She hates the idea of going back to the foundling hospital when she's six as she'll have to stay until she's fourteen. But her not by blood relation brother, Jem says they'll marry and be happy together when she's old enough.
Hetty loves seeing the wonders of the Circus when it arrives from Elijah the elephant to her loved Madame Adeline whom invites her up to ride with her on her horse and calls Hetty her little star.
Then her time is up at home and she's forced into the Foundling hospital where she's trained to be a seamstress and makes enemies of Sheila and Monica but a friend in Polly even battling influenza together as tragedy strikes Hetty's old foster family life.
Then, suddenly Polly is adopted out of the hospital to replace a rich couple's dead daughter!
In a turn of events, on an outing for the jubilee, Hetty runs away when she spots the circus and ends up across London, in a close call with a man where she gets helped by a kind girl selling flowers and have a run in with an aspiring author, Miss Smith, whom returns Hetty from her jaunt to the foundling hospital where she finally learns her real mum would have called her Sapphire and was hiding in plain sight all along. In this historical mystery fiction.
I found Hetty a great character of a girl, strong willed and unafraid to be herself even when others disagree with her she holds herself strong and sure. It's shocking to think in the past many girls sufferred the way the foundlings did or served horrid masters but Hetty had something positive in the Circus to hold dear in her memories and heart as she yearned to return and perform one day and that goal as well as to be a writer showed her fiery spirit staying strong.
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