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As if they knew their duties and had performed dozens of times, each butterfly musician took to its task The Monarch that had once played in Henry’s hair squeezed an accordion with its front legs, while a Coht yellow and red wings A battered Leopard Lacewing held still and aloof as it impossibly blew a tiny horn with its proboscis A circle of Skippers rubbed their legs over nified by a golden graen conducted in what she hoped was a waltz, and the butterflies flapped in three-quarter tirateful that the one into this experiht With no practice and no actual experience with her circus, she was sih as well as she could The butterflies were nificent, and she would have kissed theed
Her eyes sought Beauregard, hispering to the Coppers flanking hiht about what he ht have to say about her to other citified men Her cheeks went red with embarrassed fury behind thereported about her in London by those who had never truly known her But when she looked up again at the rest of the crowd, she saw faces slack with amazement and eyes filled with tears
The crowd, the rabble--they felt thewith a crescendo that spun out into the night, the tiny violins thready and high and echoing When the crowd burst into applause that was en bowed, one hand carefully on herthat stood between her and a London hang the scene in darkness Beauregard had just shouted, "Nohen a new spotlight burst on, focused this tie left The Coppers en leaned in to whisper to the still forht
She and Henry had agreed that the feats of strength would be perforest and hardiest of the lepidoptera The butterflies in this act were each attached to a complicatedfor further instruction Just as Ien opened her mouth to speak, a se on delicate legs It was the Lacewing fro on its horn
On cue, the Stails and Birdwings began to pull their weights in ti h these butterflies were bigger than her hand, it was still ahts at all,
The Goliath Birdwing crawled to the front of the stage, wearing a top hat est in her collection, alold, and it stopped before a black barbell that exactlyunder the tent With a flex of its antenna, it picked up the barbell and pressed it skyward, first with one antenna and then with the other, then with its coiled proboscis She couldn’t help s it had taken her to find a book big enough to fit the monster butterfly The crowd cheered, and she heard Torno’s voice raised over the rest, calling, "That is my kind of butterfly, that one!"
At this point, she realized that she was as enraptured as the crowd When she had devised this sche She wasn’t like a lion tamer with a whip or a clockwork artificer with his code words She wasn’t actually necessary, and if there had been any hope of her escaping Beauregard, she would have been worried by her own lack of panache On a whi it onto her palht of it and could feel its feet prickling through her gloves as it stepped up She held it aloft with a flourish as it hefted its barbell, and the crowd erupted in cheers and laughter
It was a moment of triumph, and she found that she adored the excite a part of the caravan She was just about to place the giant butterfly on her hat when the spotlight winked out on the tiny stronght The other spots had been warolden, but this one was a cool silvery blue, like ht on water There they were--her favorites The Morpho butterflies She set the Goliath Birdwing down gently in its place and ht to let her dearest treasures shine as they deserved
At her whispered word, their fat wings wobbled upright around tiny black bodies They had been naoddess from the islands who had been known for the lust her beauty inspired And the beauty of the Morphos was otherworldly indeed, their wings shi with iridescent scales like diaht They waited in place for a heartbeat before the tiny band in the shadows began playing a lively air that echoed the caravan daiurdy
A Sunset Morpho in vibrant yellow and orange stepped gingerly across a tightrope so carefully that Ied creature on the slender filaht blue and soft brown spiraled into the sky like acrobats, tethered by golden leashes as they twirled in complicated patterns that mimicked city dances And her beloved Blue Morpho took center stage in a tiny sparkling top hat, flapping its wings at a trio of miniature clockwork lions that sat on their haunches and roared
Filled with a fierce trius, and the crowd drew closer to watch the ht
"They’re real!" a child whispered, and his ht I’d see another one," an old woe ed at his cravat as if it was too tight
At the back of the crowd, Crien’s eye She bowed just the slightest bit, and he doffed his hat to her grandly with a grin By his side, Letitia grinned and gave her a thumbs-up So she had a job, then, if only she could live out the night