Little Stars Read online

  Diamond and I looked at each other and then peeped round the door. It was a much bigger room than the other ones we’d seen. This wasn’t really a dressing room at all, more like a lady’s boudoir, with little gilt tables set with silver photo frames and pretty ornaments. There were pink velvet chairs and a magnificent pink chaise-longue. Miss Rubichek was lying decorously on the chaise-longue, wearing an amazing Prussian blue silk ensemble, her neatly crossed feet shod in silver kid slippers with high heels that emphasized their arches.

  I wondered if she’d been a dancer in her youth. Her dancing days were clearly over now, but she still cut an impressive figure. Her magnificent blue bosom was a wonderful display cushion for her strings of milky pearls, and her many-ringed hands were lightly clasped on a smooth mound of stomach, but her waist was still impressively small. She was clearly wearing a very strong corset under her blue gown.

  ‘Well, don’t just stand there gawping. In you come, in you come. My, my, what are you two girlies doing here?’ she asked.

  ‘Please, ma’am, we’re looking for Mrs Ruby,’ I said.

  ‘Well, look no further. Here I am!’ she said, with a grand theatrical gesture that set her diamond bracelets tinkling.

  ‘Oh! But it says Miss Eva Rubichek on the door . . .’

  ‘Yes, well, that’s me too. I once married Mr Rubichek – big mistake, that was – but even though I got rid of him soon enough, I decided to hang onto his fancy name. Better than plain Smith, the name I was born with. Most folk can’t get their tongues round anything different, so they shortened it to Ruby, and though I’m a single lady now – well, most of the time – I’m given the title Mrs out of respect. Like a cook!’ She cackled with laughter. ‘Oh dear, I expect I’ve confused you.’

  ‘Not at all, Mrs Ruby,’ I said. ‘I understand perfectly. Our circumstances are very similar.’

  ‘You’re never telling me a little girl like you has been married!’

  ‘No, no! But I was called Hetty Feather as a child, and then I took the name Sapphire Battersea because that was Mama’s name for me, and then, when I became an artiste, I called myself Emerald Star,’ I said.

  ‘Good heavens. Your story’s even more complicated than mine! And what about you, little sweetheart?’

  Diamond looked fearful and fidgeted with her pinafore.

  ‘Cat got your tongue?’ Mrs Ruby asked.

  Diamond put her hand over her mouth, as if a real cat were about to steal her tongue.

  ‘Bit simple, is she?’ Mrs Ruby said to me.

  ‘Oh no, ma’am, she’s as bright as a button, and extremely talented, but she’s a little over-awed,’ I said quickly.

  ‘That doesn’t seem to be your problem, child,’ said Mrs Ruby. She put her head on one side. ‘Are you a child? It’s hard to tell. How old are you?’

  I thought quickly. ‘I’m as old as you need me to be,’ I said. ‘If you employ me as an artiste, I will have more novelty value as a child performer. I think I can pass for twelve, maybe even younger. But I am actually nearly sixteen, with an old head on my shoulders, so you need have no worries about chaperones – and I take full responsibility for Diamond here.’

  Mrs Ruby laughed. ‘Yes, you’ve certainly got an old head on your shoulders, Hetty-Sapphire-Emerald. So you are both child artistes? What is the nature of your double act?’

  ‘Oh, we perform separately. We have very different skills. Diamond is the really talented one,’ I said proudly. ‘She is an acrobatic wonder. If you will permit us to get changed into our costumes, we will show you what we can do.’

  Mrs Ruby gestured to a Japanese screen in the corner of her room. ‘Pop behind there then, dears. Best be quick about it – I’ve only got ten minutes or so before all the real artistes start arriving.’

  She didn’t seem to be taking us seriously as artistes. There was a gleam in her dark eyes, as if we were amusing her in the wrong way. Well, we would show her!

  ‘Chin up, Diamond,’ I whispered, unsnapping the suitcase.

  I wished there had been time to iron the satin bodice of Diamond’s fairy costume and my own crumpled scarlet jacket. My boots could do with a good polish, and the star on Diamond’s wand was drooping.

  ‘There now! Don’t we look grand?’ I whispered firmly in Diamond’s ear as we dressed behind the screen. ‘We’re going to cut a fine figure, aren’t we?’

  Diamond nodded, but she still looked frightened.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Will she beat me if I tumble?’ she murmured.

  ‘No, absolutely not!’ I said.

  ‘But Mister beat me.’

  ‘Yes, and that was awful, and I wish I could have stopped him. But Mrs Ruby’s not cruel like Beppo. If she so much as raises her hand to you, I’ll kick her in her fat tummy, and when we get back to Miss Gibson’s, I’ll stick pins inside her new costume,’ I murmured.

  I was trying to make Diamond laugh, but she took me seriously. ‘Will she really raise her hand to hit me?’ she said.

  ‘Oh, Diamond, for goodness’ sake! No. A hundred times no. Now come on, she’ll be getting impatient.’ I took Diamond’s hand and led her out into the room.

  Mrs Ruby chuckled at the sight of Diamond in her fairy outfit and me in my scarlet ringmaster’s coat and riding breeches. I swept her a bow and told Diamond to curtsy.

  ‘Very pretty,’ said Mrs Ruby. ‘Very well, let’s get on with it. Give me a little snippet of your performance. Three minutes each, maximum.’

  ‘You first, Diamond,’ I said, thinking she’d better get it over quickly.

  She looked around the room anxiously. ‘It’s not a big enough space!’ she hissed.

  ‘Well, use your initiative, dearie. Only do mind my ornaments. Adapt your act,’ said Mrs Ruby.

  I didn’t have much idea of Diamond’s new act because I’d been cooped up sewing. She didn’t seem to have much idea of it, either. She did a back-flip, she walked on her hands, she cartwheeled around Mrs Ruby’s chaise-longue, but each acrobatic trick was hesitant and awkward and the performance didn’t flow. She pranced a little and waved her hand and smiled, showing all her teeth the way Beppo had taught her. It had looked effective in a circus ring but it seemed bizarre here.

  ‘Right, dear, I think I’ve seen enough now,’ Mrs Ruby said after less than two minutes. ‘Now you, Little Miss Breeches. Are you going to somersault too? I hope not!’

  ‘No, I have another speciality. But perhaps you’d like to give Diamond another try first? If she could only use the stage, I’m sure she would be able to show herself off to more effect. She was positively the little star of Tanglefield’s Travelling Circus. Folk came from miles to see her,’ I said.

  ‘I dare say,’ said Mrs Ruby. ‘But she’s had her turn now. We can’t possibly use the stage. There will be men fiddling with the lighting and rushing around with props. We have a show to put on.’ She consulted her gold fob watch. ‘You’d better get started, pronto.’

  I didn’t know what to do. I was worried that Diamond had blown her chances. It was all my fault. I should have supervised her rehearsal. It was ridiculous to expect her to adapt her act herself. I sometimes forgot how little she was, and still so cowed by her life with brutal Beppo that she could scarcely decide anything for herself. I had let her down badly. I could hardly bear to look at her now, her head bent, her face hidden by her golden hair. Her hands were clenched tight. Her wand had fallen to the floor. Her skinny legs looked about to buckle.

  I should scoop her up and take her out of this place – but we had to find some way of supporting ourselves. It was our best chance. If I became a star of the Cavalcade, I could earn enough to keep the two of us. I could pay the rent, buy us food, get Diamond a little treat from the toyshop. She could go to school so she could learn to read and write properly and make some friends her own age. When she came skipping home, I’d be there to make a fuss of her and give her a mug of cocoa and read to her, and then after she’d had her supper, I’d tuck her up