, but would he be angry for being rejected? Resistant to her decision? Uncomprehending?

Henry stood quietly for a moment, thinking. He nodded. “You’ve always been fair, Mistress,” he said. “I’d rather go on but if that is what you have decided then I will accept it. I shall miss the circus but I am sure that this is for the best, if you say so.”

“I’m sure it is. We shall all miss you too, Henry.” In an uncharacteristic display of emotion she reached out her arms and drew him into her, hugging him tightly. She sensed that he was uncomfortable with the show of affection. It hardly chimed with the normal Mistress-Gimp relationship. She released him and stood back. “So, I will ask Vesta to take you up to the Hall, I believe she has worked with you the most?”

“Yes, that’s right Mistress. Thank you.”

“Good luck.” Adelaide said, thinking that the exchange had gone better than she could have hoped.

When Vesta returned from the Hall she was subdued and quiet. She had hated her task but she would have hated it more if Adelaide had asked any of the others. She set to her tasks, readying things for departure. She didn’t speaking much to the other girls.

Adelaide knew Vesta was upset by the decision to leave Henry behind, even if (or perhaps because) she had been the one to suggest it. She would overcome her sadness Adelaide was sure because she would soon have plenty to occupy her. But first Sasha had to completed the task that Adelaide had set for her.

Tim Farracut noticed the smoke across the village green as the first of the traction engines was getting up steam. He hadn’t expected them to leave until later in the day but it looked like they would soon be on their way and the circus would be gone forever.

He was determined to take one last look at Miss Adelaide’s collection of Gimps. He left the pub and headed across the green. He squeezed between two of the other vans to get to where the cage van stood, waiting to be connected up to its towing engine. Five of the Gimps were curled up, asleep or resting on the floor of their cages, the chains to their neck collars laying across or alongside them. One sat staring sightlessly, his eyes covered by his leather hood. Another looked straight back at Tim but said nothing. One set of chains and a collar hung in an empty cage.

Tim stood for a moment wondering where they would perform next and how the lives of the Gimps and the performers would play out. He wondered why one of the cages was empty. Whatever the answers, he envied them their lives; the performances, their work with the trainers, the travel and romance of the road.

He stood and looked at the van.

Did his mind go back to his encounter with Sasha in that instant when he thought he heard a sound behind him? Or when he thought he caught the scent of coal and grease on the air? Whether or not he remembered her words he didn’t move until a gloved hand clamped a pad over his mouth and nose and he felt himself losing consciousness as his wrists were dragged behind his back and pinioned there with rope. He would be far away before he woke again, unaware of the child he had fathered, but at the start of a new life.