No one got well with bars on their windows. Anyone in the circus knew what it did to wild animals – it was why Mr Chipchase only kept horses. So heck knows what this locked room had done to Mam. I had to get her away from here. And fast. Even with the red tunic safely out of sight, she was still trembling hard.
‘Oh no,’ she said in a low moaning voice. ‘Oh dear God, no.’
‘What is it?’
She snatched both my hands. Right now she looked every inch the biter.
‘You’re here with him, aren’t you? He hasn’t hurt you, has he? Tell me he hasn’t!’
I tried to pull my hands free, but she held them tight. Her fingers were burning hot. Glancing at the door, I wondered where Miss Winters was. She’d surely be due back by now.
Mam saw my alarm and loosened her grip.
‘Louie, I’m sorry.’ Her voice shook. ‘But if you knew what evil there is in that man you’d never have come to America with him.’
I felt very uneasy. Because I did know how evil Mr Wellbeloved was, and now so did most of New York State, thanks to the papers.
‘I’m not with him anymore,’ I said.
‘You promise me?’
‘Absolutely.’
She lay back on the bed. It took a while for her trembling to ease. When it did, she shifted onto her side and gazed at me. Her nose was pink from crying.
‘Many years ago I worked for Mr Chipchase. Things became . . . well . . . complicated.’
I didn’t quite follow, but she kept talking.
‘Stupidly, I wanted bigger and better things. So I left Chipchase’s and joined up with . . .’ she couldn’t speak his name, ‘. . . him. You were not long born, and the work was hard.’
A sick thought rushed into my head. ‘Mr Wellbeloved’s not my . . . ?’
‘No, Louie. He’s not your father.’
I breathed again.
‘So,’ Mam continued, ‘with you to care for, I had to keep working, even though it was tough, tougher than I’d ever known at Chipchase’s. No one dared cross the gaffer.’
I winced, picturing Gabriel’s horsewhipped arms.
‘Then he had notions about Niagara,’ said Mam. ‘I was dazzled by it. I was a showstopper. It was in my blood. I was also under contract to him, so I had to agree. But,’ she blinked slowly, ‘there was a catch.’
I shuddered. It was bound to be awful.
‘He wanted me to walk the Falls with you strapped to my back . . . you were but four months old.’
It was. Truly awful.
‘Blondin,’ I said, feeling ill. ‘Mr Wellbeloved said he needed a trick to outshine Blondin.’
Mam nodded. ‘He was obsessed by it. But I’d have died rather than put you in that much danger. I’d never want you to cross the Falls.’
‘Oh.’
I turned away. What should I tell her? That it was too late, that I had crossed the Falls just yesterday? That Mr Wellbeloved had set the whole thing up, and that he’d wanted me to walk the Falls all along?
It hit me slap bang in the face.
This wasn’t about glory.
This was revenge.
Mr Wellbeloved had done this to punish Mam, all because she’d dared to say no. On the face of it, it seemed far-fetched. Only someone truly twisted would think up such a plan. And then wait . . . and wait . . . for thirteen whole years, with all that bitterness still festering away inside them.
Mr Wellbeloved was that twisted. And he was persistent. A bit of luck and he’d found me through Gabriel. The rest was pure cunning: not choosing me, then welcoming me on the ship, taking the red heart and then giving it back again, even hounding Gabriel to his death. It was all part of the trail of crumbs. And it all led to one thing.
Me crossing Niagara Falls.
The realisation made it hard to breathe. I fought the urge to scream by digging my nails into my palms.
How could he, how could he, how could he?
Mam eased my hands apart. ‘Louie?’
Bewildered, I looked into her eyes. They were huge and dark and stormy. But there was also a flicker of fire in them.
That fire was in me too. For I hadn’t been exactly helpless in all this. I wasn’t a baby strapped to its mother’s back. I also had my own reasons for being here. I’d wanted to cross Niagara more than anything. I’d chosen it. And I’d done it in style. The whole world might now know of Little Miss Blondin. Yet what mattered more were the other headlines, the ones that shamed Mr Wellbeloved. That had been my work too.
‘He didn’t hurt you, Louie, and that’s all I care about,’ said Mam.
She was right. Though it didn’t wipe out Mr Wellbeloved’s intentions. The thought of Gabriel still made my chest hurt. I’d never forget him or his poor brother.
‘So, how did you get out of performing?’ I asked, wanting to hear her story much more than dwelling on mine. ‘Did Mr Wellbeloved follow you? Did he whip you?’
Mam took a big, shivery breath. ‘I left you behind in England. It nearly killed me to do it, but the alternative was far worse.’
‘But why Chipchase’s? And why Jasper’s wagon? Why not a foundling hospital or an orphanage?’
Her face went soft.
Oh blimey, I thought, picturing waistcoats and angry voices, and worse, Kitty Chipchase’s sour face. This time my cheeks flushed. Mam and Mr Chipchase? Really? I hardly dared think it, but I knew what it meant. Only I wasn’t ready to hear it, not yet.
Mam gave my hand a little squeeze. ‘That wagon, my sweet child, was once my wagon. It was where you were born.’
I gulped. ‘Was it?’
‘It was. I’d heard Jasper, who’d replaced me as showstopper, was a dear man. And I wanted you to still have your home.’
Jasper replaced Mam?
I couldn’t quite grasp it. Any of it. Yet when I pictured our wagon with its tiny bunks and cluttered shelves, the ache in my chest grew strong. It was home, and had always been home. Now I was beginning to see why.
‘Chipchase’s is a good circus with good people,’ said Mam. ‘It was the best place I knew.’
There was still so much I didn’t understand. But I realised one thing for certain, even more than when I’d first read her letter. Mam hadn’t left me behind like an umbrella at all. She’d left me so I’d be safe, and Chipchase’s had done its very best for her. And for me.
Though her face was wet with tears now, Mam kept on with her story. ‘I didn’t tell that monster I’d left you behind till we’d arrived in America. All the way, I’d pretended you were sleeping in the cabin.’
‘And then?’
‘When I did tell him, he . . . well, there was quite a scene. He insisted we send for you at once. I refused. Point blank.’
I shivered.
‘So,’ she wiped her cheek, ‘he threatened to send me here. He said I’d never see you again if he did. It made me so mad I attacked him.’
‘You fell into his trap, just like I did.’
‘Sorry?’
At that moment the door opened. Miss Winters held it wide as a man stepped inside. Mam rose from the bed.
‘What is it, Dr Grogan?’ She squared her shoulders and folded her arms. Maybe I imagined it, but she looked taller too. Just like Miss Lilly’s last card – the one about female power – and it made me feel brave too. Here was my mam, the empress.
The doctor took his glasses off, cleaned them, then put them back on again. He squinted like a mole.
‘Ah, Miss Samparini,’ he said. ‘There seems to be a problem.’
Now I stood up too. Today wasn’t for visitors and he’d come to ask me to leave, hadn’t he? Perhaps never to come back again. A wave of panic hit me. For now I’d found Mam I couldn’t bear to leave her, not even for a day. Yet I’d still not the faintest idea how to get her out of here, not without doctors or lawyers or whatever it took.
‘It has come to my attention that there are six months at least of unpaid accounts,’ Dr Grogan said. ‘We have requested payment, but Mr Wellbeloved hasn’t responded.’
‘I see,’ said Mam.
So did I. For hadn’t there been six envelopes in Mrs Franklin’s basket? That surely meant one for each unpaid month. And Mr Wellbeloved hadn’t opened any of them.
‘You won’t find him, sir,’ I said. ‘Read today’s papers and you’ll see. He’s been run out of town.’
Dr Grogan spread his hands. ‘Then there is no easy way to say this, Miss Samparini. Without payment, we cannot continue to treat you.’
It took a moment to realise what he was saying. Mam turned to me, bewildered as I started to laugh. For it really was absurd. Mr Wellbeloved had never been a good payer. Gabriel had known it and so did I. He was so busy scheming he’d forgotten to pay the very bills that kept Mam from me. Odd though it was, I felt grateful. So grateful I seized Mam’s hands.
‘In which case,’ I said, ‘we’re going home.’