Forgotten Dreams Read Online Free PDF

truthfully. ‘I always tell myself that the audience is looking at you, not me, else I’d die of fright. Honestly, Louella, I couldn’t do a solo act, not to save me life.’
    Louella had laughed and looked pleased – though she had said, soothingly, that Lottie would soon grow accustomed – and the subject had been dropped. But Lottie was sure her mother was wrong. She would never get used to being stared at and the thought of being alone on the stage terrified her. She was grateful for her school uniform and the fact that, offstage, she was allowed to plait her hair into a thick rope so that most folk did not realise she was little Miss Lottie, and was even more grateful to Kenny, for he had discovered how she felt and had bought her, off a jumble stall in Paddy’s market, a pair of steel-framed spectacles. He had knocked the glass out of them and she wore them whenever she thought there was the least danger of being recognised. She had never let her mother see the spectacles, but valued them as a sure disguise and was thankful to Kenny for the gift of anonymity which the spectacles bestowed.
    Now, Lottie finished cleaning her teeth, rinsed her toothbrush and poured her washing water into the slop bucket. Today was a very special day and she was full of excitement at the thought of it. It was also the first time she had ever deceived her mother, but she did not feel guilty over so doing. Why should she? Today was the day of the school trip. Her mother knew that, and approved, but what she did not know was where the coaches were bound. ‘This year we shall set off at eight o’clock sharp and stop halfway to the coast at a café which caters for coach parties,’ Miss Bradshaw had said. ‘We shall arrive in Rhyl at noon. Bring a packed lunch to eat on the beach. You will have the whole afternoon to play in the sand, to paddle, and to visit the amusement arcades. Then we will all gather under the clock on the promenade and go to the Seagull restaurant for a high tea, which will be paid for by the school governors. When the meal is finished, we shall return to the coaches and get home again between eight and nine in the evening.’
    The only part of this information which Lottie had failed to pass on to her mother was their destination, and even then she had not exactly lied. She had, however, talked of the Great Orme and the excitement of taking a tram to the very top, without actually saying that the trip would be to Llandudno. Had she admitted that they were going to Rhyl she was honestly afraid that her mother would have refused to let her go. However, she did not intend to let her conscience trouble her over such a small matter. Though the memory of her early years had still not returned, she was pretty sure that her mother had not bleached her hair then, so it seemed highly unlikely that anyone would recognise her as Louella’s daughter. Why should they? She meant to take her glassless spectacles, just in case, but was pretty sure that there would be no need to put them on. And if someone did know her, what would it matter? Two whole years had passed since Louella had fled from the violent conjurer – Lottie could not remember his name – so surely his rage would have cooled, probably had disappeared altogether, by now.
    Having washed herself thoroughly and brushed her hair until it bushed out round her face, giving her a marked resemblance to a dandelion clock, Lottie made her way downstairs. The school trip was a combined one which meant that Lottie had been forced to beg Baz not to tell Max, or Louella, where they were bound. Baz was tall and broad for his age and was beginning to look very like his father, who had thick black hair, very dark eyes and a commanding high-bridged nose, for though Max had lived in England for most of his adult life he had been born in Spain of an English father and a Spanish mother and looked very foreign, Lottie thought.
    Baz had recently stopped teasing Lottie, apparently