Little Stars Read online

  ‘You two girls must stay utterly silent if you sit in on rehearsals,’ he said, pointing at us sternly.

  ‘They’re being very good, Gerald,’ said Miss Royal. ‘And it’s a very long time for the little one to stay quiet. Perhaps we should let her run around a little every now and then?’

  ‘We’re actors, not babysitters.’ Mr Parkinson always pronounced the word actors in a particularly plummy voice, ‘aaac-tooors’. Diamond and I often copied him to make each other giggle.

  ‘It seems silly to have them sitting here hour after hour when we’re not rehearsing their scenes,’ said Harry. ‘What are you planning for tomorrow, Gerald?’

  ‘We need to do the Dora scenes. The pet-shop owner is bringing some likely dogs to see which one is best playing Gyp,’ he replied.

  ‘Oh, Gerald, you old meanie. I wanted to be Gyp,’ said Harry. He crouched down, surprisingly nimble for such a large man, and started running round on all fours, giving high-pitched barks. He nestled up to Stella, growled at Cecil, and then impudently cocked his leg on him, which made everyone laugh, even Mr Parkinson.

  ‘Tell you what, why don’t we let the girls have a day off, seeing as they’re not required,’ said Miss Royal.

  ‘Yes, very well,’ said Mr Parkinson, joining in the fun in spite of himself. He held out an imaginary titbit to make Harry sit up and beg.

  ‘There you are, girls! You can have a little wander around London and enjoy yourselves,’ said Miss Royal. ‘Perhaps you might like to go to the Zoological Gardens?’

  I remember my last trip, the day after the Queen’s Jubilee. I thought of taking Diamond for a ride on Jumbo the elephant – though this wouldn’t really be much of a novelty to a circus child.

  No, I had a much better idea.

  I WOKE VERY early. Diamond and Adeline and Maybelle were all leaning on me and I could barely move. I planned our journey in my head, turning my Mizpah ring round and round. I thought longingly of Bertie and hoped he didn’t think badly of me. I remembered all our squabbles and sulks. They all seemed so silly now. Why hadn’t we just enjoyed our time together? I was missing him so much already.

  I woke Diamond at six and we tiptoed about as quietly as possible. When we slipped softly down the stairs, we heard Harry snoring in his room, great guttural snorts that gave us both the giggles. We had to hold our hands over our mouths, stifling our splutters. We crept down to Miss Grundy’s kitchen for a cup of tea before our journey. She came pattering in herself, her long white hair hanging loose past her shoulders, wearing a white cotton nightgown. Her feet were bare, thin and delicately boned, very white against the dark linoleum.

  ‘You’re bright and early today, girls,’ she said cheerily. ‘Would you like some bread and honey?’

  She felt around carefully, taking the bread out of the crock and then cutting it carefully, handling the knife with caution. She kept the butter on one shelf in the pantry, the honey on another, everything neatly in its place so that she could be sure to find it.

  She let Diamond lick the honey spoon.

  ‘Please may I share it with Adeline and Maybelle? They are my two dollies,’ said Diamond.

  Miss Grundy felt each doll with her long paper-white fingers. Maybelle’s blunt features and baldness must have been a shock after Adeline’s smooth china and flowing locks, but Miss Grundy tactfully didn’t remark on this. She even made two fairy-sized sandwiches for the dolls.

  ‘Thank you so much! My girls are very happy now. But I’d better take your travelling cloaks off, dears, I don’t want you to get them all sticky with honey,’ said Diamond.

  ‘Are they going travelling today, then? Aren’t they rehearsing with you two?’ Miss Grundy asked.

  ‘We’re not needed at rehearsals today, so we’re going to visit a friend,’ I said.

  ‘A very, very dear friend,’ added Diamond. ‘She’s like a mother to us, because we’ve lost our own mothers.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see you,’ said Miss Grundy. ‘It’s so lovely to have some feminine company. I’ve nearly always had gentlemen lodgers. Ladies don’t always care to live in Soho.’

  ‘We care to live here,’ I said. ‘Thank you for making us so welcome.’

  I hoped Madame Adeline would make us welcome too. I was longing to see her, but I couldn’t help fretting.

  ‘Perhaps we should have telegrammed last night, to say we were coming,’ I said, when we were on the train. ‘It will be such a shame if Madame Adeline and Mr Marvel have gone out for the day – we will have come all this way for nothing.’

  ‘But they can’t really go too far. Mr Marvel would never leave all the monkeys for long,’ said Diamond. ‘Oh, I can’t wait to see little Mavis! Do you think she’ll remember me?’

  ‘Of course she will,’ I said.

  ‘Adeline and Maybelle are so excited.’ Diamond made her dolls jig up and down. ‘Adeline can’t wait to meet her namesake! And Maybelle remembers Madame Addie most fondly, don’t you, dear?’ Maybelle nodded her cloth head so vigorously she nearly unravelled her stitches.

  I was becoming very excited myself. I relived the first moment I’d seen Madame Adeline, when I was a small girl in the village. I’d been dazzled by this fairy-tale woman riding her fine horse, her bright red hair shining, the sequins on her pink costume sparkling in the sunlight. Jem had taken me to the circus and I’d run into the ring to perform with Madame Adeline. She had laughed at my boldness and called me her little star.

  Little Star, Little Star, Little Star, I repeated to the rhythm of the train’s wheels. I kept a careful eye on all the station names, and at last I spotted Little Foxfield. Madame Adeline’s address was very brief: Honeysuckle Cottage, Little Foxfield, Sussex. I imagined a story-book cottage with a thatched roof and mullioned windows, a colourful flower garden in front and honeysuckle in a fragrant tangle around the front door.

  Little Foxfield station was deserted, though we were still waiting hopefully for a station master or porter long after the train had chugged out of sight.

  ‘Well, we might as well look for Honeysuckle Cottage ourselves, Diamond. I’m sure it won’t be far,’ I said.

  We wandered down the lane. We passed a few cottages, but none were named Honeysuckle. I stopped a small child and then a boy ambling along whistling to the birds, but neither seemed to have even heard of Honeysuckle Cottage. After a while the houses petered out and we were left trudging up a steep path, trees and hedges on either side of us. We stopped on the brow of the hill and peered down. More trees, more hedges, many fields – but no sign of any cottage.

  ‘Oh dear, are we lost?’ Diamond asked.

  ‘No, of course not. We must simply have gone the wrong way at the station. We’ll go back,’ I said.

  ‘We will find Madame Adeline, won’t we?’ Diamond demanded.

  ‘Of course we will.’ I tried to sound confident, though I was starting to wonder if there might be another Little Foxfield in a different part of the country altogether.

  We trudged back again, our toes rubbing uncomfortably against the end of our shoes because of the steep incline. The station was still deserted, so we set out the other way. There were more tumbledown cottages, but still none named Honeysuckle. Then we saw a small store with a blue-and-white awning.

  ‘Perhaps the shopkeeper will know where it is,’ I said.

  She was sitting behind her counter, sharing a pot of tea with a man in a navy uniform with brass buttons. Perhaps he was the station master?

  ‘Yes?’ said the woman rather curtly. ‘What do you want to buy?’

  ‘I don’t really want to buy anything, ma’am,’ I started politely.

  ‘Then don’t come bothering me in my store,’ she said, raising her eyebrows at the man in uniform.

  ‘I was just wondering, would you happen to know the whereabouts of Honeysuckle Cottage?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, the whereabouts!’ she said, mocking my accent. ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘Me neither,’ sai