Lord Morgan's Cannon Read Online Free Page A

carefully upon his paws. He’d impressed the circus boys since the rehearsal and was glad to hear he’d caught Lord Morgan’s eye a couple of days earlier, because the bearded professor had caught his.
    “If this Lord Morgan is going to make us famous,” he said to Edward, in a slow, sly drawl, “are you still going to steal from his pocket?”
    He didn’t wait for an answer. He considered what he had heard, and felt prepared for the evening’s performance. He licked his lips.

    The Ring Master had it all worked out. Lord Morgan’s arrival coincided with the night he’d planned to launch Whyte and Wingate’s first hot air balloon of the season.
    He selected his finest looking gypsy girl, made her wear a frilly top that exposed a little cleavage, and gave her strict instructions to beckon Lord Morgan into her basket on his arrival. Then she would give the professor the ride of his life, while Jim the Strongman held the twenty feet of balloon rope, making sure they didn’t drift out into the Channel.
    That would give the Ring Master time to drill his animals one last time, before the biggest performance in the circus’s thirty-three year history.
    He set his best two boys to work on the balloon, laying its silk on the softest patch of grass they could find, feeling it for holes. As the day’s light faded, he got them to build a small fire next to the balloon. Its light and smoke illuminated the meadow, and meant the balloon’s brazier could be quickly sparked should Lord Morgan arrive early.
    He then followed one of his many habits, demanding a visit from the clairvoyant woman before the evening’s show. She called herself Charity. She was mysterious, like all good circus clairvoyants, with dark eyes and curled hair that she flicked if she needed to distract a rich client.
    She had become an early adopter of the Tarot de Marseille deck, its fifty-six cards and four standard suits allowing her to tell any tale she wished, by only remembering a fixed number of objects and trumps. She liked that the card denoting the Fool was unnumbered and easily marked in the deck.
    The Ring Master asked the clairvoyant woman to visit him in his trailer and consult her spirits. He needed to know, as he did before every performance, whether things would go well and he would make money. He also asked her to look for any sign that a mysterious benefactor might enter their lives, bringing great wealth.
    On any usual evening, Charity would select a basic reading for the Ring Master, a variation on the same theme. The Emperor card would appear, signifying a man of unyielding power who brought stability to many lives. She would reveal the Sun or the Moon, and relied heavily on the Wheel of Fortune. The Ring Master never seemed to notice how often these same cards appeared, and always seem comforted by them.
    Today though, she thought she would have some fun. Spurred by the white smoke drifting in through the wagon window, she recalled how she had seen Edward the monkey practising his new trick. So she turned over the Juggler card, commanding the Ring Master to make his monkey juggle fire in the Big Top. At first the Ring Master seemed doubtful and surprised. Then he started to think it through, realising that a fire-juggling monkey might be just the thing to impress Lord Morgan. He looked at his watch, and wondered if there was time to rehearse this new addition to the show. There wasn’t, but there was time at least to get a sign made, and tied to the meadow gate. He would show this professor of animals just what he could train a monkey to do.
    Excitedly, he stood and took Charity in his hands, cupping her face, kissing either cheek. She could smell the whisky on his breath, and was thankful he hadn’t noticed her refusal to turn the last marked card. The Ring Master left his own trailer.
    Charity looked at the card, which took the joy from her heart, replacing it with a dread in her stomach. She slipped the numberless Fool into her