The show was over, and in its aftermath Lily and Robert sat wrapped in blankets in the ringside seats. Malkin was resting, curled up at their feet.

Lily watched as the gendarmes busily rounded up the rousties and Madame, Auggie and Joey, who were alive and only lightly mauled by the tiger. Slimwood was in the worst state, bleeding profusely and unconscious. He was placed on a stretcher and carried from the tent to an ambulance that was waiting outside. The rest of the motley crew were handcuffed together into a chain gang and led out from the main entrance in a long line.

Despite the chaos and general devastation, the circus folk seemed filled with relief. Their faces shone at last. The pain and sorrow lifted from their eyes. The Buttons clasped their arms around their daughter and the rest of the acts and families gathered about Dimitri, their son – the son of the circus.

As Lily watched this scene unfold around them, Papa sat down in the seat beside her. Then Angelique flitted down next to them too.

“Papa, this is Angelique,” Lily said. “She saved us.”

“Thank you, Angelique.” Papa shook her hand. “You certainly are a most remarkable young lady.”

“You’re very kind, sir,” Angelique replied. Then she spotted someone in John’s shadow. “Bartholomew,” she asked, “is that you?”

A broad grin spread across Tolly’s face. “Angela!” he cried. “Angelique, I mean. You changed your name! And I did too – it’s Tolly now. But Lily and Robert found you! I’m so glad! I’d no idea where you were since you left the Camden Workhouse.”

“I was missing a long time,” Angelique said. “But I’m back now.” She folded her wings around him and gave him the most enormous hug, and Tolly blushed beetroot-red.

Lily was glad to see him and Anna too. There had been moments in this awful week when she thought they might never be reunited with Papa or her friends again.

“When I got back to your home and told them what happened, the entire party was in uproar,” Tolly explained to Robert and Lily. “Everyone vowed to help find you, Inspector Fisk included. The trouble was,” he continued, “we’d no clue where you’d been taken.”

“Or where the circus might be headed,” Anna added.

“I was in despair,” Papa said. He brushed a lock of hair from Lily’s face. “The only thing we could do was wait and hope for news. Then, last night, Mr Brassnose came to the house with a telegram from the French police saying the Skycircus had landed in Paris, and that you were being held prisoner by Madame Verdigris on board.”

He squeezed Lily’s shoulder in relief. “We awaited an update, but after the gendarmes investigated and couldn’t find you, they claimed the message was a hoax. Tolly insisted it was true, so Anna kindly flew us here, along with Inspector Fisk, so we could try and make them see sense.”

“Thank goodness you did,” Lily said. At that moment she noticed Inspector Fisk himself stood deep in conversation with the most senior-looking officer of the French police.

Inspector Fisk looked up and saw them, then ambled over. “If you could step this way with me for a minute, please,” he said to Lily, Robert and John, “the commandant wants a quick word.”

Inspector Fisk led them over to the French police commandant. Malkin came too, though he hadn’t strictly been invited.

When the French inspector saw them, he gave a tight little salute. “Monsieur Hartman, Monsieur Townsend, Mademoiselle Hartman, je m’appelle Commandant Oiseau. My men have recovered some things from the Skycircus ship. Are they yours?”

He showed Lily the penknife, the Moonlocket and the red notebook.

“Oh, yes, merci beaucoup,” Lily said. Her heart leaped and she felt overjoyed to have the red notebook returned to her and the rest of her mama’s words back at last. She took it and clasped it to her chest, before handing the Moonlocket and penknife back to Robert.

Robert’s face flushed with relief. “Thank you,” he said as he put the penknife away and fiddled with the Moonlocket. The clasp was still broken, so he tucked it away carefully in his pocket. Then he remembered Da’s coat was still hung on the costume rail backstage next to Lily’s party clothes and coat, and, together, they dashed off to get them.

They returned changed back into their old outfits and were ready to go when they found the inspector and the commandant with Papa outside of the tent next to a police wagon.

The commandant was speaking with Papa. “S’il vous plaît,” he said, pointing through the bars of the van at Madame, who was sitting on the bench in the back of the wagon opposite Auggie, Joey and the rest of the roustabouts. “For the record, could you identify the suspect before you?”

Madame’s eyes flicked to the window and caught Lily’s, then she looked away.

“Yes,” said Papa. “This is my old housekeeper.”

“And the others?” the commandant asked. “Do you know them?”

“No,” Papa said.

“These are the people who kidnapped you?” the commandant asked, turning to Lily and Robert.

They nodded.

“I should say so!” Malkin added for good measure.

“And this lady stole your property, Monsieur?” he queried Papa.

“She most certainly did.”

“They don’t have the rest of your papers, Papa,” Lily said. “Madame sold them to Dr Droz.”

“Shelley’s involved in all this?” Papa looked shocked. “Where is she?”

“She was here,” Lily said. In the madness of the show, she’d forgotten about the doctor.

She scanned the back of the van, searching for her face among the handcuffed figures. But the woman wasn’t there. She must’ve slipped away with the crowd sometime between the explosion and the escape of the animals – that was, Lily realized, almost an hour ago.

The commandant consulted his pocketbook. “One of these clowns has given us her address, sir. It’s an abandoned hospital. We’re going to visit it as soon as possible and apprehend her, right after we have dealt with the situation here.” He put a hand on Lily’s shoulder. “Do you remember the exact location of her apartment inside the building, Miss Hartman?”

Lily nodded.

“Then, if you might come to show us the way?”

“I’m not leaving Lily alone again,” Papa said.

“And neither are we,” added Robert and Malkin together.

“In that case, Monsieur, might I suggest that you all come with us too?”

“We most certainly will,” Papa replied. “I have a thing or two to say to Shelley myself, if she’s responsible.”

“Very good. Take these lot away!” The commandant slapped the back of the police wagon with his open palm and it drove off past the wreckage of the Big Top and out of sight.

“Your friend Angelique and the others will be perfectly fine with my colleagues here,” he said to Lily. “The site must be shut down temporarily, but our officers will see to their injuries and take statements, while the three of you, and perhaps Inspector Fisk as well, come with your père and us to visit Dr Droz.”

The commandant blew a whistle that hung on a length of gold braid from the breast pocket of his blue uniform and another police steam-wagon pulled up to transport them safely away from the circus.

They flew through the Bois in the police wagon with the siren raging, and then through the city, passing the gigantic arch, which Papa told them was the Arc de Triomphe, before swinging along the river and through a familiar-looking district. Only when they approached the street with the derelict hospital did they turn off the sirens and proceed more cautiously.

It was nearly ten o’clock when they finally arrived. The inspector knocked, but Lily ended up picking the lock for them as there was no one to let them in.

“It’s this way.” Lily led Commandant Oiseau and Inspector Fisk and the gendarmes up the stairs to the apartment. On the top floor, Fisk pushed the door open and led the way. Lily, Papa, Robert and Malkin followed behind with the commandant and the line of police.

The group stalked from room to room, searching for the doctor, but the entire apartment was empty. Droz’s belongings had all gone, and the ticking noises of the building that had been so evident the night before had stopped. There were shadow marks on the walls where pictures had hung, and circles in the dust on the empty shelves where the jars of specimens had been.

The place felt as if it could’ve been derelict for years, except that in the main room a flicker of a fire burned in the grate, stuffed with half-devoured papers.

“My notes!” Papa rushed over to them and pulled a handful of burning pages from the flames.

Lily, Robert and Malkin stood to one side as the inspector and the commandant paced the room. Then Lily noticed something propped on the mantelpiece above the fire. It was a letter.

She reached out and picked it up. The envelope was addressed to:

Miss Lily Hartman, Brackenbridge Manor

It was written in the same hand as the letter Lily had received a week ago, and Lily realized then that it had been Droz who’d penned the original. She was the one who’d been behind the whole plot, even more so than Madame. Before Papa or any of the policemen could stop her, she slit the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of folded paper.

Dear Lily,

I have a simple question, and it’s one that’s not a trick:

I have always wondered what it is that makes you tick?

Of course, you have shown most profoundly that it is not just a clockwork heart, but a desire for equality amongst hybrids and humans. I cannot deny that your cause is a worthy one. You’ve proved yourself as strong as your mother, and so many other women before you. We too deserve equality, especially in the male-dominated world of science, and I know you will follow in Grace’s footsteps.

I wish you well in all you do. And I am sure that we will meet again in the future.

Yours, with sincere admiration,

Dr Shelley Mary Droz

Even after all she’d been through, Lily felt rather proud to receive such a letter. It felt less a conclusion than the congratulations of an admiring adversary that she’d beaten in a chess game. She was about to put the page away in the pocket of her coat, along with the papers and Mama’s notebook, when Commandant Oiseau appeared behind her.

“We will need that as evidence,” he said, holding out a white gloved hand. “Naturally it will be returned to you after the conclusion of the investigation.”

“Of course.” With a heavy heart, Lily handed it over to him.

“Merci.”

The commandant read through the letter. “Well,” he said, after he’d finished. “We’ll try our best to track her down. And if you think of anything more that might aid us…”

He regarded Lily and Robert, who were visibly wilting. “These children look awfully weary. Perhaps you ought to check in to a hotel and find them a bed for the night? You needn’t wait around here any longer, my car will take you wherever you want to go, and we can clear up any last queries we have in the morning.”

“You’re probably right,” Papa replied. “Where and when should we call on you?” he asked as the three of them and Malkin headed for the door.

“We’ll be at the Skycircus site first thing,” the inspector replied. “And if you don’t find us there, I will be at the commandant’s office at the Police Prefecture, in Place Louis Lepine, in the afternoon.”

“Very good,” Papa said.

Fisk saluted goodbye to everyone, and the commandant tipped his hat to Papa, and then to Robert and Lily. “Au revoir, les enfants! À demain!”

Lily nodded a sleepy goodbye in return. She felt the tiredest she’d ever been in her life. She glanced at Robert; his eyes were drooping and as they stepped into the hall she saw him give a proper great yawn. Malkin too was running very slowly and had been gradually winding down for the past hour. She hoped the hybrids and circus folk would be all right on their own, dealing with the chaos and the police. But, yes, she realized, as the three of them followed Papa past the policeman on guard outside and down the building’s stairs, there was only one thing she needed right now – and that was a proper bed and a good night’s sleep.