Little Stars Read online

  ‘I’m old too, Hetty. Look at me! I can’t bear to peer in a looking glass now – I’m such a fright. I think my time is coming soon too,’ she whispered.

  ‘No it’s not! You just need building up. You’ve got so very thin. Madame Adeline, please don’t mind my asking, but have you any money now? I don’t think you’ve been eating properly,’ I said, hoping she wouldn’t take offence.

  ‘I have money. Marvel had saved a great deal, bless him. But to tell the truth, I haven’t felt up to making my way through the woods and then facing the villagers. They’ve never really accepted us. They look down on circus folk. The woman in the stores is very unpleasant.’

  ‘Then it’s simple! You must move away.’

  ‘I haven’t the energy to sort everything out and put the cottage up for sale. I don’t know where to go, anyway. I’ve travelled all my life. I’ve no roots any more, no relations that I know of.’

  ‘Yes you have!’ I declared passionately. ‘You have us, Diamond and me! We’ll be your family. We’ll pack up now, take the keys and visit a solicitor. There must be one in the nearest town. Then you must come back to London with us. We will live together, you and me and Diamond – and little Mavis too.’

  ‘Oh, Hetty, don’t! Stop being so sweet to me, you’ll make me cry. You can’t burden yourself with a sad sick old woman.’

  ‘You are sad and sick, but I’m going to make you well and happy again, you wait and see,’ I said. ‘You won’t be a burden. You will keep house for us when you’re stronger, and look after Diamond when I’m on the stage. You will be our mother and we will be your loving daughters, I promise you.’

  I coaxed her out of her old wrapper and into her best dress. I found the pink gauze shawl she used to wear over her spangled costume, and arranged it round her thin shoulders. Then I dug deeper into her wardrobe and found her red wig. I combed it out carefully and then gently put it on her head, sweeping the long strands into a loose bun and securing it with hairpins. I found an old stick of carmine and outlined her lips, and then rubbed just a smidgeon on her white cheeks.

  ‘There!’ I said. ‘You look in that mirror now!’

  She looked and wept a little, but managed to smile too. She sat back in the chair while I roamed the rooms, trying to think what to take with us. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Madame Adeline here. I was still terrified she might take to her bed like poor Mr Marvel.

  I didn’t know how we could possibly carry everything between us – but we didn’t need to.

  ‘I don’t want anything,’ she murmured. ‘Just a change of clothes. I lost my home when I left my wagon at Tanglefield’s.’

  ‘And we had to leave it there when Diamond and I ran away,’ I said. ‘But perhaps one day we’ll be able to get you a new wagon, Madame Adeline.’

  ‘I think my travelling days are over, Hetty,’ she said.

  ‘Then if I get to be a really rich and famous actress, we will have a big house with an even bigger garden, and you can keep your wagon there. We could even have a paddock, and you can find a foal with a patch on his face like Pirate,’ I said.

  ‘Dear Hetty. You’ve always been so good at making up stories,’ she said. ‘Do you still keep a journal?’

  ‘I gave it up a while ago. There didn’t really seem any point any more. But perhaps I will write down everything that’s happened to me this past year. Goodness, so much has happened!’

  ‘And then, if you’re really rich and famous, perhaps someone will want to publish the story of your life?’ said Madame Adeline.

  ‘I used to hope that would happen,’ I said. ‘I was such a silly child!’

  ‘I think you’re the sort of girl who can make anything happen,’ she said. ‘You always manage to find me!’

  ‘We’re going to stay together for ever now,’ I told her.

  Diamond could hardly believe it when she came skipping back to the cottage, Mavis riding on her shoulder and tenderly gripping her ear. ‘Madame Addie’s coming to live with us? How wonderful!’ she said, clapping her hands.

  Madame Adeline wandered through the cottage one last time, laying her hands on everything as if saying goodbye. Her hands lingered on her rose-patterned china. ‘I bought it piece by piece, and displayed it all week in my wagon, before packing it up carefully to travel to the next place. Not a single piece broke – there’s not even a chip or a crack,’ she murmured.

  ‘Then we’ll take it with us,’ I said. ‘You’d better pack it yourself. I don’t think I have the knack.’

  It took a while for every piece to be carefully wrapped in old material and stacked neatly, cup in cup, saucer on saucer, plate on plate, in an old basket, but it seemed vital work. When we were outside the cottage at last, Madame Adeline carefully tore off several strands of honeysuckle and tucked them in the basket too.

  We had to undertake a long and complicated journey, back through the woods to the station, onto the train, off again at the next town to find a solicitor and give him the keys of the house and various instructions, and then on the train again to London. By this stage both Diamond and Mavis were fast asleep, Mavis tucked between Adeline and Maybelle like a furry third doll.

  It was pouring with rain when we reached the station, and we were loaded with bundles. Madame Adeline insisted on paying for a cab. I felt extremely anxious as we climbed out in front of Miss Grundy’s house. She had already been kind enough to let Diamond and me stay with her, and we hadn’t even paid her any rent yet. Perhaps it was too much to seek shelter for Madame Adeline too. She could have one of the attic beds while Diamond and I shared the other, and she had money to pay her way – but even so it seemed an imposition. And then there was Mavis. Most landladies would surely draw the line at circus livestock.

  I was hesitant about ringing the bell, though we were all getting very wet. I hoped Harry might answer the door, but I heard Miss Grundy’s light feet and the tap of her cane.

  ‘Hello, my dears!’ she said cheerily as she opened the door. ‘My, I’m glad you’re back from your trip. It’s been raining so hard. Little Lily came back soaked when I let her out in the back yard for two minutes. Come in and get dry, girls. You must look like two little orphans in the storm.’

  ‘Well, we’re actually three orphans, Miss Grundy,’ I said hesitantly.

  ‘No, four!’ said Diamond as Mavis scampered out of her arms and up onto her shoulder. The little monkey chattered anxiously.

  Miss Grundy squealed, startled by the sudden noise. ‘It’s a little creature! What kind is it?’

  ‘I’m terribly sorry, but it’s a little monkey. I promise it’s very sweet and well-trained,’ I said. ‘I do hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘A little monkey! Oh, I’m sure I love monkeys!’ Miss Grundy declared. ‘I wonder if it would like Lily’s basket? She often spends the night curled up with me.’

  ‘That’s so kind of you! And could our dear friend possibly share our room overnight, as it’s much too late for her to find other lodgings? She will of course pay you,’ I said.

  ‘Of course! Do come in. Shall we all have a cup of hot chocolate? Dear Harry’s out with some of his chums, but I dare say he’ll be home soon. I take it you’re another friend of his, Miss . . .?’

  ‘It’s Madame,’ said Diamond. ‘And she’s not Harry’s friend – not yet anyway – she’s our friend, Hetty’s and mine.’

  ‘She’s like a mother to us,’ I said, smiling at Madame Adeline reassuringly.

  She was looking desperately pale and I could see she was trembling, but she held out her hand and managed to say in her thrilling stage voice, ‘How do you do? I am Madame Adeline. I knew these dear girls when we all worked at Tanglefield’s Travelling Circus. I used to have an equestrian act.’

  I took off her soaked shawl and attended to Diamond, while Miss Grundy tapped her way up and down the stairs to get towels from the linen cupboard.

  ‘An equestrian act?’ she repeated politely.

  ‘She used to have six rosin-ba