You always expect, when you have a baby, that there'll be that moment when you look down at the tiny person and instantly fall in love ( Read more... )

There's a strange car in the driveway when Carlotta arrives. She gets carefully down from the caravan, sorts out the horses, then goes into the house ( Read more... )

The circus travels on, getting stronger as word of mouth spreads. Soon, as they reach villages, people have heard that there's a group of performers, defying the war, travelling around to help and entertain ( Read more... )

It's very dark, and full of dust and smoke, when Carlotta and Teja emerge from the bar. They're coming out of a small room in a cellar, into another room ( Read more... )

"I think we've gone the wrong way, lass." Humphrey the conjurer says, leaning over the side of his caravan ( Read more... )

Perhaps she half expected the ghost. Half hung around waiting, just on the offchance.
I was born in the wagon of a travelling show.The bump is just starting to show. The first time she saw it sticking out, she felt a twinge of panic. Her circus folk have been getting on as a team, accepting her as Ringmaster, a role usually only performed by a man ( Read more... )

Sixteen weeks ( Read more... )

"AGH!" Carlotta grimaces as the plaster comes off. It's not a pleasant sight, nor smell ( Read more... )

Carlotta had expected there wouldn't be much response to her advert. After all, when the circuses disbanded at the start of the war, most people went off to other responsibilities ( Read more... )

Kate Barlow had been right, Carlotta reflected the night after she last went to the bar. If she wasn't careful, she was going to spend the whole of her youthful years doing dreadful, serious things ( Read more... )