The Girl in the Painted Caravan Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘Old Tit’ was the reply, with much laughter. He had a slight speech impediment, so when he was
ready to take his picture and would command them to ‘Hold it!’ it always came out as ‘Old Tit’.
    When spring came, the family would travel around Norfolk and Lincolnshire, wherever their fancy took them. Since the end of the First World War, there were more and more cars on the roads, and
the roads themselves were gradually being tarmacked by the Irish who were coming over to work in England at that time. For the Romany, it made it harder to leave a ‘pukkering cosh’, a
clod or a bunch of sticks used as a sign. In the old days, when a group of Romanies were all heading in the same direction and some were leaving later than others, it was always agreed that when
coming to a fork in the road, those who knew the route best would pull a big clod of earth from the side of the road and throw it into the middle of the lane that they were going to take. Now that
cars were taking over the roads, it was not possible to leave a clear signal for fellow travellers to follow. It was a small thing, but perhaps the first sign that their heritage was being taken
away from them.
    Naughty obviously never thought the Romany way of life would change. His mind could not grasp the idea that caravans would soon no longer need horses to pull them – that this job would be
done by motorcars. Cars were a gorger means of transport. Romanies lived under the stars and their horses were a central part of their lives. Romanies travelled where their whims led them. They
were no part of the gorger society; they took nothing from it and asked nothing of it, except perhaps tolerance, the right to live their lives the way Romanies had done for centuries.
    This was always Naughty’s philosophy. But how could he know that the time would come when his bright canopy of stars would be rolled up like the backcloth of a travelling show, that the
costumes and the scenery would all be packed away, that the play would be over? It would not be long before the traditional Romany way of life, the only life Naughty and Alice Eva had ever known,
would change beyond all recognition.
    But in 1920 they weren’t worried about this. They were able to travel without being harassed. In fact, when they arrived in a new town, people were actually pleased to see them and many of
the farmers and their families looked forward to the seasons when they knew they might return. They knew Naughty was skilled at treating their animals, horses especially, and Alice had many herbal
remedies for their ailments. More than that, Alice had a gift for clairvoyance.

FOUR
First Up, Best Dressed
    ‘My husband is having an affair,’ the woman blurted out, before Alice could even start her reading.
    ‘Are you sure?’ Alice asked gently.
    ‘He doesn’t spend any time with me and when he does come home he smells of another woman’s perfume. The other day, I even found lipstick on his collar as I was washing one of
his shirts.’
    Alice didn’t have to be a clairvoyant to know that this was someone who clearly wasn’t loved and probably never had been. The man in question had married her to do his housework, no
more, no less. Just by looking around, she could see the woman kept a marvellous house, very clean and tidy, but there was no feeling of love there.
    ‘This isn’t his first affair though, is it?’ she asked.
    ‘No,’ the woman admitted, tears falling from her eyes and hitting her apron.
    ‘Here’s what I want you to do,’ began Alice. ‘I want you to pack up his shirts and give them to him. Tell him that his fancy woman can wash his shirts from now on. You
run a perfect house and you have a lot to give someone who will love you back. You have good family.’
    ‘Yes, I do,’ she replied, ‘but I haven’t seen them in a long time.’
    ‘They will comfort you,’ Alice said. ‘Oh, and don’t forget to put his smalls in the package too!’ she added with