Diamond Read online

  I wandered towards her.

  ‘Why did you give your bowl to Tag, dearie?’ she asked gently. She gave me a little poke in the tummy. ‘You’re the one who’s all skin and bone. You need to eat your fill, little Diamond.’

  ‘I don’t like that stew,’ I said.

  ‘Well then, have some of mine.’

  I peered into her pot anxiously. ‘Is it horsemeat?’ I whispered.

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ she said. ‘I have eaten that and it tastes good, but I haven’t got the stomach for it, not when my horses are just like family to me. This is chicken, dear – an old boiling bird, but still quite juicy.’

  ‘Like you, Addie,’ Mister called, chuckling.

  She pulled a face at him. ‘Take no notice of Beppo. I don’t,’ she said, scooping a fresh portion of chicken stew into a mug. ‘Here, child, eat. And when you’ve finished, I’ll see if I can find you something special for afters!’

  I ate the chicken stew with relish, thanking her fervently. Then she took me by the hand and led me up the steps into her wagon. I cried out in surprise and delight.

  ‘Oh my, it’s so pretty and neat and you have such lovely things,’ I said, touching the lace antimacassars on her crimson sofa, the delicate fern in its polished brass pot, the china ladies dancing on top of her cabinet. ‘It’s just like a dear little home.’

  The boys’ wagon was dark chaos, just three beds and a tumble of discarded clothes – and the wagon smelled so terribly of boy too. Madame Adeline’s wagon smelled of lavender bags and verbena soap and her own sweet rose perfume. I breathed in deeply.

  ‘Do you like the smell?’ she said, smiling at me. She took a cut-glass bottle from her dressing table and dabbed some rose scent behind my ears.

  ‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ I said.

  ‘Well, if you like roses so much, we’ll find you a special treat for your dessert,’ she said. She opened a tin and showed me two little cakes inside: fairy cakes with pink icing, each studded with a candied rose.

  ‘One for you and one for me,’ she said, offering me the tin.

  ‘But they’re yours,’ I said, though I wanted one dreadfully.

  ‘It’s twice as nice to share – and I shall get twice as fat if I eat both,’ said Madame Adeline, patting her stomach.

  I ate my little cake happily, saving the rose till last and then sucking it slowly to savour it. I looked around Madame Adeline’s beautiful home. I could see her dressing table, and a white nightgown hanging behind the door, but I couldn’t see any bed. I looked up at the ceiling, but she didn’t have a hammock. I stared at her velvet armchair, wondering if she curled up there at night. She was watching me, amused.

  ‘I do have a bed, you know,’ she said, as if I’d spoken aloud. ‘Do you want to see it?’ She tugged at a handle on the wall and pulled down an entire little bed that had been hiding inside, ready made up with fresh white linen and a patchwork quilt.

  ‘Oh, how clever!’ I said. ‘May I try it out?’ I flopped down on the bed and found it very comfortable indeed. It was really quite large – roomy enough for two.

  ‘I wish I had a beautiful bed like this,’ I said wistfully. ‘I only have a hammock and I’m scared I shall tip myself out in the night.’

  ‘Well, if you do, Marvo is an expert at catching people,’ said Madame Adeline. She paused. ‘I wish you could come and sleep with me, Diamond. I think you’d be much happier.’

  ‘Oh, I would, I would!’ I said.

  ‘Well, I will talk to Beppo and do my best to persuade him.’

  She tried very hard, but Mister wouldn’t hear of it.

  ‘She’s my property, not yours, Addie! I’m not having you molly-coddling her and feeding her titbits and making her fat and soft. She needs hardening up – and quickly. She has to earn her keep,’ he said.

  ‘I will do my dance and walk on my hands as pretty as you please,’ I said.

  ‘You’re not here to prink about like a child at a party, little missy. You’re a professional now. We’re going to have to work on your act night and day to get you up to scratch,’ said Mister. ‘You’d better make the most of today. Now watch the act with particular care at tonight’s performance. See how sharp my boys are. And afterwards I want you to list the whole routine for me – somersaults, flic-flacs, each and every tumble. You have to learn quick. Make the brain inside that pretty little bonce work overtime.’ He tapped me sharply on top of my head. It felt as if his finger had poked right through flesh and bone.

  Instead of being stirred into action, my brain now seemed paralysed with fear. I sat down to the evening performance and watched tensely, waiting for the silver boys to start their act. Beppo capered about the ring with Chino, and every child in the big top laughed delightedly – but I shrank down in my seat, terribly aware of his steely grey eyes. They seemed to be staring at me even when his head was turned away.

  I craned my neck until it ached to watch Flora, the Queen of the Tightrope, then slumped uncomfortably in my seat when the sea lions balanced balls and honked little trumpets with their whiskery mouths. My head started to nod when dear Madame Adeline cantered round and round the ring. It had been a long and terrible day, the tent was stiflingly hot, my stomach was very full . . . I was soon fast asleep and didn’t wake up until the grand parade at the end of the show.

  I sat up with a jerk, bewildered by the claps and cheers all around me. I called out for Mary-Martha, in such a daze I thought I was back at Willoughby Buildings – but then my dazzled eyes made sense of the gas-lit tent and I remembered everything. I remembered everything – except the silver boys’ routine! And Mister was going to quiz me on it in detail.

  I thought I’d better attempt another escape, but Tag was waiting for me again and I was too tired to tussle with him. I let him drag me over to the wagon. Marvo and Julip joined us. All three boys seemed subdued, standing apart, arms hanging limp.

  ‘It was your fault, Marvo. You weren’t standing straight on,’ Julip muttered.

  ‘You didn’t spring high enough, you fool,’ Marvo told him.

  ‘Well, Tag messed up his cartwheels and I got distracted,’ said Julip.

  Their act had clearly not gone well. They kept looking anxiously over their shoulders. I saw Mister in the distance discussing something with Chino, both of them smoking cigars. Madame Adeline was busy grooming Midnight and covering his back with a blanket for the night. She waved at me and I waved back, though my arm felt leaden.

  Then, at last, Mister came striding towards us. He was a small man and he walked with his shoulders hunched. Marvo was twice his weight and Julip a head taller, but they cowered visibly. Tag was sweating through his greasepaint, clenching his fists.

  ‘Fools!’ Mister muttered, and then he reached up and slapped each boy hard about the head. ‘Slipshod amateurs! We’re rehearsing at seven sharp tomorrow – and if you dare mess up again I’ll whip you all within an inch of your lives. Understand?’

  It was clear he wasn’t bluffing. Marvo and Julip bent their heads. Tag shivered all over, his face screwed up to stop himself crying.

  Then Mister looked at me. ‘Well, little trembling fairy, I hope you paid attention to the act? Tell me how it begins, reciting each individual exercise. Woe betide you if you get any wrong!’

  I stared at him. I stared at Marvo and Julip and Tag. Marvo moved his hand minutely, twirling one finger.

  ‘They – they somersaulted into the ring,’ I stammered.

  Marvo pointed downwards.

  ‘And – and Marvo stood on his hands,’ I continued, but Mister had spotted Marvo’s twitching finger.

  ‘Don’t you dare help her, you sneaking lummox,’ he said, and he lashed out at Marvo again, hitting him so hard his head rocked.

  If he could nearly knock a young ox like Marvo off his feet, what could he do to me? I felt sick with terror.

  ‘I’m waiting,’ said Mister. ‘And as my boys will confirm, I’m not a patient man.’

  My mouth was so dry I could o