Hetty Feather Read online

  I shrank back shyly, not liking the funny clowns with their painted faces and clumsy clothes, scared they might throw their buckets of water over me.

  'It's not like you to be bashful, Hetty!' said Jem, putting his arm round me. 'Are you pleased we got into the circus? I told you I'd find a way.'

  'I'm very, very, very pleased,' I said.

  The band struck up again, and a plump lady in a tight magenta costume came dancing into the ring. She ran over to a vast ladder at the side and started climbing up it, rung after rung, up and up and up, as nimble as a squirrel. She reached a little platform right at the top and clasped a long pole waiting there. We saw a taut rope stretching all the way across the tent, high in the air. She was Flora the tightrope walker!

  The lady gave a flourish, seized her pole and stepped out onto the rope! She walked right along it, even pointing her feet and dancing, as if she was a magenta fairy flitting through the air. It hurt my neck to watch her and I could hardly breathe because I was so scared she'd fall. Jem had warned me so many times that I mustn't ever try to edge along the tree branches in our squirrel house. He nudged me purposefully now.

  'You mustn't try this lark, Hetty, promise!' he whispered. 'My Lord, isn't she amazing?'

  We watched as she skipped along, walked backwards, even sat upon the rope, arranging her deep-pink skirts around her and taking a book out of her pocket, pretending to read! These seemed marvels enough, but when she'd advanced all the way over to the other side, she took something from under a cloth on the other lofty platform. It was a little perambulator on two wheels with a baby doll sitting up inside. She took the vehicle, wobbling alarmingly, so that we all went 'Ooooh!' Then she balanced it on the rope, with dolly still inside. Flora walked steadily back across the rope, as casually as any mother wheeling her baby. When at long last she reached the other platform and took her bow, she seized the doll and made her take a bow too.

  Then Chino the clown came capering back with his silly friend, Beppo, plus two very little clowns in comical baby gowns with woollen booties on their feet. They had greasepaint on their faces and silly red noses. At first I thought they were simply child clowns, but then I spied a flash of silver beneath the baby gown and realized they were the two tumbling boys dressed up. They kept playing tricks on the clowns, leaping up into the air, landing on their hands and then walking upside down all round the ring. There was a lot of fun and games with bottles and napkins. Jem laughed so much he nearly fell off his seat. Then at last all four clowns took a bow and ran off. That seemed to be the end of the circus, because everyone clapped and then stood up, stretching.

  'Oh!' I said. 'Oh dear, Jem.'

  'What is it, Hetty? Aren't you enjoying the circus?' Jem asked.

  'I think it's wonderful, but now it is ended and I didn't get to see her, the lady in pink spangles with red hair. My lady,' I said, nearly in tears.

  'It's all right, silly. She'll be in the second half. This is only an interval, Hetty. There's lots more to come, I promise.'

  'Really! And so we haven't missed her? We really will see her?'

  'Yes, we will.'

  'She's the one I like the best,' I said.

  'But you haven't even seen her perform yet!'

  'I still know.'

  'I like the clowns, they are so funny,' said Jem, chuckling. 'I should so love to set folk laughing like that.'

  'We could have our own circus!' I said. 'You could be a clown, Jem, and Gideon can be a boy tumbler, and I will wear a short pink skirt and ride on my horse. Let us run away and start our circus, you and me and Gideon, and then I won't have to go to the hospital,' I said earnestly.

  'I wish we could, Hetty,' said Jem, looking wretched. 'We could maybe have a circus when we're married. Perhaps we could start a farm circus, and you could train the pig to stand on a tub and get the chickens to cluck in time and set all the goats dancing,' he went on, trying to humour me. 'Here now, Hetty. Eat your gingerbread.'

  He was trying to distract me. I did have a very sweet tooth so I set about eating my biscuit, though it had cracked and crumbled rather when I wriggled under the tent flap. I insisted on sharing it with Jem. We ate every crumb until only the gold star was left. Jem stuck that on my forehead.

  Then the band struck up and the clowns capered back into the ring. I fidgeted in my seat, breathless with anticipation. I saw a gentleman throwing daggers at a lady in sparkly drawers, a troupe of seals barking for fish, and a man eating fire as casually as we'd eaten our gingerbread, but I was still restless and unsatisfied. But then, oh, then, right at the end, the ringmaster cracked his whip and announced: 'Now, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys. Tanglefield's Travelling Circus is proud to present Madame Adeline and her troupe of rosin- backed performing horses!'

  I sat up straight as six sleek horses cantered into the ring. I was used to Dobbin and Rowley, the great shire horses in Father's care at the farm. These dancing, prancing horses seemed an elvish breed, so small and dainty. Two were spotted, two piebald and two grey, all with their manes and tails flowing, long and silky. Madame Adeline sat on the first grey, which was almost pure white but with a saucy black patch on one eye, so that he looked as wicked as a pirate. He arched his neck and stepped precisely in time with the music, clearly proud to have Madame Adeline on his back. She looked so beautiful in her pink spangles and short frilly skirt, her flame-coloured hair piled on her head, a black ribbon round her slim white neck.

  She stood up on the back of the pirate horse, straight and proud, arms high in the air, never faltering. She smiled at our applause, and called something to the other grey horse. He galloped faster and faster. As he drew alongside Madame Adeline leaped from one horse's back to the other, landing with fairy lightness. She leaped on, from one eager horse to another, she swung herself down till her toes touched the sawdust, then up over the side of the horse, she even stood on her hands while he cantered.

  I watched her open-mouthed, marvelling. Madame Adeline jumped through a hoop and landed lightly back on the pirate horse, as easily as if she was skipping down the village lane. I clapped until my hands were sore. She slowed to a trot, still standing, waving at all of us. I waved back wildly, desperate for her to see me.

  'Hello, children,' she called.

  I piped 'hello' back, standing up in my seat.

  'Who would like to come and ride with me?' she said.

  I didn't wait for a second. I hurtled out of my seat. Jem tried to catch hold of me by the hem of my dress, but I whisked it away and rushed frantically for the ring. There were already children right at the front, hopping eagerly over the little red wall into the circus ring. Madame Adeline was laughing and pointing, picking her rider.

  'No, no, pick me!' I screamed, still running. I tried to jump down the steep wooden steps, lost my footing, and hurtled forward, tumbling head over heels.

  'Oh my, here's a little acrobat!' said Madame Adeline as I lay with my face in the sawdust, totally dazed.

  I felt her strong hands lifting me up. I stood there, trembling. She was even more beautiful close up. Her hair was bright red, her face powdery white though her cheeks were a delicate pink, and her lips thrillingly dark and shiny. I looked up at her and fell totally in love.

  'Are you all right, little one?' she asked softly, as if we were alone together, not watched by an audience of hundreds.

  'I am, oh yes, I definitely am,' I said, tossing my hair out of my eyes.

  'You have lovely red hair, just like mine!' she said, laughing. 'What's your name, child?'

  'I'm Hetty Feather, ma'am,' I whispered.

  'How old are you, Hetty? You speak up very nicely, yet you can't be more than . . . four?'

  'I'm five and three-quarters, ma'am, just small for my age,' I said.

  'And you want to ride my horse with me, little Hetty?'

  'More than anything!'

  She laughed again, her teeth white and perfect, her lips gleaming. 'Then so be it, Little Star,' she said, touching the gingerbread st