Lily’s eyes were still adjusting to the inky insides of the tent when a single limelight flickered to life, illuminating the sawdust ring with a lurid glare, accompanied by a strong smell of burning calcium. The soft bowing of the fiddle cut through the air. Soon it was joined by the beat of the drum, then the squeezed wheezings of an accordion and finally the plunk of the double bass.

As the jaunty fanfare became louder, the velvet curtains parted, rising in swags from the centre, to reveal a black backcloth sewn with tiny fragments of mirror that caught the light from the auditorium and twinkled like little stars.

Two figures – a man and a woman – paraded out onto the sawdust. They set off walking in opposite directions around the ring. The man wore a high top hat with a broad brim, which shaded his gaunt clean-shaven face and a pair of dark, deep-set eyes, and he carried a black horsewhip. His red swallowtail tuxedo flapped with each stride, while the woman’s loose blonde hair bounced with every gliding step. She wore a vermilion dress and twirled an open red-and-white parasol about her head. Her face was painted with brightly coloured make-up and she had a long blonde beard that matched the colour of her hair.

The two met at a point directly in front of where Lily and her friend were sitting, and threw their arms up in the air in unison.

The man swept off his top hat and bowed to the assembled crowd, flashing them a sparkling smile crammed with gold teeth. “LAAAAAADIES AND GENTLLLLLEMEN! Welcome to our Big Top! Tonight, in our ONLY BRACKENBRIDGE SHOW, you will witness MAGNIFICENT ESCAPADES of UNIQUE QUALITY!”

“Blimey!” Tolly whispered. “He’s got the patter, hasn’t he?”

“It’s almost as stale as the smell in this tent,” Malkin sniped.

“My name’s Slimwood,” the man continued. “I’m the ringmaster of this circus of ROUSTABOUTS that you’ve the pleasure of witnessing this evening, HEREABOUTS and THEREABOUTS! Allow me to introduce MY BEAUTIFUL ASSISTANT – MADAME LYONS-MANE, our bearded lady and ringmistress.” He threw a white gloved hand out to his companion. “We have come to RELIEVE YOUR SUFFERING! Create a little AMUSEMENT in your dull lives… Our acts will perform the MOST OUTRAGEOUS tricks of DANGER and DARING for your DELIGHT and DELECTATION!” He waved his hands at the crowd as if these wonders were already visible.

Madame Lyons-Mane stepped forward. “Before we begin, one of my clowns has told me that tonight is someone’s birthday!” She glanced at Lily. “Would you please join me in the ring?” she asked in a melodious voice.

Lily stood and obliged, feeling an odd pull in her stomach.

“A big hand for Miss Hartman!”

The crowd applauded and Madame Lyons-Mane opened her parasol in front of the pair of them, leaning in to whisper in Lily’s ear: “Happy birthday, Lily. I’ve another present for you.” She motioned to Auggie, who dashed over and handed Lily a bunch of wild flowers wrapped in newspaper.

“Font dorget to water them,” he chirruped as Lily took the bouquet and he sprayed her with a squirt of water from a fake silk carnation in his lapel.

After that, Madame Lyons-Mane indicated she should return to her seat.

Lily sat back down and put the wilted flowers on the floor beside her.

“Don’t go chewing those,” she told Malkin, as she wiped her face on the end of her scarf.

“It couldn’t make them any blooming deader,” Malkin muttered from under her chair. “By the by, that woman shouldn’t be opening umbrellas indoors. It’s bad luck. Everybody knows that. You’d think circus people would too.”

Tolly tapped Lily on the arm. “Did you ask her about Angelique?”

“There wasn’t time,” Lily said. “I’ll do it later. Maybe she’ll—”

But their conversation was interrupted by a loud drum roll as Madame Lyons-Mane flipped her open parasol in the air and caught it by the handle, balancing it on her palm, before finally snapping it shut.

Then Slimwood shouted: “Remember – THERE ARE NO RULES OR REGULATIONS, AND NO SAFETY NETS! Merely the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH… And now, LET THE EXTRAVAGANZA BEGIN!”

Lily settled back in her seat, distracted by the thought of Madame Lyons-Mane. Something about the sharp scent she wore had seemed familiar. When she’d leaned in close to whisper, the aroma had cut through the sawdust and animal smells of the circus ring. It lingered like a memory Lily couldn’t quite place, faint and out of reach.

But she didn’t have time to contemplate it, for the show was now in full swing. They saw plate-spinners, tumblers, jugglers, dancers, and Lily found herself drawn more and more into the drama of each act.

“PRESENTING THE FABULOUS BOUNCING BUTTONS!” Slimwood announced as the show reached its halfway point, and a family of three dark-haired, tanned-looking acrobats entered the ring. He pointed at them one by one: “Bruno, Gilda and Silva!” Silva was the youngest, about Lily’s age, and Lily thought she had to be the daughter or the sister of the other two. “See them jump like tiddlywinks! See them shine in their astounding acrobatic act!”

The Buttons sprang about, performing backflips and cartwheels to the tunes of the band. Meanwhile, with much screeching, the Lunk brought out a see-saw. Carrying it as though it was as light as a matchstick, he placed it in the middle of the ring and lumbered off again.

Silva Buttons stood on one end of the see-saw, while Gilda climbed onto Bruno’s shoulders to create a human tower. Silva nodded to them and slapped her hands to her thighs and, as one, they hopped on to the other end of the see-saw, sending Silva flying through the air, so that she landed atop their tower.

Silva wobbled momentarily, and it looked like she might fall; she glanced nervously offstage at Slimwood and Madame Lyons-Mane, waiting in the wings. Behind them lurked the great square shadow of the Lunk, shifting from foot to foot. The sight seemed to make Silva sway even more, almost as if she was more worried about getting the trick wrong in front of them than she was about the audience.

Then Gilda threw her arms around Silva’s legs to steady her, and she seemed to regain her confidence and balance. The music swelled in encouragement, then dropped into a drum roll.

Silva pasted a nervous smile back on her face and, throwing her arms up, leaped from the top of the human tower…

She bounced onto her hands, somersaulted across the sawdust and landed with a flourish, closely followed by Gilda and Bruno, who vaulted into place beside her. Then the three Buttons lined up, opened their arms, and gave big extravagant bows to each corner of the tent, exiting to applause.

The Fabulous Bouncing Buttons were followed by Dimitri Grai, the Youngest Horseman of the Apocalypse, who wore a Cossack riding outfit and rode two stallions, one black, one white, round the ring simultaneously.

Then came an ancient-looking man who ate four flaming fire brands, which he washed down with tea straight from a teapot, before polishing off an entire set of crockery from the same tray as if each piece of china were merely a cream bun.

At last, Slimwood appeared again. “And now WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR,” he called. “The FREAKISH and UNNATURAL portion of our show!”

The crowd’s mutterings became filled with a kind of electric excitement, and the music accompanying Slimwood took on an edgy, scrambled tone.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE GIVE A WARM HAND – OR PREFERABLY TWO, HE COULD USE THEM BOTH – FOR LUCA THE LOBSTER BOY!”

A boy with mechanical claw-like hands appeared in the gap between the curtains. He wore a linen shirt and woollen breeches, and had blue eyes and blond hair, scruffy as a haystack. He seemed ill at ease, but he snapped his claws on cue. Lily guessed he was about fifteen, though he was barely taller than her.

“Take note of his gruesome appendages,” Slimwood advised, pointing at Luca with his whip from the edge of the ring. With a shudder, he leaned towards the audience, and held up his free hand, whispering theatrically from behind it. “Each claw can cut through six inches of steel like paper!”

Luca had a bandy-legged gait and his shoulders stooped low. Lily noticed he could barely keep his heavy-looking claws from dragging in the sawdust. She fidgeted in her seat, balling her fists. She didn’t appreciate the sneering grandiosity of Slimwood’s words, or the way the boy was being treated. She wondered if Slimwood spoke to Angelique that way too, and found herself grinding her teeth at the idea of him exploiting hybrids like her for entertainment. Displaying their idiosyncrasies as things to be gawped at and feared.

While she was thinking all this, the Lunk had creakily dragged a pair of dangling chains along a suspended roof rail and hung them directly over Luca’s head in the centre of the ring.

“Tonight,” Slimwood explained, as Luca began to climb, “Luca will ascend these chains unaided, and swing from them using only the strength of each hooked hand. Don’t get too close or anger him, ladies and gents, for he can tear off your nose with a single snap of his claw!”

“LAWKS ALMIGHTY!” shrieked someone in the row of seats beside Lily. “HE’S A MONSTER!”

Lily waited for Slimwood to come to Luca’s defence. He wasn’t a monster. Why couldn’t they see that? But Slimwood merely confirmed the woman’s opinion. “In the circus we call them FREAKS, Miss!”

At that, the woman fainted dead away and her companion made a big scene of fanning her back to life. Luckily, Madame Lyons-Mane, who was still standing near the edge of the ring, was on hand to administer some smelling salts. She plucked a little glass bottle from her pocket and hurried over to wave it beneath the woman’s nose.

The sharp and pungent stink wafted across the row of seats and made Lily feel quite dizzy. Auggie the clown helped the woman to her feet and her friend escorted her outside for some fresh air. Meanwhile the entire auditorium, including Luca, had paused to watch this strange sideshow. As she exited, the woman was still muttering about what a horror he was.

Lily glanced at his sad face and her heart went out to him. Robert and Tolly looked disgusted by the scene too.

“Why do they behave that way?” Robert whispered. The audience’s attention had returned to Luca as he started to climb the chain.

“People despise what’s different,” Tolly said. “They’re scared to death of it.” He nodded at the ringmaster and Luca. “But if I had to guess who was the rotter out of them two, I would put my money on that Slimwood fella.”

Lily remembered when she’d told Tolly about the Cogheart and how it made her feel she didn’t fit in. Tolly had admitted he often felt the same. He was an orphan selling newspapers back then, and people often looked down on him because of that. He knew what it was like to be seen as different or lesser than others. And he was right, Lily reflected. Most people never gave you a chance to prove yourself their equal, especially if you didn’t look quite like them.

Luca had nearly reached the roof by now.

“No one knows how he lost his hands,” Slimwood narrated as Luca completed his climb. “Perhaps they were severed in a threshing accident, or mangled in a loom? Maybe they were snipped off with scissors when he was a tailor’s apprentice as punishment for sucking his thumb? Not even he can recall… But none of that’s important. What matters is this freak’s claws are as TOUGH AS IRON!”

Luca swung back and forth from the top of the chain, holding his body at a right angle to it, exhibiting unnatural strength.

Then he scrambled back down to the ring and bowed to end his act. His face was filled with disdain as he stared at the audience and he clacked his claws together distractedly to accompany their uneasy round of scattered applause.

Lily was beginning to feel hugely uncomfortable about the whole Skycircus set-up. After all, what was the difference between people like Luca, who everyone paid to goggle at, and her, with her own hybrid nature? The only real distinction was his oddness was self-evident, whilst Lily’s was hidden deep inside.

“UP NEXT IS DEEDEE LONG-LEGS, THE WORLD’S WEIRDEST AND MOST WONDERFUL WIRE-WALKER!”

A young girl with dark brown hair wearing a pink tutu waltzed out across the ring, teetering on stilt-like mechanical legs that whirred and fizzed with her every step and made her look like a clockwork flamingo.

Once again the audience screeched and caterwauled. But Deedee ignored them. Instead she climbed gracefully up a rope ladder to the wire that was suspended high over the ring, only visible now the spotlight was on it. Then she took up a long pole that was balanced on hooks beside the platform at the top of the ladder and, holding it out for balance, she began to walk the wire, putting one foot carefully in front of the other, her mechanical toes grasping the rope with each step.

Soon, as swiftly as she had stepped onto the wire, she was running along it, skipping back and forth; performing flips and handstands on the rope – tricks that Lily had never seen or even heard of before, not even in the penny dreadful circus stories she’d read. When Deedee had finished she climbed down to the ring and bowed distractedly to the audience with a look of studied indifference, before slipping away through the curtain.

“NOW, WITNESS THE LARGEST MECHANICAL MAN EVER BUILT. HE LITERALLY DOES HAVE MUSCLES OF STEEL! OUR RESIDENT STRONGMAN – THE LUNK!”

The Lunk stomped into the ring. His humungous square body squeaked as loudly as an un-oiled steam engine, his square metal feet sending up puffs of sawdust and shaking the ground beneath him.

He approached a cage being wheeled on from the other direction by a group of four heavyset men, and his long square shadow fell across two mangy-looking lions, one tiger and a bear, all stalking about inside it.

The Lunk demonstrated his superhuman strength by bending an iron bar, before shutting himself in the cage with the dangerous animals. But somehow neither feat was particularly impressive. There was nothing the carnivores could do to him, given that he was made of metal. In fact, Lily felt more afraid for the animals when the Lunk threateningly waved a chair at them. It wasn’t fair to put such an indomitable iron man up against these poor scraggy wild beasts. They didn’t even try to come near him.

As the Lunk’s act ended, a vague and uneasy atmosphere floated over the ring like oil on water. Surely they must be nearing the end of the show? Lily wondered if they were making a mistake staying until its conclusion Would it be better to leave now – after all, they still had to work out how they were going to get home? Or should she still wait? She dearly wanted to see Angelique – to witness her performance and speak with her.

In that instant the band started up again, the fiddle bowing and swooping, and the accordion and drums getting faster and faster, rising in apparent anticipation of something astounding still to come. Then Slimwood reappeared and spoke over the music: “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOU ARE ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE OUR GRAND FINALE AND SHOWSTOPPER!”

Lily sat forward in her seat. This had to be it, surely? What she’d been waiting for…?

“Watch the Skycircus’s most FANTASTIC FREAK perform on the FLYING TRAPEZE! A monster so MAGNIFICENT, a hybrid so HYPNOTIC, that they call her THE FAIRY-PRINCESS OF ENGLAND! Daedalus’s daughter! THE BEWITCHING BIRD-GIRL OF GREAT BRITAIN! A creature of the earth and air! A hybrid miracle of our modern clockwork age! A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME VISION!” He waved his whip at the audience. “See her SOAR ABOVE THE SAWDUST in a feat of FANTASTIC FEATHERED BRAVERY! Observe her fly from her trapeze to trapeze, performing the impossible quadruple somersault in PLAIN SIGHT, from the astounding height of ONE-HUNDRED-AND-ONE PERILOUS FEET! I give you OUR VERY OWN ACROBATIC ANGEL: MISS ANGELIQUE AIRHART!”

The spotlight swept across the ring and paused halfway up a long rope ladder. And there, hanging from a rung, suspended between heaven and earth, was the girl with wings.