The Sequin Star by Belinda Murrell Page A

ground. Lula slid down Elsie’s trunk and scampered up onto her mistress’s shoulder. Elsie sank down on one knee, stretched out the other foreleg, and bowed her great head to the sawdust.
    The drums rolled and Rosina dropped into a deep curtsy. The crowd roared with appreciation, their applause thunderous. Kit sat on the edge of his seat, clapping loudly.
    Claire shook herself to break the spell at intermission. She and Kit wandered out among the crowd, watching the creatures in the menagerie and wandering the sideshows. Claire noticed Jem was selling popcorn at the refreshment stand. Now he was wearing a band uniform with a peaked cap. He smiled at them as he handed over three serves of popcorn to a family.
    â€˜Enjoying the show?’ he asked.
    â€˜You bet,’ said Kit. ‘An extraordinary performance.’
    â€˜It’s amazing ,’ Claire added.
    â€˜Did you have a favourite act?’ Jem said. ‘Apart from the brilliant violin playing?’
    â€˜Princess Rosina dancing on horseback,’ said Claire. ‘She was fantastic. She looked like a ballerina up there. How does she keep her balance?’
    Jem grinned. ‘She’s very good, isn’t she? She’s a born performer. You know that her flip-flaps on horseback are one of the most dangerous acts in the show?’
    â€˜Really?’ asked Claire. ‘What about the aerialists or the tightrope walkers?’
    â€˜There aren’t any safety nets under a galloping horse,’ explained Jem. He gave a sideways glance at Kit. ‘We’ve had love-sick young men who’ve followed the circus for two hundred miles, swooning over our gorgeous Rosina. Alf usually frightens them off eventually.’
    Kit dug his hands in his pockets and looked away. ‘Rosina certainly is something.’

    The second act was even better. The dogs walked on their hind legs, jumped through hoops and pushed prams. The monkeys rode on tricycles, scampered across the tightrope and staged a tea party. There was a comic routine where Lula kept stealing props from the clowns and running off with them, mimicking the clowns. The little clowns chased and scolded her, but of course Lula always had the better of them.
    Alf the ringmaster stood in the spotlight. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ he bellowed. ‘It’s time to introduce our master magician, along with his gorgeous assistant Kali, who will amaze and delight you with his mystifying magic and death-defying disappearing acts. You will hardly believe your very own eyes. A big round of applause for . . . Manfred the Magnificent .’ The band struck up a tune and Manfred stalked into the ring in his top hat and scarlet-lined cloak. He was followed by Kali in a skimpy orange costume.
    Manfred took his top hat off, showing the inside to the audience and waving it in the air to prove it was empty. He placed the top hat on a table, flourished a scarlet handkerchief over it, then picked up the hat. Following a theatrical pause, Manfred reached inside and pulled out a small white rabbit. Kali took the rabbit and paraded it around the ring to demonstrate that it was alive.
    Manfred then placed a colourful box onto the table, dropping the sides down to show everyone that it was empty. He closed the box back up, popped the rabbit inside, tapped the lid then dropped the sides again to reveal that the white rabbit had completely disappeared.
    His final performance was to put Kali into a wooden box on a table. Claire could see her head sticking out from one end, with her black hair hanging down, and her slipper-shod feet sticking out the other end. Manfred took a sharp-toothed saw and cut right through the middle of the box. Claire hugged herself, sucking in her breath.
    Manfred pushed two sharp blades down through the sawn slot, then pulled the box apart to show that he had sawn the box in half. Kali lay deathly still, her eyes closed. Claire bit her lip –