The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers (the little red hen ebook TXT) 📕

ever seen. They appeared to be squabbling, because Lara could hear the woman’s voice rise.

The next logical thought Lara had was that they must be some musician friends of her father’s. Drummers were always coming and going. The man’s hair fell in waves to the top of his shoulders like the men on the album covers in her father’s record collection, but he walked toward her with purpose. And why not use the road? When they got closer, Lara couldn’t see their eyes behind their matching round mirrored sunglasses. The man stopped walking and leaned toward the grade in the hill. He seemed winded.

“Are you looking for my father?” Lara shaded her eyes so she could get a better look at them.

“No, silly,” he said. “I’m looking for you, Miss Lara Barnes.”

“Lara Margot Barnes,” she said, correcting him and folding her arms in front of her like she meant business.

“Oh, how delightful!” The lady turned to the man. “Did you hear that?”

“Of course I heard it, Margot. I’m standing here, aren’t I?”

The woman snorted loud enough for Gomez Addams to raise his head.

His accent was French, like her great-grandmother Cecile’s. The lady’s was definitely Southern, like her mother’s. It was an odd combination. They were an odd pair.

As she took in the two of them, something in the horizon bent, like the shimmer of air in extreme heat. Lara blinked furiously, making sure that she wasn’t seeing things. The world began to twirl and she found that her legs were bendy as she slid down, like she did when she played dead after being shot from a cap gun.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the grass, looking up at the curious pair.

“Does she know?” The woman looked up at the man.

He seemed irritated. “Of course not.”

“Know what?” Lara lifted herself up on her elbows. She’d heard of kidnappers, but these two didn’t look much like kidnappers. Lara figured she could outrun the woman, who was wearing high heels in a field. At least her vision wasn’t bendy and she wasn’t dizzy anymore.

“That you’re special.” He smiled. “But of course, you know that already, don’t you?” His voiced teased at something. “Someone’s magic has just come in.”

What was he talking about? What magic?

“I remember when my magic came in,” said the woman, closing her eyes to savor a memory. “I could turn the radio on without touching it. Drove Maman crazy.” She cocked her head, as if Lara were an exhibit in the zoo. “She’s a pretty child, too. Don’t you think she looks like me?”

The man closed his eyes in disgust. “Why do I bring you along?”

“Because I’m your favorite and you know it.” She touched Lara’s cheek again, maternally. “She’s definitely the one.”

“Oh, she’s the one all right.” The man finally leaned over her. “I’ve made sure of it this time. Remember this, my dear girl. We have bigger plans for you, Lara Barnes. That boy in your future, he is not your destiny.”

“Oh, she’ll never remember.” The woman sniffed slightly with disgust. Her upturned nose and full lips made her look like a movie star. “She’ll think she loves him. We always do.”

“Sadly, yes, I’m afraid,” said the man, pulling his sunglasses down so Lara could see his eyes. They were an amber color, and something struck her as oddly familiar about them. It took Lara a moment for it to register. His pupils were horizontal like those of the goat they’d kept on the farm last summer. She could never tell if the goat was actually looking at her and she had that same familiar feeling now, the desire to look behind her to see what he was staring at.

“Love. It is the bane of my existence.” He shook his head pitifully. “And unfortunately, it’s in the genes for this one, too.” He shot the woman a look.

“Not my fault.” The woman sat back on her high heels. Lara could see that the heels were still pristine, not a speck of dirt on them.

Lara looked around, wondering if anyone else—other than the horses—could see them, but the grass swayed quietly. From a distance she heard the screen door slam.

“One day,” he said. “I’ll find you again, Lara Barnes.”

He touched her on the tip of her nose, causing her to faint again. When she woke up a few moments later, they were gone.

Kerrigan Falls, Virginia

October 10, 2004

Sometime in the night, Lara woke to find the curtain blowing softly over her bed. She’d downed a sleeping pill when they’d returned home from the church, so mercifully she’d slept until now. She looked at the clock: five fifty-two A.M. She’d been unconscious for nearly twelve hours. Nothing about her wedding day had happened as she’d planned. She slid out of the sheets and crept downstairs.

Before drifting off, she remembered hearing phones ringing and doors slamming. She’d half expected to find Todd standing by her bed when she woke with some wild story about getting drunk in the woods or falling down a well. She looked around her room. No note.

But nothing? Has he really not come here?

She padded into the dining room and searched for a sign that he’d called while she slept—even a terse note from her mother telling her “the boy” had left a message. Nothing. The house was silent. It was unthinkable, really. Surely there had been some mistake, some logical explanation. She wouldn’t be forgiving him, not this time, but at least he owed her some kind of answer for standing her up at their wedding. There was a finality to this silence, like she’d been forgotten, abandoned.

Wedding gifts in silver wrapping sat on the dining room table in a haphazard jumble. She wondered if her mother hadn’t knocked them from their neat pile on purpose. Audrey, still in her blue bathrobe, was asleep on the wingback chair in the living room with the light on. She’d been reading and hadn’t bothered to take off the heavy