Diamond by Jacqueline Wilson

Author:Jacqueline Wilson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical, Young Adult, Children, Family, Fiction
ISBN: 9781446479827
Publisher: RHCP Digital
Published: 2013-09-25T23:00:00+00:00

I HOPED IT would get easier. After all, I could now turn neat somersaults as easily as winking. But the human column was different. It was a twice daily terror. Julip was right – the fear never went away. But there were good times too. I loved visiting Madame Adeline and eating cake and chocolates, I loved chatting to Mr Marvel and playing with little Mavis, but even then, when I was most relaxed, the fear was there in the pit of my stomach.

Mister haunted me every day and stalked my dreams at night. I could never please him now. The more he threatened me, the worse I got, until I stumbled doing the simplest cartwheel and started whenever he said my name. I developed a nervous twitch that made him even madder. ‘Stop jerking about like a little lunatic! Stop it at once, I say!’ he’d hiss. I’d put my hands to my face, struggling to keep it still, but I could feel it twitching beneath my fingers.

I lost all sense of where we were and how far we had travelled. We pulled down the big top every week, rain or shine, travelled through the night, arrived at a new town or village, slept through the morning, and rehearsed and performed all the rest of the week. We could have been down in sunny Cornwall or up in chilly Inverness for all I knew. We might even have returned to my own home town without my realizing.

I never left the circus field, and they all looked alike anyway. I didn’t know, I ceased to care. I took part in the circus parade through towns and villages, and barely noticed whether I was passing great stone mansions or humble cottages. All I had to do was smile until my cheeks ached, smile even when my eyes pricked with tears.

I was hiding under the wagon one evening because Mister had threatened me with a beating and I was pretty sure he meant it. I couldn’t help sobbing, though I put my hands over my face to try to stifle the sounds. Then I heard a scuffle – and someone bent right down and peered under the wagon at me.

Yes, Hetty, it was you!

I was so startled I curled up small, trying to hide.

‘It’s all right, I’m not going to hurt you,’ the someone whispered. ‘And I won’t let anyone else hurt you either. See my red hair? I am so fierce that everyone is scared of me. Even the biggest, ugliest ogre quakes when he sees me coming. Evil giants tremble and whimper at my approach.’

I couldn’t help giggling. I wasn’t sure if this strange girl was grown up or still a child. She was very little, like me, but she was wearing a prim cotton lady’s dress, though she wore her long hair loose about her shoulders, not caught up in a neat bun. I loved her voice. She didn’t sound like the circus folk. She didn’t sound like the Willoughby Buildings people.

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