In the Crown of the Circus King

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The week of Queen Elizabeth's visit to New York was a true turmoil for the city, but for someone as chaotic as the Barnum's circus acts it was just another regular week full of rehearsals. A slight pressure was felt in the ringmaster's motivational morning speeches, he was determined to make a good impression on the so called britons.

Whereas Phillip did not feel stressed about the show itself. He trusted the oddities and Barnum and he knew they would be their usual spectacular selves on the show day. The thing he was the most nervous about was the upperclassmen party they were invited to attend with Phineas. He knew what kind of people would be there. The thought of meeting all of them again after months of avoiding these kind of gatherings made his stomach turn.

"Are you okay?" Anne inquired, walking past the perplexed apprentice as she was about to go upstairs to get to her trapeze.

Phillip woke up from his thoughts, promptly moving away from the column that he was leaning on, "Oh, yes. I'm fine, sorry. Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Hectic week for all of us, eh?" She giggled, patting his shoulder and walking away.

"Phillip, keep up." The ringmaster shouted, shifting the younger man's attention back to the ring, "I am going to need your opinion on this new stage set up. No distractions."

Phillip felt a mix of guilt and anger boiling inside of him once again, "Sorry." He simply answered, glaring at the ringmaster who nonchalantly turned away from his apprentice, pushing some of the decorative props to the middle together with O'Malley and Vasily. Phillip wanted to walk up to Barnum and scream at his face, maybe even shove him against a wall just to experience a minute of his hazel eyes on him - the admirable eye contact he so much craved; plead him to stop treating his junior apprentice so frigidly. Phillip yearned for the amiable Phineas and he was determined to get him back, even if he had to fight the Queen of England herself for just a small cheeky comment from the ringmaster.

"Don't mind him, Carlyle, he's got something up his arse all week." Lettie humorously commented, making sure Barnum heard her. The ringmaster ignored, motioning for Vasily to push one of the props towards him.

Phillip knew this was his chance to get at him, "No worries. We all have our bad days. PT has his bad weeks." He smirked, winking at Lettie.

As Lettie laughed at Phillip's remark, the younger man looked back at the ringmaster, who seemingly had heard the comment as he loudly cleared his throat.

"Mr Carlyle, be so kind," He finally turned to Phillip, his eyes glaring at the smirking junior apprentice, "Go tidy up the office. I think it needs some cleaning before the Queen's visit."

Phillip disinterestedly folded his arms as he leaned back at the column, knowing he was playing with Barnum's last nerves, "Her majesty is going to check out our office? How kind."

"Now." Phineas declared, a bit too loudly, making everyone turn to Phillip.

The junior apprentice gulped, not expecting such a harsh reaction from Barnum for his innocent teasing. He looked at Lettie, who nodded for him to just do as the ringmaster says. Phillip moved away from the column and walked towards the office. He purposefully walked past the taller man, not breaking the intense eye contact as he sarcastically muttered, "Right away, Mr Barnum."