Нортон Шейла

Oliver The Cat Who Saved Christmas. Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

1. OLIVER THE CAT WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS

CHAPTER ONE

The worst night of my entire nine lives started with some leftover fish. You might think that was a bit strange, little kitten. After all, we cats all love fish, don’t we, and I often used to get leftovers, living in a pub where they made something called bar meals for the people who came in. It wasn’t actually the fish I had that night that was the problem. It was what came afterwards, when I’d gone back to my favourite chair by the fireplace and fallenasleep.

Now, stop jumping around trying to catch that fly, if you want me to tell you the story. It’s a long story for a little kitten like you, and a bit frightening in places, but you might learn something from it if you settle down and pay attention. That’s better.

Where was I? Oh yes. Asleep on my chair. Well, I woke up very suddenly when it was dark outside– and there was a horrible smell in the pub, and something tickling my nose and throat. I knew straight away it was smoke, because sometimes when my human, George, lit the fire in the bar to make it nice and cosy on a cold evening, it gave off the same kind of smell. But when he did that, the smoke went up the chimney, not into the room like this. I blinked for a few minutes, trying to see what was going on. Of course, my night vision is normally excellent, but the smoke was making my eyes sore. Within a few minutes I was starting to cough and choke because it had started going down my throat too, when I did the normal stretching and yawning thing we have to do when we wake up. And then I saw them – big orange flames leaping up the curtains, and sparks flying onto the nearby chairs.

I yowled in fright. At least, I tried to, but all that came out was a pathetic squeaky noise and another bout of coughing. I jumped out of my chair, heading for the staircase to the upstairs rooms, where I knew George would be asleep in the big bedroom overlooking the garden. Luckily he always left his door open, in case I woke up in the night and decided he might appreciate my company on the bed. So I darted straight in and jumped on him, pawing at his face to wake him up. I was trying my best to meow loudly in his ear at the same time, and despite all the coughs and splutters, it seemed to do the trick because he sat up in bed, gasping in surprise.

‘Oliver!’ he said, sounding a bit annoyed. He usually only called me by my full name when I’d been naughty. ‘What on earth…?’

And then he must have smelt the smoke, because he leapt out of bed, shouting,‘Oh my God! Fire! Fire!’

There were only the two of us in the building so I couldn’t understand who he was shouting to, but I was very relieved he’d woken up. He grabbed his mobile phone off the bedside table and his dressing-gown off the hook behind the door, and I ran ahead of him along the landing and back down the stairs. I was frightened to see that the flames had spread and were now working their way up the wooden banisters, spitting sparks and billowing more black smoke. I bounded down those stairs as if there were a couple of Dobermans after me.

‘Outside, Ollie, quick!’ George shouted, beginning to cough like me.

As he unlocked the main door to the bar the cold outside air rushed in and it was as if the whole place suddenly erupted. The crash, as the staircase collapsed, was so terrible, I shot out of that door and kept running, right across the car park and under a bush at the other side, next to the road. I could see George, in his stripy pyjamas, running out with his dressing-gown still in his hand, dropping it while he stabbed at the mobile phone and shouted into it:‘Fire! The Forester’s Arms! The pub’s on fire!’

I stayed under the bush, shaking with fear, watching the fire work its way up to the roof of the pub, watching as the wood store next to the kitchen went up with a‘whoosh’. Then the flames spread to the fence, and then they were licking around some kind of big drums lined up behind the village hall next door. And then there was a sudden loud ‘boom’ that made me jump out of my skin, and the fire seemed to roll itself into a ball of orange that lit up the whole sky.

For a minute I was frozen with terror. I thought it was the end of at least one of my lives, for sure. There were people running out of their houses, shouting, looking for George, putting his dressing-gown and blankets round him, as if it wasn’t hot enough with all those flames. And just to add to the horror of it all, at that moment two massive fire engines came tearing down the road towards us, sirens screaming, and turned into the car park right next to the bush where I was cowering. Well, I knew I should have stayed to make sure George was all right, but my cat instinct told me I needed to get out of there as fast as I could. It wasn’t my proudest moment, deserting my human and my home. But I’m afraid I scarpered. *

When I finally stopped running, I was in the middle of the woods across the road. I looked back through the trees but I couldn’t see the pub anymore, or even the flames. The trees were very tall and very close together here, and I realised I’d gone further into the woods than I’d ever been before. My heart was still pounding like mad from the shock, as well as from running so fast. I put my head on one side to listen carefully, but all I could hear at first was the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and an owl hooting in the distance. It was really cold, and I felt so sorry for myself, all alone there in the woods. All I wanted was to be back in my chair, curled up on my nice comfy cushion, asleep anddreaming my favourite dream about chasing mice. But I was too scared to go back. And then, as I was still standing there listening to the wind and the owl, and shivering and shaking like a leaf, there was suddenly another loud ‘boom’ from the direction of the pub. All the birds who had been asleep in the trees flew up in the air together, squawking with fright, and once again my cat instinct took over. I shot up the nearest tree, right up to one of the highest branches, and clung on for dear life as the wind rocked me back and forth.

You’ll find when you grow up to be a bigger cat that the best way to deal with a stressful situation is to get out of danger quickly and then go to sleep. I’ve heard humans talking sometimes about ‘not being able to sleep’. They say it happens when they’re worried about something. Fortunately this condition is unknown within the cat community. I was so worn out from the terrible shock I’d had, I could hardly keep my eyes open once I was safely snuggled down on that branch. There were no more booming noises, and although from the top of the tree I could see a rather scary red glow in the sky, far away in the direction of my poor pub, it gradually got fainter and fainter. The wind dropped slightly and the movement of my branch became more gentle, reminding me of the times I’d dozed on the old rocking chair in the back room of the pub. I closed my eyes and dreamed George had come to find me and was carrying me home.

When I woke up it was light, and there were birds singing. I stood up and had a good stretch, completely forgetting where I was, and almost fell out of the tree. Luckily my claws were out instantly, so that I was suspended for a moment, clinging to the underside of the branch until I managed to right myself. I gave myself a little shake, and automatically started to wash myself to show any birds who might have been watching, sniggering at my misfortune, that I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed or bothered how silly I might have looked. And then, in mid-wash, I glanced down, and saw it at the bottom of the tree. A fox.

Little kitten, I don’t suppose you’re old enough to have met a fox yet, so let me explain. If you think dogs are scary, you haven’t seen anything yet. Foxes don’t even have humans in charge of them like dogs are supposed to. They’re one of our worst enemies, almost as dangerous as cars. At least cars normally stay on roads, so we know how to avoid getting attacked by them. But foxes sneak up on you. They get into gardens and even walk down the street, just like we do, and if they see you they’ll chase you with their horrible big smirking mouth open showing their horrible sharp teeth. There’s only one way to get away from them – run up the nearest tree. So although, as you can probably imagine, my fur was standing on end at the sight of this snarling vicious creature staring up at me from the ground below, I knew I was in the best place. He couldn’t get me. I was so relieved about this that I actually started showing off to him a bit, arching my back at him and hissing and spitting – until I nearly overbalanced again and decided no amount of bravado was worth falling out of the tree and landing on top of him.

I sat back down on my branch, stretched out my paws and let my head hang over the edge so that I could keep one eye on the fox. I could tell he was getting annoyed about not being able to climb up and get me. He was pacing up and down at the bottom of the tree, walking round its trunk one way and then back round the other. And the whole time he was staring up at me, with a look on his nasty face like I can feel on my own when George puts a nice plate of food down for me. I shuddered to myself. If I put one paw out of place on that branch, I’d be his dinner. To my relief, after what seemed like hours of this walking round and round, the stupid fox must have got tired. He lay down, curled up like a little puppy dog, and fell asleep. I was safe for a while. The best plan of action would be to have another little nap myself.

It wasn’t until I woke up, and saw him still there at the bottom of the tree, that I realised three things, all at once. One: I’d had no breakfast and was now feeling very, very hungry. Two: I didn’t know which way was home anymore. I’d lost its scent, and there was no more red glow or smoke in the sky to tell me. And three: until that fox moved, I was stuck. If I tried to jump into another tree, he’d just follow me. I couldn’t get back down to the ground until he went away. And he didn’t look like giving up any time soon.

I thought about George, and my chair, and the warmth of the pub, and my food dish being filled up with lovely chicken or fish, and I couldn’t help it, little kitten. Even big grown-up cats cry sometimes. I sat on my branch and mewed pitifully to myself as the fox licked his lips and dribbled revoltingly beneath me. And I wondered if I’d ever see George or my home again.

CHAPTER TWO

It was getting colder, with a dusky sort of look in the sky, by the time I heard a new sound coming towards me. I sat very still, my ears up, listening carefully. It was like music, but different. The fox sat up too, and was looking around him nervously, and then he suddenly loped off, giving me an angry backward glance as he went. The sound was coming closer. I waited, my head on one side, trying to remember where I’d heard it before. And then it came back to me. Whistling! That’s what they called it. Humans did it by putting their mouths into a funny shape and pushing their breath out. It made a kind of tune that wasn’t always very pretty. Finally I heard the footsteps of the whistling human, treading on the dead leaves on the ground. And there he was, just a few trees away from me, walking quite quickly. If I didn’t shout now, he’d be out of earshot – humans don’t have very good hearing, you know. But was he someone I could trust? I wasn’t good at trusting humans, especially strange male ones – but that’s a story for another time. Well, this time I didn’t have a lot of choice, and I made a quick decision. If he was doing that whistling thing, he probably wasn’t in a bad mood. I’d noticed before that they did it when they were cheerful. So I stood up again on my branch and yowled as loudly as my little lungs would let me.

He stopped whistling, stood still just a little way from my tree and stared around him. Just a little further on, the fox was standing looking back too, but I hoped he wouldn’t risk coming back while the man was there. I don’t think foxes like humans. There are stories in cat folklore – and they might be made up, of course – that humans long ago used to ride around on horses, blowing horns and using dogs tohunt foxes. It sounds a bit unlikely, but I wouldn’t put anything past some humans. Anyway, there I was, crying and screaming out to get this man’s attention, and there he stood, looking up, down, and all around him with a puzzled expression on his face. Like I say, they don’t have very good hearing. But luckily, eventually he caught sight of me and it was the way he said, ‘Well, hello, up there’ in such a nice friendly way, that made me relax a bit and think perhaps I’d be able to trust him.

In fact he carried on talking to me as he approached my tree, smiling up at me and calling me a‘nice puss’ and asking whether I’d got stuck up the tree. Although I was very glad he was being so friendly, I felt a little bit patronised then, as I’m sure you can imagine. Stuck up the tree, indeed! Anyone would think I was an inexperienced little kitten like you. I wanted to tell him that if he’d only use his eyes, he’d notice there was a great big nasty snarling fox hiding in the undergrowth, watching us from a safe distance. Otherwise I’d have got down from that tree on my own, no trouble at all, thank you very much!

But I must admit, he was a pretty good tree climber himself. He was a fairly young, lean human and made good use of his front paws to swing himself up through the branches. He kept saying things like‘All right, good puss, sit tight, don’t panic.’ Then as soon as he was close enough, he reached out and grabbed me with such a sudden movement I nearly toppled off the branch with fright. I let him hold onto me going down again, which was a bit awkward for both of us, but I wanted to let the fox – if he was still watching – see that I now had a protector. When we were nearly at the bottom I jumped down, but stayed by the human’s feet, giving him a little display of gratitude, rubbing myself on his legs and purring. He looked down at me, a bemused expression on his face.

‘OK, you can run off home now, puss!’

I continued my rubbing and purring. He watched me for a bit longer.

‘What is it, then? Are you lost?’

Hooray! He’d got the message. I purred a bit louder. He picked me up again and looked at the little disc on my collar.

‘Oliver,’ he read out. ‘And no address, just a phone number.’ He got one of those mobile phone things out of his pocket, tapped it and sighed. ‘No signal here. Well, maybe I’d better take you home with me, Oliver, and give you some milk or something and then I can try…’

The mention of milk had reminded me of how hungry and thirsty I was, and I practically jumped into his arms this time when he bent to pick me up again. I’d decided I liked him. Perhaps he was a good one, like George. But then, to my horror, he picked up a bag he’d left by the tree trunk and pushed me into it, quite clumsily, head-first so that my tail nearly got caught in the zip as he did it up. I yowled my head off in protest. So much for trusting him! But as I felt him lift the bag up, he was talking to me through the flap.

‘Sorry about this, Oliver. You’ll be safer in the rucksack on my back, see, while I walk home with you. Otherwise I’m frightened you’ll jump out of my arms and run off when we get to the road, and there’ll be cars, and it’ll be dangerous. All right, all right!’ he said as I carried oncomplaining. Well, honestly! It wasso undignified, to say nothing of bringing back some terrible memories for me.‘It won’t be for long. Just try and sit still like a good puss.’

So I had to bump along in that bag as he strode off, whistling again. The bag was smelly and uncomfortable, with some bits of twigs at the bottom of it, and the walk seemed to take forever. Eventually I could tell from the sound of traffic that we were out of the woods, and then it wasn’t long before I heard him unlocking a door, closing it behind me and calling out, as he put my bag down gently on the floor:

‘Hello? Are you home, Nick?’

Then there was someone else’s voice – a young female by the sound of it.

‘Oh! You were quick! I’ve only just got in from the shop. Did you manage to get some firewood?’

‘No. Sorry.’ I felt him lift the bag again. ‘Look what I found instead.’ He started to undo the zip – I braced myself to jump out and hide in a corner somewhere until I’d made sure it was safe here, wherever I was. But then he stopped and asked: ‘Are all the doors and windows closed?’

‘Of course they are! It’s freezing out! Why, what on earth have you got there?’

And the bag was opened, and I made a dive for it– straight up the curtains at the nearest window.

‘A cat!’ squealed the female person. ‘Where did it come from, Daniel? Why have you brought it home?’

‘He was stuck up a tree! I got him down, and he wouldn’t leave me. I think he must be lost. He’s got a name tag on, with a phone number, but I didn’t have any signal, so I thought I’d better bring him home.’

‘Poor little thing!’ she said, looking up at me now, having apparently got over the shock of seeing me run up her curtains. ‘He looks scared stiff. Come on, kitty cat – what’s his name, Dan?’

‘Oliver. He’s very friendly. Come on down, Oliver,’ he added in that nice kind voice I liked. ‘I’ll get you some milk.’

Great. I was gasping for a drink. I jumped back down and followed him into a little kitchen where he poured me out a nice dish of milk, which I lapped up immediately and licked the dish clean.

‘I reckon he’s hungry,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how long he’d been stuck up that tree. Can we give him something to eat, Nicky?’

The girl started emptying tins out of a shopping bag onto the kitchen counter.

‘I’ve got some sardines here,’ she said doubtfully. Sardines! Yes – result! I immediately started winding myself round her legs, purring for all I was worth. ‘But they were supposed to be for lunch,’ she added quietly.

‘We can have something else, can’t we? You’ve got baked beans there. I’ll phone his owner as soon as he’s eaten. We won’t have to keep on feeding him.’

They were looking at each other with worried faces. I wondered what the problem was. I just wanted those sardines!

‘OK,’ the girl called Nicky finally agreed. She started opening the tin. The smell made me feel faint with hunger and longing. ‘Here you go, Oliver.’ She put the dish down on the floor and I fell on it. ‘Good grief, Dan, he must bestarving!’ she added, laughing. ‘Fair enough, his need’s even greater than ours.’

Out of the corner of my eye, while I wolfed down the food, I saw him put his arm round her and give her a kiss. That was good. I’d seen people sitting together in the pub doing that, and it usually meant they were happy.

‘I’m sorry about the firewood,’ he was saying. ‘I’ll go out again later.’

‘No, it’s five o’clock now and it’s dark already. Leave it till tomorrow and I’ll come with you. We can carry more, together. I just don’t think we can afford to put the heating on.’

‘I know. How much was the shopping this time?’

‘Not as bad as last week. The butcher gave me some cheap mince, and I got special offers on tea bags and butter.’

‘Well done.’ He gave her another kiss. ‘We’ll manage, Nick. If we can get through the winter, things will get better.’

And they stood like that, arms round each other, watching me till I’d finished eating. I had the impression they liked me but at the same time, wanted me to go home as soon as possible. And sure enough, the minute I’d finished the last morsel, Daniel picked me up and called out the number on my identity disc, while Nicky punched the numbers into her phone.

‘There’s no reply,’ she said after a while.

‘OK. Well, the owner’s probably just gone out somewhere. Looking for their cat, probably!’ he added, but Nicky didn’t laugh.

‘We can’t keep him, Dan,’ she said.

‘I know. Of course I know that.’ He stroked me, and I gave him a little purr. I wanted to go back to George, obviously, but I was feeling full and safe and warm now, and could easily have fallen asleep right there in Daniel’s arms. It had been a terrible time, what with the fox, and the trauma of the fire …

The fire! I meowed and twitched my tail anxiously as it all came back to me. Poor George! My poor pub. Did I evenhave a home to go back to now? I wanted to explain to nice Daniel and Nicky that the number on my disc might belong to a phone that was lying in a burnt-up wreck of a building where nobody could live anymore.

‘He still seems a bit distressed,’ Nicky commented, and she gave my head a little stroke. ‘Perhaps you’re right, he might have been lost for ages. Although he doesn’t look too thin.’

I took that as a compliment.

‘Let’s just try the phone number again later on,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m sure someone will be out looking for him. He’s such a lovely cat and he looks well cared-for.’

Iknew he was a human I could trust. He had good taste in cats. I was purring to myself happily as he put me down on a sofa, and I dozed off into a nice peaceful sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

It was a different voice that woke me up– a strange male voice. I was instantly on high alert, ears up, muscles tense, ready to run. The voice sounded friendly enough, but you can never be too sure.

‘I know who that is!’ The voice belonged to another male, a large one with a bristly face. I didn’t like the look of him. I gave him a warning growl as he came closer, but he just laughed. ‘It’s Ollie, the pub cat from the Forester’s Arms. You know Ollie, don’t you? Everyone in the village knows Ollie.’

Daniel and Nicky exchanged a sad kind of look.‘We never go there,’ Daniel said.

‘Oh. No, well, I suppose you haven’t lived here very long. Well, he belongs to George, the landlord. Blimey, I suppose he’s got nowhere to go, now. I take it you’ve seen what’s happened to the pub?’

‘Oh, yes, of course!’ Nicky gasped. ‘The fire.’

‘Yes, it’s pretty badly damaged, isn’t it?’ said Daniel. ‘And the village hall doesn’t look much better.’

‘Well, the fire brigade managed to put it out before the hall burned down completely, but you’re right, the pub and the hall will both be out of action for God knows how long.’ He stroked his bristly chin, looking at me seriously. ‘I wonder why old George didn’t take the cat with him whenhe left.’

Left?Left? I sat up straighter, unable to believe what I was hearing. George wouldn’tleave, without me!

‘Where’s he gone?’ Daniel asked.

‘To stay with his sister in London. Poor chap hasn’t got any other family, see. His sister’s offered to put him up till the repair work’s done. I reckon that’ll be the best part of a year. The insurance will have to pay out, of course, but you know how long that can take.’

‘How awful for him. Losing his homeand his livelihood,’ Nicky said, looking upset.

‘And his cat,’ the big man said, nodding at me. ‘We ought to let him know you’ve found him.’

‘We’ve tried, twice now. The number’s on his disc. No reply,’ Daniel said.

‘What number is it? Let me have a look.’ The big man reached out for me, and I yowled in fright and jumped off the sofa, running to hide behind the curtains. They all laughed. I didn’t really see what was funny. I was beginning to recognise this man as one of a group who came into the pub fairly often. They were always quite noisy together, drinking a lot of beer and playing something called dominoes that made them shout and laugh a lot. I always tried to stay clear of them. He seemed all right now, but like I’ve said, I don’t take chances with male humans until I’m sure of them.

‘Let me pick him up, Martin,’ Daniel said. ‘He seems to have got used to me. I found him stuck up a tree in Tunny Woods.’ He lifted me up and showed him my identity disc.

‘That’s the pub number,’ Martin said at once. ‘No good to you now! You’ll be needing George’s mobile. I’ve got it – I call him on that when it’s about the dominoes team matches.’ He sighed as he got his own phone out of his pocket and started tapping it. ‘We won’t have anywhere to holdthose for a while. We’d booked a table for our Christmas meal there, too. Ah well, that’s not important in the scheme of things, I suppose…’ He broke off suddenly, then shouted into the phone: ‘George? It’s Martin here, from the dominoes team. Sorry about the fire and everything, mate. How’re you doing?’

Daniel had put me back down on the sofa and Nicky was sitting next to me, stroking me, as we all listened to Martin telling George that I’d been found, safe and well, up the top of a tree. I felt so upset, knowing that my human, my best friend in the whole world, was on the other end of that phone, but I couldn’t see him or even hear him. I cried a few sad little meows and Nicky stroked me harder, saying ‘Ah, poor Oliver.’ Itold myself that at least I’d fallen on my paws with her and Daniel, when I could have ended up as a fox’s dinner, so I really shouldn’t feel too sorry for myself.

‘Would you guys be happy to hang onto the cat till he can sort something out?’ Martin said when he’d finally said goodbye to George.

Nicky and Daniel were looking at each other anxiously.

‘How long’s that likely to be?’ Daniel said. ‘Only I’m not being funny, but I thought George would be coming straight round to collect him.’

So did I. I mean, they seemed nice people, and they seemed to like me, but I missed George, and it was horrible to think he might notwant me back. Had I upset him in some way? I’d done my best, hadn’t I, going upstairs to wake him up and warn him about the fire. I couldn’t have done much more.

‘No,’ Martin was saying. ‘He’s in a bit of a pickle, by the sound of it. His sister’s being very good, putting him up and everything. But she lives on a main road in a busy part of London, apparently, and George says the cat’s not used to heavy traffic. He’d be worried all the time about him getting out and getting run over. So he was wondering whether anyone in the village would be able to look after Oliver for him.’

I’d given a little squawk of alarm at the thought of the heavy traffic. It was true, cars frightened me. There weren’t usually too many on the roads in the village, but there was a big loud main road a bit further down the hill from the pub. I’d heard people calling it a bypass and saying the village was much more peaceful since it had been built – but it scared the life out of me and I stayed right away from it.

‘Not only that,’ Martin went on, ‘but his sister suffers from allergies. Cat hair’s the worst thing.’

Oh, allergies– yes, I’d heard about this before. A lady who came into the pub once, started sneezing really badly and when she saw me, she made a fuss in between sneezes, saying cats shouldn’t be allowed in pubs because of our hair and people’sallergies. George was very nice to her about it, saying how sorry he was about her sneezing, but he explained the pub was my home and he couldn’t expect me to stay outside, and perhaps if she’d like to sit in the other bar (where the meals were served and I wasn’t allowed), she’d be all right. But she went off with a cross face and never came back.

‘Oh dear,’ said Nicky, and she looked at Daniel again, and he looked back at her, and both their mouths were turned down. Nicky was still stroking me, so I knew she still liked me, but there seemed to be some kind of problem here.

‘We can’t keep him,’ Daniel said, looking upset. ‘It’s just, to be quite honest…’ He went a bit red and didn’t seem to want to go on.

‘We can’t afford to feed him,’ Nicky blurted out. ‘I’m sorry. It’s embarrassing to admit it, but we can hardly afford to feed ourselves. The rent … and our fares…’

‘Oh, right, of course, I understand,’ Martin said. He sort of shifted from one paw to the other, the way humans do when they feel awkward. ‘Everyone’s hard up these days, aren’t they, what with the bloody government, bloody banks, economy being what it is…’ He tailed off, and then added quickly, ‘Well, look, I could always take him back next door with me, instead.’

I stiffened again, ready to run up the curtains. Noway was I going home with him. I didn’t trust him yet. His voice was too loud, his face was too red and bristly, and he had very big front paws. I looked at nice Nicky and meowed my distress to her, but she didn’t seem to be taking any notice.

‘Are you sure?’ she said. ‘But you and Sarah have got the two kids to feed, and … well, isn’t it a bit soon after Sooty?’

Sooty? Who was Sooty, and what did he have to do with it? I meowed again, my anxiety increasing.

Martin’s face seemed to turn sad for a minute. Then he gave a little shrug and I saw him making an effort to smile again.

‘I think it’ll actuallyhelp the children to get over Sooty. Having another cat around could be exactly the right thing. We’re going to get another one of our own, of course. We just haven’t really had time to think about it yet.’

So Sooty was a cat, and it sounded like something had happened to him. And Martin sounded upset about it. I stopped meowing and gave him another glance. If he’d had a cat already, and missed him, surely he couldn’t be all bad.

‘Anyway, we’ve got more space next door, and a garden,’ he went on, and this time his voice sounded more cheerful again. ‘And the kids would play with him’.

I felt sorry that something had happened to this Sooty cat, of course, but if I’m really honest, I was relieved that there wasn’t going to be another cat next door if I went there. The thing is, little kitten,some male cats can be really funny about what they call theirterritory. They go around spraying everywhere to mark their boundaries and get quite aggressive if any other cat crosses into their area, even if it’s by accident. That’s how a lot of fights start. I could never see the point of it – I prefer a quiet life, myself.

‘Well,’ Nicky was saying now, and she was still stroking me, still looking at me sadly, making me think she’d like me to stay really. ‘It might be better for Oliver, too, because we’re both out at work all day and he might get lonely. Are you absolutely sure it’ll be OK with Sarah?’

‘Of course it will. Sarah’s a soft touch with animals.’

That was good to hear, too. I was beginning to think it might be OK to go with Martin after all. But I still flinched when he went to pick me up, and this time it was Nicky who laughed.

‘Martin won’t hurt you, Oliver,’ she said, and she picked me up instead. ‘Come on, I’ll carry you in next door, shall I? You’ll like Sarah. And the children.’

Children. Kitten-humans. That’d be interesting. I often used to watch some playing outside the pub, on the village green. Perhaps they’d play with me. At least that’d make the time go more quickly until George could come back for me. *

The house next door was completely different from Nicky and Daniel’s. Not that I’d had much time to explore theirs, but the living room was tiny, and the kitchen where I ate my food was not much bigger than the broom cupboard back at the pub. And when I’d been hanging onto the top of their curtains, I’d looked for a garden, but there wasn’t one: just a little bit of paving with one of those washing lines that goes round and round in the wind. When Nicky carried me into Martin and Sarah’s house, I could see the garden straight away, through the big glass doors at the end of the lounge. There was lots of nice grass, and bushes – places for hiding – and even some swings like the ones they had on the village green for the children. There were two little girls playing in the garden, wrapped up in coats and boots, chasing each other around. It looked like fun and I quite fancied joining in. But Nicky sat down with me on her lap while Martin explained all about me to Sarah.

‘Oh, poor Oliver!’ Sarah said when she’d heard the whole story about George and the pub and the sister with the allergies. She was a smiley, cuddly-looking female, with pretty long golden hair, and she kept smiling at me. ‘Ofcourse he can stay with us. The children will love him, and I’m sure you’re right, it’ll help us all get over Sooty.’

‘Well, if there’s any problem, we’ll take him back. We’ll manage somehow,’ Nicky said anxiously. ‘I’dlove to look after him, if only…’

She looked so sad at not being able to afford my dinners, I felt really upset for her. I gave her a little lick on her hand and rubbed my face against hers.

‘He’s really taken to you, hasn’t he?’ Sarah said. ‘Tell you what – we could kind of share him, couldn’t we? Till George comes back? I mean, we’ll feed him here, of course, it’s no trouble, as I only do a bit of freelance work so I’m here most of the day. But I bet he’ll stillcome next door to you for extra cuddles.’

Well, that seemed to cheer Nicky up, and it did me, too. Yes, I certainly seemed to have fallen on my paws! Not one new foster-home, but two. Neither of them were going to be as good as being back with George in the pub, of course. But I just had to be a big brave cat and make the best of it. There were a lot of cats worse off than me. And I’d been through a lot worse myself, in fact, when I was a very small kitten, even younger than you. But as I’ve said already, that’s another story. I might tell you one day, even though it still makes me shiver to think about it. But right now, little kitten, it’s getting late, and getting dark, and I think we both need to go back for our dinners. I’ll tell you some more tomorrow.

CHAPTER FOUR

Hello again. You’re awake early, aren’t you? Couldn’t sleep? Huh, I remember feeling like that sometimes when I was a younger cat – on nice bright mornings like this, when there were birds to chase and flies to jump around after. Now, there aren’t enough hours in the day for all the catnaps I need.

Oh, it’s because you’re excited to hear the rest of my story, is it? Well, I warn you, it might take a long while and you’ll probably get fed up before the end of it and want to be off dancing around in the sunshine again. What it is to be young!

All right, where did I get up to yesterday? Ah yes– Martin and Sarah’s house. I slept well there, that first night. Sarah made me up a lovely comfy bed in Sooty’s old basket, with soft blankets and some kind of furry toy from one of the children to keep me company. Of course, you know what it’s like, don’t you? I didn’t often sleep there after the first night. No matter how comfy a bed is, we cats like to find different places to sleep. There was an armchair in their lounge with a big thick velvety cushion on, that I was particularly fond of.

Anyway, let me tell you about the children. They were two small females, called Grace and Rose. Grace was bigger than Rose. She giggled a lot and moved around very quickly. She got so excited when Sarah introduced me to her, I thought she was going to run up the curtains. Rose was different– quiet and not so happy looking. I could see why. She had a damaged front paw. It was wrapped up in a kind of hard case that looked like a bandage, and she had to wear something they called a sling, like a harness round her neck, to keep it in place. I felt sorry for her and gave her some extra licks and rubs, but although one minute she was smiling as if she was pleased to meet me, she suddenly burst into tears and started saying ‘Sooty! Sooty!’ over and over while she cried. I didn’t like to think I’d upset her. I ran off and hid under a chair.

‘Don’t worry, Oliver,’ Sarah said kindly, bending down under the chair to talk to me. ‘It’s not your fault. Rose is still upset about losing her other cat.’

Well, after a little while she did stop crying, and the two girls played with me nicely indoors with a ball and an empty cardboard box. Yes, I know you might think I was a bit old for that kind of stuff, but we cats never grow out of the cardboard box thing. It’s justso much fun, I never get tired of it! While we were playing, I could hear Martin and Sarah talking quietly in the kitchen. They probably thought none of us could hear, but perhaps they forgot what sharp ears we cats have.

‘I hope we’re doing the right thing,’ Sarah said, sounding worried. ‘She hasn’t cried that much since the day it happened.’

‘Then it probablyis the right thing. She’s been bottling up her feelings.’

‘I know. She’s hardly spoken since it happened, has she? I keep trying to encourage her to talk about the accident, but she won’t.’

‘In her mind, the two things are linked. She ran into the road after Sooty…’

‘Well, Martin, let’s face it, theyare linked! But she can’t accept that it wasn’t her fault.’

There was a silence for a while, apart from the sound of saucepans and things being moved around. Apparently they were preparing Sunday Lunch. That was something I knew about, from all those busy times in the pub. It made me feel a bit homesick.

‘I just hope it’ll cheer her up, having Oliver here,’ Sarah suddenly went on. ‘She’s refused to go out and play with the other children all through half-term, and Grace hasn’t wanted to go out without her. So they’ve both been stuck at home for the whole holiday. It’s a good thing they’re going back to school tomorrow really. It might take her mind off it.’

‘Poor love, she can’t really forget about the accident at all until the cast comes off her arm. And they’re both obviously missing poor old Sooty.’

‘Yes.’ I heard Sarah’s sigh, all the way from the next room. ‘Brownies would have helped cheer her up – she normally loves going to Brownies.’

‘But they can’t hold their meetings, can they, while the hall’s out of action.’

‘Exactly. I don’t know what’s going to happen there. And it’s not just Brownies, of course. The Cubs’ meetings are there too and, well, everything that goes on in the village! The senior citizens’ club, the WI, the nursery and the pre-school…’

‘You’re right. It’s going to be a long time before the hall’s fit for purpose. All those pensioners will miss their meetings, for sure. And the parents who work. How will they manage without the nursery?’ He paused. ‘And there was I, worrying about missing my dominoes matches in the pub.’

‘Typical!’ Sarah gave a little laugh. ‘I don’t know how everyone’s going to manage, Martin. But I feel like I ought to try and do something to help. Christmas isn’t that far off, and unless we can find another venue, everything’s going to have to be cancelled. All the children’s parties, the pensioners’ dinner – everything! Perhaps I’ll have a word with Brown Owl and see if she’s got any ideas. That’d be a start.’

They went quiet, then, and although I was still enjoying sitting in the box, peeping over the top of it and making Grace shriek with laughter, all I really wanted to do, after hearing all that, was to sit on Rose’s lap and try to cheer her up. I was sad about Sooty, too, and it made me shiver inside to think about what must have happened to him. I was beginning to realise I wasn’t the only one, cat or human, with problems. My two new foster families were helping me, and I only wished I could help them in return. *

When I woke up on my nice comfy armchair the next morning, I could hear Grace chatting in the kitchen and Sarah talking about breakfast and lunch boxes and something called aPE kit. I did my stretching and yawning, gave myself a good wash, and by the time I’d strolled into the kitchen the children had been sent upstairs to finish getting ready for school. Martin was talking quietly to Sarah, saying he hoped Rose was going to be OK at school, and that he’d see them all later.

‘Aha, look who’s come in for his breakfast,’ he said, spotting me walking round and round the empty food dish on the floor. I gave a couple of loud meows to show how ready I was to be fed, and he laughed and bent down to stroke me. Even though I’d decided now that I liked him, I still shrank away from his touch. I couldn’t help it, it was such a deep instinct in me. Then I felt bad about it, because he was feeding me and giving me a nice warm house to stay in, after all, and I hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. So I rubbed myself against his back paws a few times to make up for it.

‘All right, boy! Grub’s coming,’ he said, getting a tin of something out of the cupboard and opening it up. Salmon! I purred my head off in gratitude and fell on the food hungrily.

Sarah was watching me.‘I’ll have to stock up on tinned cat food,’ she told Martin. ‘We can’t keep on giving him things like that.’

What a shame. But still, hopefully she’d buy nice cat food. *

After Martin said goodbye and went off in the car to drive to his work, wherever that was, Sarah and the children put their coats and shoes on to walk to the school bus-stop. Grace was complaining that she was nine and a half now, and Rose was nearly eight, and they were both big enough to walk round to the bus-stop on their own, but Sarah gave her a frown and said‘Shush, Grace. I want to come with you this morning.’

Even I, with my little cat’s brain, understood that it was because of Rose being upset, and having the broken paw, that she wanted to go with them. I think Grace understood too then, because she didn’t say anything else. Rose hadn’t said a single word since breakfast. She looked pale and sad and forgot to say goodbye to me. I wanted to go with them, but Sarah closed the door on me, calling out that she wouldn’t be long. Luckily, I’d already clocked that there was a cat flap in the kitchen door because of Sooty, and it wasn’t locked, so I jumped out, found my way round the side of the house and followed them down the street.

‘Oh no!’ Grace said when she noticed me. ‘Will he get lost, Mummy?’

‘I don’t think so. He only lived just down the road from here before, you know. In the pub.’

Just down the road? I could hardly believe my ears. I’d been completely lost in that wood, imagining myself miles and miles from home, and yet after being carried for only a little way in Daniel’s rucksack I was nowjust down the road from my pub? I felt a quiver of excitement go through me. Sure enough, as we made our way down the road I was beginning to recognise places. There was the village shop. There was the house where the noisy big black dog lived. I ran past that one quickly! And there was the village green, with the children’s swings and the benches where people sat and chatted when it was warmer weather. And there … oh my goodness. I stopped, staring at my pub – the only proper home I’d ever known – and I felt a terrible howl of anguish rising up in my little chest. Sarah and the children had walked on, and I ran to catch them up, crying as I went.

‘What’s the matter with Oliver, Mummy?’ Grace asked, and Sarah turned back to look from me to the blackened, ruined buildings over the road. She gazed for a minute at the sky where the pub roof used to be, the gaping empty holes where the windows were, the remains of curtains flapping in the breeze, and bits of black, burnt furniture left half in and half out of doorways. She turned and looked at the village hall next door, which looked like a giant animal had sat on it and made the top cave in, and then she shook her head, bent down to stroke me and said to the children:

‘He’s crying because his home’s burnt down.’

‘Poor Oliver,’ said Grace. Then she looked up. ‘Mummy,’ she said in a hurried, anxious little voice. ‘That boy in front of us is Michael Potts in my class, and he’s not very nice.’

Sure enough, there was a young male human, a bit bigger than Grace, staring at us from further down the road.

‘Has your sister got another cat?’ he called out to Grace. ‘Is she going to kill that one too?’ And he laughed in a horrible, rude way. I don’t know why he thought it was funny, but it certainly wasn’t. I was so furious to think that it might start Rose crying again, I didn’t even stop to consider the fact that he was a strange male. I ran straight up to him, hissing and spitting with anger, my fur up on end, my ears flat to my head and my tail huge with threat. I had my claws out and would have jumped up his legs and scratched him if Sarah hadn’t come running after me.

‘Hey, hey, that’s enough, Oliver!’ she said, but she wasn’t being cross with me. She sounded quite pleased in a funny way.

‘That cat’s dangerous,’ the nasty boy said. He’d backed away from me and was looking at me with big frightened eyes. ‘You ought to keep him indoors.’

‘Cats go wherever they want,’ Sarah said calmly. ‘That’s why sometimes, sadly, they get hit by cars on the road. I’m sure you heard that’s what happened to our Sooty.’

She was giving him a hard stare that made him open his eyes even wider.

‘Y … yes, I know,’ he said in a scaredy-cat squeak.

‘So I presume you also heard that Rose ran into the road to try to save him?’ she went on. ‘She did it without thinking, but she was too late. She got hurt herself. She was a very brave little girl.’

The boy just stood there, looking at the ground, shifting from paw to paw, and Sarah took hold of both the girls and said,‘Come on, children, or you’ll be late for the bus,’ and they walked on.

Me? I tried to give the boy the same sort of stare Sarah had used on him. All cats know that’s supposed to be a hostile signal. But by now my bravery had fizzled out a bit and I don’t think it worked very well.

‘Stupid ginger cat!’ he hissed at me as soon as Sarah was out of earshot.

Ginger-and-white, actually. I was proud of my white bits.

It was all too much for me. I watched until they’d all turned the corner, and then I went back the way we’d come. This time I couldn’t even bear to look when I passed the pub.

CHAPTER FIVE

Sarah seemed to be a long time coming back from the school bus. I went out in the garden and had a look around. There were a couple of big fat woodpigeons out there, always good for a spot of chasing, they’re so slow and stupid. I amused myself with them for a while until it got boring. Then I climbed the fence at the side and looked down into the little paved area outside Nicky and Daniel’s house. From here, their house looked even smaller, a bit like the toy house I’d seen in the children’s bedroom, with only one window at the bottom and one at the top. The roof was slanting and covered with moss and everything about it looked sort of wonky. It reminded me of an old tatty cat, struggling to stay upright, whereas Sarah and Martin’s house, although it wasn’t big like the pub, was younger and smarter, like a sleek, well-fed, well-groomed cat. Much like myself. No need to laugh, little kitten. I may not be a youngster anymore but I’m still in my prime, let me tell you. I could still give a little kitten like you a run for your money.

Haven’t they given you a name yet, by the way? I can’t keep on calling you Little Kitten forever. What’s that you say? They’re calling youKitty? What sort of a name is that for a boy cat, for heaven’s sake? Oh, I see, it’s just till they decide on a good name. Well, they’d better hurry up about it. I’m not calling youKitty in front of all the other cats. You’d be a laughing stock.

Anyway, so I jumped down into Nicky and Daniel’s little yard and had a sniff around, but there wasn’t much there, and they had no cat flap so I couldn’t get inside the house. I remembered them saying they both went out to work all day, so I thought I’d go back and see them later. It was cold, so I was glad to get back inside Sarah’s nice warm kitchen and have a little nap in Sooty’s old bed.

A little later, I heard voices coming from the lounge. It was Sarah, and another female, and they were making peculiar noises that made my fur stand up in alarm.

‘A-cootchy-cootchy-coo!’ Sarah was going. ‘A-boo, cootchy-coo!’

Was she trying to imitate a pigeon? I sat up in bed, my head on one side, wondering whether it was safe to go into the lounge and look.

‘Ah, look at his little face!’ she was saying now. ‘Do you want your dum-dum, diddums?’

Dum-dum, diddums? Was this some foreign language I hadn’t come across before? One of the regulars in the pub used to speak something they called Spanish, and someone else spoke normal English but with a very funny accent they calledAmerican, but this was different altogether.

‘He probably wants feeding again,’ the other woman said in a more normal voice, sounding kind of weary. ‘Is that what you want, little man? Milky-poos?’

Milky-poos? It sounded disgusting, put like that. I slunk out of the kitchen, keeping to the walls, and peered around the lounge door. There was Sarah, sitting on the sofa with the other woman, and on her lap was this tiny, tiny human. Honestly, he was probably smaller than me! Well, I knew humans had kittens, obviously, like we do, but I never realised they started off so small. Not only that, he’d now started meowing just like a cat-kitten. It was all very confusing. As I watched, the new woman lifted him up, undid her shirt and started feeding him. This made a bit more sense. It reminded me of being fed by my own mother, along with my brothers and sisters, before … everything terrible happened, long ago. I couldn’t help myself from giving a little mew of sorrow at the bittersweet memory, and both women looked up and saw me.

‘Oh, here he is!’ Sarah said. ‘Oliver, our new house guest – but of course, you’ve met him already.’

Had she?

‘Oh yes.’ The other female smiled at me. She looked nice, probably a slightly younger female than Sarah, but her dark hair was tied back off her face as if she’d done it in a hurry, and her eyes looked like she needed a good long cat-nap. ‘What a little hero he is!’

A hero? What could she mean? She must be muddling me up with some other good-looking ginger-and-white cat.

‘I remember him from the pub,’ she went on. ‘We used to go there for a pie and a pint every Friday night, before we…’ Her face went a bit funny, then, like she was trying not to cry. ‘When I was working,’ she went on quickly. ‘Before I had the baby.’

‘You’ll be able to go out again, Hayley. Jack’s only a couple of months old, and things will get easier. When he’s stopped needing the night feeds, you’ll be able to get a babysitter.’

‘Will I?’ she said, sounding like she didn’t believe it. ‘Tom booked a table for us for Christmas Eve, you know, as a special treat. He said by then the baby should have settled down a bit, and I could ask one of the mums at the mother-and-baby group to recommend a babysitter. But now the pub’s gone.’

‘Couldn’t you go somewhere else? If you can get babysitters for an evening, Tom could drive you into town to the Italian restaurant, or that big chain pub. They do lovely cheap meals there.’

‘But there’s no mother-and-baby group now either! I’m so disappointed! I’d only just joined, and I was looking forward to getting to know some of the other mums with babies around here. It’s not just Little Broomford mums who come to the group, apparently. They come from Great Broomford and all the other villages around here, and how else can we get to know people, stuck out here in the back of beyond?’ Her voice was starting to sound like the wail of a cat crying. I wondered if I should go and rub my head against her legs. ‘I miss my colleagues in the office. I miss seeing lotsof people every day. I even miss commuting on the bloody train.’

‘Of course you do,’ Sarah soothed her. ‘It’s a huge change, being at home with a little baby, after being out at work every day. But you’ll soon get used to it, really you will. Meanwhile, if you and Tom want to book somewhere for an evening out around Christmas time,I could babysit for you.’

‘Oh! Sarah, I couldn’t expect you to do that. You’ll be busy – you’ve got your own children. I hope you don’t think I was hinting.’ She went red and put her paw over her mouth.

‘Of course I don’t!’ Sarah smiled at her. ‘I remember what it was like, when my girls were babies. You need something to look forward to.’

‘Well, Iwas looking forward to Christmas this year. Jack’s first Christmas – it sounded so exciting. But now, I’m just so tired all the time, I can’t even be bothered to think about it. And I wish I didn’t feel so lonely. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been really lovely talking toyou. It was so kind of you to invite me round like this.’

‘It was nice ofyou to ask me if everything was all right,’ Sarah said. ‘I didn’t even notice you sitting there on the village green till I was on my way back from the bus-stop. You saw the whole thing?’

‘I did, yes. What a brave cat Oliver was, fronting up to that Michael Potts like a right little tiger! Scared the life out of him, didn’t he?’

Alittle tiger! I don’t mind saying, I purred out loud with pride. Both the women were laughing and giving me affectionate smiles. I did a happy circuit of the coffee table, and then rubbed myself against Sarah’s legs and gave her a blink of my eyes as a kiss. She was one of my humans now and I wanted her to know that I liked her. *

When the children came back from school, I was pleased to see that Rose looked a bit happier.

‘Her friends were nice to her, about Sooty,’ Grace said. ‘And everyone wrote on her plaster – look!’

Sarah smiled as she read some of the messages.‘That’s nice,’ she said. ‘They’ve all written about how brave you were, Rose.’

‘AndOliver was brave, too, this morning, wasn’t he, Mummy!’ Grace said, running over to me and giving me a cuddle. I purred again with pleasure. I’d never been calledbrave or atiger before today. I’d probably neverbeen brave before!

Then Rose came over to me too. She was smiling and stroking me with her good paw, and when she said in a quiet little voice,‘I love you, Oliver,’ Grace and Sarah both laughed out loud like they were really pleased and excited. I felt pretty good myself, too. *

After I’d had my dinner, I decided it was time to pop back next door and see if Daniel and Nicky were home. Because they didn’t have a cat flap, I had to stand at the front door making as much noise as possible, and it wasn’t long before Nicky let me in. She seemed really happy to see me.

‘Look who’s here,’ she called to Daniel. ‘Ah, it’s lovely to see you again, Oliver. Have you had a good day?’

I wanted to tell her all about being a brave tiger, and cheering little Rose up, but I just had to make do with a lot of purring.

‘I’ll give him a saucer of milk. I’m surethat won’t strain the finances too much,’ she said, going to the fridge.

‘I get paid this week,’ Daniel said. ‘Maybe then we can help Martin and Sarah out a bit with feeding him.’

Just then, the phone started ringing and he answered it while I drank my lovely milk.

‘Yes, this is Daniel,’ he was saying. ‘Oh yes, hello, George. I know, I was here when Martin called you. Oh, well, of course not! You’ve had such a terrible shock, and such a lot to think about, I can understand that you wouldn’t have been able to think straight. Yes, it must have been a relief to know Oliver’s all right. He’s here in the kitchen with me right now, actually, drinking some milk! Yes, he’s absolutely fine, don’t worry.’ There was a long pause, and then: ‘Oh, no, George – no, it’s actually … no, look, it’s not us you need to give it to. No, listen,we’re not actually feeding him – Martin and Sarah are. We’re kind-of sharing looking after Oliver, you see, because Nicky and I are out at work all day, and Sarah and the kids are more company for him. Yes, and I know they’re happy to do it. Well, you’d need to ask them, really, but honestly, you mustn’t sendus any money– he’s not costing us anything, you see. No, that’s just a drop of milk! Honestly, Sarah’s feeding him! OK, well you discuss it with them, then. Nice to speak to you. Hope you’re settling down all right with your sister. Bye.’

‘Was George offering to pay for Oliver’s keep?’ Nicky asked as I washed myself thoroughly after finishing the milk. She’d come to listen at the kitchen doorway.

I meowed at the sound of George’s name. He must have been thinking about me, missing me, to phone them like that.

‘Yes, he said he felt terrible for not suggesting it the other day. He’d been so overwhelmed with relief about Oliver being OK. And now he wanted to send us a cheque! Even when I explained that we weren’t the ones feeding him, he tried to argue that it must be costing us something to give hima drop of milk now and then.’

‘Ah, it was nice of him to offer. And that’s good if he’s going to send next door a bit of money to help with the food.’

‘Yes. I don’t feel quite so guilty about it now. It was pretty embarrassing having to admit to Martin that we’re so hard up we couldn’t even buy a few cans of cat food.’

‘Perhaps my parents were right, Dan.’ Nicky sounded sad. ‘We should have waited. Moving in together before we had enough money was stupid, wasn’t it. We can barely even pay the rent.’

‘But it was awful living with your parents. I’m sorry, Nick, it was good of them to let us, but we both know it wasn’t working out. They don’t really approve of me, and it’s affectedyour relationship with them.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe theywere right. Maybe you should have found someone better, someone with more money who could support you properly.’

‘Don’t say that! You know I didn’t want anyone else.’ She put her arms round him and hugged him, and I felt so sorry for them both I joined in, walking round both their legs and stroking them with my head until they started to laugh.

‘At least Oliver doesn’t care whether we’re rich or poor,’ Daniel said.

‘I don’t care either. We’ll manage somehow, Dan. And when my parents see how we’ve made a go of it, they’ll change their minds, I know they will. They’re not unreasonable, and it’s not that they don’t like you. They just worry.’

Daniel nodded and gave her another hug, and went back into the living room to read the paper. Nicky stayed in the kitchen with me for a minute, watching me finishing my wash.

‘The trouble is, Ollie,’ she said to me in a soft little voice that wouldn’t carry into the other room, ‘he doesn’t know that they planned to come and see us at Christmas. They were going to stay overnight at the pub. It would’ve been the first time they’d made the effort to visit since we moved in. My two brothers were coming too. We can’t possibly put them up here – we’ve only got one bedroom and it’s tiny. They’re not going to be impressed when I tell them they can’t come.’

Oh dear. I didn’t really understand why her parents seemed to have made Nicky and Daniel unhappy. But it was pretty obvious that they weren’t going to be able to stay at the pub now. I was beginning to see that the fire was making a lot of difficulties for my new human friends, as well as for me and George. If only I could think of a way to help.

CHAPTER SIX

The next day when the children came home from school again, they had two other little girls with them.

‘Show us, then!’ one of them was saying to Grace as they walked in the door. ‘What sort of cat is he? Is he friendly?’

I was in my favourite chair in the lounge, having a little doze. I opened one eye and watched them standing in the doorway.

‘Yes, when he gets to know you,’ Grace replied. ‘But he’s a bit shy at first, so don’t crowd him, please.’ She sounded very proud and important to be showing me off. ‘Let Rose pick him up. He likes her best.’

I thought that was nice of her, and I could tell Rose did too, because she was smiling as she came over to me.

‘Hello, Oliver,’ she whispered. ‘We’ve brought some friends to meet you. Don’t be frightened, they’re very nice.’

It was probably the most I’d heard her speak. I let her pick me up, and she carried me to the sofa where she sat with me on her lap and beckoned the other girls to join us.

‘He’s lovely!’ squealed one of them. ‘Can we stroke him?’

‘Yes, but very gently,’ Grace said. ‘He’s still getting used to us. Daddy says he was always shy with strangers, when he lived in the pub, and didn’t like people touching him.’

The two friends put their little paws gently on my head and back and stroked me very carefully. It was nice. I didn’t mind them. Human kittens generally seemed kind, apart from that nasty big male the previous morning.

‘He’s purring,’ one of them said, excitedly. ‘He likes us!’

‘He’s not a bit like your other cat,’ the second girl said – and then she put her paw over her mouth and added, ‘Oh! Sorry, Rose. I didn’t say it to upset you.’

‘It’s all right,’ Rose said quietly.

‘It’s just that he’s different, isn’t he. Sooty was so big and black and, well, quite old, but Oliver’s a really pretty colour and he looks like he’s not much more than a kitten.’

What a nice child. I stretched my neck towards her appreciatively. She was obviously a connoisseur of cats.

‘I know.’ Rose gave a little smile. ‘I’m glad he’s different. I wouldn’t have liked it if he was like Sooty. It would have made me cry to look at him.’

I couldn’t get over how much Rose was talking. Sarah had come into the room behind the children and was listening to them, smiling.

‘Would you all like a glass of milk and some biscuits, girls?’ she said, and they scrambled off to the kitchen.

‘Can we play with Oliver afterwards?’

‘Can we give him some milk?’

‘Have you got any toys for him?’

They were chatting away excitedly, looking back at me as they went.

‘Is he yours forever now?’ I heard one of them say after they’d gone out of sight.

‘No.’ Grace sounded disappointed. ‘Mummy says we’re sharing him with next door, but only till his owner comes back from London. But it might be quite a long time.’

‘Maybe your mum and dad will get you another cat the same as him, after he goes.’

And it was Rose’s little voice that answered: ‘I hope so. I want oneexactly like Oliver.’ *

Later on, after we’d all tired ourselves out with a game of jumping out at each other from behind the sofa, and another one of rolling a ball of wool across the floor and pouncing after it, the friends got their coats on and waited for their parents to come and walk them home. It was dark outside, and raining, andI was wondering how much longer I could put off going out to empty my bladder. I’ve always been a very clean cat and it would have been unthinkable to me to have an accident indoors, especially when I was really a guest in the house. But the sound of the wind and rain was putting me off. I sat with my nose against the cat flap, thinking about it, and the children watched me, laughing.

‘We could study Oliver for our Brownies’ “Friend to Animals” badge,’ one of them said suddenly.

‘Oh, yes, that’s a good idea,’ Grace said. ‘All of us in our Six could work on the badge together!’ She sounded very excited. ‘As I’m Sixer of the Foxes, I think I should be the one to tell Brown Owl we want to do it.’

Foxes? I turned round and stared at them in horror. What was all this about foxes?

‘But we aren’t having any Brownie meetings, are we,’ the other friend said, sadly, ‘because of the village hall.’

‘So?’ Grace said. ‘I’ll ask Mummy if all the Foxes can come and meethere every week.’

I’d heard enough. I pushed the cat flap open and jumped out into the garden. It might have been cold and wet, but if they were going to start having foxes in the house, I was going to have to get used to making myself scarce. *

I admit I was a coward where foxes were concerned. And yes, it was true, I’d always been a bit of a scaredy-cat about being touched by strange humans. But ever since the incident with the young male who was horrible to Rose, and especially after I’d been called a brave boy, and a tiger, because of it, I could actually feel myself becoming bolder and more adventurous.I did sometimes have bad dreams about the night the pub caught fire, and getting lost in the woods. And when the other nightmare – the one I’d been having since I was a little kitten – happened, I woke up shaking all over with my heart racing, just as I’d always done. But I was beginning torealise that most humans seemed to be all right, after all – that although George would always be my favourite, he wasn’t the only one who could be kind and gentle.

When I lived in the pub, I only ventured out into the village when George had to go out and I was bored of being on my own. There were a few other cats nearby and we sometimes met round the back of the shop, where the dustbins were. So a day or two later, when Sarah was out and I was alone in their house, I decided I’d recovered enough from the shock of the fire to risk a little walk around the village on my own.

I went straight to the shop and looked round the back, but just my luck, none of my cat friends were playing there that morning. I’d been looking forward to telling them all about my heroic rescue of George, to say nothing of the way I’d escaped the foxand seen off the aggressive young human. Me, a scaredy-cat? They’d soon change their opinion of me! But it seemed like I’d have to save my stories for another day.

I wandered back round to the street, and there in front of the shop were two human females, both pushing those wheeled contraptions they called prams, and trying to chat to each other over the mewing and meowing noises coming from inside them.

‘Oh look,’ said one of the women. ‘It’s Oliver, George’s cat from the pub. We were wondering what had happened to him. I hope he hasn’t just been living rough somewhere since the fire.’

‘He doesn’tlook like he’s been living rough,’ the other one said.

‘No. Hopefully someone’s taken him in. Is someone looking after you, Oliver?’

‘Yes,’ I meowed. ‘I’ve got two nice foster homes, thank you.’ But of course, neither of them spoke Cat, so they just kept looking at me as they carried on their conversation together about how sad it was having no mother-and-baby group meetings.

I wandered off, further down the street to the village green in case my friend Tabby and the other cats were hanging out there instead. But instead of them, I found another human with a pram. It was Hayley, who’d been at Sarah’s house with the baby Jack, on the day of my heroic confrontation with Michael Potts. She was sitting on the bench, holding the handle of her pram, and just staring at the ground. She looked up when I trotted towards her, and said: ‘Oh, hello, Oliver.’ But she didn’t sound particularly happy.

I jumped up onto the other end of the bench and meowed a hello to her, but she just sighed and said,‘Are you all on your own today too?’

I thought it was a strange thing to say, because obviously shewasn’t on her own– she had Jack with her. But apparently she just wanted to talk to me, even though I was only a cat, because she went on, ‘I wish I could still see the friends I had at work. I shouldn’t have given up my job, Oliver, but I couldn’t imagine how I’d manage, commuting and working and lookingafter a baby, or paying a child minder. Oh, I had no idea it was all going to be so hard. I feel so tired all the time, and I suppose I’m justlonely. I wish I had some friends in the village. Just some other mums I could talk to about things– it would make such a difference, but now there’s no mother-and-baby group.’

My ears pricked up at this. How strange, it was exactly what the other two females had been complaining about. I jumped down off the bench and meowed loudly at Hayley, walking backwards and forwards and twitching my tail urgently at her. If we went back now, we might be in time.

‘What is it, Ollie?’ she said, watching me curiously but not moving an inch.

Oh, come on! I meowed impatiently, and finally she seemed to get the message.

‘You want me to come with you? Back to Sarah’s house perhaps? What a clever boy you are – you must have understood every word I was saying. It’d be lovely to see Sarah again, but I can’t keep depending on her. She’s got her own worries, and her children are older. I need…’

I was ignoring her now, running ahead of her down the street without even waiting for her to keep up with me. Yes! As I rounded the corner, I could see the other two women still standing outside the shop with their prams, still talking away like yappy dogs. I walked round them three times one way, and twice the other way, making them laugh and wonder aloud what I was playing at. And finally, Hayley came into view pushing her own pram, and the three women looked at each other and started to laugh as if they were already old friends.

‘Anyone would think Oliver brought me here deliberately to meet you,’ I heard Hayley exclaiming after they’d introduced themselves and done a bit ofGoo-goo-ing over each other’s prams. ‘Silly, I know – he’s notthat clever.’

Well, honestly. Sometimes we cats don’t get any credit for our intelligence. I left them to it, and went back to Sarah and Martin’s house, feeling worn out and ready for a nap. It had turned out to be a busy day of helping people, but there was only so much I could do, after all. I figured that if eight-and nine-year-old girls could come up with the idea of holding their meetings in each other’s homes, hopefully three fully grown females could work it out for themselves too.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The following day, Sarah came home from a shopping trip accompanied by yet another female. They were chatting as they went into the kitchen and started making coffee, and it sounded like, once again, it was the closing of the pub and the village hall they were worrying about.

‘Anyway, Anne,’ Sarah said as they came into the lounge, where I was enjoying a sunny spot on the windowsill watching the birds, ‘I’m glad I bumped into you this morning. I wanted to talk to you about Brownies.’

‘Yes, you see, that’s another thing,’ the other woman said. She looked slightly older than Sarah, with a cheerful-looking round face and a booming voice. ‘I’ve triedeverywhere to find a temporary venue for the meetings, but I’ve had no luck whatsoever. The school hall at Great Broomford is booked solidly every evening of the week for adult education classes, the folk dancing club and God knows what else. The community centre there is just the same, in fact they have a waiting list. And St Luke’s church halldid have a couple of slots free before the fire, but it seems the Scouts and the youth club have got in ahead of us.’

‘Oh. Well, at leastthey’re sorted, I suppose. And it’s probably easier for their age groups to get there, even if their parents don’t drive. A lot of them have bikes.’

‘That’s true. But, sadly, I’m sending a letter to all the Brownies’ parents, Sarah, explaining that unless anyone has any ideas for a venue, pack meetings are suspended indefinitely. It’s such a shame. Some of the girls will have grown out of Brownies by the time we can reopen.’

‘I have got onetiny little idea, though,’ Sarah said. ‘It’s come about because of Oliver, actually.’

They’d both been ignoring me completely up till now, but when Sarah pointed to me, Anne gave a little chuckle of surprise.

‘The pub cat? I didn’t realise he was staying with you.’

And Sarah had to explain all about my escape from the fire, and rescue from the tree, and then she described how the children and their friends wanted to study me for their Brownie badge and were going to meet at the house every week. I kept my ears pricked for any mention of foxes being invited.

‘That’s a nice idea,’ Anne said.

‘Well, at least it means their Six will still be having regular meetings. I can look up what they have to do for their badge, and give them some help, and when they’re ready perhaps you could come round and test them?’

‘Of course I will. In fact, as Brown Owl, I think I should pop round every couple of weeks to see how they’re getting on. It’ll be good to keep in touch with the Foxes, even if I don’t see the other children.’

There it was. Foxeswere coming! I gave a little mew of anxiety but neither of the women seemed to notice.

‘Well, this is what I was wondering, Anne,’ Sarah said excitedly. ‘I can’t offer to hold meetings for the rest of the pack here, obviously – we wouldn’t have the room. But if the Foxes meet here, couldn’t the parents of some of the other girls host their own Six meetings? It would be better than nothing, and it would give them all some continuity.’

‘That’s asplendid idea.’ Anne was on her feet now, looking like she wanted to jump up and down with excitement. ‘I’m sure Jessica’s mum would be happy to host the Badgers, and I’ll talk to Molly’s parents about having the Squirrels at their house. Leave it with me. Brilliant idea, Sarah. Have you ever thoughtabout becoming a Brownie leader?’

Sarah was laughing.‘Well, maybe I should consider it. But it was all thanks to Oliver, really.’

I couldn’t help feeling a surge of pleasure at this, although part of my brain was still struggling with the issue of the foxes. If badgers and squirrels were meeting at other humans’ houses, and owls seemed to be involved too, why did we have to be the ones gettingfoxes here, of all things? None of these were the type of animals who should be trusted indoors, but if there was any sign of a fox here, the children could studyhim for their badges. I’d be hiding next door. *

I decided to make it my routine to pop into the little house next door to see Nicky and Daniel most evenings. They seemed pleased to see me, but I felt sad that there was nothing I could do to help them with their worries. If they weren’t talking about how little money they had to last the month, they were worrying about Christmas. Nicky must have told Daniel now about her parents’ planned visit.

‘We’ll just have to explain to them about the pub,’ Daniel was saying when I visited that night. ‘Can’t they stay at the hotel in Great Broomford instead? Or one of the pubs there?’

‘They’re all fully booked for Christmas week already, even though it’s only the beginning of November. I’ve phoned around all of them. I suppose I’m just going to have to put them off, Dan, but it’s going to make things even worse between us. I don’t suppose they’ll understand – they never do.’

‘Well, to be honest, it’ll save us all the worry of buying a big turkey and presents for everyone.’

‘That’s not exactly how we should be thinking, is it?’ Nicky said, and I was surprised by how snappy she sounded. ‘It was going to be our first opportunity to try and show them they were wrong, about us getting together.’

‘Yes, well, we can’t very well invite them round here for a Christmas lunch of beans on toast, and presents from Poundland, and let them all sleep on the living room floor, can we? Face it, Nicky, you’re wasting your time trying to convince them we did the right thing. Having them stay at thepub wasn’t going to help. They’d still be able to see the state we’re in. We can’t even afford to put the heating on. I don’t know why you agreed to it in the first place.’

Nicky was sniffing and wiping her eyes. I jumped onto her lap to console her, and her tears dripped onto my head.

‘Sorry, baby,’ Daniel said after a few minutes. ‘I didn’t mean it. I just feel so frustrated about everything. I know it’s my fault. I need to get a better job.’

‘Well, maybe I should think about getting asecond job, doing some waitressing or something in the evenings. If it wasn’t for the fire at the pub, I could have asked there. But I can try in Great Broomford.’

‘No. It should beme doing an extra job, if either of us do. I’ll just have to look harder. Something will turn up,’ Daniel said. But he didn’t sound convinced. He just sounded tired, and fed up. *

Most of the people I met on my walks around the village seemed to know, by now, that I was staying with my two foster families since the fire. I recognised a lot of the regulars from the pub, and several of them would say hello to me and try to stroke me.

‘Same old Oliver,’ one of the domino men laughed with his friend, when I scampered away as soon as he bent down to pet me. ‘Friendly little cat, but timid as a mouse.’

Timid? Amouse? I quivered with indignation. I’d have him know that in some quarters I was known as a tiger! Feeling annoyed, I wandered a little further down one of the quiet side lanes, and sat on the wall of a little cottage similar to Daniel and Nicky’s, watching some starlings squabbling over a few bits of bread someone had dropped inthe front garden. One of them had his back to me and I thought what good fun it would be to creep up on him from behind and pounce. Perhaps if I caught one, I could take it home to Sarah as a thank you for looking after me. I climbed stealthily down from the wall, and lay flat in its shadow with myhead down and my rear end twitching in the time-honoured way, waiting for my moment. And just as none of the stupid birds were watching and I was about to go for it, the front door of the cottage was flung open, the whole flock of starlings flew, startled, up into the trees, and a very ancient-looking human female appeared on the doorstep, waving a wooden spoon and shouting at me.

‘Shoo! Go on, shoo, you horrible cat, leave the poor birds alone. I put that bread out for them. They’d starve in the winter if it wasn’t for me. Go on, get lost, you scabby old stray. I don’t want your smelly cat pee in my garden.’

Well! I’d never been so insulted in any of my nine lives. Scabby oldstray? I actually had to look around to see if she was talking to someone else. I could only assume the poor ancient creature had problems with her eyesight. How else could anyone mistake a fine, sleek, well-groomed and beautifully mannered cat such as myself, in peak condition and in the prime of my life, with ascabby old stray? It was so ridiculous it was laughable. I decided I should probably feel sorry for her, so rather than take offence and stalk off, I stayed where I was. Pretending I hadn’t even heard her nonsensical outburst, I occupied myself with having a good wash of my face to show the stupid starlings, chattering in the trees above me, that I hadn’t been the least bit bothered about catching any of them in the first place. I wasn’t worried about the woman, even when shestarted yelling again. After all, she looked far too old to come after me, let alone do me any damage.

Little kitten, I will never again make the mistake of underestimating an elderly human. I have no idea how she moved so fast. One minute she was on her doorstep, and the next, she was towering over me, her wooden spoon raised, threatening to knock me for six. All I could do was cower against the wall, spitting at her– she was blocking all my escape routes. Had I really survived the fire, and the fox, to say nothing of the terrible thing that happened when I was only a tiny kitten, just to end up being beaten to a pulp by an old woman with a spoon? I yowled out loud for help. Where were all my cat friends when I needed them?

And then, just as I thought I was done for, she stopped shouting and said:‘Just a minute. What’s that? A collar?’

‘Yes, a collar, you silly old woman,’ I meowed at her furiously in Cat. ‘I’m a proper, decent, clean-living pet, not a stray.’

Not that I’m prejudiced against strays, you understand. Most of them have fallen on hard times and deserve a bit of help. I was all too aware that I might have ended up in the same position myself, more than once now.

‘Let me have a look at that,’ she said, and before I could try to make a run for it, she’d grabbed hold of me in a most undignified way and held me aloft, ignoring my squawks of protest, while she peered at the writing on my identity disc. ‘Oliver, eh?’ she said. ‘Well, Oliver, I don’t know where you come from, but you can bugger off there now, and don’t come back. I don’t put bread out for the birds just for greedy spoilt moggies like you to come sniffing around.’

So first I was a scabby stray, and now I was a greedy spoilt moggy? I was almost too angry at the insults to be frightened of the rough way she was handling me. Just as I was trying to turn my head far enough to give her a nip with my teeth, so that she’d put me down, there was a shout from a house across the road.

‘Hey, Barbara! What are you doing with the pub cat?’

Another ancient human– a male version this time. Things were going from bad to worse. But at least this one recognised me.

‘Bugger off and mind your own business, Stan Middleton! I caught this damned moggy going after the birds in my garden. Or after the bread more likely, the greedy thing.’

As if I wanted her horrible stale bread, when I had Tesco value meaty chunks with tuna available to me back at my foster home.

‘Put him down, woman, before you hurt the poor little sod. He’s Oliver, George’s cat from the Forester’s Arms. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s probably just lonely.’

‘Huh,’ the woman called Barbara said. ‘Lonely? He doesn’t know the meaning of the word. And nor do you, Stan, before you say anything. Off down the pub with your old cronies every lunchtime – I’ve seen you.’

‘Don’t talk stupid, woman. The pub’s burnt down now. I’m stuck at home all day every day just the same as you. If the hall hadn’t had to close as well, I might have even been reduced to joining that flipping pensioners’ club of yours, sitting there with you and all the other old women, nattering about your knitting and your TV soaps.’

‘TV soaps?’ she shrieked – and I finally managed to wriggle out of her arms and shoot off out of her reach. ‘I can’t even watch the damned soaps any more. My telly’s broken and my son-in-law’s too busy to come round and fix it, the selfish little bugger. I’ve a good mind to send back his Christmas present to the mail order people. I haven’t finished paying for it yet.’

‘Same as my selfish granddaughter – no time for us old people, that’s their trouble,’ I heard Stan saying as I slunk away. Neither of them seemed to be taking any notice of me anymore. ‘If you weren’t such a stubborn old woman I’d offer to come and look at your TV for you, but I don’t suppose you’ll let me inside your house. Still sulking about that shrub I trimmed for you, I suppose. Thought I was doing you a favour, but you can’t please some people.’

When I was at a safe distance I turned back to watch them. Stan, the old male, had crossed the road now and they were talking together by Barbara’s gate.

‘Fix TVs, can you? I don’t suppose you’re any good,’ she was saying. ‘Still, you’d better come in and have a try, otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it. I suppose you’ll be wanting a slice of my fruit cake in return. You needn’t think you’ll get it on one of my best plates. And take your shoes off before you walk on the carpet – I don’t know where you’ve been!’

I was feeling quite sorry for Stan. But, you know what? Even from that distance, I could see he was grinning all over his face as he followed her into her cottage. Sometimes, little kitten, even an experienced cat like myself can’t make head nor tail of human behaviour. I trotted home to Sarah’s house as fast as I could, spent a good long time licking my sore paws where the woman had held me in her grip, and then had a well-deserved sleep to get over the experience.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The next day was a Saturday. You’ll learn to tell the difference with these human-invented days, little kitten, when you’re a grown-up cat like me. Saturdays and Sundays are when the children don’t go to school and most of the adults don’t go to work, not to be confused with holidays and special days like Christmas and Easter. Yes, I know it’s very muddling but humans don’t seem to be able to manage like we do, with every day being whatever we want it to be. Anyway, on this particular Saturday, I was sitting on Sarah’s windowsill when I saw something coming along the road that made me sit up straight and meow with excitement. At first I thought I might be seeing things, but as it came closer and finally stopped outside the house, I knew I was right. It was the same big old blue car I’d known for nearly my whole life, and there, getting out of it, was my very own human, George.

I jumped down from the windowsill and rushed for the front door, walking round and round in frantic circles and meowing my head off. Sarah came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a tea-towel, and the children came tumbling downstairs from playing in their bedroom.

‘What on earth’s all the fuss about, Ollie?’ Sarah said, as the children stood there giggling at my excitement. ‘Do you want to go out? What’s wrong with using the cat flap?’

And then the doorbell rang, and I almost climbed up the door, I was so beside myself.

‘Who can that be?’ Sarah said as she went to open it. And then: ‘Oh! Hello!’

I feel a little embarrassed now, telling you this, but the fact is, I went slightly loopy. I was so overcome with joy when George bent down to stroke me, I leapt straight into his arms, nearly knocking him over. I was climbing all round his neck, licking his face, purring fit to bust. I just couldn’t contain myself. Everyone was laughing, George included.

‘What a welcome,’ he said. ‘Whoa, calm down, boy, you’ll have me over.’

By now, Martin, who’d been outside in the shed doing what he described as hisSaturday pottering (I have no idea what it was, and I suspected Sarah didn’t either), had heard the commotion and come back indoors.

‘George!’ he said, trying to shake his hand, but having difficulty because I was clinging to him like a limpet. ‘Great to see you, mate. Are you back in the village?’

‘No, sadly not. Just visiting.’

‘Well, Ollie’s pleased to see you, at any rate. Stay and have some lunch with us if you’ve got time.’

‘Thanks, I will, if you’re sure.’

So we all went through to the kitchen, and George sat at the table with me on his lap, snuggling up to him and purring contentedly.

‘So how has he been?’ George asked, nodding down at me.

‘Brilliant,’ Sarah said at once. ‘We’ve loved having him here, haven’t we, children?’

‘Yes,’ they both chorused, and Rose added quietly, ‘I want to keep him forever.’

‘No, remember what I told you?’ Martin said gently. ‘Oliver is George’s cat, and he’s only staying with us until George can come back and look after him again.’

‘But that won’t be for quite a long time. And I’m sure he’ll still come and visit you, and play with you, when he’s back with me,’ George added.

‘Of course I will,’ I meowed, but needless to say, nobody understood me. Sometimes it’s very frustrating that humans don’t learn Cat. They think they’re so much cleverer than us, it wouldn’t hurt them to try.

Well, they sat around the table drinking tea and eating toasted sandwiches, and Sarah finally lured me off George’s lap by putting some bits of cheese down for me. Then afterwards the children went off to play but I stayed with the adults, wanting to enjoy every minute of George’s company before he went away again.

‘I’m so grateful to you for taking care of Oliver for me,’ he was saying to Sarah and Martin. ‘I couldn’t possibly have had him with me at my sister’s place, and besides, it’s better for him to be here in the village where he knows his way around.’

‘Of course it is. And he’s been no trouble at all,’ Sarah said. ‘But he’s not with us all the time. He goes next door to Nicky and Daniel a lot, too.’

‘So: tell me who I should make this cheque out to,’ George said, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. ‘I was going to post it, but I really wasn’t sure about the arrangements. Daniel told me on the phone the other day that you were buying all the cat food.’

‘Well, it’s probably fifty-fifty,’ Martin said, giving Sarah a quick glance. ‘Don’t worry about us, but I daresay he’s eating Nicky and Daniel out of house and home – you know what cats are like.’

I was a bit puzzled by this, as I knew perfectly well what the arrangement was, and so did Martin. He’d agreed that he and Sarah would be the ones feeding me. Although Nicky did occasionally give me a saucer of milk or a few scraps, I had a feeling Martin was just trying to be kind to them.

‘OK, look, I’ll make the cheque out to you, Martin, if you don’t mind, and leave you to divvy it up between you. And … jump down a minute, will you, Ollie? I’ve got a few things in the car to bring in.’

‘This is far too much,’ Martin was protesting, looking at the cheque.

‘No it’s not. It’s for the month, all right? I’ll try to get down here roughly once a month to settle up with you, or if it’s easier, I could just buy a month’s supply of food and bring it with me.’

‘No, look, there’s no need…’

‘But I thought a cheque might be better, so that if I can’t get down here, I can just post it.’

‘But, listen, George, I don’t want to be personal, but are you all right for money? I mean, with the pub being out of action?’

‘Oh yes, I’m fine, mate – don’t worry about me. The brewery’s looking after me. I’m only a tenant landlord, you know. Straight after the fire, when I told them I’d got to move to London for the duration of the rebuilding work, they found me a temporary job in a local pub close by, that’s just reopened after refurbishment. I’m doing shifts there at the moment, but luckily everywhere is busy, with Christmas coming up, so I should have full-time work soon. They’ve got the chef from the Forester’s a job too, in Great Broomford. I couldn’t do anything for the barmaids, unfortunately – they were just employed on a casual basis. But I’ve heard on the grapevine that they’ve both managed to get some work here and there in town.’

‘So, in some ways,’ Sarah said, ‘it’s fortunate that it’s the busy season.’

‘Yes.’ He frowned and sighed. ‘But not for the people here who had bookings for meals and parties in the Forester’s, and even rooms booked for family over Christmas.’

‘I know.’ Sarah looked sad too. ‘But it’s not your fault, George, and everyone will just have to make other arrangements, if they can. It’s not the end of the world, and the most important thing is that you weren’t hurt in the fire.’

‘Thanks to Ollie,’ George said, giving me another stroke now even though he’d made me get off his lap. ‘If he hadn’t woken me up, that night, I hate to think what would’ve happened.’

Everyone went quiet then, even me, not wanting to think about it. They’d been talking earlier about what might have started the fire, and apparently the ‘investigators’ – whoever they were – believed it was an electrical fault, something to do with some wiring. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was glad nobody thought it was George’s fault. Or mine.

George went out to the car, then, and came back carrying two big bags.

‘Just a little token of my thanks,’ he said, putting them on the table.

‘But you’ve given us the money, George,’ Sarah said, staring open-mouthed at the bags.

‘These are just some things for Ollie, and some little bits for the kids – so you can’t say no,’ he said with a smile. ‘Now, it’s been great seeing you, and thanks for the lunch, but I’m going to have to get back as I’m working tonight.’

‘Good to see you too, mate,’ Martin said, shaking his hand. ‘Thanks for the cheque – and for all this, but you didn’t have to.’

‘I miss my boy,’ George said by way of a reply. He picked me up and gave me another quick cuddle, and I purred into his ear, wishing frantically that he didn’t have to go. ‘I’ll see you again soon, Ollie. Be good. It’ll probably be nearly Christmas before I can get back again,’ he added to Sarah and Martin as he walked to the door.

I meowed to myself sadly for ages after he’d gone. But when Sarah started unpacking the bags, she found so many exciting things for me, I almost forgot to be upset. There was a new blanket – soft and fluffy with a pattern of paw prints all over it – a toy mouse stuffed with catnip, just the right size for throwing in the air and catching with my claws, some sparkly little balls to play with, a bag of my favourite cat-treats and, best of all, a little hammock made of furry material that hooked over a radiator, for me to lie in. Sarah was laughing as she watched Martin fix it over the radiator in the lounge.

‘Look at that, Ollie,’ she said. ‘What a lovely warm, cosy bed for you, for the winter.’

I jumped straight into it, turned around a couple of times (although there wasn’t much room and I nearly fell out on the first attempt), did a bit of scraping at the furry surface the way we cats like to, and finally snuggled down, purring myself to sleep as I thought fondly of George choosing my presents. I was beginning to realise what a lucky little cat I was, after all. *

When I woke up, there was another surprise. It was dark, the curtains had been drawn, the children must have gone to bed– and sitting on the sofa holding glasses of drink, like the ones people had in the pub, were Nicky and Daniel from next door. Normally I’d have had my dinner by now, and then gone in to see them, but I must have had a much deeper and longer nap than usual, in my new hammock.

‘It’s really nice of you both to ask us round,’ Nicky was saying.

‘Well,’ Sarah said, ‘we just thought that if you weren’t doing anything tonight, it’d make a change to get together for a chat. Would you like some crisps?’ She passed them a little bowl, and watching them crunching away, I realised how hungry I was. I jumped out of my hammock, yawning and stretching my legs.

‘Oh, look who’s finally woken up,’ Martin laughed. ‘I suppose you want some dinner, Ollie.’

Of course I did! I followed him out to the kitchen, purring with anticipation, and did a few circuits of the place where they normally put my dish, while I waited for him to open the tin. When I’d finally finished eating, been outside for a call of nature and then had a good wash, there seemed to be a serious conversation going on, back in the lounge.

‘We absolutely can’t accept it,’ Nicky was saying, looking a bit pink in the face. ‘We haven’t been feeding Ollie at all – only a spot of milk occasionally. It’s your money.’

‘Seriously, guys,’ Martin said, ‘George wanted you to have it. He wanted to show his appreciation toall of us for taking care of Ollie– making him comfortable and stopping him from being lonely. It’s not just about the food.’

‘Oh.’ Nicky gave Daniel an anxious look. ‘Well, I don’t know what to say. I mean, it’s very nice of him, but we love having Ollie popping in for visits anyway.’

‘If we accept the money,’ Daniel said firmly, ‘we’ll take over feeding him his evening meals. It’s not fair, otherwise.’

Martin shrugged.‘Shall we just say that whoever’s house he’s in at the time can feed him?’

I pricked up my ears. If I was a crafty cat, I could do well out of this. I could have dinner in one house, and then nip next door and get a second helping. But then I remembered how worried Daniel and Nicky were about money. No, that wouldn’t be right. Maybe I’d let them feed me occasionally, so they didn’t feel unhappy about George’s money, but I wasn’t going to take advantage, tempting though it was.

‘OK, we’ll stock up on cat food with the money,’ Nicky said.

‘Only a few tins,’ Sarah suggested with a smile. ‘We don’t want Ollie getting greedy and cadging extra meals, do we?’

They all laughed then, and I felt so embarrassed I had to turn away and pretend to wash my face again. How had they guessed what I’d been thinking?

‘George has been far too generous with his cheque,’ Martin said. ‘We won’t need all our share either, to say nothing of the presents.’

‘Oh yes, I noticed the new bed on the radiator,’ Nicky said.

‘He loves it already. It must be so warm and cosy for him. But there were presents for the children, too – books, and games, and jigsaws – they thought Christmas had come early! So you see, we’ve had more than our fair share of George’s gratitude.’ She smiled at Nicky and added quietly,‘Please don’t feel bad about accepting your share.’

That settled, the talk turned to Christmas.

‘To be honest,’ Nicky said, taking tiny sips of her drink, and finally putting the glass down as if she’d decided she didn’t like it, ‘I’m not looking forward to it.’

‘Oh, why not?’ Sarah asked.

Next thing I knew, the whole story was pouring out, about Nicky’s parents, and the arguments, and the Christmas visit that was supposed to be their opportunity to make up with them, until the fire in the pub put paid to their stay.

‘We’re going to have to cancel them,’ Daniel explained. ‘We haven’t got any room to put them up. Nicky’s two younger brothers would be coming too, as they’re only twelve and fourteen.’

I saw Sarah and Martin giving each other a look.

‘Well, there must be a way round it,’ Sarah said. ‘Let us have a think.’

‘I can’t seeany way, other than cancelling the visit. There’s nowhere else in the village they can stay, and everywhere in Great Broomford and the other villages is fully booked.’ Nicky shrugged. ‘Dan says it’s pointless having them come for Christmas anyway while we can’t afford any luxuries.’

‘It’s going to be a disappointing Christmas for a lot of people here,’ Martin said. ‘Nowhere to hold the pensioners’ party or the children’s parties. No Christmas nights out at the pub…’

‘Not even for poor Ollie,’ Sarah said, smiling at me. They all laughed then, and I was glad really, because the conversation had been getting a bit sad.

‘Actually it might not have been all fun and games for Ollie at the pub at Christmas time,’ Martin said. ‘It always got so busy, with a lot of people coming into the pub who didn’t know him, and didn’t realise he didn’t like being stroked or petted by strangers – especially strange men.’

‘He seems to have got used to both ofus now, though, doesn’t he,’ Daniel said.

‘Yes. We should be honoured.’

‘Do you know if there’s any reason for it? I mean, sometimes animals are scared of strangers if they’ve been ill-treated or something like that.’ Daniel was holding his hand out towards me as he spoke, and I walked towards him, purring, and let him stroke my head, to show him I trusted him now. ‘Has George had him ever since he was a kitten?’

‘Yes.’ Martin nodded. ‘But you’re right, he came with a history. George told me about it once. It’s very sad.’

When I realised he was going to tell the others about my horrible start in life, I decided it was time to go to bed. I didn’t want to hear it. It was bad enough having lived through it.

CHAPTER NINE

All right, little kitten– do I really have to call you Kitty? – yes, I suppose it’s about time I told you what happened to me. You have to understand, I don’t find it easy to talk about. But perhaps it’ll be good for you to realise that not all little kittens have a nice start in life, like you have, with a kindfamily and plenty to eat right from the start, to say nothing of having a wise older friend like me to look after you and teach you the ways of the world.

So, where do I start? With my earliest memories, I suppose. I vaguely remember being nursed by my mother, but it’s only a dim, distant recollection of warmth and softness and lovely milkiness, lost to me so soon after I was born. I was one of five kittens, and my brothers and sisters were the first things I saw when my eyes started to open. My eyesight wasn’t very good at first – yours will have been the same – but I was aware of the others as we all clambered over each other, competing for our mother’s milk. Our little ears didn’t work at first either, but gradually I became aware of the sound of my mother purring as she groomed us, and the funny little squeaks my siblings made. Obviously we were too young to have any idea where we were, but it was dry and warm, and our bed was on some kind of rough material. There was nobody else in my little world at that time – just my mother, my two sisters and two brothers.

Then everything went badly wrong. One day, soon after my ears and eyes had started to work properly, we were all startled by a sudden loud noise, and a gust of cold fresh air. My mother jumped up, trying to hide us all under her body as we kittens scrambled around on the bed in fright. We were only just beginning to learn to walk and, I have to say, I was the best at it. I’d managed to stray off the bedding once or twice, but my legs were wobbly and I couldn’t wait to get back to my mother’s warmth. Now, though, I was cowering under her tummy, shaking with fear.

‘What the hell?’ someone shouted, and there were heavy footsteps coming towards us. ‘Bloody cat – how did you get in here? Bloody shed’s been locked up for weeks. Drat, should have fixed that damned window, might have known all the pesky strays in the neighbourhood would get in. Get out of it – go on, clear off, you manky old thing.’

He was looming over us now. I could feel my siblings shaking as hard as I was. My mother was hissing and spitting, her whole body taut, her tail suddenly twice its normal size. You have to remember I’d never seen a human before, and I had no idea what they were. But this one was big, loud, and very angry, and my mother was making him even angrier.

‘Get off me, you vicious brute,’ he shouted at her as she dug her claws and her teeth into his huge hairy front paws. ‘Ouch! Right, that’s it – I’m gonna get you in this sack and…’ There was a pause. His horrible red face and bulging eyes had come suddenly into focus. ‘Blimey,’ he exclaimed. ‘Bloody kittens too.’

By now we were all squeaking and mewing in distress. Our mother was trying frantically to hide us, but he made a grab for us, one at a time, by our tails, our necks, whatever he could get hold of as we tried desperately to crawl out of his reach.

‘You horrible little vermin can go in the sack first,’ he said, and he pulled our bedding out from under us all, shook it so that it opened into a kind of big bag, and started dropping us in it, one by one. All the time our mother was shrieking at him and attacking him with her claws, until he threw her onto the floor and held her down with one of his huge great back paws. I was the last kitten to be dropped into the sack, and as he grabbed me by the neck I was just in time to see him kick my poor mother so hard, she wailed in pain and shot of the shed door. I can’t tell you how hard I cried as I fell down into the darkness of that sack and joined my siblings in a heap at the bottom.

‘Come back ’ere, you,’ the human was shouting after my mother. I heard him run out of the shed, still shouting, but he was soon back, muttering about catching her next time he saw her. ‘Meanwhile, let’s get rid of this bag of vermin,’ he said, and the next thing we knew, we were being lifted up in the air and swung along, falling over each other and squeaking with fear. *

I can see I’ve upset you already, little kitten, and you haven’t heard it all yet. Are you sure you want me to go on? I did warn you it wasn’t a nice story. You’re not going to have nightmares, are you? Look, I can promise you there’s a happy ending. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here with you now, curled up nice and cosy on this cushion together with the sunshine coming through the window, would I? But yes, you’re quite right, that was the last time I ever saw my mother. Well, we all have to leave our mothers, as you know, but I was still too young, and of course, the circumstances weren’t exactly ideal. But since I’ve grown up, I’ve always told myself I’m glad she got away from that horrible man. I know she wouldn’t have left us if she’d had any choice in the matter.

Well, there we all were in that dark sack and, of course, I don’t actually know how long we were in it, or where we were taken, but when we felt ourselves being dumped on the ground, we all started crying as loudly as we could – which wasn’t very loud – to be let out. For a long, long time we heard nothing outside the sack apart from birds singing. We were all hungry, and thirsty, and beginning to get weak. I had an instinctive feeling that we needed to keep still to conserve our energy, but my two brothers didn’t seem to understand this, and kept jumping around, looking for a way out. There wasn’t one, of course – the sack was tied up at the top – and they were just making themselves more and more tired and thirsty. It was hard to breathe, and the two girl kittens were both starting to struggle. Eventually we did all have to lie down quietly because we were too weak to do anything else, even to cry.

We lay there for a long time, maybe hours, maybe days, listening to each other’s shallow breathing getting fainter. And then there was a sound outside – a loud sniffing sound – and the sack was being nudged backwards and forwards. By now I was almost too weak and sick to care what happened, but suddenly a new human voice was calling out:

‘What have you got there, Rupert? Leave it alone, boy. Here! Sit! Stay!’

And then there was light, so sudden and so bright, I had to close my eyes, only for them to fly open again with fright at the terrible noise that came next. Have you met any dogs yet, little kitten? Believe me, you need to give them a wide berth. Some of them are quite friendly to cats, others are complete psychopaths who would kill us as soon as look at us. But the main problem with them is, they’re loud and excitable. Their humans have to tie them onto long straps just to keep them under control, and if they’re unstrapped, they go berserk, running around in circles, shouting their heads off, chasing anything that moves, even though they never seem to catch anything. Well, this was my first introduction to a dog, and it was terrifying. The minute his human had opened our sack, this dog got his nose right inside it and let out a cacophony of horrendous shouting. The human was shouting too, telling him to shut up and sit down, and eventually the dog’s face was replaced in the opening of the sack by the human’s face. After my experience with the first human I’d ever met, you can imagine how I felt about seeing another one – and this one’s voice was just as loud as the first.

‘Kittens!’ he yelled, staring down at us. I tried to give a little cry of fear, but nothing would come out, and I wasn’t the only one – none of my siblings seemed to be able to raise a squeak, either. ‘Half dead by the look of ’em. Poor little beggars. Who the hell would dump a bag of kittens in the middle of a field like that? Criminal, that’s what it is. Well, I’d better take ’em somewhere, though I reckon it’s probably too late to save ’em. Come on, Rupert – let’s go, boy. Back to the car. You’ll have to have your walk later.’

With that, we were hoisted up in the air again and I was tumbling on top of my poor sisters and brothers, all of us too weak to care. I was barely conscious as I felt the sack being put down again. But a few minutes later, there was an even louder noise, if possible, than the din the dog was still making, and I lay there quaking and shivering, sure it must be the end of the world. I’ve since worked out that we were in a car, and the noise – I’ve heard it lots of times since, of course – was the car waking up. They roar at the top of their lungs at first, and then settle down to a kind of loud purr as they run along. It’s horrible being inside one, at the best of times – you can feel the vibrations of their tummies rumbling, and they make all sorts of horrible noises, stopping and starting and sometimes screeching. George plays music inside his car now if he has to take me out in it, and that helps a bit. But I shudder to think how scared I must have been back then, in the blackness of that sack, with no idea what was going on. It’s probably a good thing my memories of that part are quite dim now.

In fact I don’t remember anything else until I found myself being lifted out of the sack. I could hear the human who owned the dog, still talking, and another voice, higher and softer, but my brain couldn’t interpret what they were saying any more. As you know, we cats are born bilingual, able to understandHuman as well as Cat, but apparently no humans have ever realised this because, of course, we can’t speak it. Didn’t you know that, little kitten? Didn’t you ever wonder why they don’t get annoyed when we completely ignore them? They’ve come to expect it, so it can be quite useful – we cats don’t have to do as we’re told, like they expect dogs to.

But by now, I think my brain had almost given up working. I didn’t like the high-voiced human picking me up, but she was a lot gentler than the horrible man in the shed. Her voice was comforting compared with the loud booming of the male and the shouting of the dog that was still going on. She gently felt me all over, and the next thing I knew she was dripping milk into my mouth from a little tube. It was heaven. I gasped and almost choked on it, I was so desperate to drink. And then I must have fallen asleep. *

Well, the next thing I remember was waking up in a kind of cage, and I was all on my own. I tried to cry, and this time I managed a few pitiful little whimpers. The female human immediately came along and, to my relief, my brain was working again enough to understand her.

‘Ah, this one’s awake,’ she said. ‘Hello, little one. Are you feeling better?’ She opened the cage and picked me up again. I struggled a bit, but when I saw she had the little tube thing in her hand and was going to give me some more milk, I relaxed. ‘That’s it, puss,’ she purred atme gently. ‘Drink up, you need all the nourishment you can get. I think this one’s going to make it,’ she called to another female standing behind her. And then she laughed. ‘He’s looking for more. That’s a really good sign – he’s nuzzling me for more milk. I think we’ll have to call himOliver. The boy who asked for more!’

And they both laughed, and although I didn’t understand the joke, and although I was really too tired to care what they called me, I must admit I thought it was a very fine name. *

I must have spent a long while like that, drifting in and out of sleep, being fed milk whenever I woke up, gradually feeling stronger and eventually managing to get up on my little legs again. When I was finally able to scamper around like a proper kitten, I was allowed out of my cage for short periods to run up and down the room. I still had no idea where I was, but I knew I was being looked after. Several of my baby teeth had come through, and as well as the milk, I was being given tiny mouthfuls of meat to try now. Because I knew how it felt to be starving, I promised myself I’d never refuse anything I was offered.

Day by day, I felt myself growing bigger and fitter. Just as I was getting used to my new routine, I was moved to a different cage. This one was bigger, with room to run around and with my own comfy bed and toilet facilities. The female human had taught me to use a litter box. She’d looked very sad as she told me this was something my mother would have taught me if I hadn’t been separated from her. The thought of my mother made me cry, and then I started wondering about my brothers and sisters. I hadn’t seen them since I’d been taken out of the sack. I wished I could find them and play with them, but nobody ever mentioned them. I still don’t know, to this day, what happened to them. But … I think I can guess. I’m not even sure whether the thing about us having nine lives is true, anyway.

Ah, sorry, little kitten. Don’t cry. Come on, we’re just coming to the nice part of the story. It gets more cheerful now. I’ll cut to the end. One day, when I woke up in my little bed, there was a new, strange, male human looking at me through the bars of my cage.

‘Hello, little Oliver,’ he said. I instantly shrunk back against the edge of the bed, my fur standing on end, and gave a little growl. Male humans were bad news. To be fair, this one was keeping his voice quieter and softer than the others, and his face looked smiley, but how could I trust him?

‘Would you like me to get him out for you?’ my friend, the female, asked him.

‘Yes, please.’

‘He’s had a very traumatic start,’ she said quietly as she unlatched my cage. ‘Abandoned before he was weaned – probably at about three weeks or so. We didn’t expect him to make it, but he’s done really well and he’s ready for his first vaccinations now.’

I struggled as she picked me up. I didn’t want the male to get me.

‘It’s all right, Oliver,’ she said. ‘Don’t be frightened. He’s a bit nervous of new people,’ she explained. ‘We think he was probably mistreated before he was dumped.’

‘Poor little fellow,’ the new human said. ‘He’s such a beautiful little thing, too.’ He seemed so different from the other males, with their loud shouting, and especially that first one with his big rough paws. He gave me a little stroke and although I flinched a bit, it was actually quite nice. ‘Would you like to come and live with me, Oliver? I promise you’ll never be mistreated again. We’ll be best mates, you and me. We’re both lonely boys who need a pal, aren’t we?’

And despite myself, I found myself purring. It would take me a little while to trust him completely, and when he moved me to my new home he let me live quietly upstairs in his private rooms until I was brave enough to face the customers downstairs. But from our first day together, when he sat me carefully on his lap and told me how his own female had died and left him all alone in the world, and that he’d gone to the Cats’ Protection home to find himself someone to keep him company, I knew that what he said was right. We were best mates, destined to spend our lives together and look after each other.

That, little kitten, was how I met my George.

CHAPTER TEN

OK, well now that I’ve told you all about my poor sad kittenhood, is it all right with you if I get back to my story about last year? Otherwise we’re never going to get to the end of it.

As you’ve probably gathered, it was starting to be winter by now, and I was never a cat for spending a lot of time outside in the winter. I was lucky to have my two cosy foster homes to sleep in, although it has to be said that Nicky and Daniel’s cottage was a bit draughty and they didn’t turn the heating on very often. However, I must admit there were times, when Sarah was working on her computer in the study, and the children were at school, when I felt a little bored, and needed to stretch my legs. So I’d have a run down the road and round the corner into the main street, and if I couldn’t find Tabby and the others to play with, I’d usually run straight back again.

Of course, if there was a dim-witted pigeon or starling to chase while I was out, so much the better. I’m not a bad hunter, little kitten – I’m small and quick enough to take some of the dozy creatures by surprise. I’ll give you some lessons when you’re a bit bigger. Usually, back at the pub, if I made a kill I’d take it home and leave it by the back door for George. He didn’t seem to like having the gifts taken indoors, for some reason. But obviously, I didn’t realise other humans shared this dislike. So the first time I caught a sparrow for Sarah and Martin, I carried it straight through the cat flap into the house. Nobody was around to present it to, so I thought the best thing would be to leave it in the middle of the lounge, by the coffee table, so they couldn’t miss it when they came in. But if I was expecting praise for my hunting skill, I was in for a disappointment.

‘What the hell?’ Sarah said when she saw the decapitated sparrow on the carpet. ‘Oh, Ollie! How could you? Poor bird! And we donot want things like this brought indoors, thank you very much.’

I slunk away, feeling very confused and upset. Sarah had sounded cross with me– and yet she’d ended up sayingthank you very much, so I guessed she must have been pleased with the sparrow but, like George, would have preferred it left outside. And as forpoor bird– well, it had been a fair fight, and he’d lost. What was wrong with that? I ended up deciding my offering might have been too small. She’d been disappointed. Next time, I’d bring her a bigger bird, but leave it on the front doorstep. She’d like that, for sure. *

One day, when it wasn’t quite so cold, I was feeling more frisky and adventurous than usual. After setting off from the house, something made me keep on going – up to the top of the main street, where the road runs out of houses and pavements and starts to climb a steep hill. I’d never been up here before, so I slowed down to have a look and a sniff around. But apart from the occasional dollop of smelly horse poo (I’ve never understood why horses don’t clean up after themselves like we do), there wasn’t really much to see, until I rounded a bend, and there in front of me were a pair of enormous iron gates, with huge birds sitting on top of them. It took me a minute to realise the birds weren’t real. I peered through one of the holes that made up the pattern of the gates, and meowed to myself in surprise. There was a very, very long driveway, stretching away into the distance, and on either side of it were massive lawns of lovely grass, dotted with all sorts of shrubs and trees. Far off at the other end of the driveway was a big house, the biggest I’d ever seen. Feeling too curious to be scared, I squeezed through the gap in the gate and dashed across the lawn to the first little group of shrubs, where I lay quietly for a moment, hoping nobody had seen me. When you’re exploring somewhere new like this, little kitten, you have to remember there could be a resident cat who will make short work of seeing you off his territory – or even, worst case scenario, an unstrapped dog. However, everything seemed quiet in this huge garden, so I decided to make the most of it, and spent a pleasant afternoon chasing sparrows and blackbirds and stupid woodpigeons all over the lawns, ducking behind trees and jumping out at them, wriggling under bushes and generally having an exhilarating time. I’d intended picking off one of the blackbirds to take home, but eventually I was almost too worn out by all the exercise to walk back and, as you can probably imagine, I fell straight asleep as soon as I was through the cat flap.

The next day, I happened to run into Tabby and his latest female, Suki. I couldn’t wait to tell them about my new discovery.

‘You’re talking about the grounds of the Big House,’ Tabby said at once, looking shocked. ‘You can’t go in there.’

‘Why not?’ I said. ‘I did, and it was lovely. You should try it. We’d have a great time together in there. Is it somebody’s territory?’

‘Yes, but not a cat’s. It belongs to the worst-tempered human in the whole village. I should know. I got chased out of there by him once, and he was waving a stick at me like he wanted to hit me with it. I’ve never been back and as you know I’m a very brave cat, so it’s madness for a timid little thing like you to risk it.’

If he hadn’t said that thing about me beingtimid, I’d probably have taken his advice and never gone back there. But it was so embarrassing, being patronised like that in front of Suki. She’d been purring away, rubbing her face against Tabby’s and making flirty eyes at him, and when she deigned to give me a glance, it was so disdainful, I’m afraid I snapped:

‘Actually I’m not timid at all. I’ll have you know I’m famous in the village these days for being as brave as a tiger.’

Tabby laughed. I was beginning to wonder why I was friends with him. He didn’t behave like this when Suki wasn’t around.

‘Oh, really?’ he said. ‘What did you do? Catch a mouse?’

‘No!’ I retorted crossly. ‘I frightened off a male human, if you must know. A very aggressive one.’

‘Yeah? What was he – a little human kitten?’ Tabby said, making Suki laugh and rub herself even more amorously against him.

I’d had enough. I turned and stalked away from them, waving my tail crossly as I went. So what if itwas only a human kitten? I’d still been brave. I’d show that self-satisfied Tabby just how much braver I was than him – I’d go back to the Big House every day if I wanted to, and play there for as long as I liked. Huh! Timid, me? What did he know? *

Up to a point, it was true that I was becoming famous in the village, but not necessarily for being brave. Everyone was now aware of my situation, that I was temporarily homeless and in foster care, and when I trotted along the road there was always someone who’d stop, bend down and stroke my head, asking how I was and whether I was missing George. George was very popular with everyone in Little Broomford and I got the feeling they felt a kind of collective responsibility towards me, as their pub cat. This made me feel quite proud, and also helped me realise that most of these people who had tried to stroke and pet me when they came to the pub, and whose advances I’d been afraid of, were actually kind and gentle after all.

It was interesting to see how various people in the village were starting to get together in each other’s houses now that the pub and the hall weren’t available. That same day, after talking to Tabby and Suki, I was going home past the shop when I noticed two women with prams who were laughing and chatting together as they went up the path of the house next door. One was Hayley, who had the babycalled Jack. She caught sight of me and exclaimed to her friend:

‘Oh, look, it’s Oliver. Hello, Oliver!’

I went closer and did a circuit of her legs. There was a cold wind that day and I’d been in a hurry to get home to the warm, but I was so pleased to see the difference in Hayley, I didn’t like to rush off. Before, she’d been so quiet and sad, but now she was smiling and laughing out loud, and even little Jack in the pram sounded like he was making a happy gurgling noise instead of that pitiful mewing.

‘It’s because of Oliver that I’ve got some friends in the village now,’ she was telling the other female. ‘I’m sure he led me here deliberately one day when Louise was outside the shop, and left us to chat to each other. I know it sounds silly, but he seemed so anxious for me to walk this way…’ she said. She laughed, and shook her head. ‘Well, maybe I imagined it. But Louise was sorry too because of the mum-and-baby group not meeting, and we decided to start holding these afternoon get-togethers at each other’s houses. And now I’ve met you, and the others, and I can’t tell you how much difference it’s made, having friends to talk to about the sleepless nights and the crying and the nappies.’

‘Friends who understand,’ the other female said, smiling back at her. ‘We all need that. Well, Oliver, I’m very grateful to you too.’

And she gave me a little rub of my head and I went on my way, feeling happy and satisfied with myself. Perhaps I was getting a bittoo pleased with myself, with all this flattery from everyone. But you see, I kept remembering that sneering look on Tabby’s face and the haughty way Suki dismissed me, and I was determined that one daythey’d be jealous ofme. *

Of all my new friends in the village, it was Sarah’s family who were the most grateful to me, and I knew that was because of the change in little Rose. She was far more chatty and smiley these days, behaving like any human kitten should – running around the house, giggling at things with her sister, rushing home from the school bus excited about this or that. Apparently the young male called Michael Potts hadn’t said another single word to her about Sooty or the accident since I’d attacked him. I heard Grace say to her mother that some other boys from their class had seen the confrontation that day, and teased him afterwards about being frightened of a little ginger cat.

‘They said he was a coward because he only picked on little girls like Rose, and when a little cat hissed at him he ran away,’ she said. ‘He didn’t like being laughed at by his friends, so he stays away from Rose now and ignores me too.’

‘Good,’ Sarah said. ‘We have a lot to thank Ollie for, don’t we?’

‘Yes. And he’s going to help the Foxes tonight, too.’

Grace ran over to pick me up and give me a hug, but I was too alarmed by what she’d said, and I yowled and dug my claws into the cushion I was sitting on, refusing to be lifted.

‘What’s the matter, Ollie?’ she said, laughing at me. ‘Are you in a grumpy mood today?’

What could she expect, with all this talk about foxes? And, just as I’d feared, a bit later, when I’d been resting peacefully in my favourite chair, the doorbell rang and there was a shout from Grace:

‘That’ll be them. The Foxes!’

As you can imagine, I was instantly leaping out of the chair and making a dash for the cat flap.

‘No!’ Rose cried out, seeing me run past her. ‘Mummy, don’t let Ollie escape.’

I couldn’t believe it. The whole family seemed to be in on the plot to bring foxes into the house to eat me up – even Rose! Sarah rushed to lock the cat flap before I could get there, so I turned tail, thinking I could leg it out of the front door when they opened it to let the foxes in. But to my horror, Sarah then shut me in the kitchen, calling out to Grace:

‘OK, let them in now. I’ll keep Ollie in the kitchen until you’ve closed the front door and then he can come out.’

Meowing in distress, I crept under the kitchen table and tried to make myself as small as I could against the wall. I could hear children’s voices, but no foxes barking yet, although I knew they must be out there somewhere. After a few minutes Sarah came back in.

‘Oliver, what on earth’s the matter?’ she said, bending down and holding out her hand to me under the table. I was cowering on the floor, and low rumbling growls of fear were coming up out of my chest. ‘Come on, all the Foxes are here to see you.’

And before I could run again, she’d grabbed me in a paw-lock and carried me into the lounge. I closed my eyes and prepared to say goodbye to the world. How many lives was I down to, even if I believed in that piece of folklore? But all I heard was a chorus of children calling out to me:

‘Hello, Oliver!’ and ‘Oh, isn’t he lovely?’ and ‘Is he asleep?’

I opened one eye slowly, and then the other, and glanced round the room suspiciously. Where were the foxes? I decided to stay clinging onto Sarah until I knew.

The little girls were all laughing.

‘Is he scared of us?’ one asked.

‘He’s just a bit shy of strangers,’ Grace explained importantly. ‘He’ll be all right when he gets used to you. Just talk to him quietly but don’t rush him or try to stroke him straight away.’

One of the girls came a bit closer to me and bent down to look me in the eyes.

‘Hello, little shy Oliver-cat,’ she said softly. ‘I’m Alice.’

‘And I’m Olivia – my name’s like yours,’ said another. ‘I’m Evie.’

‘I’m Katie.’

All the children were eagerly introducing themselves, even the couple I’d already met when they came to play before. And then Grace added:

‘And we’reall the Foxes– the best Six in Broomford Brownies!’

I did think it was strange that these nice children would want to call themselves foxes. But perhaps that was why they all dressed in brown. And at least, now I knew it was onlythem and not real foxes coming to play, I could relax.

‘We’re going to study you, Oliver,’ Grace said. ‘And you can help us to be the first Six to get our “Friend to Animals” badges.’

‘AndI’m going to be helping you too, girls, with your work for the badge. I want to learn all about it because Brown Owl says I can start training to help lead the pack when the full meetings start again,’ said Sarah.

‘Oh, Mummy, that’s exciting,’ said Grace.

‘Yes. I’ve been looking for a new interest, something I can do to help the village community.’

‘And it’s all because of Ollie. We got the idea of meeting in each other’s houses because of him, didn’t we?’

‘Yes, he’s a very special cat,’ Sarah said, smiling at me. ‘Because of Ollie, it seems lots of people in the village are getting together now. Only this afternoon I heard one of the young mums, Hayley, saying some of the mother-and-baby group have started meeting in each other’s houses now. She seemed convinced Ollie had introduced her to two of the other ladies.’

And I purred with pride and happiness. But you know what I’ve heard some humans saying?Pride comes before a fall.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The following day, I overheard Sarah telling Martin she’d be going out for the day while the children were at school.

‘I’m going to start the Christmas shopping,’ she said.

‘What?’ Martin said. ‘It’s only the middle of November!’

‘I know, but Anne and I are going to have a day in town together and just make a start on it. We’ll have lunch out. It’ll give us a chance to have a good talk about Brownies, too.’

‘Fair enough. I suppose Christmas will come round quickly, like it always does.’

‘I know.’ Sarah was quiet for a minute. ‘I only wish it could be a happier time for our neighbours. Young Nicky isn’t even looking forward to it. I don’t suppose they’ll be buying presents.’

‘No. Daniel was telling me they still haven’t told her parents their visit’s off, either.’

Nicky and Daniel had been getting very chatty with Sarah and Martin. It was nice to see my two sets of carers becoming good friends.

‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ Sarah said. ‘Mart, couldn’t we offer to have Nicky’s family to stay here for a couple of nights?’

‘What, over Christmas?’ Martin said, frowning. ‘Won’t that be a bit much?’

‘I don’t see why. We haven’t got anyone coming this year, have we? They can spend the day with Nicky and Daniel and just come in here to sleep.’ She shrugged. ‘We could at least offer. I’d really like to help them out.’

‘OK, I guess it’d be a nice offer.’ He gave her a kiss and pulled on his jacket ready for work. ‘Let’s ask them round again this evening, and put it to them then.’ *

‘I’ll be out all day today, Ollie,’ Sarah said, as if I hadn’t already heard. ‘I’ll leave some dried food down for you in case you get hungry. I’ll be back in time for the children.’

I felt fed up and lonely after the door closed behind her. I wasn’t in the mood to see Tabby – he’d got really annoying ever since he’d been courting that Suki. I didn’t even feel like spending the day asleep. I jumped through the cat flap and wandered down the road, looking for something to do. It was a bright sunny day, but very cold, and I had to doa brisk little trot to keep warm. Before I knew it, I found myself heading up the hill towards the place Tabby had called the Big House. Despite my bravado when I’d been talking about it to Tabby, I hadn’t actually been back since my first visit, but now the memory of those huge grounds with all the bushes and trees to run and jump around was tempting me back. I bounded through the big iron gates and, keeping a watchful eye out for scary male humans waving sticks, trotted down the driveway and into a particularly exciting shrubbery where I had a lovely time investigating the scents, jumping over branches and disturbing a few dozy birds who were trying to shelter from the winter cold.

The trouble is, little kitten, playing on your own is never as much fun as it is when there’s another cat to run around with or a human to provide entertainment. Oh, I know it’s great when you’re little like you. You kittens can spend hours just chasing your own tails or jumping at your own shadow – I know, I’ve been young myself, don’t forget. But when you’re grown up, running around on your own can get a bit boring after a while. If Tabby was too much of a scaredy-cat and too busy showing off to his girlfriend to come with me, perhaps it wasn’t really worth going to the Big House any more. I decided to have one more look around before heading home.

This time, I ventured right up to the house, keeping to the long grass wherever possible in case the bad-tempered man came out. As I’ve already told you, the house was huge, with red brick walls and great big tall chimneys, the biggest I’ve ever seen. At the back of the house were lots of very tall windows with crisscross patterns on them. I was attracted to the biggest windows, which looked like they would open out onto the gardens in the nicer weather – because I could see the glow of a lamp in the room beyond, and the flickering of a fire, which reminded me of the nice cosy fire George used to make in the pub.

Another thing I’ve heard humans say, little kitten, which I could never understand but has always bothered me, isCuriosity killed the cat. I’d like to know which cat, and how did he get killed? But nobody has ever elaborated on it. Well, on this occasion I was feeling particularly curious – downright nosy might be nearer the truth – and I forgot about the possibility of it killing me. I sneaked right up close to those glass doorsand stared in. I’d half expected to see the angry man Tabby warned me about, and my little heart was racing with adrenaline as I prepared to do a runner as soon as I caught sight of him. But I was in a very daring mood as well as a nosy one, thinking about the story I’d have to tell Tabby and Suki next time I saw them. Luckily I couldn’t see any bad-tempered male in the room, just a female in a kind of white overall, sitting by the fire, holding a book. Her lips were moving, and when I pressed my ear against the glass I could hear her talking, as if she was reading out loud. She kept looking over to the other side of the fireplace and smiling. I turned to see what she was looking at, and at first all I could see was a pink blanket on a sofa. Then I noticed a pale, thin arm resting on the blanket. And as I watched, the blanket shifted slightly and a head popped out from the top of it. It looked like the head of a female, about Grace’s age or maybe a bit older, but the face was very pale, with dark rings under the eyes, and where the hair should have been, there was just a plain bare top of the head, like the heads of some of the older males who came to the pub. I felt myself squeaking in surprise, and I was about to run off, but the young female must have caught sight of me because she pulled herself further up out of the blanket and through the glass I heard her say:

‘Oh, look, Laura. A pretty cat!’

Well, I was never one to walk away from a compliment. I hesitated, still poised to run, my muscles quivering in anticipation of being chased off the premises. The one in the white overall put the book down, walked over to the window and looked straight at me. For a moment, our eyes were locked on each other, while I waited to be shooed away– but suddenly she smiled, bent down and actually spoke to me through the glass.

‘Hello, little cat. Well, yes, youare a pretty one, aren’t you? I wonder where you come from.’

‘He must be so cold out there,’ the one on the sofa said.

‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Well, he’s got a collar on, and he looks well fed so he must belong to someone in the village.’

‘He’s come to say hello. Can’t we let him come in and get warm by the fire?’

There was a moment of hesitation before the one called Laura replied.‘No, Caroline, I don’t think so. You know how your father feels about cats. And it wouldn’t be right, anyway – he’s got a home to go back to. His family might be missing him.’

‘Oh.’ The girl laid back down again, looking disappointed. She gave me a little wave. ‘Bye bye then, little cat. I wishI could have a cat, Laura.’

‘So do I, love. But your dad doesn’t like them, does he. Now then, let’s get back to this story, shall we?’

She went to sit back down again and picked up the book. I stayed for a little while longer, watching, and the girl with no hair gazed back at me as she listened to the story. But then I started to feel too cold, quite apart from having serious worries about the father-who-didn’t-like-cats (who, it didn’t take much intelligence to work out, was the same as the bad-tempered-man-with-a-stick), appearing around a corner of the building at any moment. I might have been feeling brave, and I’d definitely been feeling curious, but I didn’t want to be the cat who got killed for it. I scarpered. *

I might not have thought any more about it until the next time I saw Tabby. I’d already got my story all planned out for him, admittedly with a few exaggerations about my bravery. But that evening, Martin invited Nicky and Daniel in again for drinks, and I stayed in the lounge with them, dozing in my hammock on the radiator, listening to their conversation. They were all sounding happy – Sarah because she’d had a good day shopping and said she now hadthe Christmas spirit, whatever that was– and Nicky and Daniel because Martin had made them the offer of putting up Nicky’s family over Christmas.

‘We can’t let you do that,’ Daniel had said at once. ‘No way!’

‘Why not? We’ve got room,’ Sarah said, and Martin was smiling and nodding. ‘The two girls share a bedroom. We keep the third one as a guest room, and we’ve got nobody staying with us this Christmas.’

‘The boys could sleep in the little study,’ Martin suggested. ‘There’s an old sofa in there, and room for a camp bed. It’d be a bit cosy, but…’

‘But it’s too much to ask of you,’ Nicky said. She looked like she was going to cry.

‘You didn’t ask,’ Sarah pointed out. ‘We offered. Honestly, it’d be a pleasure.’

And eventually it was all agreed, and Martin poured out more drinks, and the talk turned to things going on in the village. Once again my heart swelled with pride as they related stories to each other about the meetings being arranged in the various villagers’ houses – all of which seemed to be attributed to me.

‘I’ve even heard talk in the shop,’ Sarah said, ‘that Barbara Griggs, the miserable old woman who lives in the cottage down Back Lane and shouts at everyone, has invited Stan Middleton from across the road to play rummy with her in the evenings since the pub closed, and they’ve been heardlaughing their heads off. And there are empty sherry bottles in the recycling every week.’

‘Yes, and apparently Stan’s joined the pensioners’ club, which he swore he’d never do, because they were allstupid old women talking about their knitting, and is letting some of them have their meetings in his house,’ Martin joined in. ‘And he says it’s all because he found Oliver being shooed out of Barbara’s garden.’

‘Good old Ollie,’ Daniel said, when they’d all stopped laughing.

‘It’s all very well, though,’ Martin said, suddenly sighing, ‘holding meetings and get-togethers in each other’s houses when it’s just a few people at a time. But what about all the Christmas parties coming up?’

‘They’ve all had to be cancelled,’ Sarah explained gloomily to the others. ‘My Women’s Institute one has already been called off. And the Brownies’ one of course. And the pensioners’. All of them.’

‘What a shame,’ said Nicky. ‘There isn’t anywhere else in the village big enough to hold them, I suppose.’

‘No.’ Sarah shrugged. ‘Well, there’s only one place of any size, of course – the Big House.’ And she laughed, and Martin joined in. ‘There’s no way anything festive is going to happenthere.’

‘What’s the Big House?’ Daniel asked.

As you can imagine, I was wide awake by now, listening with great interest.

‘Broomford Hall. It’s just outside the village, going up the hill towards Great Broomford. Used to be the manor house. The last owner was a kind old chap who used to let us hold the summer fair in the grounds. But the new owner…’ Sarah smiled and shrugged again.

‘Is a downright miserable git,’ Martin finished for her. ‘He’s a widower, apparently, and lives up there all on his own. Doesn’t often come into the village, but when he does, he’s got a face like thunder and not agood morning for anyone. Nobody’s ever seen him smile.’

‘Oh. Well,that’s not a possibility then, is it?’ Nicky said. ‘He doesn’t exactly sound like someone who’d be prepared to hold any Christmas parties.’

‘No.’ Sarah shook her head sadly. ‘We’re all just going to have to go without our Christmas festivities this year, unfortunately.’

I couldn’t help meowing in sympathy, she sounded so gloomy. They all turned to look at me, laughing again.

‘And evenyou can’t help out with this one, Ollie,’ Sarah said.

As I said, I was probably getting a bit too puffed up with pride for my own good. I had this reputation now, it seemed, of being the Cat Who Got People Together. And I felt like I’d been given a challenge. Could I do it? Could I actually become the Cat Who Saved Christmas? I didn’t know how, but I was determined to give it a go.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Although Martin kept complaining that it was only November and‘ages’ till Christmas, it seemed like everyone had started talking about it now. The children were getting excited about things like Christmas plays that were going to happen at school and apparently involved them dressing up as shepherds and angels, and Sarah having to make strange costumes out of sheets. Every time they got silly and rowdy, they were warned that Father Christmas wouldn’t come unless they behaved themselves. I’d actually heard Grace and Rose whispering together about not believing in this Father Christmas person anyway, so I wasn’t sure why they pretended they did.Perhaps it’s a bit like us with the Nine Lives story. A legend – part of their culture. I could understand that. Anyway, they still seemed to be excited about him coming, whether they believed in him or not.

All the talk of Christmas was making me feel homesick. When I lived in the pub, Christmas was such a lovely time. George put lots of decorations up, with holly and other greenery all around the fireplace, and a really big Christmas tree in the corner, weighed down with shiny baubles and tinsel and sparkling lights. I can see what you’re thinking, little kitten. A tree, indoors – yes, it’s what everyone does at Christmas. I keep forgetting next Christmas will be your first time. Well, take a hint from me. When your humans bring the tree indoors, they’re going to tell you not to touch it. But then they’ll hang all the sparkly things on it, putting temptation right in your way. If they don’t want these things played with, they shouldn’t hang them there. Believe me, it’s almost impossible to resist the urge to jump up and swat those sparkly baubles with our paws. I almost brought the whole tree crashing down when I was a little kitten like you, on my first Christmas. It frightened the life out of me and, after that, George hung the sparkly things higher up on the tree so I couldn’t reach them. I still tried, though. Some things just can’t be resisted.

It was so pretty and cosy in the pub in the evenings, with all the lights, and the flickering of the fire, and although it was true there were a lot more strange people in the bar, which made me a bit nervous, they were all usually in really happy moods. George used to say it was his favourite time of year. And now I couldn’t stop thinking about him, living somewhere far away with his sister and her cat allergy andwithout me. It made me mew sadly to myself as I lay in my chair or on Rose’s bed snuggled up with her teddies, and sometimes the girls would stroke me and wonder why I didn’t seem very happy, and I wished I could explain.

To take my mind off it all, that week I went every day on my little jaunts to the Big House. I didn’t waste time playing in the bushes anymore, or at least, not for more than a few minutes. I ran straight up to the big windows where I’d seen the girl and the woman before. Sometimes they were there again, and the girl called Caroline would call out hello to me and watch me with that sad little smile. Once or twice, there was nobody in the room so I guessed they must be somewhere else in the house. It was so big, they could have been anywhere. One day I got even braver and trotted round the side of the house and all the way to another big door, with steps going up to it. From the top of the steps I could jump onto a wide windowsill and see into another room. It was a huge room, bigger than the bar in the pub, and it was almost completely empty. I couldn’t help wondering what on earth it was for, and why anyone would want a room of that size, especially if they didn’t have any furniture to put in it. Humans never fail to surprise me. And then I remembered that conversation about the Big House being the only place large enough to hold a party. It was true. Everyone in the village could probably fit in that one huge room.

I didn’t hang around. I was always nervous that the angry man who didn’t like cats – or humans, by the sound of it – would turn up and catch me. I couldn’t understand why Martin had said he lived there on his own. If that was the case, why were the girl and the woman there? Perhaps they were trespassing, like me, and perhaps I should stay well clear of the whole situation. But something made me go back again the next day anyway. *

Sarah seemed to be very busy these days. She was always in the kitchen, making things that smelt lovely and spicy and putting them in the freezer.

‘More mince pies for Christmas, Ollie,’ she’d say as another batch went in. ‘It might still be a long way off, but I’ve got so much baking to do, I need to get ahead of myself.’ I wondered whether she was expecting to feed the whole village rather than just her little family.

‘I’ll be hosting a little Christmas lunch for the WI,’ she explained one evening to Nicky. ‘There’s obviously not going to be a formal party this year, so we’ll just meet here for sausage rolls and mince pies, and people will bring their own drink. It’ll be crowded, but who cares? Whydon’t you come and join us? It’ll be on a Saturday.’

‘Oh, but I’m not a member,’ Nicky protested.

‘Well, I was actually going to suggest you might like to join. It’s not like you would imagine. We do lots of interesting stuff, and there are several younger women like yourself. It would help you make friends in the village. I know it’s hard when you’re at work in the city all week.’

‘Oh!’ Nicky said again, and she laughed. ‘You must have known what I’ve been thinking. I sometimes wonder whether Dan and I will ever fit in here.’

‘Of course you will. Everyone’s very friendly. Well, most people are. But you haven’t been here long, and you’ve got no free time to mix with people, have you? The WI meetings are usually on Tuesday evenings, and of course as you know, while we can’t use the hall, we’re meeting in each other’s homes. Why don’t you come with me one week and see what you think?’

‘Thanks, Sarah. Perhaps I will.’ She still sounded a little doubtful. ‘Although I keep saying I’m going to look for an evening job,’ she suddenly blurted out. ‘Something temporary. Bar work, or waitressing. But to be honest, I’m always too tired when I get home from work.’

‘And I keep saying I don’t want you to do that, anyway,’ Daniel said, sounding upset. ‘Neither of us should be talking aboutsecond jobs.I’m looking for abetter-paid job, so that we don’t have to.’

There was a silence then, which made the whole room suddenly feel very uncomfortable. Sarah and Martin were fidgeting in their chairs, looking into their drinks, doing little coughing noises.

‘What kind of work are you in, Dan?’ Martin asked eventually.

‘I just work in a shop,’ he replied, staring at the floor.

I wondered why he sounded so sorry about it. I’d have thought it’d be great fun to work in a shop.

‘It’s not just any old shop, it’s one of the big stores in the West End,’ Nicky protested. ‘But they pay their staff peanuts.’

That sounded quite fun, too. Not that I liked peanuts myself, but I’d seen Daniel enjoying them, so I wasn’t sure what the problem was.

‘It’s not exactly my dream job,’ Daniel said with a sigh. ‘I always wanted to be a car mechanic.’

‘Really?’ Martin was looking interested. ‘Did you train to do that?’

‘Kind-of. My dad taught me. We both just liked tinkering around with cars, you know? It was a hobby. We used to fix a few neighbours’ cars, and Dad used to say that when I left school he’d set me up in business doing it. So I never bothered with my exams – I was always so sure it was what Iwas going to do.’ He fell silent.

‘What happened?’ Sarah asked gently.

‘Daniel’s dad had a heart attack, and sadly he didn’t survive,’ Nicky answered for him. ‘Dan had to get a job – any job – to help his mum.’

‘Then Mum got a new boyfriend.’ Daniel picked up the story. ‘And … well, she didn’t need me anymore. They actually moved to Spain in the end and I hardly ever hear from them. And of course, I met Nicky.’ He gave her a little smile.

‘So it’s my fault, really,’ Nicky said, smiling with her face but not with her voice. ‘He’s never been able to stop working at the shop and start doing what he really wants to, because first of all we lived with my parents but, well, it didn’t work out. And now…’

‘The cottage next door was the cheapest place we could find to rent anywhere.’ Daniel shrugged. ‘But it’s so far to commute to both our jobs – we just didn’t think it through properly. After the rent, nearly all our money goes on the train fares. Nicky had only just finished college when we got together. Her parents warned us we were rushing things. We should have listened.’

‘But you wanted to be together,’ Sarah said softly. Her eyes looked all wet. ‘Of course you did. And I’m sure things will get easier in time.’

‘Maybe,’ Nicky said, not sounding convinced.

She looked at Daniel, and Daniel looked back at her. There was another one of those silences. I could tell there was something somebody wasn’t saying. We cats are good at picking up these things.

‘The thing is,’ Daniel suddenly blurted out. ‘It’s going to be even harder now.’

‘We weren’t going to tell anyone yet, Dan,’ Nicky said, looking worried. ‘Not till we’d told my parents.’

‘I know. But what difference does it make? They’re going to be livid. They’llnever help us out now. They’ll blame me, and say we’re both stupid, and we should have been more careful. And they’ll be right, won’t they, let’s face it.’

Nicky was crying now. I leapt up onto her lap, purring at her, and she gave me little quick strokes like she didn’t even know she was doing it.

‘I’m pregnant,’ she told Sarah and Martin, in a little quiet voice. ‘Three months, now. We didn’t mean for it to happen, obviously. I put off getting a test to confirm it, for as long as I could – I kept hoping it was a false alarm. Not that we didn’t want children. I love children, Iwork with them. We wanted them, but not for ages yet. We wanted to get married first, and now we’ll never be able to affordthat.’ She sighed and wiped her eyes. ‘We just seem to get ourselves into one mess after another.’

‘Oh, Nicky.’ Sarah got up and came over to put her arms around her. I felt like I was in the way, so I jumped down and went to console Daniel instead, rubbing myself against his legs, but he looked too unhappy to care. ‘I must admit I did wonder, when you’ve kept refusing the wine and drinking orange juice. If there’s anything we can do to help…’

‘Thank you. But there isn’t, really. We’ll just have to get on with it, won’t we? I’ll work right up till the last minute, and go back again as soon as I’ve had my statutory maternity leave. At least I can take the baby with me to work!’ she added with a little snort of a laugh.

‘Oh yes, you work in a nursery, don’t you,’ Sarah said. ‘Can’t you find a job in one that’s closer to home?’

‘Not paying as much as mine does.’

‘It’s a really posh place,’ Daniel said, giving Nicky a proud look. ‘All the rich London people send their kids there. Nicky was the highest-placed student of her year on the childcare course, with distinctions in everything. So she had her pick of the best jobs.’

‘Oh, clever you, Nicky.’ Sarah was looking thoughtful. ‘But, of course, it means paying those train fares.’

‘Yes. I know. It’s swings and roundabouts, I suppose. On the other hand, if we moved back to London, and rented a flat there, even with those astronomical rents, we might still be no worse off, with only a short bus or tube ride to work.’

‘I’d like our child to grow up here, in the countryside, though, Nick,’ Daniel said, looking kind of wistful.

‘So would I, Dan. But we might not have the luxury of that option,’ she snapped.

The evening seemed to have come to an unhappy ending. I gave up trying to comfort them all and went off to my bed in the kitchen.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

So they’ve finally decided on a name for you. They took their time, didn’t they? Well, fair enough, I know it’s an important decision and I agree, you wouldn’t want to be lumbered with something embarrassing likeTiddles for instance, just because they rushed into it. So you’re going to beCharlie. Yes, it’s good, I like it. It doesn’t quite have the class ofOliver, but it’s got a certain ring to it and at least it sounds a lot more masculine thanKitty. And they’re getting you an engraved identity disc like mine? Good. Take it from one who knows – even if you’re not going to be a wanderer, you never know when events might overtake you and you might end up getting lost in a wood, like I did. No, don’t worry. I’m sure that won’t happen to you.

So, Charlie, you want to hear some more of my story, do you? I must say I’m quite gratified by how much of an impression it’s making on you. I’m sure you’ll be learning a few lessons from my experiences. But I should remind you that I learnt quite an important lesson myself because of all this. I learnt that it’s not a good idea to be too proud of your achievements. No cat is invincible. We just end up making fools of ourselves if we think we are.

My problem, as I’ve already mentioned, was that I was getting a bit too carried away with all the praise from the villagers. It was such a nice feeling, to think that I’d personally helped everyone get together with new friends and meet up with their old ones. They were all talking about what a friendly place the village had become since the disaster of the fire. Sarah seemed to be one of the brains behind all the new arrangements, alongside myself of course.

‘We need to make more use of the notice board,’ she said one evening while the family were having their dinner.

‘Notice board?’ Martin said, looking blank.

‘Yes, the one outside the village hall. It’s survived the fire, hasn’t it, but nobody seems to have used it since.’

‘Well, no, because none of the groups and clubs that met there are meeting now, so they’ve got no announcements to make.’

‘Of course they have!’ she interrupted. ‘Weall have. We’ve all been phoning each other, dropping notes through everyone’s doors, emailing people, about whose house we’re meeting in each week – when all we needed to do was agree a schedule of dates and venues and put it on the board.’

‘Put like that, it sounds obvious,’ Martin admitted. ‘But these things always need someone to organise them.’

‘Well done for volunteering, Mart,’ she said, laughing, and then, because he looked so taken aback, she added, ‘you can organise the dominoes players at least, can’t you? I’ll get a rota done for the WI, and help Anne sort out the Brownies. Hopefully other people will soon get the message.’

Apparently they did, because within just a couple of days Sarah was saying the pensioners’ club and the mum-and-baby group had both put up lists on the board.

‘And there are a couple of other notices,’ she added. ‘It’s like everybody had forgotten about the notice board and now they’re all starting to use it again.’

‘Good for you, then, love. It’s a lot easier than phoning around, isn’t it, and not everyone’s on email. What are the other notices about?’

‘Oh, there’s one from Kay – you know, the woman who used to run the nursery? Up till now she’s managed to keep going, with as many of the children as possible, running it from her own home in Great Broomford. It’s obviously been difficult, though, and two of her staff have found other jobs. So she’s closing after Christmas. She says she’s really sorry to let people down but she simply can’t carry on running it from home for the length of time we’re going to be without the hall.’

‘What’s she doing, then? Will she start up somewhere else? Only I’m just thinking, if she’s going to need new staff…’

‘I know what you’re thinking.’ Sarah smiled. ‘Nicky next door. But you know what she said – she can’t earn the money she needs, locally. Anyway no, sadly Kay’s decided to call it a day and retire. She’s in her fifties and she’s got a grandchild of her own, now, apparently, and another on the way. So she wants more time for herself and her own family.’

‘Fair enough. Can’t blame her. But what about the parents who used the nursery for their kids? There isn’t another one anywhere around here, is there?’

‘No. And even further afield, they’ll all have waiting lists, you can bet your life. I don’t know what they’ll all do, Martin. It’s so difficult for people, isn’t it, when they both have to work. It was only a small nursery, but nearly all the working parents in the village used it, even if only for one or two days a week.’

Another day, another problem for Little Broomford. I didn’t like to hear about all these people struggling with the details of their lives. It’s strange how humans have so many worries and problems in their lives, little kit—sorry, I mean Charlie – when all we cats have to worry about is getting enough to eat and avoiding horrible things like foxes and unstrapped dogs. If they’re so much cleverer than us, you’d think they’d have made their lives easier for themselves rather than harder, wouldn’t you. *

Although I’d heard my human friends talking about the old female called Barbara who half-murdered me when I chased the birds in her garden, I hadn’t been anywhere near her cottage again since that day. But every time her name came up, it seemed to provoke lots of smiles and chuckles, and I gathered she’d had some kind of personality change and was being nicer to everyone. Hard though it was to believe, considering how she spoke to me, to say nothing of picking me up by my neck and threatening me with her spoon, I decided I’d pluck up my courage again, and go to see this transformation for myself.

There was a cold wind blowing again that day. Every now and then the wind blew the dry brown leaves that had fallen off the trees earlier on, up into the air, whirling them around like miniature snowstorms. It made me feel kind of skittish and scampery, and I bounded down the road they call Back Lane and took a running jump up onto Barbara’s wall. I could see straight into her front room, and to my amazement, there she was, looking just the same as before with her grey hair piled up on top of her head and her glasses halfway down her nose, but this time she had her mouth turned up in a huge smile. In fact as I watched her, she threw back her head, opened her mouth wide, and I could actually hear her laughing from where I was. Sitting next to her on the sofa, all comfy, with his arm resting along the back of the sofa so that he was almost, but not quite, cuddling her, was the old male from over the road, the one they’d called Stan.

Well, I decided to bereally brave and get a closer look. The windowsill was just about wide enough to sit on, so after a moment poised on the wall, judging the distance, twitching and preparing my muscles for the jump, the way we do, I leapt neatly across the tiny garden and made a good safe landing. From this new vantage point, I could see that the television was on, and both the old humans had their back paws up on the same stool, and a bright red woolly blanket draped over their legs. There was a bottle open on the little table next to Stan, and they both had glasses in their front paws. As I watched them, they sipped from their drinks and turned to smile at each other.

‘It’s that cat again!’ the female suddenly shrieked, pointing at me through the window. It gave me such a fright, I overbalanced and fell right off the windowsill, which was particularly embarrassing as there was a robin watching from the flowerbed, who was no doubt going to go home and tell his entire family about it. I got straight up onto my paws, of course, and started washing myself frantically to show I didn’t care. I kept one eye on the front door, half expecting the old woman to come stamping out waving her spoon again, despite her new cosy smiley appearance. But instead, I gradually became aware of the sound of laughter. Not just the quiet chuckling kind of laughing humans do over some of their television programmes, but absolute roars of high-pitched laughter, louder than shouting. It was both of the old humans laughing out loud together. I stopped washing in surprise,listening to the din. And when it eventually died away, I could hear them muttering together, like they were almost too worn out to talk.

‘… watching us cuddling up on the sofa…’

‘… probably wanted a glass of our sherry…’

‘… no, probably wanted to get under the blanket with us…’

‘… you scared him half to death, poor little bugger…’

‘… fell off the bloody windowsill!’

At which, to my intense annoyance, they both began to howl with laughter again. I couldn’t imagine what was particularly hilarious about seeing a cat fall off a windowsill. Admittedly I wouldn’t have expected any better from the robin, but any decent, caring human would surely have come rushing outside to make sure I wasn’t hurt, wouldn’t you think?

But as I set off home in a huff, I must say I gradually started to see the funny side of it myself. And to be honest, it could only be good news for me that the old Barbara female seemed to have developed a sense of humour. *

‘It turns out there’s now another use for the notice board,’ Sarah told Martin the following day.

‘Really? You were right, then – it just took one person to start using it again, and within days everyone’s caught on! So what’s gone on there now?’

‘A suggestion from one of the mums whose child has been going to the nursery. She’s said that as most of them only work part-time, and only use the nursery two or three days a week, perhaps they could try to pair up to look after each other’s children on the days they don’t work.’

‘Sounds like a sensible idea.’ Martin thought about it for a moment, then added, ‘But again, it sounds like it’d be an organisational nightmare. Some probably work Mondays and Wednesdays, others Tuesdays and Fridays and so on. They might not get it to fit.’

‘I know. But this mum has started a list of names, and asked others who like the idea to write the days they work and the days they’d be available to look after someone’s child. At least it’s a start, even if it’s only a temporary measure.’

‘Yes. Good for her. Hope it works. They could all save the nursery fees, too, that way.’

‘Exactly. Very enterprising.’ She smiled. ‘Our villagers have really been working together since the fire, haven’t they? If only we could find a way to reinstate our Christmas parties, a lot of the problems might be ironed out before Christmas.’

‘Not for Nicky and Daniel, unfortunately.’

‘No.’ Sarah was stroking me, absent-mindedly, as she spoke. ‘That’s another situation evenyou can’t solve, Ollie.’

Oh boy. Another challenge. I hadn’t even got any further with working out how to save the parties yet. I was going to have my work cut out if I was going to be the Cat Who Saved Christmas. I’d better catch up on my sleep while I had the chance.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

With all the humans so busy and caught up in their own worries and plans for Christmas, and making rotas and notices for their meetings, and Tabby being such a pain showing off to his girlfriend, I just carried on with my solitary visits to the Big House. For a couple more days I sat outside the big windows and talked to the girl called Caroline through the glass. I knew instinctively that there was something wrong, because she didn’t run around and play like Grace and Rose. She was as quiet as Rose used to be when I first met her, but there wasn’t any sign of a damaged paw to explain it. I knew she was always pleased to see me, and the woman called Laura seemed pleased too because it was cheering Caroline up.

‘I wish we could let him in,’ Caroline would say, but Laura shook her head and reminded her that her father would be cross.

I still hadn’t seen any sign of the father, despite Martin and Sarah saying he was the only person who lived there. Obviously they didn’t know as much as I did about who lived where in the village. Or perhaps the father was just a made-up person, like this Father Christmas they all talked about.

And then came the day when it was so cold my fur was almost growing icicles. As I stood outside the glass doors meowing to Caroline, something very unusual happened. Laura went out of the room, and for a few minutes Caroline stayed where she was on the sofa, watching me. Then suddenly she pushed her blanket off and got up. Very slowly and unsteadily, holding onto the furniture, she made her way over to the big doors, turned a key and opened one of them– just wide enough for a little cat like me to squeeze through. All this time she was looking over her shoulder, making sure Laura wasn’t coming back. Well, I have to admit I hesitated for a moment. Wouldn’t anyone, in the circumstances? But I was so cold, and the fire in that room looked lovely and warm, and Caroline was whispering urgently to me:

‘Come on, little cat, quick! Come in while she’s not looking.’

And I did. I ran in as fast as my little legs would carry me, dived onto that sofa and huddled under the pink blanket. Despite the fact that my heart was pounding with anxiety, I couldn’t help purring at the same time because the blanket was so soft and warm. Caroline took longer to return to the sofa herself. She was breathing hard as if she’d been chasing birds round the garden for hours, and when she sat down and pulled the blanket back over her, I climbed onto her legs and I could feel them trembling. I found her hand and gave it a little lick, and she giggled.

‘What are you laughing about?’ Laura said as she came back into the room.

I stopped licking, my ears up, on full alert. Was I about to be thrown out?

‘Nothing,’ Caroline said, giving another little giggle.

‘Well, it’s good to see you happy. I know you’ve been bored, but perhaps later this week I’ll start putting up the Christmas decorations, and you can watch me.’ She stopped, then asked sharply, ‘What’s that noise?’

Oh dear. I’d started purring again without even realising it. It was hard not to, the warmth and comfort was so lovely after being outside in that icy cold.

‘Just my tummy rumbling. Sorry,’ Caroline said, giggling again.

‘Are you hungry? Well, that’s a good sign. Shall I just finish reading you this story, and then get you some soup?’

‘Yes please.’

There was a rustle of pages, and Laura started to read. It was a story about some Dalmatian puppies. It was quite exciting and I was just starting to get into it when she suddenly broke off and said,‘The little cat went away again, then?’

‘Yes,’ Caroline said, giving me a little nudge with her arm. I snuggled up closer to her and licked her hand again, and I could feel her trying not to laugh.

‘What are you grinning about now?’ Laura said, with a smile in her voice.

And then I made my big mistake. I was so enjoying my cuddle with Caroline, I climbed right on top of her tummy and started doing the turning-around-and-pawing thing. And I was purring again. I knew it, I just couldn’t help it.

‘What’s that?’ Laura said more sharply.

And of course, the next thing I knew, the blanket was being pulled off us both and Caroline was saying,‘Sorry, Laura. He just looked so cold, and he’s so cute.’

Needless to say, I’d jumped off the sofa as soon as I felt the blanket being lifted. I ran to the big window and stood by it, yowling my head off. If there’d been another door open, I’d have run out of it by now, without even thinking about where I might end up. I think I’d even have run up the chimney if there wasn’t a fire in the grate.

But suddenly, in between my frantic yells of fear, I realised I could hear Laura laughing.

‘All right, all right, little cat,’ she said, coming over to me and bending down. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’ She gave me a stroke and looked at the disc on my collar. ‘Oliver,’ she said. ‘What a nice name.’

I stopped yelling and glanced over at Caroline. She was smiling back at us.

‘I thought you’d be cross,’ she said to Laura.

‘And I certainly should be. But between you and me, I can’t see the harm in it. He’s a lovely friendly little thing. He obviously likes you, doesn’t he – coming back every day like this. Well, you’d better not breathe a word of this to your father, all right? Or I’ll be in big trouble. And you really shouldn’t have got up and walked across the room without me helping you. You’re still very weak. You could have fallen over.’

‘I was careful.’

‘Good. Well, perhaps I should be pleased that you managed to find the strength in your legs to do it. Now, I’m going to heat up your soup, and if you want me to keep Oliver’s visits our little secret, you’d better promise me you’ll try to eat it all up.’

‘I promise. Thank you, Laura,’ Caroline said. ‘Can Oliver come back on my lap?’

‘After you’ve had the soup. I’m not being responsible for you spilling it and scalding yourself, on top of everything else.’

With that, she gave me another little stroke before she went back out of the room. Some humans just can’t help themselves – they just love us cats, even if they pretend not to. I lay down on the rug in front of that lovely warm fire, and Caroline talked to me in her quiet gentle voice, telling me how much she wished she could have a little cat of her own. Laura brought in a bowl of something steamy for Caroline, on a tray, and to my surprise, a bowl of milk for me, which I lapped up enthusiastically. And when we’d both finished, she picked me up and put me on the blanket with Caroline, who was having a nap. I turned around a few times, settled myself down, and was so contented I dozed off almost immediately, all thoughts of angry cat-hating fathers banished from my mind. *

After that, whenever I arrived at the big window, Laura let me in, and together we’d entertain Caroline with one of the usual games so irresistible to us cats – balls being rolled across the floor (and under the sofa) for me to chase, feathers being used to tickle me and get me rolling on my back with my paws in the air, strings dangled to make me jump up on my back legs –all giving me some good exercise and getting Caroline laughing her head off at the same time. Then we’d have our refreshments, and finally I’d be allowed to snuggle down with Caroline while we both had our naps. When she woke up, Laura would let me out of the door again and I’d scamper back to my foster home.

The second time, on my way back I ran into Tabby. For once, he was on his own– no sign of Suki anywhere – so I stopped to say hello.

‘You’ll never guess where I’ve been,’ I said, desperate to show off my news.

‘Go on. Where?’ He didn’t sound overly interested.

‘The Big House. I go there every day now.’

‘You’re more of a fool than I thought you were, then,’ he snapped. ‘I warned you to stay away from there, didn’t I? You’ll end up being beaten with a stick by the angry man, and then you’ll be sorry.’

‘No, listen, it’s not like that at all,’ I insisted. ‘There isn’t any angry man. He must be a myth, like Father Christmas.’

Even as I was saying this, there was a little voice in the back of my head reminding me of the things Laura had said about Caroline’s father. But I ignored the little voice. I didn’t want to believe it.

‘Father Christmas isn’t a myth,’ Tabby retorted. ‘Who told you that?’

‘The human kittens at my foster home. They say he isn’t real, but they pretend to believe in him, so they can still have presents.’

‘That’s rubbish. You’ll believe anything, Ollie. You’re so na?ve.’

‘No I’m not! I’m telling you, I’ve been to the Big House loads of times now, and there’s no angry man there. There’s just a woman called Laura and a girl with no fur on her head who lies on a sofa.’

‘Oh, for mewing out loud, Ollie. Have you been at the catnip again? You’re either seeing things, or you’ve got a very active imagination.’

‘I’ve been inside now,’ I shouted at him. ‘They play with me and give me milk, and I snuggle up with the girl on the sofa. Laura says I’m cheering her up.’

‘Yeah, right. Pull the other paw,’ he said disdainfully. ‘If you’ve got any sense, you’ll stop going there, and that’s all I’m saying on the subject.’

I was furious with him for not believing me. What was the matter with him, anyway? He looked like he’d just been told he had an appointment at the vet’s.

‘You’re in a bad mood, aren’t you?’ I said. ‘Where’s Suki? Has she dumped you?’

There was a long silence. He was looking the other way, making little growly noises in the back of his throat. I wasn’t sure if he was about to snap my head off, or burst into mews.

‘What?’ I demanded again. ‘Has she dumped you, then?’

I mean, fair enough, I’d try to be sympathetic if he was really upset. I’d never had relationships with females myself, but it seemed to matter enormously to Tabby. And although he’d been mean to me recently, we had been friends for a long time.

There was another silence. I was just about to give up and walk away, when he said, in a strangled kind of voice:

‘I wish shehad dumped me, Ollie. If only she had, before we got so– you know – carried away with each other.’

Ididn’t know, to be honest. I counted myself lucky that George had taken me to the vet when I was a kitten andgot me done, as they called it. From what I’d seen, having relationships with females only ever led to trouble, to say nothing of the kind of stupid showing-off behaviour I’d seen in Tabby recently. Why would I want to bother with it? But I gave him a little head-rub of sympathy, even though I had no idea what he was on about.

‘You really don’t get it, do you, Ollie?’ he said. ‘You’re not a victim of your hormones like I am.’

Well, thank goodness for that. It sounded most uncomfortable.

‘She hasn’tdumped me,’ he went on, looking like all his nine lives were over. ‘She’spregnant. She’s going to have kittens. She’s saying it’s my fault, and now she keeps on moaning and complaining about it. It’s putting me right off her, to be honest. I mean, she’s a nice-looking cat, but I can’t stand all this bad-tempered yowling – I have to turn tail and run away from her when she starts. Know what I mean, Ollie?’

I didn’t. But as I did my best to comfort him, I’m ashamed to say all I could think about was that maybe now he’d stop being such a pain in the neck and be my friend again.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

So I now had human friendsand cat friends who were expecting babies– and none of them seemed very happy about it. By the way, Charlie, I noticed you looking a bit apprehensive when I mentioned George taking me to the vet’s for that little operation. Honestly, it wasn’t because George was being cruel to me, even though at the time I admit I was frightened outof my life.

‘Ollie,’ he said in his kind, reassuring voice, ‘I’ll never know exactly what happened to you when you were very tiny, but when you were handed in to the people at the Cats’ Protection League, you were starving, and lucky to be alive.’

You can imagine how I shuddered to be reminded of this, but he quickly went on:

‘Your mother was probably a stray who had lots of kittens and, sadly, whoever found you and your brothers and sisters didn’t want you. There are lots of poor stray cats in the world, Ollie, all of them homeless and hungry and having lots of unwanted kittens that nobody looks after. If I didn’t have you neutered, we’d just be adding to the problem. It wouldn’t be your fault – you’d just be following your instincts. But I want to be a responsible cat owner, and do what’s right.’

At the time, although I was moved by what he said, I didn’t fully understand. But I loved George and knew he would never do anything to hurt me. And it’s never bothered me, about having girlfriends. What you’ve never had you’ve never missed. So if your humans make the same decision for you, don’t be frightened. Look at me – I’ve turned out fine, haven’t I?

It was different for my human friends, Nicky and Daniel, of course. Humans tend to stay in their pairs, and keep their human kittens with them and bring them up together. Well, so I’ve been led to believe, although it doesn’t always seem to work out that way. It seems a good arrangement when it works out well, though, and because Nicky and Daniel were such nice humans, who obviously loved each other, I was sure they would stay together and be good parents if only they weren’t so worried about money.

One afternoon, as I passed the place outside the village shop where the pram-pushing females always stopped to chat, I overheard the one called Louise saying:

‘It’s all very well, this idea of looking after each other’s children after Kay’s retired. But I work five mornings a week. Everyone else who works part-time seems to do two or three whole days, so there’s no one available to cover all the hours I work. I’ve asked my boss if I can change to a different arrangement, but it’s no good – he specifically needs me in the office every day. He says I could do less hours each day if necessary, but that wouldn’t help at all. I’d still have no one to look after Freya and Henry, and I’d be earning less money.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Hayley asked her.

‘I have no idea. I’m worried I might lose my job. My mum might be able to come over a couple of days a week, but it’s asking a lot. She doesn’t drive and it’s a long way on the bus. I’ve written an advert, actually, appealing for a nanny. I couldn’t afford a live-in one, and anyway it’d only be for twenty hours a week.’ She waved a piece of paper at her friends. ‘I’m just going to put it on the notice board. But I doubt I’ll have any luck. I can’t think of anyone suitable in the village.’

‘No. Maybe you should advertise in the local paper. You might get someone from Great Broomford, or one of the other villages,’ one of the other women said.

‘Yes. I’ll do that. Thanks.’

Louise went off with her pram, looking tired and worried. I followed her to the notice board and watched as she pinned her paper up.

‘Oh, hello, Oliver,’ she said, almost tripping over me as she turned back to the pram. ‘How are you?’ She bent down and gave me a little stroke. I didn’t mind. I’d got used to the pram ladies. ‘I wish I had your life. No worries, just a nice warm bed and someone to feed you. Lucky oldyou.’

Actually I could have argued with that. After all, I’d been through enough worries and trauma to last me all nine lifetimes, hadn’t I. But it was true that I was quite comfortably off these days and was certainly beginning to be aware of how difficult life could be for some humans. I walked round her legs, giving her a little head rub to consoleher, before scampering off after a couple of sparrows who’d caught my attention, hopping about under a nearby hedge. *

That same evening, Sarah and Martin were talking about Nicky and Daniel again. They obviously so badly wanted to help them, and I really wished there was something I could do, too.

‘I know the local mums are getting this child minding rota organised,’ Martin said. ‘But are yousure there isn’t anyone in the village who might prefer topay someone– someone well-qualified like Nicky – to look after their kids?’

‘Not as far as I’m aware,’ Sarah said with a shrug. ‘And I’m not being funny, but not many people around here really know Nicky yet, let alone know she’s a nursery carer. If she comes to a WI meeting, I can introduce her to people and perhaps everyone can put the word about for her, butyou know what she said – she earns top dollars at that nursery in London and … what is it, Ollie? Do you want to go outside? Go on, then, the cat flap isn’t locked.’

Sometimes, Charlie, I wish so badly that we could talk Human as well as being able to understand it. It can be so frustrating wanting to tell people something important, when all they can think of is our toilet requirements! *

I waited till the next time I saw Daniel outside the cottage. It must have been a Saturday because he was carrying the rucksack he brought me home in that very first day, and was heading off towards the woods, whistling. He always did that when he went hunting for firewood. I think he enjoyed it, a bit like us hunting mice, but easier of course because humans are pathetic hunters.

‘Meow!’ I said to him. ‘Meow, meow, meow!’ I tried to make it sound as urgent as possible.

He stopped and looked at me.‘What’s up, Ollie? Didn’t any of us give you your breakfast this morning?’

Honestly, if it isn’t our toilet requirements, it’s our stomachs. I suppose we should be grateful, but don’t they realise we do occasionally have thoughts thatdon’t concern our bodily functions?

‘MeOW!’ I shouted at him, and stalked down the road a few paces in front of him, twitching my tail and looking back to see if he’d got the message.

‘You want to come to the woods with me, boy?’ he said, still standing on the spot staring after me.

No, for mewing out loud, I’m going in the opposite direction, I thought with exasperation.

‘You wantme to come withyou?’

At last! Finally, he caught up with me and I bounded ahead to where the notice board stood outside the wreck of the village hall. I have to say, it took several frustrating minutes of walking round and round the posts supporting the notice board, several walks around Daniel’s legs and then back to rub my head against the posts again, before he started looking at the notices.

‘Domino team meetings, next venue TBA,’ he read out loud. ‘Pensioners’ afternoon tea at Barbara Griggs’s house. Cub Scouts’ cook-out in Clive and Beryl’s garden, please bring own sausages.’

Further down! I wanted to shout.

‘Mums-and-babies group – next meeting at Hayley’s house Tuesday 2pm, we will sing nursery rhymes, bring shakers. Shakers?’ he asked himself, looking puzzled. Then: ‘Child minding rota. As you know Kay’s nursery business is closing 31 December. Please add your availability and requirements. Oh yes. That’s what Sarah and Martin were telling us about. And what’s this? Louise and Dave Porter require kind, qualified person to care for Freya, three, and Henry, eighteen months, twenty hours per week, Monday to Friday mornings, payment by agreement. Apply to … Wow, Ollie. This might be right up Nicky’s street. Lucky I saw it, eh?’ He gave me a funny look then. ‘If it wasn’t a ridiculous thing to think, I could almost believe you knew this was here.’ *

He did actually try to tell Nicky it was because of me that he’d seen it, but she just laughed. Unfortunately, she also laughed when he told her what the notice had said, but it wasn’t the kind of laugh that sounded as if she was really amused. In fact she sounded quite snappy about it.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Dan. Twenty hours a week, on local wages? How’s that supposed to be a good idea? We wouldn’t even be able to pay the rent, let alone feed ourselves.’

‘You wouldn’t have to pay train fares,’ he reminded her. ‘And I wouldn’t have to be worried sick about you getting exhausted from commuting, closer to when the baby’s due.’

‘Nobody’s asking you to worry about me,’ she said crossly. ‘Just go and find some firewood, please, Dan, and stop coming up with stupid ideas.’

He picked up his rucksack and went off towards the woods again, only this time he wasn’t whistling. And I slunk away to have a sleep in their kitchen, feeling sorry that I’d tried to help. Maybe I wasn’t as clever as I thought I was. The cat who saved Christmas? At the moment I just seemed to be the cat who caused arguments. *

At least the atmosphere in Sarah and Martin’s house was more cheerful. On that same Saturday, the whole family went out in the car and came back laughing and excited, with a tree strapped to the car roof. Of course, from my Christmases at the pub, I knew straight away what it was, but Sarah must have thought I was a silly little inexperienced kitten like you, because she picked me up and cuddled me as Martin carried the tree inside, telling me not to worry, it wasn’t going to hurt me. I felt quite offended, but at the end of the day there was no point in passing up the opportunity for a nice cuddle.

‘Can we decorate it now, Daddy?’ Grace was shouting as she danced around the room. ‘Please, Daddy, can we…’

‘No. Let’s leave that for a few days, at least. It’s still far too soon – I don’t know why I let you talk me into buying one when it’s not even the first of December until Monday.’

‘Oh, Daddy,please! Now we’ve got it, can’t we put the decorations on?’ She was jumping up and down and going red in the face.

‘Calm down, Grace,’ Martin said. ‘I’ve said no.’ He gave Sarah a look, and nodded at Rose, who was sitting quietly on the sofa, just watching Martin trying to prop the tree up in its bucket.

‘Dad’s right,’ Sarah said. ‘It won’t hurt to wait a few more days for the decorations.’

‘Oh,Mum!’

‘You can both do it together, after Rose has her plaster off on Thursday,’ she said.

‘Oh.’ Grace looked at her sister. ‘Why? She can help me now, with her good arm, can’t she?’

‘That’s not very fair, is it? It’ll be much nicer if you can both do it together, and she’ll manage a whole lot better when she’s got both arms free.’

‘But you said they might not even take the plaster off when she goes to the hospital on Thursday,’ Grace said, crossly. ‘Then we’llnever be able to put the decorations up.’

‘We hope itwill come off.’ Sarah sounded equally cross now. ‘But if it doesn’t, we’ll do the decorations on Thursday evening anyway, andI’ll help Rose so that she can join in properly.’

‘It’s not fair,’ Grace moaned.

‘And it’s not like you to be so selfish, Grace,’ Martin snapped at her. ‘Rose has had to put up with doing everything one-handed all these weeks and hasn’t complained about it. Think yourself lucky it wasn’t you that got hurt.’

‘I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to run into the road,’ Grace retorted – and then she went suddenly even redder, and put her paw over her mouth. ‘Sorry!’ she gabbled. ‘I didn’t mean it!’

But she was too late saying sorry, because Rose had burst into tears, and Sarah had put me down abruptly, got hold of Grace by the shoulders and marched her quite roughly out of the room.

‘Go upstairs and stay there until you’ve had time to think about what you just said,’ I heard her saying angrily. ‘I know you’re overexcited about the Christmas tree, but that was a really nasty thing to say to your sister. And to think you were the one sticking up for her when other children were being unkind.’

‘I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!’ Grace was still saying through her sobs as she went upstairs. ‘I’m sorry, Rose,’ she called back from their bedroom.

But Rose was crying quietly on the sofa, and Martin was muttering to himself that if Grace carried on like that she wouldn’t get any Christmas presents. The whole day seemed spoilt.

I jumped up on Rose’s lap and snuggled up to her, giving her good paw a few licks of consolation.

‘I’mnot stupid,’ she said in a little quiet voice as Sarah came back into the room. ‘I only ran into the road because I loved Sooty.’

‘Grace knows that really,’ Sarah told her, joining us on the sofa and putting an arm round Rose. ‘She was just being spiteful. She probably resents the extra attention Rose has had,’ she added quietly to Martin, who sighed and nodded.

When Rose had stopped crying, I jumped down and ran upstairs to see Grace. She was lying on her bed, looking like she’d cried even harder than Rose. Her face was swollen and blotchy and her eyes were all red.

‘Oh, Ollie!’ she said, picking me up and cuddling me. ‘I wish I hadn’t been so horrible. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. Am I turning into a horrible person?’

‘No!’ I mewed at her in Cat. I didn’t really know what else to say.

‘I do love Rose, and I actually think she was really, really brave to try to save Sooty,’ she said, her eyes starting to fill up with tears again. ‘She was just getting over it all, wasn’t she, and now I’ve gone and upset her all over again. How can I make it up to her?’

I didn’t have any answers. I just purred against her neck to show I understood.

She jumped up suddenly, wiping her eyes, opened the drawer in her bedside table and pulled out a little pink purse, which she unzipped and tipped upside down on the bed. Lots of brown coins, a few silver ones and one of those pieces of paper they callfive pound notes fell out, and she started counting it all up.

‘I know what I’ll do,’ she said, sounding excited again. ‘I’ll use all my money to buy Rose a new cat of her own, to keep. She can call it Sooty again.That’ll make her happy, won’t it, Ollie?’

I nearly fell off the bed. A new cat? Another Sooty, a permanent member of the family, coming to live in my foster home? I’m sorry to say, Charlie, the selfishness problem must have been catching that day, because all I could think wasWhat about me?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

For a few days, things were more settled in Sarah and Martin’s house. But I was so worried about the suggestion of a new cat, I decided I’d better try harder than ever to make myself irreplaceable. Since being told off for leaving the headless sparrow in the lounge, I’d tried leaving a few gifts of mice and birds by the back door, but Sarah hadn’t seemed particularly thrilled. So this time, I spent a while stalking the stupid pigeons who dominated the bird feeder a few gardens down the road. They’re not particularly hard to catch, but they’re big and cumbersome to carry off. I chose the biggest, plumpest one, and just to make sure it was properly appreciated, left it on the front doorstep.

Sarah was indoors, working in the study. I went in to keep her company, jumping up on the desk next to her computer.

‘Hello, Ollie,’ she said, but she seemed to find the screen of the computer more interesting than me. I tried to lie across the part where she tapped out writing – it was nice and warm from her hands – but she sighed and lifted me off. I really didn’t feel very welcome. Was she getting bored with me? I toyed for a few minutes with a funny-shaped thing lying next to the computer, but then she reached for it herself and sighed again.

‘Ollie, please don’t play with the mouse,’ she said, sounding tired and fed up.

Mouse? I stared at it. If it was a mouse, it had been dead for a long time, that was for sure.

‘I’m very busy,’ she said. ‘This is a tricky piece of work and I need to concentrate. I think you’d better get down.’

And she lifted me off the desk, putting me down quite firmly on the floor. I was mortified. Shemust be getting bored with me! Was I going to be expelled from the family even sooner than I’d feared? I slunk off to my bed in the kitchen and curled up tight, burying my head under my tail, and consoled myself with a little nap.

When I woke up, there was pandemonium in the house. The children were home from school, they were both shrieking at the tops of their voices and Sarah was trying to calm them down.

‘It’sgross,’ Grace was shouting. ‘I nearlytrod on it.’

‘Its eyes were staring at me,’ Rose cried. ‘It’s horrible.’

‘Why does Ollie do it?’ Grace said. ‘I wish he wouldn’t. Sooty never did it, did he, Mummy?’

I sat up in bed, horrified. What had I done wrong? I tried my best to please them, and I just got compared unfavourably with Saint Sooty. How could I compete with a ghost?

‘Sootydid do it,’ Sarah said calmly. ‘You don’t remember, because you were too little when he was a young cat. He got too old to hunt in the end. All cats like to hunt – it’s normal. I agree, it’s not very pleasant for us, but it’s part of living with cats, and there’s no point making all this fuss. I’ll clear it up. Now, calm down, and go and get changed out of your uniforms.’

I stayed in the kitchen, sulking, feeling unappreciated. A little while later, both girls came in to talk to me.

‘I know you can’t help it, Ollie,’ Grace said very seriously, squatting down to stroke my head. ‘But really, it isn’t very nice.’

‘Next time, Ollie, leave it somewhere else,’ said Rose. ‘A long way away.’

‘Yes, as far away as possible,’ Grace said, and they both giggled.

At least they didn’t seem cross with me anymore. I sighed. Humans could beso hard to understand at times. *

The next day, Sarah took Rose to the hospital and they both came home with big smiles on their faces.

‘Look, Ollie!’ she shouted, running into the room, waving both paws at me. ‘My plaster’s off! I can cuddle you properly now. Can we do the decorations now, Mummy?’

‘Yes, when Grace gets home from school,’ Sarah said. ‘I don’t want any more arguments about it.’

There was a much better atmosphere in the room this time, with both girls happy and excited about climbing on a chair to put the sparkly stuff and the shiny baubles on the tree.

‘You can put the angel on the top, Rose,’ Grace said. She’d been particularly kind to her sister since the trouble at the weekend. ‘I’ll hold the chair steady for you. Be careful you don’t fall.’

Nothing more was being said about a new cat. But as I’m sure you can imagine, I had my ears up constantly, listening for any talk about one replacing me. It had brought home to me how precarious my position was, as a foster cat in the family. Thank goodness I’d got a back-up with Nicky and Daniel next door, even though I suspected they might prefer their new baby to me when it arrived. Oh, how I wished I could be back in my pub, where I had George all to myself and didn’t have to compete with anyone else. *

I tried to console myself with the new friends I’d made at the Big House. It was so nice to see Caroline looking so happy when I arrived, and in fact the next time when Laura let me in and gave me her usual little cuddle before putting me on Caroline’s lap, she said:

‘You’re doing Caroline so much good, you know, Oliver. You’ve really cheered her up since you’ve been coming here. I can’t see how Julian could possibly object.’

I guessed Julian must be Caroline’s father. It was good to hear that he couldn’t object to me. I decided now that he couldn’t be the same person as the angry man with the stick that Tabby had gone on about. I’d still never seen any sign of the father, and I guess I was getting a little bit complacent. I’d stopped lookingover my shoulder when I ran up the driveway and meowed at the glass doors. I should have known it was too good to be true. *

It happened on another Saturday, the one after the argument about the Christmas tree. Looking back, I suppose until then I hadn’t been going to the Big House at weekends, because there was always so much more going on at my two foster homes. Daniel and Nicky were at home, Martin and the children were around, and sometimes the Brownie Foxes turned up to do their important study of my behaviour. Having so many people to play with, I didn’t get bored and lonely like I sometimes did during the week. But now I’d started seeing Caroline every day, and because Laura had told me I was doing her good, I didn’t want to miss out any days anymore.

I bounded down the drive as usual and called out to Laura from my normal place at the glass doors. For a minute I thought nobody was there. I put my ear against the glass and heard Caroline calling out to Laura:‘Oliver’s here!’ She sounded a bit startled.

‘Oh!’ Laura had rushed back into the room and was staring at me in surprise. ‘He’s never come at the weekend before. We’d better not let him in,’ she said, looking back over her shoulder. ‘Itwould have to be one of the Saturdays that your dad works from home.’

‘Oh,please, Laura!’ Caroline said.

‘Yes,please, Laura!’ I meowed in Cat. It was cold outside.

‘Just for a little while? I can keep him under my blanket,’ Caroline was pleading. ‘Daddy’s in his study. He’ll be in there all morning, won’t he?’

‘Well…’ Laura sighed, looked back through the door of the room again, then quietly closed it behind her. ‘All right, then, but only for a few minutes. If he makes any noise, he’ll have to go straight out again.’

She opened the glass door for me and I dashed over to the sofa and jumped up next to Caroline. She giggled and pulled me onto her lap, putting the blanket right over me.

‘No noise, Oliver,’ she whispered. ‘You’ve got to be a very quiet, verysecret cat today.’

I quite liked the idea of being a secret cat. It wasn’t easy to keep from purring, though, snuggled up like that under the warm blanket with Caroline giving me a nice stroke.

‘Can we have the TV on?’ she asked Laura. ‘Then if Oliver does start meowing, Daddy won’t hear.’

‘OK.’ Laura smiled at her. ‘Just this once.’ I heard the television being turned on and for a while, I settled down and closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth and comfort and letting Caroline’s stroking soothe away my worries about being displaced by a new Sooty.

‘I’m just going to the bathroom, Caroline,’ I heard Laura say after quite a while. ‘And when I come back, Oliver’s going to have to go. No fuss, please, otherwise he’ll have to stop coming altogether.’

‘OK,’ Caroline said reluctantly. ‘Sorry, Oliver,’ she whispered to me as the door closed quietly behind Laura. ‘She’s worried about my dad, you see. Maybe I should get brave enough to tell him about you, but since I’ve been ill he tends to get upset about things.’

There was the sound of the door opening again. Laura coming back, I supposed. I made the fatal mistake of getting up and having a stretch, before turning round to settle myself back down again. To my surprise, Caroline pushed me down quite hard under the blanket, giving a little gasp.

‘Daddy!’

I froze. I had a horrible feeling my tail was half out of the blanket. A frightened little mew escaped from my lips.

‘What the hell?’ came this loud, cross voice. Footsteps thumped across the floor. The blanket was lifted off us, and a huge paw grabbed me round the back of my neck. I was suddenly reminded so horrifyingly of being grabbed in the same way by that very first scary man in my life, when I was onlya tiny kitten, that I screeched in terror and dug my claws into the skin of the man’s other paw.

‘Ouch! Let go, you horrible, vicious thing.’ He flung me off himself and I landed, shaking with fear, on the floor near the glass door.

‘Let me out! Let me out!’ I cried out to Caroline in Cat, but even if she could have understood me, she was too busy crying herself.

‘Daddy, you didn’t have to do that. You’ve hurt him.’

‘I’ll hurt him a lot more if I ever see him in this house again. What on earth was Laura thinking of, letting you have ananimal in here with you? LAURA!’ he shouted – and she came running in, red in the face and trembling almost as much as I was.

‘I’m sorry, Julian. I didn’t think it’d do any harm – he’s a nice clean little cat, he has a collar on…’

‘I wouldn’t care if he had a dinner jacket on. You know perfectly well I do not allowanimals in my house, and especially not on my daughter’s sickbed.’

‘It’s not a sickbed, Daddy, it’s a sofa. I’m not as sick as I was, I’m getting better,’ Caroline cried.

‘You’re still susceptible to germs, you know that. Your immunity is low. You’re not supposed to mix withpeople, never mind dirty, flea-riddenanimals.’

Flea-ridden? If I hadn’t been in a state of such abject terror, I’d have jumped up and clawed him again for being so rude.

‘Julian, I really think you’re overreacting,’ Laura started to say, but he turned on her angrily.

‘Overreacting? Can I remind you that this is mydaughter, my only child, the only person I have left to care about in my life? Wasn’t it enough that she had to have this bloody awful illness and go through months of treatment that made her sick and weak and…’

‘And she’sgetting better, Julian. Yes, she’s still weak, but she’s getting stronger every day. You’ve got to stop treating her like an invalid. She wants to make friends, she needs company. It’s only people with colds and germs she needs to keep away from, not everybody. She was going crazy with boredom until Oliver started visiting.’

‘Oliver? Thatanimal? You mean to tell me this has been a regular occurrence– he’s been coming here all the time, encouraged by you, behind my back?’ For a minute I thought he was going to grab hold of Laura by the neck like he did with me, but Caroline spoke up.

‘It’s not Laura’s fault, Daddy. Imade her let him in. It’s true, I was bored. It’s been lovely seeing Oliver every day. I feel better because of him.’

The man just ignored her, though, and carried on shouting at poor Laura.

‘I employ you tocare for my daughter, not to put her health at risk by lettingcats into my house. Do you understand?’

‘Yes. I’m very sorry, Julian. I won’t let the cat in again.’

Everyone seemed to have forgotten I was still in the room.

‘You’d better not,’ he said in a quieter voice that somehow sounded even more dangerous than the shouting. ‘Or you’ll be out on your ear. Plenty of other nurses would jump at a nice little job like this.’ He glanced across the room and finally noticed me quivering in the corner by the doors. ‘Let that cat outnow and don’t let me ever see it here again.’

Caroline was still crying, and I could tell Laura was shaking as she opened the door for me. But I’m afraid I was too terrified for my own life to stop and give either of them a purr or a tail-wave in goodbye. I shot straight out of the door and round the other side of the house. I wasn’t even going to risk running back down the driveway until I was sure that angry man was nowhere around – I’d feel too exposed out in the open. There was a wooden shed just round the corner of the building that gave me a vague memory of the place I was born in. The door was ajar, so I crept inside, found a dark little spot behind some flower pots, and lay there panting and mewing softly to myself, waiting for my heartbeat to settle back down. *

You’ll find, as you get older, little Charlie, that stress does funny things to us cats. Once I’d calmed down a bit and felt relatively safe, I must have gone straight off to sleep. The next thing I was aware of was a man’s voice. I stiffened, immediately scared again, but soon realised this wasa different man, a younger one with a quieter voice.

‘So he didn’t actually throw the poor little cat out of the door?’ he was saying.

‘No. But he grabbed him round the neck.’ I sat up in surprise. It was Laura, the nurse. I could see her in the doorway of the shed, but I could only see the back view of the young man. ‘And when the cat dug his claws in – you couldn’t blame him! – Julian dropped him. He wasn’t hurt, but it must have really scared him.’ I heard her sigh. ‘And it was all my fault.’

‘Oh, don’t say that. You were only trying to do your best for the child, weren’t you?’

‘Of course I was. The cat was giving her so much pleasure. If only Julian would relent and let her have some company – other than me, I mean. She needs other youngsters to chat to.’

‘She doesn’t know any kids round here, though, does she? I mean, she hasn’t been to school since they moved here. She was in hospital, and since she came out, she’s been…’

‘Lying on the sofa, poor little love. No, I thought it’d be good for her to meet some of the children in the village. But when I suggested that to Julian, it was almost as bad as when he found the cat. Anyone would think all the kids in Little Broomford are carriers of some deadly disease.’

‘He’s being unreasonable, if you ask me.’

There was a silence for a moment.

‘Well,’ Laura said, ‘I know that’s how it seems. And he did really upset me – and Caroline – about the cat. But you know, it’s only because he’s been so frightened of losing her. He told me, when he first took me on, that since his wife died, Caroline is all he’s got, and the shock of her cancer nearly killed him. I know he seems like a bully sometimes but the poor man’s been through a lot.’

‘That’s no excuse,’ the man said. ‘And as for threatening you with the sack – he’s an idiot. He’d be lost without you caring for his daughter. Six days a week, while he works in London. Not many people would do it. He should be grateful you haven’t walked out on him.’

‘I wouldn’t do that,’ she replied quietly. ‘I care too much about Caroline. And he pays me well. I shouldn’t have gone behind his back with the cat. But he won’t really get rid of me, you know. It was just bluster.’

‘I certainly hope he won’t, Laura. Well, I’d better get on with mending that fence over the other side of the paddock. Was there anything you wanted or did you just come out for a chat?’

‘Oh, I just came to look for a box of old jigsaw puzzles Caroline’s asking for. She thought her dad might have put them in here when they moved in, and forgotten them.’

‘I haven’t seen anything like that,’ he said, turning round and scratching his head. ‘But you’re welcome to have a look through those boxes at the back.’

‘OK, Harry. Thanks. See you later.’

He went off, whistling, and Laura came into the shed and started lifting lids off boxes. I hopped out from behind the flowerpots and meowed a hello at her.

‘Oh – Oliver!’ she said. ‘You made me jump! What are you doing still hanging around here? I’d have thought you’d have run a mile, after our telling-off.’

I probably should have done, too. The last thing I wanted was for that Julian to come out and find me here. Now I’d slept off the stress, I needed to get going. I walked round Laura’s legs a couple of times to say goodbye, and to my surprise she sat down suddenly on one of the boxes and picked me up, holding me close to her.

‘What am I going to do, Oliver?’ she said softly against my fur. ‘I must be crazy to care about him like I do. He can be so mean sometimes, but I know that’s not the real Julian. He’s just beside himself with worry all the time about Caroline. I wish I could tell him how I feel. All I want is to be able to look after him and make him happy again. But he’s not interested in me, or anyone else, apart from his daughter.’

To be honest I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. I know humans can be quite peculiar in the way they choose their mates, but surely this nice female could find someone kinder and gentler than that bad-tempered cat-hating Julian? I felt quite sorry for her, though – she must have had some kind of problem inher head. He’d been really nasty to her and she was still making excuses for him. Sometimes, Charlie, I wonder if I’ll ever understand humans at all.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

As I finally made my way home from the Big House, I bumped into Suki. She was looking as cross as Tabby had done when I saw him the previous week.

‘Oh, hello,’ I said. ‘I … er … understand congratulations are in order.’

‘No, they’re not,’ she said very sharply. ‘Think about it, Ollie. How wouldyou feel if your tummy was going to swell up until you could hardly move, and then you were going to go through hours of agony and end up with a mob of squealing kittens to feed?’

‘Well, put like that…’ I said, feeling awkward. ‘Er, where’s Tabby, anyway?’

‘That’s a very good question.’ She flicked her tail at me. ‘If you see him, tell him I’m looking for him, would you?’

‘OK.’ I didn’t know which of them to feel the most sympathy for. It does seem unfair that females have to go through all that stuff, but there you go – that’s life – and there wasn’t really any point her taking it out on Tabby. I was just glad I wasn’t a female. If I was, nothing would have persuaded me to mate with a horrible randy male like Tabby. *

I looked in all the obvious places for Tabby– round the back of the shop, by the swings on the village green, even at his own house. I went as far as jumping over his garden fence and putting my nose up against his cat flap, but there was no sign of him. He was certainly doing a good job of making himself scarce. In the end I finally tracked him down to the side of the big noisy road at the other end of the village.

‘What on earth are you doing here?’ I shouted at him. I had to shout, because of the noise of the cars racing past.

‘Thinking about running across to the other side,’ he said morosely.

‘Don’t be ridiculous! The cars will trample you as soon as you set paw on the road.’

‘Maybe. But if they don’t, I can escape.’

‘Oh yes? Escape where, exactly?’ I was getting cross with him now. ‘Do you have any idea how it feels to be lost, with no home to go to, and nothing to eat or drink? Have you ever been cornered by a fox, or left in a sack to die? No, of course you haven’t, you’ve had a lovely home with nice humans to feed you and pamper you the whole of your life. How can you eventalk about escaping?’

He hung his head.‘Sorry, Ollie,’ he said. ‘I know, you’re right. I’ve been a lucky cat all my life, and I haven’t had to go through anything scary like you have. And I’m sorry I’ve been rude to you lately, as well. You’ve been a good friend to me. I don’t deserve you.’

‘Oh, don’t start getting all melodramatic on me,’ I said impatiently. ‘Just get away from this horrible road before we both end up getting hurt. Come on.’

He followed me back up the hill, and when we got to the village green we sat under one of the benches and washed each other’s faces like we were brothers.

‘Is it just because of Suki?’ I asked him eventually. ‘Is she still yowling at you? I bumped into her a bit earlier and I must say she seemed … um … keen to see you.’

‘Just wants to have another go at me, I suppose. I preferred her before she found out she was expecting. She was nice then – gentle, and sexy. Now, whenever we see each other it almost turns into a cat fight. At the end of the day, she was just as keen about the mating as I was.’

‘Well look,’ I said, ‘maybe you should just let her blame you, if it makes her feel better. After all, itis her who has to get a fat tummy, and go through agony to produce the kittens.’ I was just repeating what Suki had said, of course. I had no idea how these things actually worked. ‘You might evenlike the kittens when they’re born.’

‘Huh. I doubt it. But you’re probably right. Maybe I’ll go and see her tomorrow. Will you come with me?’

‘Oh. I don’t think that’s a good idea, Tabs.’

‘Please, Ollie. You’re so much better than me at understanding how females think.’

‘Yeah, well, that’s because of being neutered, I suppose.’

‘I’m beginning to envy you. Seriously, at least you have your freedom, and don’t feel like you’re going to spend the rest of your life being shouted at by a vindictive female who didn’t want to have kittens.’

I laughed.‘You’d better try and persuade your owners to take you to the vet, then. Come on, let’s walk home together. I’m getting hungry. And I want to tell you what happened tome today. You think you have a stressful life? You’ve got no idea.’ *

As we walked, I told him about the Big House, and Caroline, and being caught by her father.

‘What?’ he kept saying. And, ‘Itold you not to go back there!’

‘I know you did,’ I agreed. ‘And I probably should have listened to you, but I felt like that poor little girl needed me.’

‘Your trouble is, you’re too soft-hearted, Ollie. And you didn’t believe me when I told you there was an angry man there, did you?’

‘No. I think he’s only there sometimes at weekends, though. So what I’m thinking is, I might go back on Monday.’

‘What!’ he yelled at me again. ‘Are you completely raving mad? You’ve just told me how terrified you were, how he picked you up and dropped you.’

‘Only because I dug my claws in.’

‘But now you’re defending him.’

‘No, I’m not, at all. Although it’s funny, he was just as horrible to the Laura female as he was to me. Butshe defended him. She actually really likes him. She told me, when she found me in the shed.’

‘Yes, but there’s no accounting for humans’ stupidity, as you well know. We cats have more sense. If you go back there, I’ll … I’ll wash my paws of you!’

We’d reached my foster homes now. I stopped outside the gate to Daniel and Nicky’s cottage and turned to face Tabby.

‘Did I, or did I not, save your life today?’ I asked him straight. ‘Didn’t I stop you from running out onto the bypass?’

‘Not exactly. I probably wouldn’t have done it. But thanks anyway,’ he added quickly.

‘Well, at least I hope I’ve talked some sense into you. And have I, or have I not, agreed to come with you to talk to Suki tomorrow, even though I really don’t think I ought to be getting involved?’

‘Yes, and I’m grateful. I appreciate it.’

‘So I’m going to ask you to do something for me, in return. To show how much you appreciate it.’

‘Go on. What?’

‘Come with me on Monday, to the Big House.’

He jumped back as if I’d shot him.

‘Not on your life! Sorry, Ollie, but no way. What do you take me for?’

‘What do I take you for? A good friend, I hope. And anyway, you’re always fond of saying that I’m a timid little thing. Well, if that’s the case, and if you’re so much bigger and tougher than me, what are you so scared of?’

‘I’m notscared,’ he retorted, puffing out his chest. ‘I just don’t see the point of it.’

‘The point is, that little girl’s been very ill and Laura said that ever since I’ve been visiting her, she’s been getting better. So if Istop visiting her, she’s going to get worse again, isn’t she?’

Tabby looked a bit uncomfortable.‘You don’t know that for sure.’

‘But I wouldn’t want it on my conscience. And if you don’t come with me, to protect me, because you’re so much bigger and braver than me’ – I put a lot of emphasis on thebigger andbraver– ‘it’ll be on your conscience too, Tabs.’

‘Oh, now, hang on a minute!’

‘And you don’t really want anythingelse on your conscience, do you, what with Suki and her kittens?’

‘I thought you were on my side.’

‘I am, I am. But I’m just saying … look, I’ve made my mind up. Although it’s true, Iwas terrified today, and I am onlylittle andtimid, I’m going back on Monday, even if it’s just to make sure Caroline’s all right. And ifI’m willing to risk it, but you won’t come with me, well, what does that make you?’

‘A cat with a bit more common sense?’

‘No. A scaredy-cat.’

It was a terrible insult. I waited for him to clout me with one of his big paws. But instead, he looked down at the pavement, and swished his tail a couple of times. And then he looked back at me and raised a paw in surrender.

‘OK, I give in. If you’re determined to go, I’d better come with you, or it’ll beyou I have on my conscience when the angry man gets you.’

‘He won’t be there, I’m telling you. We’ll go in the morning. I heard them say he goes to the place they call London.’

‘All right. But don’t forget I’m counting on you tomorrow, then, to come and see Suki with me.’

‘Of course. Call for me here after breakfast, all right?’

We meowed our farewells, and I went in to see how Nicky and Daniel were. My head was aching at the thought of all these problems I was trying to sort out. It had been a traumatic day, and it had taken all my powers of persuasion to talk that rascal Tabby round. I must admit I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for the way I’d managed it. But most of all, I just wanted a nice bowl of Kitty-Chunks and a long, long nap. *

I slept for a long time, in a comfy chair in Nicky and Daniel’s sitting room, and when I woke up it was getting dark and I could hear Nicky saying, in a loud voice out in the hallway:

‘There you are! For God’s sake, Dan, I was just about to send out the search parties. What the hell took you so long?’

‘Sorry, Nick. I got waylaid.’ He didn’tsound sorry. He actually sounded quite pleased with himself.

‘You did get some firewood, I hope?’

‘Yes, look. A whole bag full. And then, when I was on my way back, the guy who lives in the corner house was trying to start his car.’

‘Right. Very interesting.’ It’s funny, with humans, Charlie. They so often seem to mean the opposite of what they say. Nicky didn’t sound the least bit interested, in fact she went on quite impatiently, ‘Now, it’s freezing in this house and you must be cold too, being out all that time.If I make you a hot cup of tea, do you think you could use some of that wood to get the fire going? Or is it too damp?’

‘It might be. But I’ll give it a try.’

He came into the lounge, shrugging off his jacket and putting his rucksack down next to the fireplace.

‘Oh, hello, Ollie,’ he said as I stood up in the chair and did some stretching and yawning. ‘Have you been asleep in here? Had a busy day?’

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ I meowed.

I watched him for a while as he built up the wood in the fireplace. Nicky was quite right, it was really cold in the room. If it was going to take a while for that fire to warm us up, I’d be better off going next door and getting into my hammock on the radiator. But just as I was about to ask Daniel to let me out, Nicky came back into the room with two mugs of steaming tea on a tray.

‘Sorry I snapped,’ she said, putting the tray down on the little table. ‘I just couldn’t understand why you were taking so long. And I was getting cold. I nearly put the heating on.’

He stood up and pulled her into his arms.‘You should have done. You must look after yourself, Nick. I don’t want you catching a chill and getting ill. Not now.’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ she said. ‘The baby’s plenty warm enough in here.’ She patted her tummy. ‘Anyway, whatwere you doing all that time?’

‘I tried to tell you. The guy on the corner – his name’s Tony…’

‘Couldn’t start his car. So you spent half an hour or more watching him?’

‘No! It was obvious what the problem was – his battery was flat. I knocked on the car window and asked if he wanted some help.’

‘Ah!’ She laughed. ‘I might have guessed.’

‘Well, I couldn’t just watch him going on and on turning the ignition and risking flooding his engine, could I. He and his wife were supposed to be going to visit their daughter. They’re pensioners, and I’m not being funny but he seemed a bit clueless about cars. I asked him if he had a battery charger, and he looked at me like I was talking Swahili! His wife told him to take me round to his garage to have a look for myself.He doesn’t know what he’s got in there, she told me. And yes, there was a battery charger, still in its box like it had never been used, so…’

‘You came to the rescue.’ Nicky laughed. ‘Well, that was nice of you.’

‘The battery’s still on charge, of course. I’ll pop back later and see if I can get it going for him. He phoned his daughter to say they’d go tomorrow instead. I told him he really needs a new battery. But at least he should be OK temporarily, as long as he doesn’t leave his lights on or anything silly like that.’

‘You sound really … kind of fired-up.’ Nicky looked at him a bit sadly. ‘I’d almost forgotten how much you always enjoyed it – tinkering around with cars.’

‘Hardly tinkering around. Just putting a battery on charge. Not like getting down and dirty taking an engine out.’ He shrugged and picked up his mug to take a sip of tea. ‘Never mind. One of these days perhaps I’ll at least have time to start playing around with ourown old wreck. That’d be a start. As things are, it’s a good job we only use it to drive to the station and back. It’s amazing it even got through its MOT. If it was a horse, they’d have put it down.’

Nicky laughed.‘Youwill get time, Dan, when the spring comes, and the lighter evenings. If you can do it up a bit, we should probably sell it. We can hardly afford to fill it up, never mind paying the tax and insurance. We were mad to buy it in the first place, even though itwas cheap. We’d be better off using the bus.’

‘Just another of our crap decisions,’ he agreed, sighing.

And they both stood there, sipping their tea, watching the wood begin to glow orange and red in the fireplace, and I decided it was time to meow my urgent need to be let out. *

By the time I jumped through the cat flap in Sarah and Martin’s kitchen, I was hungry again, despite having had some food earlier next door. Nobody seemed to be around downstairs, but I could hear voices from the bathroom. I padded upstairs, enjoying the warmth of the central heating. The bathroom door was half open and there was a steamy, soapy feel in the air. I could tell from this, and from the splashes and laughter coming from the room, that the children were in the bath. I’ve never understood why humans seem to find sitting in water so enjoyable, but I certainly wasn’t going to get near enough to get splashed myself. I darted into the girls’ bedroom and waited on Rose’s bed for someone to notice me and remember to feed me.

After a while I heard Martin calling from downstairs.

‘Hello! I’ve finished in the shed now.’ Presumably doing hisSaturday pottering again.‘Shall I start putting some dinner on?’

‘Yes please!’ I meowed loudly.

‘Oh – Ollie’s back,’ I heard Grace saying in the bathroom. ‘I can hear him in our bedroom, Mummy.’

‘He must be hungry. He’s been out all day, hasn’t he,’ Sarah said. ‘Martin, will you put some food down for Ollie, please? I’m just chasing the kids out of the bath, then we’ll all be down. I’ve told them they can stay up and watch TV for a while tonight once they’re in their pyjamas.’

‘Where does Ollie go when he’s out all day?’ Rose asked. ‘I hope he doesn’t run into the road,’ she added quietly.

‘I’m sure he won’t,’ Sarah said, but they’d all gone quiet and I knew Rose had started thinking about Sooty again.

I jumped off the bed, anticipating my dinner, but just then Grace came bounding into the room with her dressing-gown on.

‘Hello, Ollie,’ she said, squatting down to stroke me. ‘You won’t get too close to the roads, will you?’

‘No,’ I meowed firmly in Cat. ‘I’m not an idiot like my friend Tabby.’

She put her lips close to my ear and did this thing humans call whispering. It’s like talking, you see, Charlie, but without their voice coming out. It tickled my ear.

‘Don’t tell anyone,’ she said. ‘But I’m going to buy Rose a new cat. I mean, one to keep forever, because you’re going to go back to your real home one day, aren’t you?’

And with that, she ran off downstairs, while I followed more slowly, my heart in my paws. So it was true. They were going to get rid of me. Or even worse, bring a new cat into the house who would resent me, as a lodger, and make my life difficult.

I was so upset I almost didn’t enjoy my dinner.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The next morning, as promised, I was outside the front gate bright and early, washing the breakfast off my whiskers while I waited for Tabby. He eventually turned up, looking as gloomy as a cat in a cage.

‘I wish I didn’t have to face her,’ he said as we set off to look for Suki. ‘She’s just going to give me another mouthful of abuse.’

‘So let’s get it over with. Remember, just try to be sympathetic. I’ve heard females have something calledhormones going on when they get pregnant. I don’t know what it is, but it probably isn’t very nice.’

‘All right, Ollie, I’ll do my best. But be a good cat and back me up if she starts on me.’

Suki was sitting on a windowsill of her house, staring out. When she saw us coming along the road she sat up straight and fixed us with a really mean, vicious glare.

‘This doesn’t bode well,’ Tabby groaned.

We waited in her front garden as Suki jumped down from the windowsill, her tail already flicking dangerously, and disappeared from view.

‘She’ll be heading straight for the cat flap,’ he said, ‘and then straight for my throat.’

‘Stay calm. Don’t go on the offensive,’ I advised him, although I obviously wasn’t looking forward to the confrontation either.

‘Look what the dog dragged in,’ Suki meowed nastily as she reappeared round the side of the house. ‘I thought you must have done a runner, Tabby. Haven’t seen you around since our last fight. Too scared to face me, were you?’

‘No, I just don’t want to fight with you,’ he said, in a pathetic whining mew. I looked at him in surprise. I’d never heard Tabby sound so unsure of himself before. ‘What’s done is done, Suki.’

‘Yes, butyou’re not the one walking around with kittens in your tummy as a result.’

‘Look, I’m sorry, but…’

‘Don’t saybut,’ I said to him very quietly. ‘Justsorry.’

‘Sorry isn’t good enough. And who asked you, Oliver?’ She immediately turned her venom on me. ‘Who asked you to get involved anyway?’

‘Tabby did,’ I admitted. ‘But it’s true, heis sorry. He was telling me yesterday how sorry he is. He wishes the pair of you didn’t mate in the first place, don’t you, Tabby?’

‘Do I?’ Tabby gave me a puzzled look. ‘Oh, er … I suppose I do, yes, in the circumstances.’

‘So now you’re saying you didn’t even enjoy it?’ she shrieked.

‘No! No, I’m not saying that.’ He got up and turned around a couple of times on the spot, looking even more uncomfortable than I felt, while Suki just sat there, glaring, waiting. ‘Look,’ he said again finally, with an air of desperation in his meows. ‘You’re a nice cat, Suki, and we had fun, didn’t we?’

‘And now I’m having kittens, you’re dumping me.’

‘No! Did I say that? I’ve only stayed away from you because you’ve been in such a foul mood.’

I glared at him. That didn’t sound like the best thing to say to her.

‘I’mpregnant!’ she hissed at him. ‘Of course I’m in a bad mood.’

‘All right. But it won’t last forever, will it. And then, afterwards, maybe we can get together and have fun again,’ Tabby said, looking suddenly considerably brighter.

‘What!’ she screeched. ‘Are you completely off your head? You needn’t think you’re going to talk me into it again. Anyway, my humans have always said they were going to get me spayed after I’d had one litter. I just don’t think they expected it to happen quite so soon. And nor did I,’ she added, giving him another reproachful look.

‘It must have been a shock for you,’ I said, trying for my most sympathetic mew. ‘Have your humans not realised yet that you’re expecting?’

‘No, but I’m sure they soon will. At the rate I’m putting on weight, I won’t get through the cat flap for much longer.’

‘You still look good to me, Suki,’ Tabby purred.

I stared at him. It was unbelievable. Even now he was trying to come on to her. He couldn’t seem to help himself. I wasso glad I didn’t have to live my life at the mercy of these strange urges.

‘Anyway,’ I said, trying to change the subject, ‘we think you’ll be an excellent mother, don’t we, Tabby?’

‘Yes, excellent,’ he said without much obvious interest. If cats could shrug, his shoulders would have been up round his ears.

‘Do you really think so, Ollie?’ she said.

And I suddenly realised she was probably frightened. That was why she was being so aggressive. She was still a young female and probably had no idea how she was going to cope with the birth and raising the kittens.

‘Ofcourse I mean it,’ I said. ‘You’ve got exactly the right temperament. It’s as if you were born to be a mother. Isn’t it, Tabby?’

‘Er, yes. Sure.’

‘And you know what? I bet once they’re born, you’re actually going tolove those kittens,’ I went on. ‘Little kittens are so cute, everybody loves them – but their mothers always love them best of all.’

Suki was looking at me very strangely.

‘That’s a nice thing to say, Ollie. But what’s the matter? You look like you’re going to cry.’

‘I’m all right,’ I said, turning away. I went and sat a little way away from them, washing myself, trying not to show how much Idid feel like crying.

‘He was taken away from his mother,’ I heard Tabby telling Suki very quietly.

‘Kittens nearly always leave their mothers,’ she retorted. ‘We can’t keep them all with us forever.’

‘No. But I bet when you were a kitten, you at least stayed with your mum until you were old enough to walk, and see properly, and eat meat. I bet you weren’t snatched away from your mum and left to die.’

‘Oh.’

I turned back to look at her. She’d gone all soft-looking, like she wanted to cry herself.

‘Poor Ollie,’ she said gently. ‘I didn’t know. And you’ve turned out to be such a nice cat, haven’t you, despite everything. Unlikesome males I could mention!’ she added with another venomous glare at Tabby. She stood up and stretched. ‘Anyway, I’ll be seeing you both, I suppose. I need my rest. I’ve got my kittens to think about now.’

We watched her turn tail and head back round the side of her house.

‘Well,’ Tabby said, ‘I think I handled that quite well, don’t you? *

Back at Sarah and Martin’s house, it was looking very festive. Martin had put twinkly lights over the front door and the windows, and the children were helping Sarah to put decorations up in the lounge. They were singing songs about red nosed reindeers and the three kings of Orient, whoever they were, and talking about making Christmas cards for their school friends. After they’d had their Sunday lunch they all went out to visit some friends in another village. Left on my own, I sat on the back of the sofa, looking at the pretty baubles twinkling on the Christmas tree. A couple of them were within easy reach of my paws from where I was sitting. They were just hanging there, sparkling at me, begging to be swatted. Nobody would ever know, would they? I reached out one paw and batted a big silver one. It swung backwards and forwards prettily on the tree for a minute. Very nice. I batted it a bit harder. Oh, it wasso satisfying– I could keep this up all day. A little Father Christmas figure was swaying just above my head. I lay on my back and reached up with my back paws, giving it a good kick, then jumped up again and swiped at a red shiny bauble on a higher branch. By now the adrenaline was really pumping. How far upcould I reach? With a little jump I could hit that big glittery golden one … pow! Oh, drat. I misjudged the jump slightly and instead of landing safely on the back of the sofa, crashed through the lower branches of the tree, ending up tumbling off the bucket and onto the floor. A shower of pine needles fell over me, followed by two or three baubles and some tinsel, which had got itself round my neck. I ran for the kitchen, shaking the tinsel and pine needles off as I went. Phew! That had ended up a bit scary. Just as well nobody was watching. I gave myself a good wash and decided to pop round to see Nicky and Daniel, so that I wouldn’t be tempted by any more illicit play with the baubles.

The cottage next door was so bare compared with Sarah and Martin’s house. Nicky was cleaning her little kitchen in silence while Daniel was busy putting something he calleddraught excluder around their doors and windows instead of twinkling lights.

‘Cheer up, babe,’ he said, coming into the kitchen and putting his arms around her waist from behind. ‘Things are going to get better.’

‘Are they, though, Dan? It’s only two and a bit weeks now till my parents are due to come. It’s nice that Sarah and Martin are putting them up overnight, but I’ve still got no idea how we’re going to make it seem anything like a proper Christmas.’

‘We’ll get presents for them, and for your brothers. And I’ll get a turkey, and all the trimmings, I promise. I’ll put it all on my credit card.’

‘Your card’s already maxed out. Don’t be stupid. We’re in enough debt as it is.’

‘So a little bit more won’t hurt. Come on, Nick, it’s nearly Christmas. We need to think positive.’

Just then there was a knock on the door. They looked at each other in surprise.

‘Can’t imagine who that might be,’ Daniel muttered.

He went to open the door, and I heard him say,‘Oh, hello again, Tony. Come in, for God’s sake, it’s freezing out there. How’s the car?’ he added as he closed the door and led the way into the kitchen.

‘Running perfectly smoothly, thanks to you,’ the other man was saying. His voice sounded pleasant enough, but nevertheless he was still a strange male, and my heart was doing its usual little dance of fear. ‘I hope I didn’t keep your husband too long yesterday,’ he added to Nicky.

‘Not at all,’ she said with a smile. ‘He loves nothing better than tinkering with cars, and he doesn’t often get the opportunity. I’m Nicky, by the way – I don’t think we’ve met. We only moved here a few months ago.’

‘I’m Tony.’ He suddenly caught sight of me cowering under the little kitchen table. ‘Oh, your cat looks just like the one that used to live in the pub.’

‘He is! It’s Oliver. He spends some of his time with us, and some with Martin and Sarah next door – since the fire, you know,’ Daniel explained. He picked me up and gave me a little stroke. ‘He’s a bit shy with strangers, but he’s a lovely boy, aren’t you, Ollie?’

I purred in response, feeling much safer in Daniel’s arms.

‘I was never a regular in the Forester’s, but I thought I recognised him. I heard George had had to relocate temporarily. Good of you and Martin to take care of the cat.’

‘Oh, it’s been nice to have him around, when we’re here, that is. We both work in London all week.’

‘Do you? I don’t envy you. I used to commute myself, before I retired a couple of years back. Not a lot of fun, is it, and so expensive these days.’

Daniel glanced at Nicky and nodded.‘You’re right there.’

‘Would you like a cup of tea or something, Tony?’ Nicky asked.

‘No, thank you, I’m sure you’re busy. I just came to thank you again, really, for your help. This is just by way of a small recompense for your time.’ He held out a carrier bag, adding, ‘It’s not much.’

‘Oh!’ Daniel blinked and went a bit pink. ‘There wasn’t any need…’

There was a clinking of bottles as he put me down and took the bag from Tony. I knew that sound quite well, of course, from my days at the pub. Daniel peered inside the bag and exclaimed:‘No, really, you don’t have to do this!’

‘I insist. It’s the least we could do. If you hadn’t helped me out I’d have had to call someone from the garage in town, and you can imagine what they’d have charged me, just for my own stupidity in letting the battery go flat. It’s only a couple of bottles of plonk.’

‘And this too?’ Daniel asked, lifting something else out of the bag. It was a bowl of some sort, covered with that plastic stuff they call cling film.

‘Just a Christmas pudding,’ Tony said with a short laugh. ‘Chuck it out if you don’t want it.’

‘Of course we wouldn’t chuck it out,’ Nicky said, looking shocked. ‘But surely you want it yourselves for Christmas?’

‘My wife makes half a dozen of the things every year, love, and there’s only us, and my daughter and son-in-law. I think she wants to feed the entire village. She always gives one to the WI for a raffle prize, and one to the Scouts’ bazaar – not that they’re having one of course, this year, because of the hall.’ He shrugged. ‘If it’s any good to you, please take it and enjoy it. They’re good, I have to say, her puddings. There’s just too many of them.’

And, laughing again, he turned to leave.‘Hope to see you both again before Christmas, anyway. Thanks again, Daniel.’

‘No, thankyou, for these,’ Daniel said, still staring into the bag.

‘How kind of him!’ Nicky exclaimed after she’d seen him out. ‘Can you believe what he said?Just a couple of bottles of plonk? They look like good wines, Dan. We’ll have to put them away for Christmas Day.’

‘Yes, I suppose we should,’ he said, looking regretful.

She laughed.‘Andchuck the pudding away if you don’t want it! As if! How lovely– at least we’ll havethat to serve up to my family now. I could even pretend to Mum that I made it myself.’

Daniel put both arms round her then and they clung together, laughing. It was so nice to see them happy for once. I purred my delight at them, walking round their legs, and it felt like we were all doing a little dance together. For a minute or two, you know, it actually felt warmer in that chilly little kitchen. *

I didn’t get a particularly warm welcome, though, when I went back to Sarah and Martin’s house. Sarah had the hoover out – I always hated the noise it made, so I tried to run straight upstairs. But she saw me, turned off the hoover and called out to me in quite a stern voice:

‘Yes, you might well run away, Oliver! Look at the mess I’m having to clear up in here. Three baubles broken, pine needles everywhere, tinsel strewn through the lounge…’

‘Sorry!’ I squawked in Cat as I scarpered up the stairs. ‘I got carried away.’

I was worried she might be so cross with me that she’d go and get the new cat straight away and send me packing. I slunk into the girls’ bedroom to hide under one of their duvets.

‘Cats!’ I heard Sarah exclaim out loud to herself. ‘Almost as much trouble as kids.’

I couldn’t quite work out whether that was good or bad. But just before the hoover started its noise again, I was surprised to hear her laughing to herself.

Phew! Perhaps she still loved me after all.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Tabby and I had another early start the following day, and again I wasn’t looking forward to it. However strongly I’d insisted on Tabby coming with me back to the Big House, I didn’t really feel brave about it at all.

What’s that, Charlie? You think Imust have been a brave cat to go back after what happened? Well, it’s nice of you to say so, little one. But honestly, my paws were shaking as I went to call for Tabby on the way there.

‘Morning!’ I said as he came out of his cat flap, looking like he’d just woken up. ‘Blimey. Didn’t you get much sleep last night? Your fur’s all over the place.’

‘Had a bit of a late one out on the tiles,’ he admitted, yawning. ‘There’s a new little Burmese moved in just down the road here. Cute as anything – slim little paws, beautiful green eyes…’

‘Tabby!’ I was so taken aback, I almost forgot how nervous I was about our destination. ‘You’re still going through all this trauma with Suki about giving her kittens! How can you…’

‘Oh, I think Suki will come round, you know, after the chat we had yesterday,’ he said breezily. ‘And meanwhile, there’s no point letting the grass grow under your paws, Ollie.’

I had to laugh.‘You’re incorrigible,’ I said. ‘But I can forgive you anything, as long as you’re still up for coming with me this morning.’

‘I’m not up for it at all, actually. I think you’re a nutcase. But you’re right, I can’t let a little fella like you go into danger on your own, without the protection of someone bigger and braver and more macho like me.’

‘Oh, give it a rest,’ I said, nudging him with my head in a friendly way. ‘Let’s get going.’ *

As we walked up the hill together I started telling Tabby my worries about Sarah and Martin getting a new cat.

‘So what?’ he said. ‘You’re not living with them forever, are you? And notjust them, anyway– I thought you said you live in the house next door too? All right for some, having two homes to choose from.’

‘I know it sounds nice, and yes, I am lucky. But I’d rather be back with George than with either of them. That’s not going to happen for ages, though. They haven’t even started rebuilding the pub yet, have they? And if Sarah and Martin don’t want me anymore, I’ll have to live with Nickyand Daniel permanently.’

‘Don’t you like them?’

‘Yes, of course I do. But they’re both out all day, working, and the house is really cold, and they’re not usually very happy because of the money thing humans worry about all the time. I’d feel ever so lonely if I couldn’t go to Sarah and Martin’s house too.’

‘I see. But why do you think they’ll chuck you out, even if they do get a new cat?’

‘I’ve been a kind of replacement for their old one who got run over.’

‘Oh yes, poor old Sooty.’ Tabby nodded at me. ‘That was horrible, poor chap.’

‘I never met him.’

‘He was quite old, didn’t go out a lot. I reckon that was why the car got him – he couldn’t run away fast enough. Shame about the little human, too – broke her paw, didn’t she?’

‘Yes. She’s sweet. They say I’ve cheered her up. But if she gets a permanent new cat, that’s obviously going to be much better for her, isn’t it.’ I sighed. ‘And the new cat won’t want me around.’

‘It might do. After all, Ollie, you wouldn’t pose too much of a threat to another male.’

‘Wellthanks!’

‘Don’t mention it. And on the other hand, it might be a female.’ He nudged me and gave a little suggestive mew of laughter. ‘But of course,’ he added, ‘that’d be wasted on you, wouldn’t it.’

‘You’ve got a one-track mind, Tabby,’ I complained. ‘I wish your humanswould get you neutered. We might be able to have a serious conversation then, without the subject of females coming up every five minutes.’

We’d reached the gates of the Big House by now, and we both fell silent as we squeezed through the iron pattern and into the grounds.

‘Don’t be frightened, Ollie,’ Tabby said eventually as we walked stealthily down the drive – but I noticed his voice was shaking. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

I’d have preferred him in front of me, as he was bigger, but there you go.

‘This is the room where the little sick human usually is,’ I told him quietly when we reached the glass doors. ‘We can see her if we look through here.’

‘There’s nobody in there,’ said Tabby, peering over my shoulder into the room.

‘No.’ How disappointing. ‘Perhaps she’s still in bed. Weare quite early, I suppose.’

It’s hard to tell, in winter, you see, Charlie. It often still looks like the middle of the night in the morning, and then it looks like the middle of the night again halfway through the afternoon. And then, in the summer, you’ll find it’s just as tricky because night time doesn’t seem to come round all that often at all. We never know where we are – it’s quite tiring trying to fathom it out, which is why I find it best to simply sleep as much as possible, regardless.

‘So shall we just go home?’ Tabby said hopefully.

‘No. Not yet. Let’s have a quick check around the house. We might see her inside one of the other rooms.’

‘You’re one crazy cat,’ he muttered. ‘Lead on, then, if you know the way.’

I led him round the corner and past the steps where I’d jumped up on the windowsill that day to look at the huge empty room. There was no way Caroline would be inthere.

‘I suppose she’ll be somewhere upstairs, if she’s still asleep in her bedroom,’ I said.

I gazed up at the great walls and high roof of the huge house. No chance. Even Tabby wouldn’t try to serenade anyone onthat rooftop. And then I saw it– a little bit further, round a corner of the house and sticking out into the grounds, was one of those glass rooms humans call conservatories.

‘Let’s just have a quick look in there,’ I suggested, and I started to sneak forward along the wall of the house before Tabby could dissuade me. The bottom part of the conservatory was a low brick wall. I waited behind this for Tabby to catch up and then hopped up onto the window ledge and peered through the glass.

It was a cold, frosty morning again, but very sunny, and all the morning sunshine was on this side of the house, so I thought it was quite likely Laura and Caroline might be in here. What I definitelyhadn’t expected was to see Caroline’s father instead. I nearly fell off the ledge with fright. What was he doing here? He was supposed to go to the London place today. Had I got the days wrong? He was standing with his back to me, holding his chin in his hand, staring out of one of the windows on the opposite side of the room – thank goodness!

‘Is she in there? Can you see her?’ Tabby hissed at me from the safety of the ground.

‘Ssh!’ I warned him.

The window ledge was narrow and I was having trouble keeping my balance. I was just about to jump back down and start running, when I heard a noise from inside. I pricked up my ears. It was him, the father, talking to himself. At first I couldn’t quite believe it. But a couple of the windows were a fraction open on my side of the conservatory, despite the cold – perhaps, with all that glass, the sun had made it warm inside – and with my excellent hearing, I was picking up every word. I was so surprised, I forgot to run away and stayed where I was, listening.

‘What an idiot,’ he was saying. ‘What a bloody stupid idiot. What’s the matter with me? There was no need to talk to her like that. Threatening to sack her! It’ll be my own stupid fault if she walks out now.’

Yes, it will, I thought crossly.And there was no need to be so horrible to me, either!

‘What’s going on?’ Tabby called up. ‘Are you all right up there?’

‘Ssh!’ I hissed again. ‘I’m listening. Be quiet!’

The man was sighing to himself. I could see his chest and shoulders going up and down.

‘I suppose it’s too late to apologise. She must already think I’m just an arrogant bully, and now I’ve made things even worse. I don’t know why I behave like this – taking out all my frustration on her. And she’s so good with Caroline – so kind, so patient. Not just with Caroline – with me too. Oh, God, what’swrong with me? She’s the first woman I’ve felt like this about since you died, Susan—’

Susan? Who was this Susan, and how did she come into it? I put my ear closer to the glass.

‘—and there’s absolutely no chance she’ll forgive me this time. She must hate me, and I don’t blame her.’ He sighed again. ‘What should I do, Sue? Try to talk to her? Maybe just write her a note. That’d be better, wouldn’t it – a little note to say I’m sorry. At least then we could put that episode on Saturday behind us and I’ll tryagain to be better tempered.’

He was searching in a drawer now, and then, having found a pen and a pad of paper, to my horror he turned round and walked towards my side of the conservatory. Once again I nearly fell off the ledge on top of Tabby, but luckily, the man was looking down at the floor, and just sat down on a chair with his back against my window. His head was so close to mine, if I’d knocked against the glass with my collar he’d have jumped. I knew I was asking for trouble now. I should just go, and be grateful he hadn’t seen me. But he was still talking to himself, and if curiosity really did kill the cat, I was probably about to lose a life.

‘Dear Laura,’ he said out loud as he wrote quickly on his pad. ‘The way I spoke to you on Saturday was unforgiveable, so I won’t attempt to excuse it. You’re so understanding and sympathetic, I don’t have to tell you that it’s my overwhelming anxiety about Caroline, and the sleepless nights I have, worrying about her condition, that have made me so constantly on edge that I snap at the slightest thing. But there’s no excuse for taking it out on you, so I can only appeal to your kind and caring nature, to overlook my bad temper once again and accept my apology. If you only knewhow much I actually care about you…’

He stopped, chewing his pen, staring out of the opposite window again. Then he suddenly got up, almost scaring me, yet again, into toppling off the ledge, and he ripped the page out of the pad. He screwed it up fiercely into a ball and lobbed it into a wastepaper basket.

‘What’s the point?’ he exclaimed crossly to himself. ‘She hates me and I deserve it. I’m wasting my time.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Oh, God – what am I doing still here? I’ve missed my train now. Where are my car keys? There’s probably no parking left at the station. Damn! I’m going to have to drive into the city, now.’

And with that he strode out of the room, and I threw myself off the window ledge.

‘Quick!’ I hissed at Tabby. ‘Hide!’

We belted across the grass and ducked behind a shrub. A few minutes later the door of a garage block on the corner opened and a big, sleek, shiny car purred out and disappeared round the side of the house.

‘He’s gone,’ I said with relief. ‘We’re safe.’

‘Was thathim?’ Tabby squeaked. ‘He washere? Why didn’t you say? Why didn’t we run off straight away?’

‘Because he was talking to himself, and…’

‘Tohimself? See, I told you he was mad.’

‘I wanted to listen. And it was very interesting. Now…’

‘Now we can go home,’ he said, looking all around him nervously. ‘I don’t like it here.’

‘It’s fine now he’s gone. He’ll be at work all day. Come on, I’m going inside.’

‘No!’ he squawked, running in front of me and trying to block my way. ‘Don’t be an idiot, Ollie, it isn’t safe. Come back!’

‘There’s a window open up here,’ I told him, jumping up onto the ledge again. ‘We can easily squeeze through.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ he muttered, but with a bit of huffing and puffing, he followed me, jumping down after me into the conservatory and still muttering his disapproval. ‘What now?’ he asked. ‘Weare trespassing, Ollie– I suppose you do realise that? Whatare you doing?’

I’d made a dive for the wastepaper basket and knocked it over.

‘Here it is,’ I said, picking up the screwed-up page in my teeth. ‘Come on! I’m taking this to show Laura.’

‘The cat’s gone completely bonkers,’ he moaned to himself, nevertheless trotting obediently after me. ‘We’re going to get thrown out, probablykicked out…’

Just then a shadow fell over us. I glanced up, and to my relief, it was only Laura. But she didn’t look pleased. I suppose she didn’t want any more trouble for allowing one cat into the house, never mind two.

‘What…?’ she started. I dropped the ball of paper near her feet, but she didn’t even notice, kicking it with one foot as she came towards me. ‘Oliver! How did you get in, and who isthis?’ She gave Tabby a disapproving look, and he shrank away from her. The paper ball had rolled towards him, and he promptly knocked it back to me, trying to show it had nothing to do with him.

‘Oh,look,’ came a little voice from behind Laura. It was Caroline, holding onto Laura’s arm as she watched us. ‘Ollie’s brought a friend with him, and they’replaying!’ She laughed. ‘Aren’t they cute?’

‘Cute!’ Tabby meowed to me indignantly.

‘Yes!’ I replied. ‘Be cute. Play!’

I knocked the ball of paper to him with my paw, and waited for him to bat it across to me again. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist the ball-of-paper game, however nervous he was feeling. When he knocked it back to me, I deliberately sent it towards Laura’s feet.

‘They want us to play with them,’ Caroline squealed.

But this time Laura bent down and picked up the paper. I held my breath. Was she just going to throw it back in the bin? No! She smoothed it out and started reading it. I watched her face. Her eyes widened, and when she got to the end, she flushed very red. For a moment, we were all frozen there– Laura staring at the note, Tabby and I poised to make a run for it, Caroline watching us.

‘Huh!’ Laura exclaimed suddenly, making me jump. ‘Why am I bothering to evenread this nonsense? He must have been drunk when he wrote it.’

‘What is it?’ Caroline asked.

‘Just a bit of rubbish.’ And she screwed it back up and dropped it in the bin. ‘And I’m sorry, Caroline, but the cats have to go. You know what your father said.’

She opened the conservatory door and shooed us out.

Well, at least, I suppose, we didn’t have to climb back out of the window.

CHAPTER TWENTY

So I’d been through all that trauma, and achieved precisely nothing. I felt a failure. I’d tried to be a helpful cat, a cat who made people happy, and in the end all I’d been was a silly little cat who got people into trouble.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself,’ Tabby said cheerfully. Funny how he’d perked up now we were on the way home and out of danger – but then, to be fair, at least he did come with me and didn’t run away when the heat was on, like a scaredy-cat. ‘It was an adventure. Something we can showoff to the females about.’

I laughed and rubbed heads with him.‘Thanks, Tabs. I’m glad we’re friends.’

‘Me too. You’re a much braver little cat than I ever thought. I don’t know why you used to let me call you timid.’ *

But in my little heart, I felt sad and sorry. I’d started off my new life as a foster cat with too high an opinion of myself, I now realised. Because I’d given a few people in the village the idea of getting together in their homes, I’d thought I was the mouse’s whiskers, but I obviously wasn’t as clever as I thought I was. I went back through the cat flap into Sarah’s kitchen and spent most of the day asleep.

When the children came home from school, the rest of the Foxes came round, and spent some time playing with me while Sarah looked through the papers they’d been writing about me during the last few weeks.

‘Well done, girls,’ she said eventually. ‘You’ve all completed your “Pet” projects now and they’re very good. I’ll pass these on to Brown Owl, and you can get started on the other sections of the badge.’

The children clamoured around her as she read out some options from a book.

‘The zoo!’ Grace shouted. ‘Yes! Let’s go to the zoo!’

‘Yes, the zoo!’ they all chorused.

Sarah laughed.‘All right, I’ll talk to Brown Owl about it, and perhaps we can take you together. We could go on the train, during the Christmas holiday.’

‘Bye, Ollie,’ the girls called out as they trooped off to their homes.

I slunk back out to the kitchen and lay down in my basket, curling up with my tail over my head. Even the Foxes didn’t need me anymore. Pretty soon the family were going to replace me with another cat, and then there’d be nobody left who cared about me. Oh, if only that fire had never happened. If only I were still in the pub with George. I mewed myself quietly back to sleep. *

I didn’t really cheer up until the following evening, when Sarah was rushing around the house excitedly, moving extra chairs into the lounge and tidying up, because it was her turn to have the WI ladies there.

‘Nicky next door is going to come tonight,’ she told Martin, who had put on his old coat and was going out to the shed, with a mug of beer in his hand, tomake himself scarce.‘I’m really glad I’ve persuaded her. It will do her good to meet some of the other women.’

I was glad too, and I felt sorry then for thinking I’d have nobody else in the world if Sarah and Martin didn’t want me. Although their cottage was cold, Nicky and Daniel were lovely humans and I know they liked me too. If it hadn’t been for Daniel, I might still be up that tree in the wood, or in the fox’s tummy, I reminded myself sternly with a little shudder.

When all the females started arriving, I sat in my hammock on the radiator so that I could listen to them chat. To my surprise, they started off by standing up in a row and singing a song about some place called Jerusalem. Some of them had loud screechy voices and I thought I’d better join in, to try to keep them in tune. I lifted my head and yowled as loudly as I could. They all started smiling and as soon as the song was finished there was a loud burst of laughter from everyone and they turned to me and clapped their paws. Believe me, Charlie, you’ll find female humans can be even stranger than the males at times.

After that, they all sat down, apart from one, who stood at the front reading things out to them about money they needed to pay and trips they might be going on.

‘And as we all know, ladies,’ she went on, ‘the Christmas party is cancelled this year but Sarah has kindly offered to have us all back here on the Saturday after Christmas, for a buffet lunch. Some of you have offered to bring cakes or sandwiches – you know who you are – and please all bring your own drinks, or all you’ll get is a glass of water.’

They all laughed again. They seemed a cheerful bunch. Nicky was sitting next to Sarah, smiling and appearing to enjoy herself.

‘Finally, I have a plea for help from Louise.’ The female in charge nodded at her. ‘If anyone knows of a qualified child minder who could work part-time, please let her know. She’s absolutely desperate for someone to look after Freya and Henry after Kay finishes. She’s had no luck with adverts in the paper…’

‘There’s a notice about swapping kids on different days, on the board,’ someone at the back of the room called out.

‘I know.’ Louise turned to face her. ‘But it’s no good for me. I work five mornings a week. I’m on the waiting lists of two nurseries in Great Broomford, but it could take ages to get a place.’

There was a murmur of sympathy around the room.

‘I could help you out for the odd morning, love,’ one of the older women said. ‘Not that I’m qualified or anything, but I’ve brought up my own kids and helped with the grandkids.’

‘Well, me too,’ said Sarah. ‘I only work part-time from home, so I could help out sometimes.’

A couple of others joined in, offering help on odd mornings here and there.

‘That’s really kind of you all,’ Louise said, ‘but I really need definite, reliable cover for the whole week. My mum might come and stay for a few weeks, but I can’t expect…’ She tailed off, shaking her head. ‘I’m going to lose my job if I can’t sort something out.’

I saw Sarah glance at Nicky, who was looking at the floor. Later, after one of the other women had stood up and talked to them all for a long time about her trip to Peru and shown them her photos, and they were all milling around chatting to each other, I followed Nicky out to the kitchen where she’d gone to help Sarah make tea and coffee.

‘You should talk to Louise, you know,’ Sarah said.

‘What’s the point? Daniel told me he saw her advert on the notice board. She only wants someone for twenty hours a week, and she won’t be able to pay me what I need.’

‘But Nicky, you won’t want to work more than twenty hours, once your own baby’s arrived. Trust me, you’ll probably even struggle with that. I know – Iknow you need the money, but perhaps, if things are that bad and Daniel isn’t earning enough, you’ll need to think about claiming some benefits. I’m sorry to be so personal,’ she added more quietly, ‘it’s only because I’m concerned about you.’

‘If my parents thought we were on benefits,’ Nicky said in a tight voice like she was being strangled, ‘they’d go mad. They’d say we were letting them down, and they’d blame Daniel.’

‘Or perhaps they’d help you out a bit,’ Sarah retorted.

No. They’d rather I left him and went back home to them.’

They poured tea in silence for a minute, then Nicky started carrying cups into the lounge.

‘You’ve upset her now,’ I meowed at Sarah.

‘Oh, Ollie.’ She looked down at me, shaking her head. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything, should I? But I just want to help her. What shall I do?’

‘Don’t ask me,’ I said, rubbing against her leg in sympathy, ‘I make a mess of everything.’

‘It’s no good.’ She picked up the last two cups, ready to go back to the lounge. ‘I’m going to have a quiet word with Louise myself. Call me interfering, but if I don’t say anything I might always regret it.’

Perhaps she was a bit like me– trying her best to help people, but not always succeeding. *

I don’t think Nicky noticed Sarah and Louise chatting quietly in the corner, or Louise glancing in Nicky’s direction with interest – because by then she was talking to someone else herself. I was eavesdropping as usual, of course, and I’d gathered from the conversation that this was the wife of Tony, who’d had the sick car, and her name was Cath.

‘I’mso glad I’ve met you, dear,’ she said, beaming at Nicky. ‘You have no idea how grateful Tony and I were to your husband for charging the battery up for us. We are both so useless with car problems.’

‘He was just glad to help, honestly, Cath, and to be fair it was an easy thing for him to sort out. And I should be thankingyou, for the wine, and the Christmas pudding.’

‘Oh, nonsense, you’re welcome. But listen, I was telling Sarah earlier about how Daniel helped us, and, well, I didn’t realise he’s actually looking for work in that field. He didn’t mention that to Tony.’

‘Oh!’ Nicky gave a little laugh. ‘No, that’s not quite true, he isn’t, not really. I don’t know what Sarah said to you, but you see, hewanted to be a car mechanic– he’s very good, his dad taught him – but, well, he has a full-time job in London now.’

‘Oh.’ Cath bit her lip. ‘Oh dear, I hope haven’t put my foot in it, then. I’ve sent Tony a message on my mobile, asking him to ring our son-in-law and tell him we know someone who might be able to help him. He’s a farmer over the other side of Great Broomford, and he’s looking for someone to sort out his old truck. I thought your Daniel might be able to help.’

‘Well, he could probably have a look at it, at least,’ Nicky said. ‘But it’s really just a hobby for him, you see. He might be able to give your son-in-law some advice, as a favour, though.’

‘No, no – if he canfix it, my son-in-law will pay him properly. But of course, he’s probably too busy, working all week.’

‘Well, perhaps he might have time over the weekend,’ Nicky said, looking a little brighter. ‘I’ll talk to him about it.’

‘All right, dear. Let me know, will you?’

‘Of course I will.’ Nicky smiled, and I felt like smiling too. It sounded like good news. I hoped I was right for once. *

I popped in next door to see them first thing in the morning, while they were getting ready for work.

‘Well, are you up for it or not?’ Nicky was saying as she ate a slice of toast, standing up, leaning against the kitchen worktop. ‘We need to let Cath and Tony know.’

‘I don’t know, babe. It depends how much work it entails, doesn’t it.’

I meowed with surprise. I was expecting Daniel to be really excited at the prospect of this working-on-a-truck thing. Especially being paid for it.

‘For God’s sake!’ Nicky had obviously expected more excitement from him too. ‘Just say you’ll go andlook at it and assess how much work it is– then you can decide whether you’ve got time or not. What’s the matter? I thought you were really keen to get stuck into some motor work again?’

‘I am!’ He spread his hands, looking awkward. ‘It’s not about the time, Nick. If it’s a lot of work, I could work all weekend, spread it over two weekends if necessary, or even take a couple of days’ leave from the shop. I want to do it, and obviously I want the money…’

‘So what’s the problem?’

‘I’ve hardly got any tools now. A lot of them were my dad’s old stuff, but I’d got some things myself too. I left nearly all of them behind when I moved out. I couldn’t exactly bring them all to your parents’ place and expect them to store them somewhere. And of course, the next thing we heard was that Mum was selling up and moving to Spain with Whatsisname.’

‘She surely didn’t get rid of everything? Without even telling you? Oh, Dan! You never told me that,’ Nicky said, looking appalled.

‘By the time I’d phoned her and begged her to hang onto all the tools so that I could come and get what I wanted, it was too late. I was more upset because of them being Dad’s, really. At that time I never thought I’d be working as a mechanic so I just had to put it behind me.’

‘Oh.’

‘Exactly:Oh. So is there really any point me even going all the way over there to look at the truck in the first place?’

‘No. I suppose not.’ She reached out and touched his hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Dan.’

‘Not your fault. I’ll go and see them tonight and explain.’

‘OK.’

They finished their cups of tea and slices of toast in silence and I left the house with them when they got into their little car to drive to the station at Great Broomford. Neither of them had spoken a word to me. I didn’t blame them. I felt as disappointed as they were. Nothing seemed to be going the way I wanted, for some of my favourite humans. It didn’t seem like I was going to be the Cat Who Saved Christmas for them at all.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

I spent most of that day with Tabby again. He was feeling fed up because the pretty little Burmese he had his eye on wasn’t interested in him.

‘Why these pedigree females seem to think they’re too good for the likes of us, I can never understand,’ he complained. ‘They should realise they’d have healthier kittens if they mated with good strong moggies like us, instead of going in for all that inbreeding.’

‘I don’t think you’re going to be able to change the way of world just to suit your sex life, Tabs.’

‘More’s the pity. Anyway, how are things with you? Got over that business at the Big House now?’

‘Yes. I’m just disappointed all our efforts didn’t work.’

‘Allyour efforts, you mean. I didn’t even have a clue what you were up to, playing with bits of paper when we should have been legging it out of there.’

‘It just seems such a shame.She likes him, andhe seems to like her, too. Why can’t they just get together and be happy?’

‘Perhaps one of them is a pedigree and the other one isn’t,’ he said morosely. ‘As you said, you can’t change the world.’

No, I couldn’t, and I was beginning to realise that.

We played together in Tabby’s garden for a while, but we were both getting cold, and then suddenly it started to pour with that icy stuff they call sleet. It’s the worst stuff of all, when it comes down hard, little Charlie. Drenches your fur and freezes it at the same time.

‘Quick, into the garage,’ he meowed at me. It was a lot closer than his cat flap. ‘There’s a gap under the door.’

I’d never been in there before. The gap where the door didn’t close properly was only just big enough – I was surprised Tabby could squeeze through – but once inside, it was nice and dry, even if not very warm. We both sat and washed ourselves and rubbed our faces with our paws to get the icy drips off.

‘Why have they got a garage,’ I asked Tabby, looking around, ‘if they haven’t got a car?’

‘They used to have one – a big old thing, it was. Very bad-tempered. It used to growl and cough a lot, and sometimes it refused to move at all. They got rid of it in the end. Said they were getting too old to drive anyway, and now they just go on the bus or walk. My man, Eddie, used to look after it really well, too. See all those tools, in those boxes at the back there? He was forever opening the car’s mouth and looking at its teeth or whatever was wrong with it. But he said he was getting too old to do that any more, too.’

‘Oh.’ A little idea was blooming in my head, as I’m sure you can guess. ‘So why has your man still got all those tools?’

‘Don’t ask me. My woman said ages ago he should get rid of them, but you know what male humans are like, Ollie – never get around to anything. She did say the other day she was going to write an advert out to sell them, if he wouldn’t do it.’

‘And did she? Did she write the advert?’

‘I don’t know, Ollie. There’s a bit of paper in the front window, but don’t ask me what it is. I might be clever but I’m not Wonder-Cat, I can’t read. Why are you so interested, anyway?’

‘Oh, just being curious,’ I said.

‘Careful. You know what they say.’

‘Yes, I do. And it hasn’t killed me yet!’ *

I saw the piece of paper when we walked round the front of his house later. It was just ordinary white paper with big black letters on. For all I knew, it could be a page out of a newspaper. But was it worth a try? Or would I just be wasting my time– again? *

After school that afternoon, Rose went to play with one of the children in her class. Grace went up to their bedroom, and when she came back down she was holding the pink purse, the one she’d tipped the money out of before.

‘Mummy,’ she said, ‘can I ask you something? It’s got to be a secret from Rose.’

I couldn’t help letting out a little mew of anxiety. Was this it? Was this the point when they’d go and buy the new cat?

‘What is it, love?’ Sarah said, sounding amused. ‘Have you decided what to get her for Christmas?’

‘Well, yes, it could be her Christmas present. That would be good. But do you think I’ve got enough money yet?’ She unzipped the purse and tipped out the coins and the note again. ‘If Daddy gives me this week’s pocket money tonight…’

‘What is it you want to buy her? It doesn’t have to be something expensive, Grace. It’s the thought that counts.’

‘A new cat. I want to buy her a new cat that she can call Sooty again.’

Sarah’s eyes went wide with surprise. ‘Oh, Grace, darling, that really isn’t a good idea,’ she said. ‘I mean, it’s sweet of you to think of it, but…’

‘Why not?’ Grace demanded crossly. ‘I want to, Mum. I want to make up for being a horrible sister.’

Sarah put both paws round Grace and pulled her close.‘You’renot a horrible sister, not at all. Why on earth would you think that?’

‘I said that nasty thing to her, didn’t I, that day when we got the Christmas tree? About her being stupid for running into the road to save Sooty. I don’t know why I said it, Mummy. I was just feeling cross and impatient about decorating the tree.’

‘Sweetheart, we all knew you didn’t mean it. Even Rose knew you didn’t. It’s all forgotten now.’

‘I haven’t forgotten it,’ Grace retorted. ‘It still makes me feel horrible, knowing I said it.’

‘Well, that just shows you’re really a very nice sister, who wouldn’t normally dream of hurting Rose’s feelings. We all say nasty things sometimes, and feel sorry afterwards. But once you’vesaid sorry, and been forgiven, Grace, you have to move on and forget about it.’

‘OK.’ Grace shrugged. ‘But I still want to buy her a new cat.’

‘We have Oliver now, don’t we?’

Phew. I started to breathe again.

Grace frowned.‘But Oliver isn’t really ours, not to keep, is he. I know Rose loves him – so do I – but when he gets taken back by his real owner, she’s going to be even more upset.’

Sarah looked at her for a minute as if she was considering it.

‘Well, you have got a point there…’

Oh no, I thought.Here we go.

‘… and Daddy and I have already agreed we’ll get another cat of our own after Oliver leaves. But perhaps you’re right. Perhaps it should be before rather than after.’

She paused and glanced over at me, and I meowed loudly in distress.

‘But I don’t think it would be fair on Ollie,’ she went on, ‘to bring another cat into the house while he’s staying with us.’

I wanted to rush over and jump on her lap and lick her to death, but I was almost too weak with relief to move.

‘Oh, butMummy…’

‘We’ll get a kitten instead.’

‘Oh! A kitten! Oh, yes, that’d be even better.’ Grace jumped up and punched the air as if she was one of those football people on the television. ‘Have I got enough money for akitten, then?’ she added.

‘Put your purse away, Grace,’ Sarah said, laughing. ‘Daddy and I will buy the kitten, but not until after Christmas. Christmas isn’t the right time to bring a new pet into the house. No, don’t argue, or I’ll change my mind and we won’t get one at all. There’s too much excitement, and things going on. A kitten will need calm, and quiet, to settle down. After New Year, I promise you and Rose canboth help to choose a kitten. So there’s no need to keep it a secret from Rose. It’ll be something for us all to look forward to. But why don’t we go to the shop now, while Rose is out, and you can choose a book or a puzzle for her instead, that you can wrap up for her for Christmas?’

‘OK. Itwill be exciting to have a new kitten to look forward to, won’t it? Will Ollie mind that, though?’

‘I don’t think so. A kitten won’t be a threat to him, like an adult cat might be, and it’ll be more likely to accept that Oliver is Top Cat while he’s here.’

They both looked at me. I was purring. Akitten! Oh, that would be nice. I could help to bring it up. It would be fun. And, most importantly, they obviously weren’t planning to send me packing. I’d be Top Cat. I jumped out of my chair, stretched, and gave a big yawn of contentment, and Sarah and Grace both burst out laughing.

‘It’s almost like he’s been listening,’ Grace said, coming over to pick me up. ‘Ah, Ollie, we still love you too, don’t we, Mummy?’

‘Of course we do,’ Sarah agreed, giving me a stroke.

So I was one very happy, very lucky, cat, after all. *

I’d have liked to stay with them that evening, cuddled up on the children’s laps while they talked excitedly about our new kitten. But, of course, I had a plan involving Daniel next door, and now I was feeling more positive about life, I wanted to try it out, even though most of my plans seemed to be backfiring.

‘Hello, Ollie!’ Nicky said brightly when she opened the door to my usual chorus of meows. I’d tried to time it right so that they’d had their dinner but not settled down for the evening yet. ‘Come in, out of the cold.’

‘No!’ I meowed. ‘You come outhere.’

‘Come on, boy,’ she insisted. ‘Quickly, we’ve got the fire lit and you’re letting in the cold.’

I paraded up and down, my tail erect, looking back at her.

‘What’s going on?’ Daniel called from inside the cottage.

‘It’s Ollie. He’s behaving really strangely. He won’t come in – he keeps pacing up and down outside.’

Daniel appeared behind her, watching me over her shoulder.

‘He did that to me once before,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Remember? That time I told you I had the distinct impression he wanted to lead me to the notice board.’

‘Yeah, right!’ She laughed. ‘What are you, now? The cat whisperer?’

‘Maybe.’ He shrugged, but he was still watching me. I flicked my tail harder and walked a few paces towards the corner of the road. ‘OK, I might be losing my marbles, but I’m going to follow him, Nick. I’ll just get my coat.’

‘If I didn’t know you better, Dan, I’d say you were using Ollie as an excuse to pop off down the pub,’ Nicky said, still laughing.

‘If there was even a pub to pop down to.’ He kissed her quickly on the cheek. ‘Won’t be long.’

Nicky shut the door behind us, shaking her head.

‘Come on, then,’ I told him, leading the way. Thank God he was getting better at understanding cat body-language.

We were soon at Tabby’s house. Fortunately there was a lamppost right outside, and the white sheet of paper was still glaring from the window. I stopped outside the gate, turning round and round on the spot, meowing.

‘What is it, Ollie?’ Daniel said, staring around him. ‘What’s wrong?’

For mewing out loud, I thought.I’m going to have to lead him by the nose!

I hopped up onto the low front wall and over onto Tabby’s front path, and up to the window. Did I really need to jump up onto the windowsill? No. When I turned back to Daniel, he was staring at the paper. Hooray! Now I just had to hope it wasn’t just aHappy Christmas decoration or a sign I’d heard about, sayingNo Cold Calling– whatever that meant.

‘Well, I’ll be damned,’ Daniel muttered to himself. ‘That could be interesting.’

Could it? Well, I hoped so. He certainly seemed keen. He opened the gate and marched up the path, gave a firm rat-a-tat to the door knocker and waited, looking at me and shaking his head as if he couldn’t quite work me out.

‘Hello?’ Eddie, Tabby’s human, stood in the doorway, staring at him. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Hello. I’ve just seen the notice in your window,’ Daniel said. ‘Garage contents to be disposed of? Tools? Um, I just wondered what kind of tools you’re selling.’

‘Selling?’ Eddie laughed. ‘Just clearing them out, mate. Well, my wife is – it was her that put the notice up. She’s sick of me hoarding stuff I don’t need. Can’t blame her really. We haven’t even got a car now, so why would I want to hold onto all the gear I used to work on the oldbanger with?’

‘Tools forcar maintenance?’ Daniel squawked. He glanced at me again, his mouth open. ‘Sorry, it’s just such a coincidence. I could really do with some. Can I have a look? And would you by any chance take a cheque?’

Eddie clapped a paw on his shoulder, laughing.‘I told you, lad, I don’t want anything for them. Take the lot, if you like – you’ll be doing me a favour. They’re not new, mind. The wife was all for throwing them out. But if they’ll do you a turn, so much the better. Come and have a look. Live in the village, do you? Haven’t seen you around.’

And they disappeared round the side of the house to the garage, Daniel starting to tell Eddie where he lived, how recently he and Nicky had moved in, and how he’d got the offer of the work on the farmer’s truck. By the time Daniel returned home, whistling, telling Nicky he needed to take the car round the corner because he’d got a box of heavy tools to bring back, I was on the chair next to Nicky, pretending to be asleep.

Mission accomplished. For once I’d been a success. What a good day. Suddenly I was feelingmuch better about myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

When I went into Nicky and Daniel’s house on my regular visit the next evening, I noticed that Daniel kept giving me funny looks.

‘I really think there’s something spooky about him,’ he said to Nicky. ‘He must have supernatural powers.’

She burst out laughing. It was nice to hear her sounding more cheerful.

‘Oh, Dan, don’t keep on about it! It was just a lucky coincidence. Save the fairy stories for after the baby’s born.’ He cuddled her and I purred around their legs happily. ‘Youare looking forward to the baby, then?’ he asked her softly.

‘Of course I am, in one way. If only I wasn’t so worried about the financial situation.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘Well, let’s just hope that now I’ve accepted this bit of work with the farmer, it might be a turning point. Perhaps our luck’s going to change. Now I’ve got the tools, I could even put a notice up on that board, offering to look at people’s car problems, or do maintenance work.’

‘That’s a good idea. Just don’t take on too much, though, Dan – you’ve only got weekends.’

Just at that moment, the doorbell rang, and Daniel went to answer it.

‘It’s someone for you,’ he said to Nicky as he showed the visitor in.

It was Louise, one of the pram females. I meowed a hello to her and she smiled at me.

‘Sorry to intrude,’ she began, after Nicky had got up to greet her. ‘And I hope you’re not going to be offended…’

Nicky shook her head, looking puzzled.

‘Sit down, please, Louise. Why would I be offended?’

‘Well, Sarah had a little chat with me about you the other night. You probably heard I’m absolutely desperate for someone to look after my children.’

‘Oh.’ Nicky went bright red. ‘I’m sorry. Sarah really shouldn’t have said anything. I’ve already told her, I can’t help you. It’s not that I don’t want to…’

‘Don’t be cross with Sarah. She was only trying to help – help both of us. She’s obviously very fond of you, and she told me about your qualifications and your career so far, which I must say are really impressive.’

‘Well, thank you, but you see, I already have a full-time position in London which, to be honest, pays good money and I need – Daniel and I need – that level of income.’ She sounded really flustered and awkward. ‘And I’m pregnant now,’ she added. ‘So I’m afraid it’s out of the question.’

‘Um, I know she probably shouldn’t have,’ Louise said, looking down at her paws, ‘but Sarah did mention that to me, too. And it’s all the more reason to work part-time, isn’t it?’ she added gently. ‘Especially if it means there wouldn’t be any commuting.’

‘I know, but…’

‘And especially if I offer to match what you’re earning in London, minus your fares, so that overall you’ll be no worse off.’

‘What?’ Nicky stared at her. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think you understand. I’m full-time at the nursery.’

‘Yes, and I’m sure the money is excellent, for a nursery. But working as a private nanny, with your qualifications and background, you could almost demand your own salary. Dave and I earn good money too, Nicky, and good childcare is top of our priorities. I work twenty hours a week, but by the time I drive to work and back, I’ll need you there for more like twenty-five. I might want the occasional couple of hours for an evening out, too,’ she added, smiling. ‘You realise you could make a little bit more around the village like that? Babysitting? I know of at least one other mum who’s desperate for a good babysitter so that she and her husband can go out sometimes.’

‘Oh.’ Nicky glanced at Daniel, whose eyes were wide with surprise. ‘Well, I don’t know what to say. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ll have my own baby…’

‘That’s exactly why you should go for it, Nick,’ Daniel said. ‘I’ve been really worried about the idea of you travelling up to London with the baby, working all day up there like that.’

‘But how soon would you want me to start? I mean, the baby’s due in May, and I’d have to have at least a couple of weeks off, I suppose.’

‘I’ve thought about that. I’ve already spoken to my mum, and she’d be happy to cover while you take some maternity leave. Dave and I would take some holiday in the summer, too. I realise you’ll want to talk this all over.’ She hesitated. ‘The thing is, I’d need someone to start as soon as possible after Kay retires at New Year. If you think there’s even a chance you might be interested, please come and meet the children. Freya’s quite a sensible little girl but she’s not four till the middle of September, so she misses out on starting school this year – which means I’ll need childcare for her for another whole year after that. And Henry, well, he doesn’t seem to be turning out to betoo demanding, as toddlers go.’

‘I’m sure I’ve dealt with a lot worse at the nursery,’ Nicky said, smiling. ‘But you really wouldn’t mind me having my own baby with me at the same time?’

‘I think the kids would love it. And as long as you can cope, which I’m sure you’ll be able to, by the sound of your current job, it’ll be fine with me.’ She sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. ‘Will you at least consider it?’

‘Well.’ Nicky turned to Daniel, who was nodding enthusiastically. ‘Yes, obviously it does sound interesting.’

‘Then let’s talk money,’ Louise said, producing her phone from her bag and turning it into one of those adding-up things humans use instead of counting in their heads. ‘And then I’ll leave the two of you to talk it over.’ *

After she’d gone, there was a different atmosphere in the little cottage. Daniel and Nicky both seemed too stunned to talk, for a while.

‘I said maybe our luck was changing,’ Daniel said eventually.

‘You think it could work? Honestly? It just seems too good to be true.’

‘You haven’t met her kids yet,’ he teased her. ‘They might be little demons.’

‘I’m used to those,’ she laughed. ‘Oh, Dan, do youreally think this might be a turning point?’

‘I do, Nick. I think you should go for it. And an occasional bit of babysitting in someone’s nice warm house for an evening – that wouldn’t be so bad either, would it?’

‘No, it wouldn’t. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that myself. I could advertise that on the board, couldn’t I?’

And they started hugging and kissing again. They didn’t look like they wanted me to join in, so I jumped into the armchair nearest the fire and left them to it. *

I was so cheered up by events in Nicky and Daniel’s house, I made a rather rash decision. Despite everything, I was going back to the Big House. I wasn’t going to tell Tabby this time – I knew he wouldn’t come with me again anyway – but I couldn’t get rid of this niggling feeling that I’d be letting Caroline down if I stayed away. From what I’d overheard, her father didn’t let her have any friends in to play, and as well as being poorly and weak she must be so lonely, it made me mew with sadness just to think about her. At least I’d made her smile when I visited her. I told myself that, this time, I’d be far more careful. I already knew to avoid weekends, and now I’d avoid early mornings too in case the father was still there.

So the next day, I waited until Sarah stopped her work on the computer and started making herself a sandwich for lunch. I knew that meant it must be the middle of the day. I ran all the way up the hill to the Big House and up the driveway. The male called Harry was outside one of the sheds, sawing wood, but he had his back to me and I scampered straight across to the big windows, where I could see Caroline and Laura sitting in the room. I scratched at the glass with my paws and did some frantic meowing, and Caroline sat up, looking so excited to see me, I was already glad I’d come. Laura came over and opened the door.

‘Oliver,’ she said. ‘You mustn’t come here any more. You got us into a lot of trouble before.’

‘But Daddy’s not here now,’ Caroline said, reaching out a paw towards me. ‘Please let Oliver come in again, Laura. He’s never going to find out.’

‘No, really, I don’t think so.’

‘Oh,please. It’s so unfair. Daddy treats me like a prisoner. At least in hospital I could see the other children on the ward. Sometimes I wish I was stillin hospital.’

‘You don’t mean that, Caroline,’ Laura said, sounding upset.

‘Don’t I? I didn’t like being so ill, but at least it wasn’tboring.’

For a minute, Laura stood there in the doorway, blocking my entrance, looking down at me but blinking fast like she had dust in her eyes.

‘OK, Oliver,’ she muttered suddenly, standing back so that I could run inside. ‘If he finds out, and starts on me again like last time, he can have my notice.’

I didn’t know which notice she was talking about. One of the ones on the notice board, I supposed. I didn’t care. I was just glad to be in the warm, cuddling up to Caroline again and seeing her smile. *

So now I reasoned I was safe to go back to the Big House again, as long as I went in the middle of the day. And Caroline and I had such a lovely time in that nice warm room with the thick carpet and the comfy sofa. We played with a cotton reel, and a pencil tied to a length of string. Despite all the sophisticated cat toys your humans might buy you, Charlie, you can’t beat a good old-fashioned bit of string for some jumping up with all four paws off the floor, or some rolling on your back with your paws in the air. You know the kind of thing. When Caroline got tired, we snuggled together on the sofa under the pink blanket and listened to Laura reading us a story. I was just happy to be allowed to cheer her up again. *

That Saturday, I didn’t see much of Daniel, because he’d gone off with his new box of tools in his car, to work on the farmer’s truck. I spent a bit of time with Nicky to keep her company. She seemed happier. She told me she’d been round to Louise and Dave’s house to meet their children, and that they seemed ‘lovely’.

‘We’ve decided I’m going to accept the job, Ollie,’ she said, giving me a hug. ‘Oh, I do hope we’re doing the right thing. I’ve got to hand in my notice at the nursery. I feel a bit sick thinking about it, but Dan says it’s going to be the best thing for me and the baby, and I’m sure he’s right. It’s just such a big change. I can still hardly believe I’m doing it. I wonder what my parents will say,’ she added in a different tone of voice. ‘They’re bound to think I’m mad to give up such a good job.’

I was still at their house, asleep in the chair nearest the fire again, when Daniel finally arrived home just as it was getting dark.

‘You must be worn out,’ Nicky sympathised. ‘Did you manage to finish the job?’

‘Yep, all done, road tested and left in perfect running order,’ he said happily, pulling off his boots. ‘The guy was so pleased, he not only paid me, he’s promised us a free turkey too.’

‘A freeturkey?’ Nicky echoed.

‘Yes, he’s a poultry farmer. I’ve got to pick it up on Christmas Eve. It’ll be plucked and oven ready for us.’

‘Oh, Dan, that’s wonderful. I’d been doing a reckon-up of our bills and trying to work out whether we could afford to get a cheap one from the supermarket.’

‘This’ll be much nicer, Nick, and bigger. It’ll last us all week. Now we’ve got the turkey, the pudding and the wine,’ he said, giving her a hug. ‘I wonder what I can get from my next client.’

She laughed.‘Well, don’t count your chickens – or should I say your turkeys. You haven’t got another clientyet. Although, if you put that advert up…’

‘Actually,’ he said, a note of pride in his voice, ‘I’ve got another job lined up already. Rob, the farmer, has recommended me to a friend of his. He’s a gardener and handyman whose van needs a bit of attention. Should be a quick, easy job. I’ve got a day’s leave to take before Christmas so I’ll book him in in a couple of days’ time.’

‘Oh, Dan, that’s amazing. Each job has led to another one. You must be doing something right.’

‘Well, it’s made me realise how nice people are, around here. They’re all saying they like to give work to local people and help each other. I’m just really grateful for the chance to do a bit of mytinkering again.’

‘And get paid for it. Anyway, go and have a hot bath, and put those greasy clothes in the washing machine. I’ve got a shepherd’s pie ready to go in the oven.’

‘Lovely. I’m starving.’ He kissed her. ‘You’re an angel.’

She giggled.‘Andyou’re freezing cold, and filthy dirty. Go on, clean up.’

He was whistling as he went upstairs. I was actually really pleased to hear it. *

So a couple of days later, when I was making my way up the drive of the Big House to play with Caroline, I noticed a car parked by the garage that looked exactly like Daniel’s. When I got a bit closer, I nearly jumped in the air with surprise. Itwas Daniel’s! And there he was, standing just inside the garage doors, talking to the man called Harry. I hid under a shrub and wriggled closer so that I could hear what they were saying.

‘Really pleased you could fit me in so quickly, mate,’ Harry said. ‘Rob told me you did a fantastic job on his truck. Good to know there’s someone in the village now that we can call on. Been in the business long, have you?’

‘Well, to be honest,’ Daniel said, ‘it’s not my full time job. Kind of a sideline, really.’

‘Pity. I bet you’d get a lot of work around here if you set yourself up in business. There’s no one else local, and who wants to take their car to those rip-off big companies in town? Anyway, look, the van just needs a tune-up for now, but there’s a bit of bodywork damage here that I wouldn’t mind getting sorted out at some point. Do you get involved with that? Panel beating and respraying?’

‘Absolutely,’ Daniel said, sounding so excited, anyone would think he’d been offered a bowl of meaty-chunks. ‘Would you like me to quote you for doing that, while I’m here?’

‘Yeah, would you do that, please, mate? I’d be glad to get it done. Right, I’ll leave you to it, then – I’ve got to get on. His Lordship wants some holly and ivy cut today to decorate the place for Christmas. And there’s a Christmas tree to carry indoors. Bloody Jack-of-all-trades here,I am. Still, he’s generous with the pay, so I’ve got no complaints.’

He turned in my direction to head towards the wooded area of the grounds, just as I’d sneaked out from under my shrub to run across the lawn to the house.

‘Morning, Oliver,’ he called out cheerfully.

Laura had obviously let him in on the secret that I was visiting again. The angry father wouldn’t be there today, I was sure of it, but for a minute I froze, looking from him to Daniel and back again, swishing my tail anxiously.

‘Ollie!’ Daniel said in surprise. ‘What areyou doing here?’

‘Is he your cat?’ Harry asked.

‘No, he belongs to the pub, but my neighbour and I are looking after him, between us, until it’s rebuilt. I didn’t realise he wandered this far.’

‘Oh yes. We keep it quiet, mind.’ Harry laughed. ‘He comes to visit Caroline.’

‘Who?’

‘The daughter. She’s been ill, in hospital for ages – leukemia, poor kid. On the mend now, but her father’s kind of overprotective. He went potty when he found out Laura – that’s the nurse he’s hired for Caroline – had been letting the cat in. Thinks they carry germs, or something.But Oliver cheers the kid up so much, Laura gave in and let him in again. Caroline’s lonely, you see. She doesn’t see a soul, stuck in this house all day every day. For God’s sake keep this to yourself, or Laura will probably lose her job.’

‘Right.’ Daniel was staring at me. ‘Somehow, that’s just typical of Ollie, wanting to cheer up a lonely child. He’s quite a special kind of cat.’

‘Thanks! Nice to be appreciated,’ I meowed at him. And then I ran off quickly to the house, to be let in out of the cold. Special cat or not, I needed my home comforts.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

That evening, Sarah and Martin cleared up the dinner things early and got the children to bed. Nicky and Daniel were coming in for drinks again, and there was a kind of excitement in the air.

‘Nicky said they’ve got some good news,’ Sarah said. ‘Oh, I do hope things are improving for them, Mart.’

So a bit later I sat in my hammock on the radiator, happily washing myself, as Nicky explained how she’d now accepted Louise’s offer and was leaving the nursery after Christmas to start as nanny to Freya and Henry.

‘I have to thank you, Sarah,’ she said, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment. ‘I understand you put in a good word for me. I’m sorry I was snappy with you when you tried to encourage me to talk to her. I really didn’t expect her to offer me such a good deal.’

‘I’m just pleased it’s working out for you,’ Sarah said. ‘Congratulations. They’re nice children, too. I’m sure you’ve made the right decision.’

‘And it helps that I’ve been earning a bit extra,’ Daniel said. ‘Doing a little bit of work on some motors. Actually, I have Ollie to thank for that.’

‘Dan believes Ollie’s got magic powers,’ Nicky giggled. ‘He thinks he somehow knew this guy called Eddie had some tools to get rid of, and led him to his house.’

They all turned to look at me. I lifted my head and meowed, and they all burst out laughing.

‘Magic powers, indeed,’ scoffed Martin. ‘Look at him. He’s just a shy little pussy cat.’

‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ Daniel said. ‘Guess where I saw him today?’

I froze, mid-wash. Daniel had been warned about keeping my visits secret. I didn’t want to get into trouble with the angry father, or get Laura into trouble with him, either. But he was tapping the side of his nose with a finger as he went on:

‘This is strictly between us, mind. I’ve taken a vow of silence about it.’

And he explained about his job at the Big House, and what Harry had told him, about Caroline, and Laura, and the father’s dislike of cats.

‘I didn’t even know he had a daughter,’ Sarah exclaimed. ‘Not that we really know him. All I know is he’s called Julian Smythe, and he hardly ever comes into the village, but on the few occasions he’s been to the shop he’s apparently been so grumpy and miserable, he’s made himself unpopular.’

‘Well, Harry said Caroline was in hospital for a long while after they moved here, and now the poor kid is holed up there all day every day, just her and the nurse. So she hasn’t even been to school since they moved from London, and hasn’t got any friends here.’

‘Poor girl.’ Sarah sighed. ‘I don’t suppose anyone else in the village knows about her either, then. How old did you say she is?’

‘Ten, apparently.’

‘Similar age to Grace. What a shame that she hasn’t even got any friends to play with.’

‘That seems to be why Ollie’s been going up there. I’m telling you, there’s something a bitdifferent about that cat. He almost seems to understand humans.’

The others all laughed again, and I went back to washing myself, pretending not to take any notice. If only they knew, eh, Charlie? Nothing unusual in us cats understanding humans. It’s them who can’t understand us, more’s the pity. *

‘There’s another bit of news in the village, as it happens,’ Sarah said a little later. She picked up her wine glass. ‘Top up the drinks, can you, Mart? Remember Nicky’s only on orange juice.’

‘So what’s the news?’ he asked as he poured the wine.

‘You know old Barbara Griggs down Back Lane? And I told you she and Stan Middleton have been spending time and laughing together?’

‘Yes. Bloody amazing. I thought they were both cantankerous old devils. Maybe they’re well suited.’

‘It appears so.’ Sarah paused for effect. ‘Let’s hope so, anyway. They’re getting married!’

‘What?’ Martin nearly dropped the wine bottle. ‘You’re joking! They must both be getting on for ninety.’

‘I know, but apparently they’ve become soul mates. One of the older ladies from the WI who goes to the pensioners’ get-togethers told me Barbara is announcing it to the whole world.’

‘Ah. I think that’s rather sweet,’ Nicky said. ‘Bless them!’

‘Bless them?’ Martin retorted, laughing. ‘Well, I suppose we should all be pleased they’re getting along together and keeping each other quiet. That woman used to frighten the life out of us all, even when I was a kid. She used to shout at us if we rode our bikes past her house or made too much noise playing outside. We thought she was a witch.’

‘Love must have had a calming effect on her,’ Sarah giggled. ‘Apparently she’s being as nice as pie to everyone now. She’s had her hair coloured, her nails painted and has started wearing lipstick.’

‘Good for her,’ Nicky said. ‘When are they getting married?’

‘Soon after New Year, apparently, at the church in Great Broomford. They seem to be in quite a hurry. Barbara told the other ladies on the quiet that Stan wanted them to move in together, to save on heating and council tax and so on. And she wouldn’t hear of it unless he married her first.’

‘Fair enough,’ Daniel said. ‘And anyway, it’s not a bad idea, is it. They say two can live as cheaply as one.’

‘If only that were true,’ Nicky said, sighing. ‘How about three living as cheaply as one?’ she added, patting her tummy.

‘You’ll be fine,’ Sarah comforted her. ‘Things are looking up for you both. You’ll see, it’ll all come good, Nicky. I’m sure of it.’ *

Hearing them talking about Nicky and Daniel’s baby, reminded me that I hadn’t seen Tabby or Suki for a few days, so the next morning before going on my visit to the Big House, I trotted round to Tabby’s place and meowed loudly at his cat flap until he finally put his head through, looking like he’d just woken up.

‘All right, keep your fur on,’ he said crossly. ‘What’s up?’

‘Nothing! I was just wondering how you were, but if you’re in a bad mood I’ll go away again.’

‘Sorry.’ He jumped through the flap to join me. ‘Suki turned up last night and gave me a right earful. I’ve been sleeping off my headache ever since.’

‘I thought you said she’d calmed down a bit since we had that chat with her?’

‘She had. But it seems her humans have realised she’s pregnant now.’

‘Oh dear. Were they upset with her?’

‘Not really. Suki said they blamed themselves for letting her out at night without getting her spayed.’

‘I see.’

‘So they’re saying that as soon as she’s recovered from having the kittens, and she’s weaned them, they’re going to take her to the vet’s. She’s heard from one of her friends that it’s a really big operation for females. So now she’s blaming me for that too. She saysI should have been done.It’s just a little snip for a male, she said. Like it’smy fault my humans didn’t take me to the vet like yours did.’

‘If they had, you wouldn’t have wanted to mate with her in the first place,’ I reminded him.

‘Hmm. Well, maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing,’ he muttered. ‘It just leads to trouble, if you want my opinion.’

I couldn’t help laughing. Maybe now he wouldn’t be in such a hurry to mate with every available female he met.

‘What about the kittens, then?’ I asked. ‘Are Suki’s humans going to look after them?’

‘Well, they said they’ll keep one – which will be nice for Suki. It’ll keep her busy and maybe she’ll leave me alone. And they’ll let the others go to new homes. I think they’ll probably advertise them for sale after they’re weaned.’

‘Perhaps your Eddie will buy one to keepyou busy?’ I teased him.

‘Huh!’ He turned his back on me, twitching his tail. ‘What would I do with a kitten? Ifyou want one, get your own humans to buy one.’

‘As it happens, they’re already talking about getting one,’ I said. ‘And, do you know what? You’ve just given me an idea.’ *

I had to be careful how I did it. From what Tabby had said about Suki’s angry mood, I didn’t want to do anything to upset her. I called on her straight after saying goodbye to him.

‘Oh, hello, Ollie,’ she said, looking up from washing her tummy. It wasn’t surprising that her humans had noticed her pregnancy. She was looking bigger every time I saw her. ‘Nice to see you.’

‘Is it?’ I squeaked in surprise. ‘I mean, sorry, nice to see you, too. How are you keeping?’

‘Not bad. I suppose Tabby sent you round? I was a bit hard on him last night. I suppose I’m taking it out on him, but can you blame me?’

‘No, I can’t blame you, Suki. But he didn’t send me round. He doesn’t know I’ve come. Look, I hear your humans are only going to let you keep one of your kittens?’

‘Yes.’ She sighed. ‘Don’t get me wrong – one will be more than enough, really. It’ll be hard work feeding them all until they’re weaned, never mind keeping an eye on them once they start running around. But, you know, theywill be my own flesh and blood. Well, mine and Tabby’s, more’s the pity.’

‘I expect you’d like them to go to nice human families, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes. Of course – I wouldn’t want them to go to humans who don’t look after them properly, obviously.’

‘Well, look, I’ve got a suggestion. Obviously you don’t know how many kittens you’re going to have, but I can at least try to get one of them into a lovely family.’

‘How come?’

‘It’s my foster family. They’re getting a kitten some time after Christmas. So … how can I put this nicely, Suki? Why don’t you come home with me this evening and show them your tummy?’ *

It took a while for Sarah and Martin to catch on. Sarah was surprised, of course, to see me on the doorstep with Suki.

‘Oh! Who’s this?’ she said. ‘Martin! I think Ollie’s brought a friend home.’

‘Really? Well, they can play outside, then. I don’t mind, but if we start letting all the neighbourhood cats in, there’s no knowing where it’ll end – especially if they all want to bring dead pigeons home with them.’

He followed Sarah to the front door and looked down at us.

‘Roll on your back,’ I hissed at Suki. ‘Go on!’

She gave me a bit of a look, but did it anyway. I saw Martin’s face change.

‘That’s not just a friend,’ he said quietly. ‘If I’m not much mistaken, it’s a girlfriend.’

‘She looks like she’s pregnant,’ Sarah agreed.

‘But I thought … I’m sure George said Ollie had been neutered.’

What?‘It’s nothing to do withme!’ I meowed at them indignantly. Perhaps I should have marched Tabby round there too.

‘You’re right, he’s neutered,’ Sarah said. ‘That’s why he’s so sweet.’

Now it was Martin’s turn to look indignant! I wasn’t sure I liked being calledsweet, but I was too relieved that they realised I wasn’t responsible for Suki’s condition to make a big meow about it.

‘So your friend’s got herself in a bit of a fix, has she, Ollie?’ Martin said, grinning. ‘Oh well. She’s obviously from a good home. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’

‘So Tabby seems to think,’ I said.

‘Have a look at her collar, Mart,’ Sarah suggested. ‘Let’s just make sure she’s not lost, or anything.’

Suki stood up and allowed Martin to look at her identity disc.

‘Oh, she lives at The Willows, down Ponds Farm Road. Her name’s Suki. Hello, Suki. You’re a lovely girl, aren’t you?’

‘That’s Arthur and Joan Furlong’s place, isn’t it?’ Sarah said. ‘You know them, they used to run the caf? in Great Broomford before they retired. The Singing Kettle, next to the church. Nice couple – I think he’s got quite bad arthritis now so they don’t get out much. Never knew they had a cat. Wonder what they’re going to do with the kittens.’

I looked at Suki, she looked at me, and we both meowed. Sarah laughed.

‘I have an idea,’ she said. ‘Shall we ask them if they’re planning to sell them? You know I promised Grace we could get a new kitten after Christmas.’

‘Yes.’ Martin nodded thoughtfully. ‘It would save us going to the Cats’ Protection League, wouldn’t it?’

‘And if her kittens take after Suki, they’re going to be gorgeous.’

Suki stretched her neck and purred, making Sarah laugh again.

‘Yes, you know you’re beautiful, don’t you,’ she said, bending down to stroke her. I almost felt jealous, but only for a minute, because then she added: ‘You’re a clever boy, Ollie, bringing Suki home with you. Anyone would think you knew we’d be interested in her kittens.’

‘Perhaps Daniel’s right, after all,’ Martin chuckled. ‘Perhaps Ollie really does have magical powers.’

Perhaps I did. You know what, Charlie? I was almost beginning to think so myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Hello again, Charlie. You know, I’m surprised you keep asking to hear more of my story. I’d have thought a little kitten like you would have been bored with it by now. You say you think it’s exciting? Well, thank you, I suppose it must be the way I’m telling it. Anyway, if you want to hear the rest – yes, we’re coming to the end soon! – you’d better settle down and leave your tail alone. It’s not going anywhere, it’ll still be there to chase when I’ve finished.

Now, at this point in my story we were getting really close to Christmas. I could tell by the ever-increasing levels of excitement in Sarah and Martin’s house. Apparently there were only a couple of days left at school, because Grace came running downstairs the next morning, singing at the top of her voice:

‘Hooray, hooray, hooray, it’s nearly the holiday!’

But instead of feeling excited, I felt sad. George had said he’d be back again to see us before Christmas, hadn’t he, and now I was wondering whether he wasn’t coming after all. Had he forgotten all about me? Decided he’d got used to not having a cat and wouldn’t bother to have me back when the pub was mended? I mewed to myself miserably at the thought of it.

‘What’s wrong, Ollie?’ Sarah asked. ‘Cheer up, it’s nearly Christmas!’

I didn’t feel like cheering up. But I supposed I should go and see Caroline as usual and cheerher up, at least. I waited until Sarah was having her lunch, and then meowed a goodbye as I popped out of the cat flap and set off for the Big House. *

Caroline didn’t look particularly cheerful either, although Laura was doing her best to sound bright and chirpy. The room looked lovely, with a really big Christmas tree like we used to have in the pub, and lots of pretty decorations, but Caroline had a long face like a cat with a toothache.

‘I’m sobored,’ she moaned.

‘But Oliver’s come to play with you,’ Laura said.

‘I know. But I wantfriends to play with. It’s not fair. I never get to seeanyone. When can I start the new school? I won’t have any friends there – nobody will know me.’

‘You’ll soon make friends when you’re well enough to go. Hopefully before too long.’

We played together as usual, although Caroline didn’t quite seem to have her heart in it and I found it difficult to keep myself from jumping up and having a play with the baubles on the lower branches of the Christmas tree. I did manage one quick swipe while Laura wasn’t looking, but Caroline whisperedNo, Oliver, you mustn’t! so I reluctantly left it alone. Then, just as we’d both snuggled down for our rest, there was a sudden loud banging noise that made me jump up out of Caroline’s blanket in fright. At least it made her giggle.

‘It’s only the door knocker, Oliver!’ she said. ‘Who’s that, Laura?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

Laura left the room, and I hid back under the blanket. I was still supposed to be a secret, remember, and we’d never had other visitors before when I was there. We both lay quietly, listening to Laura talking to someone at the front door.

‘Oh!’ she was saying. ‘Well, that’s very kind of you. Um … did Mr Smythe tell you about her illness? Only, I know he doesn’t talk to many people about it.’

‘No,’ said the other voice – and I popped my head out of the blanket in surprise. It was Sarah! ‘To be honest, we heard … from another source. I don’t want to get anyone into trouble for gossiping or anything, if it’s supposed to be kept quiet, but, well, we felt so sorry for the little girl – being ill, and new to the area, not having any friends. Especially at this time of the year.’

‘You’re very kind,’ Laura said again. ‘Would you like to come in and meet Caroline?’

‘Are you sure that’d be all right?’

‘Well,I think it’d be nice for her. She’d love to have some visitors.’

Caroline and I were blinking at each other in surprise. And the next thing we knew, there they were, in the room with us– not just Sarah but also Grace, and little Rose, still in their school uniforms, and clutching some wrapped-up parcels!

‘It’s Ollie!’ Grace said, staring at me.

‘Yes.’ Sarah smiled. ‘We heard he’d been visiting.’

‘Oh, soyou’re the family he’s staying with! Harry – our handyman – said he’d found out Oliver was the pub cat and was being looked after for the landlord since the fire.’ Laura reached out and stroked my head. ‘Caroline loves seeing him. But I’m afraid I’d get into trouble with her father if he found him hereagain.’

‘We won’t tell anyone, will we, children,’ Sarah said very seriously, and they both shook their heads. They were staring at Caroline. I suppose they were surprised by the lack of fur on her head.

‘It’s all right,’ she said, sitting up on the sofa. ‘My hair fell out because of the medicine they gave me to make me better, but it’s starting to come back now.’

‘Soare you better now?’ Rose asked shyly.

‘Getting better,’ Caroline said. ‘I’m just bored now.’

‘These are for you.’ Grace held out one of the wrapped-up boxes. ‘They’re for Christmas, from us.’

‘Oh!’ Caroline went all pink. ‘Thank you! Should we put them under the Christmas tree, Laura?’

‘You can open them now if you’d like to,’ Sarah said. ‘If Laura says that’s all right.’

Grace and Rose crowded round and the three girls laughed together as the paper was ripped off the boxes. Me, I had a great time rolling on the floor with the ribbon they’d been tied up with, and jumping after the screwed-up wrapping paper, which made them all laugh even more. I think we were all feeling more cheered up, then. Sarah and Laura sat on the other sofa together drinking coffee and chatting, and the girls played with the new toys and talked about school and hospital and Christmas and Brownies – and eventually I fell asleep in front of the fire. It was lovely. I must have got there later than usual, and it was now at least halfway through the afternoon because the girls had finished school. But I didn’t realise quitehow late it was, until I woke up with a start to hear the front door opening.

‘Oh my God!’ Laura gasped, jumping to her feet. ‘He’s home early.’

‘Shall we go?’ Sarah asked – but there was no time for anyone, even me, to go anywhere. Caroline’s angry father was already there, in the doorway, looking around at us all, going redder in the face every minute.

‘What the hell…?’ he began, but Laura went to stand in front of him, her paws on her hips.

‘Don’t start, Julian!’ she said, in a very cross voice. ‘Don’t youdare start, in front of these kind people who’ve come, out of the goodness of their hearts, to visit yourbored, lonely daughter and bring her these presents because theyunderstood– yes, they understood better than you do – how she must be feeling.’

‘What?’ he stuttered.

‘Yes! Look at her.Look at how happy she is, how much healthier she looks, just from having some company, some children to play with for a couple of hours. It’s what she needs now, Julian, and I’mnot going to apologise for allowing it, nor for allowing the cat to come back, either. He’s living with this lovely family, and he’s not dirty, or carrying germs, he’s a nice little cat and he does Caroline good. If you don’t like it, you’d better sack me right now, because I refuse to carry on keeping your daughter languishing here on her own forone single day longer.’

As she finished, she suddenly clasped her paw to her mouth and took a step backwards, like she’d only just realised who she was talking to. We all stood still, frozen like statues, staring at the Julian man.

‘We’d better go,’ Sarah said again. ‘Come on, children.’

‘No,’ he said, putting out a paw to stop her. ‘Don’t.’ His voice sounded like a cat being strangled. ‘Please, don’t rush off. Itwas kind of you to call on Caroline, and … thank you for the presents. Please don’t think me horribly rude. I’m just…’

‘He’s just been worried about Caroline,’ Laura said, in a shaky voice now, staring at him. ‘That’s all.’

‘Yes. I have. Worried sick. But Laura’s right. I’m sorry. I should have let Caroline have some company. I can see how much happier she looks today. I’m sorry, darling,’ he added with a funny choking noise like he was going to cry – and he ran to take hold of Caroline and hug her really hard. ‘I’ll try to be different.’

‘It’s OK, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I know you were just trying to look after me. But I’m getting better now.’

‘I know you are. Thank God.’ He made the choking noise again. ‘Her mother…’ he added, looking up at Sarah. ‘You see, I lost her mother, and then, when Caroline got sick too…’

‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’ Sarah said, putting a paw on his arm. ‘It must have been an awful time for you. I’m so glad to hear Caroline’s getting better, but if you’d prefer us not to come again…’

‘No. Please – if I haven’t frightened you off,’ he said, with a little sad smile, ‘please do bring the children again. Carolinedoes need to make friends, and Laura’s right, it was kind of you to visit. Thank you.’

I followed Laura as she showed Sarah and the girls to the front door, apologising quietly for thescene, as she called it.

‘Please don’t worry,’ Sarah said. ‘I do understand.’

I took the opportunity to scoot out of the front door myself. But as they walked off down the drive, I slunk round to the big windows where I normally went in and out. I wanted to make sure Julian wasn’t going to tell Laura off after everyone had gone.

But, to my surprise, there was a totally different kind ofscene going on in the room. While Caroline was engrossed with her new Christmas toys, Julian put both front paws round Laura and pulled her very close to him. I couldn’t hear what he was saying – he was talking right into her ear. But she was quite pink in the face and smiley. And his mouth was moving slowly down from her ear to her lips …

At least he didn’t seem to be angry anymore. I went home feelingmuch happier! *

It didn’t take long for word to get around. Sarah got on the phone to Anne, the one they called Brown Owl, and next thing I knew, she turned up with a couple of the other Foxes and their mums, and everyone started chatting about how they could take the children to visit Caroline.

‘I’m going to draw a picture for Caroline,’ Rose said, getting out her crayons.

‘I’m going to make her a Christmas card,’ Grace said.

‘Me too,’ said one of the other Foxes, and the children all clustered around the table, sharing out paper and crayons and pens.

‘We should stagger our visits,’ Anne said. ‘We don’t want to overwhelm the poor child by all turning up together.’

‘That’s a good idea,’ Sarah agreed. ‘Let’s get our diaries out and get ourselves organised.’

‘It will be lovely for Caroline to make some friends before she starts school,’ Anne said. ‘And perhaps she’ll be well enough to join Guides by the time Grace moves up. They can start together. Thank goodness her father’s seen sense. She must have felt so isolated, poor thing.’

‘I can understand it, though,’ Sarah said. ‘He was beside himself with worry about her. I don’t think he’s really a miserable person at all. He’s just had a lot of unhappiness.’ She grinned suddenly. ‘But do you know what? I think that nurse, Laura, has a soft spot for him. And he might not show it, but I suspect he feels the same way.’

I lay back in my hammock, purring to myself with a secret happiness. I didn’t know where Laura’ssoft spot might be, but I knew for sure that it was true they liked each other. I was the only one who’d seen the evidence with my own eyes.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Later that evening, after dinner, I was paying my usual visit to Nicky and Daniel’s house, when Sarah turned up to share the news with them about what had happened at the Big House.

‘Poor little girl,’ Nicky sympathised. ‘But how lovely that you’re taking all the children round there to play with her now.’

‘Yes. I actually feel sorry for her dad, too, now.’

‘I’ll be meeting him myself soon,’ Daniel said. ‘I haven’t had a chance to tell you this yet, Nick, but the handyman, Harry, apparently recommended me to him after I did the work on his van. Mr Smythe wants me to service his car. Well, he’s actually got two cars – a Mercedes, and a smaller one he uses to commute to the station. Harry called me today to say he wants me to go over there after Christmas to talk to him about it.’

‘Oh, well done, Dan, that’s great.’ Nicky gave him a kiss. ‘Maybe he’ll want them both serviced regularly – and you’ve got the bodywork on Harry’s van to do, too.’

‘I’m really pleased for you.’ Sarah smiled. ‘It all helps, doesn’t it. And you enjoy doing it, anyway. Perhaps you’ll have a look at our car when you get the chance. Martin keeps complaining that it turns over too slowly, or something.’

‘Of course I will.’ Daniel looked like the cat that got the cream. I knew exactly how that felt. *

The next day was the children’s last day at school, and Sarah brought them along to the Big House again after they’d finished. I was already there, of course, cuddled up with Caroline, and at first I was horrified to hear the Julian man coming home early again. But Laura and Caroline just smiled at each other and told Sarah that it was absolutely fine now, and he was home early because he was doing something calledwinding down for Christmas.

Sure enough, he was like a completely different human. He came into the room full of smiles, giving Caroline a big hug and kiss, and touching Laura on her paw in a way that made me think he wanted to stroke her.

‘Good to see you again,’ he said to Sarah and the children. ‘And our little furry friend there.’

I nearly fell off the sofa in surprise. Was this really the same male who’d half-strangled me and called me a dirty, flea-ridden animal? I thought he hated cats?

‘I actually quite like cats, you know,’ he went on as if I’d spoken out loud in Human. ‘At least, I used to, before I became so … well, overly obsessed with hygiene, I suppose, because of Caroline’s illness.’

‘Oh, Daddy, can we have one?’ Caroline said. ‘I love Oliver so much, and it’s so lovely that he comes to see me, but he’s not mine, and I’dlove a little cat of my own.’

‘Well, I don’t know about that.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll have to think about it. Maybe after Christmas.’ He turned to Sarah, obviously keen to change the subject. ‘Apparently some of the other little girls are coming to visit Caroline tomorrow. Children from the Brownie pack.’

‘Yes. They’re in the same Six as Grace and Rose.’

‘Caroline’s been so excited about it,’ he said. ‘She used to love Brownies, didn’t you, darling?’

‘Yes, Daddy. And I want to jointhis Brownie pack, now I’ve met Grace and Rose and heard all about it. Can I? Please?’

‘We … e … ll…’

‘Sheis getting stronger,’ Laura said. ‘Perhaps, after Christmas, I could take her along to a meeting, at least, and stay with her? She could just watch – she wouldn’t have to run around or anything.’

‘That would be lovely,’ Sarah said, ‘but the Brownies aren’t having proper pack meetings now. We’re just having meetings for each Six, separately, in each other’s houses, because…’

‘Oh, yes – because of the fire. Grace told me,’ Caroline said. ‘There’s no village hall for them to meet in, Daddy.’

‘Oh, of course, the pub fire. I’d forgotten the hall was damaged too.’ He looked down at his paws. ‘I’m afraid I don’t often go into the village. I’ve found it difficult to meet people, to be honest. I didn’t know how I’d handle it if they started asking questions, so I kept out of their way. I realise now how stupid that was. Everyone must have thought I was being stand-offish.’

‘Oh, well, I wouldn’t say that…’ Sarah began, but her mouth was twitching at the corners.

He smiled and shrugged. He looked so much nicer when he smiled.

‘I can’t blame them. But now you and the children, and the other families, are being so good to us, I’ve realised, well…’ He hesitated, then admitted, ‘I guess it wasn’t just Caroline who was desperately in need of some good neighbours. You must let me know if I can do anything in return.’

‘There’s no need, honestly. We’re happy to help.’

‘Thank you, again.’ He turned to go. Halfway out of the door, he swung round and looked back at Sarah.

‘So there’snowhere for all the Brownies to meet together? Nowhere else in the village?’

‘No. Not just the Brownies. None of the groups and clubs have anywhere to meet. But it’s funny how we’ve all somehow managed to get around it. People in the village have become so good at improvising and co-operating with each other – we’ve actually all benefited from the situation, in a way. Small groups have been getting together in each other’s homes, drawing up rotas, even making new friends.’

‘But we can’t have a Christmas party this year,’ Grace said sadly.

‘No.’ Sarah shook her head. ‘All the Christmas parties and meals have had to be cancelled. The pensioners, the WI, the playgroup, mums-and-babies group– obviously nobody has room to cater for the numbers that would be involved.’

‘I see.’ Julian paused, looking around him. ‘But we do.’

‘Pardon?’

‘I said,we do.’ His eyes went suddenly brighter, like he’d just seen a nice juicy mouse running past. ‘We’ve got empty rooms in this house, rooms that I haven’t even got around to furnishing. We’ve got an enormous greatballroom, for God’s sake!All the clubs could have their parties in there, and it still probably wouldn’t be crowded. In fact,’ he went on, sounding so excited now, Caroline had sat upright in surprise, and Laura and Sarah both had their mouths hanging open, staring at him, ‘in fact, why don’t we just have the whole village here together? Make it a huge village family party? Let’s do it! I’ve got a colleague who used to moonlight as a DJ – he’s still got all his equipment. I know he’ll do me a favour if I ask him. Let’s start at teatime, so all the children can come. How about Christmas Eve? A lot of people will have finished work early.’

‘Oh, Daddy!’ Caroline was squealing. ‘Can I come? Please, please, can I come? I won’t even have to leave the house. And Laura will be here to look after me. And I can see Grace and Rose and the other Brownies.’

‘Yes, of course you can. But you’ll have to remember you still get very tired. You won’t be able to run around like the other children.’

Caroline bounced up and down on the sofa, her cheeks all pink with excitement.

‘But…’ Sarah had gone a bit pink too. ‘Mr Smythe, honestly, you can’t…’

‘Julian, for goodness’ sake, and yes I can. Iwant to. It’s the least I can do, to make up for being so unsociable and rude.’

‘But what about food, Julian?’ Laura asked, looking worried. ‘It’s such short notice. I mean, I’ll help, but there’s not much time for shopping or cooking.’

‘Hmm, that’s a point. Might be too late to organise caterers,’ he said, frowning.

‘Perhaps we should leave it until after Christmas,’ Laura suggested.

‘But I’d like to make it a Christmas party,’ Julian insisted. ‘Where’s your sense of fun, Laura?’ He laughed. ‘It’ll be great – spontaneous! I’ll just have to drive into town and load up with lots of party food.’

‘No!’ Sarah stood up now, shaking her head. ‘Absolutely not. If you really want to do this – and honestly, I agree it’s a bit rushed! – we certainly can’t let you go to the trouble and expense of providing food. There are too many of us. We’ll sort it out together, like we’ve beendoing, with notices on the notice board, and with phone calls, emails, and notes through people’s doors, and we’ll all bring something along. Plates of sausage rolls, sandwiches, cakes – everyone who comes will rustle up or buy something quickly.’

He started to protest, but Laura stopped him.

‘It’s actually a good idea, Julian,’ she said. ‘People won’t feel so embarrassed about coming, if they contribute.’

‘Oh, I suppose that’s a point. All right, then, but please tell them the contributions are voluntary. And I’ll provide drinks. Soft drinks for kids, wine and beer for the adults who want it. I insist! It’s the first thing I’ve contributed to village life, and not before time.’ He grinned at Laura. ‘I’m looking forward to this. It’s…’ He coughed, and took a deep breath. ‘It’s the first thing I’ve looked forward to for a long while.’

‘Perhaps the first of many,’ Laura said quietly, and they gave each other that long look again.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Daddy, why don’t you just kiss her?’ Caroline said. ‘It’s been obvious for ages that you want to.’

And everyone burst out laughing. *

When Sarah was ready to leave, I decided to go with them. Grace and Rose lingered over their goodbyes to Caroline, while I followed Julian and Sarah out into the hall.

‘Just a thought,’ Sarah said very quietly to Julian. ‘If youdo decide to get Caroline a cat after Christmas, we happen to know someone whose cat’s having kittens soon. We’re actually getting one ourselves. We went to see the couple last night, and they’ll be wanting to re-home all but one of the kittens. If you’re sure about this party, and they come, I’ll introduce you.’

‘Thank you. Yes,’ he said, ‘I think, now I’ve got over the shock of seeing Oliver with her, it would be very good for Caroline. And I like the idea of having a kitten from someone in the village.’

‘I’m glad. You know, a lot of what’s happened here seems to have come about because of Oliver. Since he’s been with us, things seem to have … fallen into place, somehow.’ She laughed. ‘My neighbour thinks he’s got magical qualities.’

‘Maybe he has. People used to believe that about cats, didn’t they, in medieval times? Thought they were associated with witches or something.’

I have no idea what witches are, little Charlie, or whether I’d want to be associated with them. All I knew was, I didn’t particularly feel magical. But Iwas, after all, beginning to feel like I really could be the Cat Who Saved Christmas.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Those next few days, there was such a flurry of activity everywhere, I felt like wherever I went, people were tripping over me. Everyone in the village seemed to be shopping in a hurry, cooking in a hurry, wrapping things up in a hurry. And at the Big House it was even worse, with Julian and Laura and Harry rushing around putting up decorations and balloons and big tables andanother big Christmas tree in the huge empty room they called the ballroom. I couldn’t quite work out why it was called a ballroom when there wasn’t a single ball in there to play with, but what did I know?

And then it was Christmas Eve, and everyone was even busier. The children were beside themselves with excitement. Almost every time Sarah opened her mouth it was to tell them that if they didn’t calm down and behave themselves, Father Christmas wouldn’t be coming. I tried to keep out of her way, as she ran around the kitchen with pots and pans, getting flustered and red in the face. But finally it was time to get ready for the party, and to my delight, Sarah told me I was invited too.

‘You’re one of the guests of honour,’ she said, tying a piece of red Christmas ribbon round my neck, over my collar.

I normally hated wearing fussy things like that, but I was too excited about the party to care.

And then, just as everyone was getting their coats on ready to leave … George turned up.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, do I, Charlie, how overjoyed I was! When I saw him come into the hallway I went a little bit crazy, walking round and round his legs, and rubbing my cheek against him madly to show him he still belonged to me. I know some cats treat their humans with disdain ifthey feel they’ve been neglected – walking away from them, twitching their tails – but I’ve never been able to hide my feelings like that. When George bent down and picked me up, I must have been the happiest cat in the world. I blinked so many kisses at him, I made my eyes hurt. Grace and Rose were shrieking with laughter at how loud I was purring.

‘I’m sorry I haven’t managed to get down here before now,’ he was saying. ‘I’ve been so busy in the new job. But I’ve brought all of you a few treats for Christmas, to make up for it – and another payment for Ollie’s board and lodging of course, for you and next door.’

He put some bags of exciting-looking gift-wrapped parcels down on the table, then turned and looked at us all again– the children with their coats zipped up, me in my silly bow, Sarah with containers of food ready to take with us.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re just going out.’

‘It’s fine, George. Stay and have a coffee or something. There’s no rush,’ Martin said, giving a warning look to the children, who were shuffling their paws impatiently.

‘Oh,Daddy,’ little Rose said. ‘Everyone will be there before us.’

‘It’s just a village party,’ Sarah explained apologetically. ‘A last-minute thing, actually.’

‘Really? That’s nice. Whose party?’

‘You’ll never believe it.’ Sarah laughed. ‘It’s at the Big House. Julian Smythe has invited the whole village.’

‘Never!’

‘Yes!’ She glanced at Martin and then added, ‘Actually, George, why don’t you join us? Nicky and Daniel next door are coming too – they’ll be calling for us any minute now. We can tell you the whole story on the way there.’

‘Oh, no. I couldn’t. I haven’t been invited.’

‘Yes you have,’ Martin said. ‘You’re part of the village –everyone’s invited. We’re all taking food with us. Come on, mate, it’ll be great to have your company. Everyone’ll be really chuffed to see you.’

So, together with Nicky and Daniel, we all set off up the hill. George even carried me the whole way– not because I couldn’t walk, of course, but because I couldn’t bear for him to put me down, even for a minute. I knew he’d soon be going back to London again and it might be a long time before he came back. *

I can’t tell you too much about the party, Charlie, except that the music was very noisy, all the children were very noisy, and lots of people seemed to be hugging each other and eating and drinking a lot. I’m afraid I put my paws over my ears and fell asleep on George’s lap, and when I eventuallywoke up, I’d been put on a chair in a quiet corner of the hall, with one of the children’s coats over me to keep me warm. I was happy to let George carry me home again.

I think it was quite late by the time the children had been tucked up in bed. This, by the way, was a longer process than usual, with strange rituals being carried out involving a glass of sherry and a mince pie being left on the fireplace, and stockings hung at the ends of both their beds, and a lot of giggling– none of which I could make any sense of. Then, after a last cup of coffee and chat with Sarah and Martin, George had to say goodbye to us all again. I went off to bed and tried not to cry. This time I felt a little more certain that he’d be back again. *

When I woke up, it was quite obvious it was Christmas morning. The girls were shouting their heads off about the new toys they’d got, and next to my bed was a little red stocking full of cat treats, a catnip toy with jingly bells and feathers on, and a squeaky toy mouse.

‘It’s from George, Ollie,’ Grace said when she came into the kitchen and saw me poking my nose into it. ‘But we’ve bought you some presents too. They’re under the tree. Happy Christmas!’

Dear George. And there was I, thinking Father Christmas must have been real after all. *

Just after breakfast, a big car stopped outside Nicky and Daniel’s house. I sat on Sarah’s windowsill and watched as a male, a female and two quite large human kittens got out of the car carrying a lot of bags between them, and went in through the front door.

Sarah had been watching too.‘Nicky’s parents and brothers are here,’ she called out to Martin. ‘Oh, I do hope it’s all going to go smoothly for them.’

But of course, we had no idea whether it was going smoothly or roughly– not until much later, after everyone had opened more presents, eaten their Christmas dinner and pulled apart some really horrible things calledcrackers. They made a loud bang which sent me scuttling out to the kitchen and set the children off in fits of laughter. I really couldn’t see what the point of that was.

It seemed a long day. They watched a lady calledQueen on television, who did nothing but sit in a chair and talk, so I didn’t know why it seemed so important, then they played games and ate chocolate, and later ate sandwiches and cake, and finally Grace and Rose looked like they were going to fall asleep where they sat, so they were packed off to bed. *

I’d had my own dinner and was just thinking about going to settle down for the night, when there was a little light tap on the door, and Martin let in Nicky and Daniel, followed by their whole family. I immediately scarpered behind the sofa, anxious about the strange males.

‘Oh, is this the cat you were telling us about?’ one of the young males asked Nicky – and she laughed, and came to pick me up. She introduced me to everyone at the same time as introducing her family to Sarah and Martin.

‘Ollie’s our good luck cat,’ Daniel said, quite seriously. ‘All the good things that have happened recently – well, he seems to have been involved somehow.’

‘We must get to know him, then,’ the female said, giving me a little stroke. She seemed quite nice. I wondered what all the fuss had been about. ‘And you, of course,’ she added to Sarah and Martin. ‘We’ve heard so much about you both. I understand from my daughter that you’ve been extremely kind to them since they moved in.’

‘We’re enjoying their friendship, that’s all,’ Sarah said.

‘Well, I can’t thank you enough for offering to put us up overnight like this. But we’ve brought some presents for your little girls, and a couple of bottles of wine.’

‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Martin said. ‘Please, sit down, everyone, and I’ll get you all a drink. Have you had a good day together?’

‘Yes. Definitely!’ Nicky’s mum smiled. ‘We’re thrilled to hear Nicky and Daniel’s news, of course.’

Nicky was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Not that I’ve ever seen a Cheshire cat, Charlie, but apparently they grin, which is rather strange, as most cats can’t.

‘At first we were worried,’ her dad said. ‘I mean, they’re so young, and, well, they haven’t had a very good start, which was partly our fault.’

‘No it wasn’t, Dad,’ Nicky said, but he held up a paw and went on:

‘Yes. Our fault for not trusting the pair of you to make a go of it – not believing in you. To be honest, we didn’t think it would last. We underestimated you both.’

‘We’re not out of the woods yet,’ Daniel murmured.

‘Maybe not, but we can see now that you’re both doing your best, that you’re committed to making it work. Perhaps itis a bit soon to be having the baby, but from what we’ve heard and seen today, if anybody can make a go of it, you two will. With Nicky’s new job…’

‘That’ssuch a relief,’ her mum said quietly to Sarah. ‘I’d have been so worried at the thought of her travelling up to London every day with a tiny baby.’

‘Yes. And Daniel getting all these recommendations for work in the field he wasalways cut out for– well, we can only hope things are going to steadily improve for you both now, and good for you. You deserve it.’

‘They certainly do,’ Sarah agreed.

‘So, now we’ve seen how hard they’re both working, and with the baby on the way – it’s so exciting, our first grandchild,’ the mum went on, ‘the next step will be for them to buy a home of their own.’

Nicky and Daniel were beaming at each other.

‘If we can find somewhere suitable – something small, of course, but with a little garden for when the baby’s growing up – Mum and Dad are going to lend us the deposit,’ Nicky said. ‘Isn’t that wonderful?’

Nicky’s dad winked at Martin. ‘We won’t be expecting them to pay us back in a hurry. Perhaps when we’re old and grey and we need help ourselves.’

‘And,’ Nicky’s mum added, ‘we’re going to help them plan their wedding. If we’d realised they were only putting off getting married because they couldn’t afford it, we’d have offered to help sooner.’

‘We only want a quiet affair, Mum,’ Nicky said. ‘It won’t have to cost the earth.’

‘But you’ll need a bit of help with the cost, whatever. And if we couldn’t do that, for our only daughter, it’d be a poor show, wouldn’t it.’

‘Well,’ Sarah said, raising her glass. ‘I think this all definitely calls for a toast. To Nicky and Daniel – and the baby.’ They all took a sip of their drinks. ‘I hope you won’t move too far away, though,’ she added. ‘We’d miss you.’

‘No. We need to stay in the village. We’ve both got work here now,’ Daniel said. ‘Any idea if there are any houses for sale?’

‘Oh!’ Sarah suddenly sat up in her chair. ‘Yes, of course, I do know of one. It’s Barbara Griggs’s cottage. You know she’s moving in with Stan Middleton when they get married next month? TheFor Sale sign has only just gone up. It’s not much bigger than your place next door, but thereare two bedrooms, and yes, a little garden. And between you and me, it will need a bit of work. Just decorating, mainly.’

‘I’d be happy to do that,’ Daniel said immediately.

‘I’d come over and help you,’ Nicky’s dad said. ‘You’ll be busy with your motor business.’

‘I could give you a hand too,’ Martin said.

‘The point is, I suspect they’ll take an offer, because it needs doing up. Why don’t you see if you can go round and have a look after the holiday?’ Sarah suggested.

‘Oh, yes, we will, definitely. If we like it, it’d be perfect,’ Nicky said. ‘A bedroom for the baby. And a proper little garden.’

Everyone seemed so happy and excited, I didn’t think they’d notice me creeping up to the little low table where Sarah had placed some very tempting dishes of snacks, including my favourite – little cubes of cheese. I stretched up with my two front paws on the table and was just about to grab a bit of cheese when the smaller one of the boys started giggling. Everyone looked round and to my embarrassment, I was caught in the act of trying to scamper off with the cheese in my mouth.

‘Oh, Ollie!’ Sarah laughed. At least she wasn’t cross. ‘I shouldn’t have left all this food within your reach, should I? Are you hungry, boy? Or could you just not resist the cheese?’

‘I think he’s earned a few extra treats, don’t you?’ Martin said.

‘Yes, I agree.’ Daniel nodded, looking quite serious. He waited until Martin had got my food dish from the kitchen and started putting some cheese in it especially for me. ‘Whatever you all say, I still believe Oliver’s somehow helped turn things around for us,’ he went on. ‘I might have saved him from being stuck up the tree that day, but in return, it’s like he’s pretty much saved our lives.’

‘Saved yourlives? Exaggeration, or what, Daniel?’ piped up the bigger of the two boys.

‘All right,’ Nicky said, ‘let’s put it this way – if nothing else, there’s no denying he’s certainly savedChristmas– for us, and probably for the whole village.’

‘Definitely for young Caroline at the Big House,’ Sarah added, and everyone murmured their agreement.

‘So I’d like to suggest another toast,’ Daniel said, topping up Nicky’s glass with more lemonade. ‘Here’s to Oliver – our very special shared house guest. The Cat Who Saved Christmas!’

And they all raised their glasses, smiling at me, and joined in:‘To Oliver!’ ‘Here’s to Oliver!’

If I’d been a human, I’d have been crying with happiness. But even if theydid think I was very special, at the end of the day I’m still just a little cat. So I just finished my cheese, blinked kisses at them all and washed my whiskers before taking myself off to bed.

I’d done it, Charlie – they all said I had. Who’d have thought it? A little cat like me – after everything that had happened to me. I really was the Cat Who Saved Christmas.

EPILOGUE

Of course, the story doesn’t end there, Charlie. Not quite.

Through all the freezing cold weather that came after Christmas, even when the snow came and I had to scamper through it with icy paws, I kept going back to the Big House to see Caroline. I saw her lovely golden fur grow back thick and shiny, her skinny little paws grow plumper and stronger, and her pale cheeks starting to turn a healthy pink. By the time the weather began to warm up again, she’d turned into a proper little girl, running around the house, laughing and shouting and playing with her friends. And with me.

But I’m getting ahead of myself now. Back at Sarah and Martin’s house, something very important happened during those cold winter days. Their new kitten came home. The whole family went out together to collect her, and when they came back, Grace was carrying her very carefully in a cardboard box. Sarah closed all the doors and then they put the box down and let her out.

‘Keep Ollie away for the first little while,’ she told the children. ‘We don’t want her to be frightened.’

As if I, of all cats, was going to frighten a poor little kitten. I knew just how it felt to be tiny and defenceless in a scary new place. I sulked in my chair in the lounge, listening to the children’s excited voices, imagining the little newcomer scurrying around the kitchen, wondering where she was, who these new humans were, and what had happened to her mother and her siblings. It brought back sad memories for me. Butthis new little kitten had come to a good home straight away. She was going to have a happy start in life.

Of course, she soon settled in, and quickly got used to me, too. I liked having her snuggle up with me in my bed. She was a bright little thing. Pretty soon she understood enough Cat for me to start giving her the benefit of my experience and teaching her about the human world. They called her Nancy. Apparently that was the name of someone in a book, a book about an Oliver.

‘All we need now is an Artful Dodger,’ Martin said. Sarah laughed, but I had no idea what he was talking about. *

Not long after Nancy arrived, I was on one of my regular visits to Caroline when I heard a little squeaking noise coming from the kitchen. I sat up straight, ears erect and twitching. For a minute I thought Nancy must have followed me all the way there. I must have imagined it– it had sounded just like a kitten crying.

‘Come and see, Oliver,’ Caroline said, her eyes bright with excitement. ‘Be very gentle, though.’

I followed her into the kitchen, across the wide stone floor, and there, by the big old cooker that seemed to be turned on, belting out heat all day every day throughout the winter, was a furry cat bed just like the one I had. And sitting in the middle of the bed, looking a bit lost, was a tiny kitten. He looked even smaller than Nancy, but it might have been because the bed was too big for him. And whereas you could already see Nancy was going to be a beauty, with her mother Suki’s sleek shiny fur and creamy colouring, this little fellow looked like he’d been born with a cheeky expression on his face. He glanced up at me, his head on one side, one ear up and the other down, let out another little squeak and then clambered out of the bed, tripping over his own paws. He came right up to me, bold as brass, and began to rub his face against my legs. I couldn’t believe it – it was like looking at a miniature version of my old friend. There was no doubt about it, he was quite clearly Tabby’s son.

I couldn’t help feeling fond of the little chap. He was certainly never going to lack for anything, this one – he’d fallen on his paws, all right, living in this beautiful house, with these lovely humans. But if he looked for a father figure, a good upright male cat to guide him as he grew up – well, Tabby certainly wasn’t going to be around to do that. I made up my mind there and then that I’d take this little kitten under my own paw and tell him all he needed to know. Starting with my own life story, of course.

Yes, of course, that was you, Charlie– that was our first meeting. As you know, Nancy’s your sister. Suki was your mother, and unfortunately for you, Tabby was your dad. I’m only joking, he’s not a bad sort really. You could do worse than grow up like him, I suppose – you’re already like him in so many ways. *

Ever since that day, I’ve been coming back to see you, haven’t I. Well, all right, I apologise – I know it’s been a bit of a while this time. I’ve been a very busy cat. I’ve obviously had to spend time every day inspecting the rebuilding of my pub, and I’m happy to say that last week we moved back in. Yes – I’m back where I belong, with George, and if you’d ever been lost or homeless you’d understand why I’m so happy. And the thing is, you see, I still have to visit my friends at my two foster homes, because they keep telling me they miss me. And I need to do a tour of the village every day to make sure all my other human friends are getting along OK.

But look at you now! Have you had a couple of growth spurts since we last met? You must be almost fully grown by now. I’ll certainly never be able to call youLittle Kitten again. You do realise you’ll probably end up growing bigger than me, don’t you? You’re quite the young man about town now, I suppose. And with that cheeky way about you, I daresay you’ll be getting all the female cats’ hearts racing, just like that old rascal Tabby still seems to do. But I hope you’ll always remember what a lucky cat you are, to be living here. It was always a cat’s paradise, with those huge grounds and these big rooms to run around in, but everything’s so much nicer here now that Laura’s finished furnishing it and making it really homely. Julian’s a good, kind male – who’d have guessed how much he actually does like cats, after all. And of course, you love Caroline, don’t you. Everyone says how quickly she got better after you came to live with her.

Where are they, by the way? In the sitting room? Come on, then, let’s go and see them. *

Ah, just look at them! Do they do that all the time? Sitting snuggled up together on the sofa like two cats curled up in their basket? Why do they keep looking at each other and grinning like that? To think, I used to wonder whether Laura had something wrong with her when she said she liked Julian. I’m glad she’s moved in. It’s nice to see them so happy together, isn’t it – nice for Caroline, too.

Caroline’s pleased to see us – look, she’s coming over to play with us now.

Hello, Caroline. Ha! It still makes you laugh when I rub myself around your legs like this, doesn’t it. Sorry if it tickles, but I just can’t help it – it’s so lovely to see you up on your two back paws all the time. Yes, I’ve come to talk to Charlie, but I’m here to seeyou as well. You say you’re excited about Christmas?

Surely it’s not going to be another Christmas again, so soon? It’ll be your first one, Charlie. Now, remember what I told you about the Christmas tree. You’re going to want to play with those baubles. They’re irresistible. You might have to sit on your paws to stop yourself. You say they’re bringing the tree in tomorrow? You saw Harry chopping it down outside? Oh, listen – they’re just talking about it now.

‘I don’t mind where we put it, Julian,’ Laura says. ‘In here, or in the ballroom. You decide.’

‘I don’t mind either,’ he says, looking back into her eyes with that silly smile. ‘I want everything the wayyou’d like it this Christmas, darling. No expense spared. Decorations everywhere. We’re celebrating Caroline’s recovery – and us all being together.’ *

And look who else is here! It’s Nicky, with baby Benjamin. He’s getting big now. Do you like him, Charlie? Yes, I know he makes a lot of squealing and squawking noises, but he can’t help that, you used to do it yourself.

It’s nice that Nicky has come to visit Caroline, with the baby. Look how Caroline enjoys fussing over him. Nicky’s put him down on the carpet so she can play with him. So she often comes here when she’s not looking after Freya and Henry? Ah, I see – she’s got friendly with Laura. They like to have a chat together. It looks like Julian’s going to leave them alone to talk. Perhaps he’s going off to do someSaturday pottering like Martin does.

‘How’s the house coming on, Nicky?’ Laura’s asking her now.

‘Slowly!’ She laughs. ‘But we’re getting there. We’re going to put a new kitchen in after Christmas – we’ve been saving up, and Dad’s going to help. Daniel’s so busy with the car repair business.’

‘I hear he’s going part-time at the shop in London now?’

‘Yes. He’s hoping to give it up altogether eventually. He’s got dreams of having his own workshop one day, and employing an apprentice.’ She gives another little laugh. ‘Good to have dreams, I suppose.’

‘I hope they come true. For both of you,’ Laura says, squeezing Nicky’s hand. ‘It’s good to see you looking so happy.’

‘And you,’ Nicky says. ‘I’m so glad it’s going well, Laura. Julian’s a good man.’

‘Yes.’ Laura’s cheeks go pink and she’s smiling to herself. ‘It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas. He’s determined to make everything perfect. For Caroline – for all of us. A celebration. It’s been a good year.’

‘Yes, it has,’ Nicky agrees. ‘Who’d have thought, this time last year, that Daniel and I would be married and living in our own home with our baby by now? It’s been a really special year.’

‘For me, too,’ I meow at them, in case they’d forgotten me – and they both turn and smile.

‘He always looks as if he’s trying to tell us something,’ Laura says. ‘I wish I knew what he was thinking.’

It just doesn’t seem to occur to them, you see, Charlie? If they’d only put themselves out a bit, and learn to speak some Cat! But however much they love us, and care for us and try to understand us, as far as I know not a single human has ever done it. Never mind, you’ll just have to do what we all do – listen to their conversations in Human and let them think there’s something unusual about you because you can understand them. One day, you might even have an important job yourself, like me – saving Christmas … or something else … for your humans. If not in this life – maybe in one ofthe other eight. Who knows? That may not be a myth, after all.

2. CHARLIE THE KITTEN WHO SAVED A LIFE

CHAPTER ONE

OK, settle down, you lot. My friend Oliver here says you’re all desperate to hear my story, so please come out from behind the dustbins for a minute and stop fighting over that dead sparrow. Now, before we start, I know that some of you still think of me as a silly little tabby kitten who barely knows his tail from his whiskers, but I’ve had to grow up a lot during this summer, and you’ll understand why when you hear my story. Oliver, could you let my sisters sit next to you in case they get frightened? That’s right, Nancy. Yes, snuggle up to Oliver, Tabitha. I do feel a bit protective of you both, you see, even though we spend our lives living with separate human families. And if there are anyreally little kittens listening, or any scaredy-cats– sorry, I mean any cats of a nervous disposition – you may need to cover your ears with your paws at certain parts. No, Tabitha, I didn’t meanyet. I haven’t even started. I’ll tell you when we get to a scary part.

Where should I begin? Well, I suppose I should start with the day I found out about the holiday. Of course, back then, before it all happened, I had no idea what a holiday was. The first I heard about it was when my human, Julian, came home from work one evening and announced:

‘Right. I’ve booked a holiday.’

His female, Laura, just looked up at him, her eyes all cloudy with tiredness. I felt sorry for her, because I knew she hadn’t been getting much sleep. None of us had.

‘Oh, Julian,’ she said, sighing. ‘It’s a nice idea, but how on earth can we go on holiday at the moment? With all the bits and pieces we’d need to take for the baby?’

Right on cue, the baby, Jessica, who was upstairs in her little white basket, supposedly asleep, began to mew at the top of her voice. You know the sweet, soft little squeaky noises we make when we’re new-born kittens? Well, trust me, this was nothing like it. Human kittens, as I’d now learned only too well, make the most terrible din you can imagine. They howl. Their little faces go red, their mouths open so wide they seem to fill their whole face, and they scream. It happens when they want milk, but it also seems to happen for no apparent reason, any time, day or night. No wonder poor Laura looked exhausted.

‘I’ll go,’ Julian said, throwing his jacket on a chair and heading up the stairs. I trotted up after him. He hadn’t said hello to me yet. I meowed at him a bit and jumped round his feet while he lifted Jessica out of her basket, but he just said, ‘Mind out of the way, Charlie. I don’t want to drop the baby.’

The baby, the baby. It was all I heard about, these days! I mean, she was cute, I supposed, when she wasn’t yelling, but what about me? I wasn’t getting my share of cuddles anymore, and there had even been times when they’d forgotten all about my dinner. I’d had to walk round and round my empty dish so many times, calling for attention, I ended up getting dizzy.

Still ignoring me, Julian carried the baby out of the little pink room where she slept and past the door of Caroline’s bedroom. Caroline, our big human kitten, had had what her father called agrowth spurt recently. If she’d been a cat, I’d have said she was more or less fully grown, but humans seem to stay kittens for much longer than we do. She spent a lot of time in her bedroom, especially since the baby had arrived. I sneaked in there with her as often as I could. She was the only one who still seemed to have time to cuddle me.

‘Hello, Caroline!’ Julian called out, pausing outside her door and tapping on it gently. ‘Come downstairs, I’ve got something exciting to tell you.’

I waited for her outside her door, and after a bit she came out and trudged down the stairs alongside me.

‘What is it?’ she asked. She didn’t look like someone who was about to be told something exciting. In fact Julian was the only one looking remotely excited. As usual, nobody was tellingme what was going on so I just had to listen carefully to their Human chat and try to pick up some clues.

‘I’ve booked us a holiday,’ Julian said again. He smiled, obviously pleased with himself. He’d been standing jiggling the squawking baby in his arms, and now he placed her on Laura’s lap so that she could feed her.

‘Oh, cool!’ Caroline said, brightening up. ‘Where are we going? Is it Florida? One of the girls at school went there last year.’

‘Florida?’ Julian echoed, staring at her. ‘No, of course not. We can’t go somewhere like that with a three-month-old baby.’

‘Oh.’ Caroline’s mouth turned down again. ‘Typical. Everything’s abouther now.’

‘Caroline!’ Julian said, giving her a warning look. ‘That’s not true, at all—’

‘So, where are we going?’ she interrupted.

‘Mudditon-on-Sea.’

There was silence. Even baby Jessica was quiet now she was being fed. Caroline just stared back at her father, while Laura shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

‘But it’ll be lovely!’ Julian said, looking from one of them to the other. ‘I’ve booked us a beautiful holiday cottage for the whole of August.’

‘The whole of August?’ Caroline gasped.

‘Yes! Look,’ he said, turning to Laura, ‘I know how hard it’s been for you. The pregnancy wasn’t easy, the Caesarean left you exhausted, and the baby’s been hard work—’

‘How can you possibly take a whole month off?’ Laura said.

‘Oh.’ Julian sat down next to her, his smile fading. ‘Well, I’m not, exactly. I’ll just spend the first week with you all, then of course I’ll have to come back.’

‘And go back to work.’

‘Yes, but I’ll come down for weekends. You can enjoy the sea air, darling, and get lots of rest.’

‘Rest? In a self-catering cottage?’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll still have to do everything, Julian, the baby won’t stop being demanding just because we’re at the seaside, and you won’t even be there to help.’

‘AndI’m not coming!’ Caroline said, her face all red and cross. ‘I don’t want to spend the whole school holiday at boring Mudditon-on-Sea. My friends are all planning stuff. Going into town on the bus and going to the cinema and things, and I’ll be the only one not around!’

With which she stomped back upstairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Julian got to his feet, looking upset.

‘Leave her,’ Laura said. ‘She’ll come round.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, spreading his paws out helplessly. ‘I’ve got it all wrong, haven’t I? I’d better cancel it.’

‘No, don’t.’ She looked up at him now, smiling. ‘Sorry I wasn’t more excited, love. I’m just so tired, I can’t think straight.’

‘I thought it’d be a nice surprise. We all need a break. Things have been so tense recently. I’m worried about Caroline, she’s looking pale and sad all the time, and she keeps shutting herself away upstairs. I thought the sea air would do everyone some good.’

‘I know. Itis a nice idea. I’m sure we’ll have fun.’

Her smile looked a bit strange, like she didn’t really mean it. Julian went upstairs again to get changed, and I jumped up on the sofa next to her. She looked at me over the top of the baby’s head.

‘Notreally my idea of fun, Charlie,’ she whispered. ‘On my own with a crying baby and a sulky girl who doesn’t want to come. But what can I do? I don’t want to hurt his feelings.’

I meowed back at her and she took one hand away from the baby to pat me gently on the head. But like all humans, she didn’t understand Cat, so she didn’t know I was trying to say something very important to her:‘What about me? Who’s going to look after me while you’re away? Doesn’t anyone think about me anymore?’

The next day, when Julian had gone to work and Caroline was at school, Laura’s friend Nicky came round with her baby, Benjamin. Benjamin was a lot bigger than our Jessica, and was now managing to stand on his back paws and do a funny sort of walk for a few steps before he fell over. It beats me why humans bother with all that effort of walking on two paws. What’s the point? I’ve tried it, several times, but it just doesn’t work. It seems like the most unnatural thing in the world.

I liked Nicky. She always made a fuss of me, playing with me and scratching me on the head and under the chin just the way I like, making me purr with pleasure.

‘So, is Caroline excited about it?’ Nicky asked when Laura had finished telling her about the holiday.

‘No. She’s not happy at all.’ Laura sighed, shaking her head. ‘She told Julian she doesn’t want to come and she’s hardly spoken a word to either of us since. She’s gone off to school in a huff this morning.’

‘Well, I suppose a whole monthis a long time. She’ll probably miss her friends. She’s getting to an age where her friends are just as important to her as her family.’

‘I know. And of course, she’s already cross enough about September when she’s going to a different school from her friends in the village. I really hope we’re doing the right thing, Nicky, sending her to the private school. It’s been so nice seeing how she’s made friends now, after all that time off being so lonely while she was ill.’

That was before I came to live with them, but I knew all about it from Oliver, because he used to visit the family before I was born. Caroline had been very poorly, and apparently Laura had been her nurse until Julian decided he wanted her as his female.

‘She’ll come round. She’ll make new friends easily enough once she starts at St Margaret’s,’ Nicky said, and Laura sighed again.

‘I do hope so. We’re quite worried about her, to be honest. She seems so tired and listless all the time these days. Almost everything I say, she snaps my head off. I asked her to tidy her room a few days ago and she said“You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my mother.”’

‘Oh dear. That must have been hurtful.’

‘Well, I guess she must still think about her mum. It’s only natural, even though Caroline was quite little when she died. I’ve never tried to take her place.’

‘I know. And she does love you really, Laura. Perhaps she’s just feeling tired. It’s the end of term – all the kids are probably ready for a break.’

‘Yes, that’s true. Anyway she’s got her check-up at the hospital next week. We’re going to ask her consultant to run some tests.’

‘Really? You’re that worried?’ Nicky took hold of Laura’s paw. ‘You don’t think the leukaemia has come back?’

‘That’s what we’re frightened of, obviously,’ Laura said quietly. ‘It’s hard not to fear the worst. She’s only been in remission for a year.’

Nicky put her arm round Laura. I could tell I wasn’t going to get stroked anymore so I jumped down and ran off to play outside. As you know, my house is the one they call The Big House, so I have a lot of lovely grounds within my territory, a lot of borders to patrol to make sure none of you lot sneak in without my permission. It’s quite a responsibility. It was a lovely warm day, with all sorts of wonderful scents in the air, and dopy insects and birds out of their trees and bushes, so I was having fun jumping around, chasing my shadow in the sunshine, and I must have been gone longer than I thought.

When I finally returned, they were all home. And to my disgust, nobody took the slightest notice of me again, because there was another argument going on.

‘I can’tbelieve you’re going to do that!’ Caroline was saying crossly to her father. ‘Howcould you? He’ll hate it!’

‘No he won’t,’ Julian said. ‘It’ll be like a holiday for him.’

Oh, more talk about holidays. I didn’t want to hear it. I just wanted my dinner. I meowed loudly at them all, walking around them and flicking my tail.

Laura looked down at me, frowning.

‘Perhaps I could ask Nicky if she and Dan could look after him,’ she said. ‘Although itis a whole month. It’s a bit much.’

I stopped meowing abruptly. Were they talking aboutme?

‘No. I’ve said, he can go to the cattery,’ Julian said. ‘He’ll be fine.’

The cattery? I felt my fur begin to stand on end. Oliver had told me about that place. I’ll never forget the story, it’s haunted me ever since. You really want to hear it, Nancy? Well, it was apparently our father – Oliver’s friend Tabby – who was sent to the cattery once, when his humans went away. He said it was the worst experience of his nine lives. He was kept in a cage, day and night, with just a bed and a litter tray. And although there were lots of other cats there, he couldn’t see them, he just smelt their fear and heard them crying. He wasn’t allowed out to hunt, and although he was fed regularly he felt too stressed to eat much. Apparently the humans wholooked after him there were friendly, and gave him plenty of strokes and cuddles, but he didn’t know whether to trust them or not, and had no idea whether he was ever going home again. He had nothing in the cage that smelt of home or his humans, and by the time they finally came back to collect him he was so upset he wouldn’t have anything to do with them for days – he went off on his own and they thought he’d run away. Of course, eventually he gave in because he was so hungry, but Oliver said it took him a long time to get over it.

Yes, it’s a horrible story, isn’t it? So, as you can imagine, when I heard the cattery being mentioned, I let out a long, mournful cry of distress. Caroline dived on me and picked me up, holding me tight. Her eyes looked all wet.

‘That’s justgreat,’ she said, although I didn’t think it was, at all. ‘Not only are you taking me away from all my friends for awhole month, just before I have to say goodbye to them forever to go to that stupid new school– but now you’re even taking my cat away from me! It’s so unfair!’

I agreed. It was. I didn’t want to go to the cattery. I wondered if I should run away before they took me there. Caroline started to cry, and I joined in.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ said Julian. ‘What do you want me to do? We can’t take him with us.’

‘Can’t we?’ Laura said quietly. She put a paw on Julian’s arm. ‘It might be a better option.’

‘How?’ he demanded. ‘You can’t just take a cat to a strange place. He’ll run off and get lost. Is that what you want?’ he asked, turning to Caroline.

‘No!’ she said. ‘I don’t wantany of it! I don’t want to come! I’ll stay at home with Charlie.’

‘Julian, I’m sure we could manage it,’ Laura said. ‘He’s been neutered, so he’s not so likely to stray.’

‘But we’d still have to keep all the doors and windows shut the whole time – and in summer too! It’s just not realistic. He’ll get out and get lost.’

‘We’ll have to make sure he doesn’t.’

Laura and Julian were looking at each other. I could tell they were more worried about Caroline being upset than about me suffering the stress of the cattery, but just thinking about being shut in one of those cages, I let out another loud yowl of distress and finally Julian gave a little laugh– the type that sounded like he wasn’t really amused – and said:

‘All right, all right. I give in. We’ll take him with us.’ He turned to Caroline again. ‘But you’ll have to play your part in keeping him safe.’

‘I will,’ she said. She nuzzled my head with her cheek and I purred happily. Thank goodness. No cage. ‘I will, because Charlie’s the only one around here who cares about me.’

With which she carried me upstairs to her room and we lay on her bed together.

So it seemed like I was going on holiday, whatever that meant. I’d have preferred to stay here and play with my friend Oliver. But I never get a say in anything!

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER TWO

I had mixed feelings about baby Jessica. When they first brought her into the house, everyone, even Caroline, was ridiculously excited about her, but I didn’t seem to be allowed anywhere near her.

‘Keep Charlie away from her,’ Laura said on the very first day they brought her home. ‘You hear terrible things about cats and new babies.’

I felt quite upset by this. I mean, it was true I didn’t like her constant high-pitched mewing, but I’d never have done anything to hurt her – she was only a tiny human kitten. Sometimes she smelt nice and milky, but at other times, when Laura or Julian were doing things with her bottom that made me feel violently ill, I didn’t want to be anywhere near her. I hoped it wouldn’t be long before they trained her to use a litter tray. Because of Jessica, I started being shut in the kitchen quite often, and if I protested by meowing loudly about it, I got told off. That seemed quite unfair because nobody told the baby off for crying, and I think she was louder than me.

By the time the holiday was being discussed, I suppose I was getting used to the situation. But Caroline’s excitement about having a baby sister had completely worn off. That day after the argument about the cattery, she poured out her heart to me as we lay on her bed together.

‘I’m fed up with it, Charlie. I can’t imagine why I was looking forward to the new baby coming. Daddy’s never got time for me now. I feel like I’m just in the way.’

I knew how she felt. Only the previous day I’d been shouted at for bringing a nice fat woodpigeon in through the cat flap. I thought they’d be proud of me, as it was the biggest one I’d ever caught, but oh no, there was a lot of squawking and carrying on aboutgerms andthe baby, and Laura shooed me back outside while she got rid of my prize trophy.

‘At least they’re not saying you’re a danger to the baby and shutting you out in case you attack her,’ I pointed out to Caroline now, in Cat, but of course, she still hadn’t bothered to learn our language so she just stroked me and nuzzled the top of my head.

‘And as for thisholiday!’ she went on crossly. ‘It’s going to be awful! Thank goodness Daddy’s finally agreed to let you come with us. At least I’ll have you to keep me company. I’m going to go mad, stuck in some boring place with no friends, for awhole month.’

Listening to Caroline’s complaints, I must admit I was beginning to feel quite anxious about this holiday thing. Nobody apart from Julian seemed to think it was a good idea, and even he was getting stressed whenever it was mentioned. I wondered whether my humans were ever going to start being happy and cheerful againlike they used to be.

One day soon afterwards, I was sitting on the kitchen windowsill washing my whiskers after my dinner when I heard raised voices again in the dining room.

‘Eat your dinner, Caroline,’ Julian was saying.

‘Don’t want it.’

‘What’s wrong with it?’ Laura said. ‘You’ve always liked spaghetti bolognese.’

‘Well, I don’t now!’ Caroline sounded like she might be going to cry. ‘I keep telling you, I don’t like meat anymore. I’m not hungry.’

‘You’re hungry enough when it comes to biscuits and sweets!’ Laura retorted. ‘We’ll have to stop all those treats if you can’t eat your dinners.’

‘You’ll make yourself ill if you don’t eat properly,’ Julian told her.

‘Maybe Iam ill!’ Caroline said. ‘Maybe I’ve got the leukaemia again. Not that you’d care!’

I’d stopped washing, sitting very still while I listened to all of this. I didn’t like to think that Caroline might be ill again. I don’t think Julian or Laura liked it either, because after she’d gone off upstairs to her bedroom again, they were talking very quietly together about her hospital appointment in London the following day. Apparently Julian was taking her there instead of going to work, and he and Laura both sounded worried about it.

‘Some of the symptoms are just the same as before,’ Julian said. ‘The tiredness, pallor, loss of appetite …’

‘But she’s socross all the time, too!’ Laura said. ‘I can’t seem to get through to her anymore. I know she’s worried about starting the new school. Do you think it’s that?’

‘Surely not. She’ll soon settle there when she starts. No, I think she’s probably as frightened as we are, about the thought of being ill again. That’s why she’s being so snappy. We should try to be understanding.’

‘Well, I’m glad you’re seeing the consultant tomorrow. Let’s hope he can reassure us.’

They went off early in the morning in Julian’s car to catch the train from Great Broomford. I hung around indoors for a while, thinking Laura and Jessica might like my company. I’d found an old toy mouse of mine behind my bed, and after I’d got bored with playing with it on my own in the kitchen, I thought it might be nice to let Jessica have a turn with it. I trotted into the lounge with it in my mouth. Laura was sitting in one of the armchairs, reading the paper, so she didn’t see me come in, and Jessica was lying on a blanket on the floor, staring at the ceiling and making funny little noises as she kicked her back paws in the air. I dropped the toy mouse onto her face and waited to see if she’d realise she was supposed to play with it, but her eyes went wide with surprise and she shook her head so that it fell off onto the blanket next to her. I sat down next to her head and waited. She smelt nice and clean and I quite fancied lying down with her and seeing if she’d stroke me. But just then, Laura turned a page of her paper and glanced down at the baby.

‘Charlie!’ she said, throwing the paper down. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Looking after Jessica,’ I meowed. Wasn’t it obvious?

‘Get away from the baby’s face,’ she said. ‘And … what on earth isthat?’ She bent down and picked up my toy mouse. ‘What is this revolting dirty old thing doing in here? I don’t want it on Jessica’s blanket!’ She picked it up and sighed at me. ‘Honestly, I can’t take my eyes off her for one single minute while you’re around, can I?’

I ran off to hide behind the sofa while she fussed around with the baby, straightening out the blanket and moving it even closer to her chair, as if to protect her from me. I couldn’t see what I’d done wrong. It wasn’t as if it was areal mouse. Or perhaps that was what she’d prefer? I decided to try that next time.

From behind the sofa, I watched Laura with the newspaper for a while. I loved the rustling noise it made when she turned the pages, and one of my favourite things was to jump up on her lap, on top of the paper, so that I could tread all over it, scrunching it with my paws. She used to laugh when I did that, but these days she just sighed loudly and lifted me off her, so there wasn’t much point. But when Jessica started to cry and Laura laid the paper down on the floor to pick her up, I couldn’t resist it any longer. I dived across the room, jumped on the outspread pages and had a lovely time walking round in circles, making satisfying scrunching sounds.

‘Charlie!’ she snapped, sounding really cross this time. ‘Get off! What onearth is the matter with you these days?’

I yowled in protest as she pushed me off the paper and put it back on the arm of her chair. It looked a bit torn but I knew she got a new one every day so I couldn’t see why it was such a big deal.

‘Go and play outside,’ she told me as she sat down to feed Jessica. ‘I really can’t cope with you being difficult at the moment.’

Me, difficult? I went out, feeling hurt and unloved. If that was how she felt, I wouldn’t bother hunting for a mouse for baby Jessica after all. So there!

Julian and Caroline were home when I came back into the kitchen later. Caroline had gone into the lounge to watch the TV.

‘The consultant sent us to have blood samples taken for testing, and if the result is suspicious of the illness returning, she’ll have to have a bone marrow biopsy,’ Julian was telling Laura.

‘Oh no. Not again. Poor Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘Did he say he thinks itis the leukaemia?’

‘He wouldn’t say. He said her symptoms might just as easily be something else, but of course with her history he wants to rule it out.’ Julian sighed. ‘He did say the blood test results might not be back with the GP for a while, though.’

‘And we’re supposed to be going away tomorrow. Do you want to wait until we get the results? It wouldn’t hurt to put off going for a few days.’

I thought Laura actually sounded quite cheerful about the idea. But Julian shook his head.

‘No. The results might take longer than that, and anyway I can phone for them from Mudditon.’

‘But if shedoes need the biopsy…’

‘Laura, I’m trying to be positive here! I think we should go ahead as planned. Caroline needs this holiday as much as we do. The sea air will do her good. If she does have to have the biopsy, I’ll just have to bring her back for a few days.’

‘OK.’ Laura put her paws round Julian’s middle. ‘You’re right, we mustn’t keep thinking the worst.’

‘Hard not to, though.’ He sighed. ‘Well, hopefully the holiday will help take our minds off it.’

The next morning, everyone was up before me. Jessica had, as usual, woken me up during the night so I’d decided to go out for a moonlight stroll. You know how pleasant it is, on a summer’s evening, to scamper around outside in the dark, when most of the humans are asleep. Having such good night vision is a wonderful thing! I like trying to catch little field mice and voles unawares on nights like that. I was having such fun, I didn’t stop at the boundary of my own territory but carried on chasing one little mouse all the way down the lane into the centre of Little Broomford village. Suddenly a bigger cat loomed out of the darkness in front of me, making me skid to a stop, stifling a whimper of fright. I shouldn’t have wandered this far at night – I was probably trespassing in someone else’s territory and might have been about to get told off, or worse, attacked, for my cheek.

‘Charlie, it’s me!’ the bigger cat meowed, just as I was about to make a run for it.

‘Oh, hello, Ollie!’ I felt a bit embarrassed, then, for behaving like a scaredy-cat. But he came up to me and rubbed his face against mine.

‘It’s brave of you, isn’t it, being out in the village on your own at this time of night?’

I was still a little kitten to Oliver, you see. He’s always been protective of me.

‘It’s such a nice night for hunting,’ I explained. ‘I was chasing a mouse, and I got carried away.’

‘Well, let’s go back up the lane together. How are you – I haven’t seen you for a few days.’

‘I know. To be honest, so much has been happening at home, with my humans, I’ve been so worried … I hardly know where to start.’

‘What’s wrong? Are they in trouble?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t work it out – you know how complicated humans are. They’re all really stressed and cross with each other—’

‘Well, you’ve been saying that since the new kitten – Jessica – arrived, haven’t you?’

‘Yes, but it’s got even worse lately. It’s Caroline I’m most worried about. She seems so unhappy, a lot of the time. I know Julian and Laura are worried about her too. You don’t think she’s got that horrible illness again, do you, Ollie?’

‘I certainly hope not. It was so good to see her getting better, I’d hate to think of her being ill again. Is that what Julian and Laura think, then?’

‘They seem to, yes. Julian took her somewhere today to see aconsultant, and he looked very worried when they came back. I wish I knew what I could do to make her better.’

‘It’s really hard to know how to help humans, sometimes,’ Oliver said seriously. And he should know. As you’re all aware, he’s famous for having helped everyone in the whole village, back before I was born. ‘You need to listen carefully to their conversations and try to pick up clues.’

‘All they do is argue, these days,’ I said sadly. ‘And a lot of the rows are about the holiday.’

‘Oh yes, you told me about that. It means they’re going away somewhere, right? And have they decided yet what’s happening to you? Not the cattery, I hope?’ he added with a shudder.

‘No. They say they’re taking me with them. I’m a bit nervous about it, though, as I don’t really understand where we’re going, or why. Nobody seems to be looking forward to it. But at least I’ll be with Caroline. I’m sure she’ll look after me. I only wish I could make her happy.’

‘Try taking a nice fat mouse back for her tonight?’ Oliver suggested.

‘Laura would go mad. She keeps telling me off about things like that. She seems to think they’re dirty.’

‘Yes, it’s odd how humans aren’t always pleased with our gifts. But surely Caroline would be grateful, at least?’

‘I could try it,’ I said doubtfully. ‘But I think she might just prefer a cuddle, to be honest.’

‘That’s the best thing,’ Ollie agreed. ‘Humans always like cuddling us. They think they’re doing it for our sakes, but of course, it’s really the other way around. They’re very needy creatures, you know, Charlie. Very fragile, emotionally. It’s a good thing we cats are so well-balanced or we’d never be able to cope with them.’

I said goodbye to Ollie at the gates of my house and went wearily in to bed, our conversation still playing on my mind. After such a late night, I’d have appreciated a lie-in in the morning, but it wasn’t to be. Julian and Laura were up, dressed, and rushing around the house like cats being chased by foxes. They were folding clothes, picking up things and putting them in bags, calling to Caroline to get herself ready. I felt quite left out of it all, and was rather grumpy about having had to remind them three times about my breakfast. Then I noticed they’d left one suitcase open in their bedroom, with some nice soft clothes of Laura’s right on top. Well, it was as good a place as any to settle down for a nap and try to catch upon my sleep. I made a nice little nest for myself in a soft cardigan and pulled a dress over the top of me, and was just dozing off when Julian marched into the room again calling out to Laura:

‘Is this case finished? Can I close it up now?’, before slinging the lid of the suitcase down on top of me.

‘Help! Let me out!’ I meowed in panic – and the lid was opened again and the dress lifted off me.

‘Charlie!’ Julian said, and I wasn’t sure from his tone of voice whether he was cross or amused. ‘What on earth are you doing in there?’ He lifted me out onto the floor, just as Laura came into the room behind him. ‘Charlie was having a nap in the suitcase!’ he told her.

‘Well, I hope he hasn’t creased my new dress,’ she said.

I noticed Julian having a quick look at the dress, frowning and glancing at me before he closed the lid in a hurry and fastened up the case.

‘I’m sure it’ll be fine,’ he said. And then, to my absolute horror, he went outside to the garage and came back in with the dreaded Carrying Basket.

‘But I thought you said I wasn’t going to the cattery!’ I yelled.

They’d lied! How could they do this to me? I made a dash for the cat flap but even more horror – it was locked! There was no escape!

‘Sorry, Charlie,’ Laura said, picking me up and giving me a stroke. ‘But you’ll have to spend the journey in your basket. It’ll be fine. There you go.’

I tried to struggle, kicking my legs out so I couldn’t fit through the opening, but Laura pushed me in and clipped the metal door shut.

I cried mournfully as she carried me outside in the basket and loaded me into the car. I was put on the floor, just under where baby Jessica was sitting in her funny little seat. From the gaps in the top of my basket I could just see her back paws in their little pink socks. Caroline got into the other side of the back seat and bent down to talk to me.

‘Shush, Charlie, you’re all right, don’t cry. We’re going on a long journey so perhaps you’ll have a little sleep.’

It was only then that I realised I wasn’t going to the cattery after all but being taken on the holiday. I was so relieved, I did actually stop crying for a while – which is more than I can say for Jessica.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER THREE

I hate being in a car. I don’t suppose I’m the only one, am I? No, I didn’t think so! For one thing, I’ve already learnt that it normally means we’re going to the vet. Then there’s the horrible noise cars make and the way they seem to quiver, as they go along, like a cat about to pounce on its prey. Even though I’d stopped crying, I couldn’t help myself from letting out little whimpers of fear. Caroline kept talking to me, but eventually she was getting drowned out by the noise of Jessica’s screaming.

‘Can’t I have Charlie sitting on my lap?’ she called above the din to Laura.

‘No. He might jump off and try to sit on top of Jessica.’

‘I won’t!’ I mewed.

‘He won’t,’ Caroline said. ‘Oh, please let him. He’s frightened. I’ll hold onto him.’

‘No, it’s not safe,’ Julian said. ‘Anyway, it’s the law – cats have to be in a carrier on car journeys. And if we had to stop suddenly he could get hurt.’

‘Not fair,’ I heard Caroline mutter to herself. ‘Poor Charlie.’

So I closed my eyes, told myself sternly to stop being a scaredy-cat, and tried to settle down and catch up on the sleep I’d missed the previous night. It was getting hot in the car with the sunshine coming through the windows and I felt cramped and uncomfortable in my basket. As we all know, even in extreme circumstances, sleep has to take priority. But have you ever tried to get to sleep with a human kitten wailing its head off just above you?

‘Shush, Jessica,’ Laura kept saying, turning round in her seat and trying to reach one of the baby’s paws to stroke. ‘All right, baby, all right.’

‘What’s the matter with her?’ Caroline asked irritably.

‘She’s probably tired.’

‘So why doesn’t she just go to sleep?’

Good question.

‘I don’t know. Perhaps she’s feeling unsettled because normally she’d be having a sleep in her cot or in the pram now. Babies don’t like things being different.’

‘Pity we didn’t stay at home, then,’ Caroline whispered in my direction.

‘Why don’t you talk to her, Caroline?’ Laura suggested.

‘What about?’

‘Well, just try to calm her down. Give her hand a little stroke. Make sure she’s got her dummy and her blankie.’

‘Oh, great! Now I’m being used as achildminder! Is this how it’s going to be on this holiday? Because if it is, I’m going out every day!’

‘Caroline, don’t talk to Laura like that,’ Julian said. ‘Please just give Jessica her dummy like you’ve been asked. Then perhaps we’ll all get some peace.’

It took a while, but eventually Jessica’s wailing died away and all I could hear was the funny sucking noise she made when that dummy thing was in her mouth. I often wondered what it tasted like and why, when she spent half the day sucking away at it, it never got any smaller. I quite fancied having a go with it, but they never left it anywhere where I could get it. Still, at least it was keeping her quiet. Caroline was quiet, too, apart from a faint tinny sort of noise, which I recognised as coming from the things she puts in her ears, connected to Julian’s little screen thing he sometimes lets her play with. It often made her nod her head and tap her feet. Humans are weird, aren’t they? If they’re not putting bits and pieces in their mouths they’re putting them in their ears. I don’t know why they can’t just leave themselves alone.

I finally managed to doze off, but a little bit later I woke up with a start. The car was standing still. Were we there, at the holiday? Could I come out of the basket now? I meowed loudly, just in case they were all going to get out and forget about me.

‘It’s OK, Charlie,’ Caroline said. ‘We’re just having our picnic.’

Picnic? What on earth was a picnic? It’s amazing how many words there must be in the Human language. Almost every day I hear another new one. I definitely think they have more words than we have in Cat, hard though that is to believe, but then again, they only speak with their voices, whereas of course we use our whole bodies as well. How else are they supposed to communicate all the signals we give with our tails? Humans don’t evenhave tails! Or whiskers! And their ears don’t even twitch. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

I peered up through the top of my basket and could see Caroline in the back seat eating a sandwich. Well, it looked exactly like a sandwich but apparentlypicnic was a new name for it.

‘Can I have some?’ I meowed to her.

‘Aw, Charlie’s hungry,’ she said. ‘Can I give him some cheese? Can he come out and sit on my lapnow?’

‘All right, if you’ve finished eating,’ Julian agreed. ‘Just while we’ve stopped. He’ll have to go back when we go to use the conveniences though.’Conveniences. Yet another new word. Where were they going to use them, and what was convenient about them?‘Are all the windows closed?’ he added.

‘Yes. And there are some cat treats in the bag,’ Laura said. ‘Give him some of those, and I’ve got some milk in a container here.’

That was more like it. Caroline undid the basket and lifted me out. Jessica’s little seat was empty – she was on Laura’s lap in the front, being fed. From the window I could see lots and lots of other cars, all lined up in rows, like they were having a meeting. I crunched up all my cat treats and lapped the milk out of the dish Laura had poured it into. I was feeling better now and ready for a run around. Also …

‘I need a wee!’ I meowed to Caroline.

‘I’ve just thought,’ she told Laura, as if she’d understood me. ‘He’s going to need a wee now he’s had that milk.’

‘Damn, I didn’t think of that,’ Julian said.

‘I did,’ Laura said calmly. ‘I’ve got a portable litter tray. It’s in the boot.’

So despite my complaints I was first put back into the basket‘for safety’ while Julian opened the car door and went round to the boot – which some of you probably know, isn’t a boot at all but part of the car. (When they have so many words to choose from, why do they use the name of a shoe to describe the back of a car?) And then, when he came back and the door was closed again, I was taken backout of the basket and pushed inside thisthing they’d put on the back seat next to Caroline. I can only describe it as a cardboard box, with some of my toilet litter scattered inside, as if that was going to help! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Were they joking? Did they seriously imagine any self-respecting cat was going to usethat– in the car, with all of them watching? I’d rather die! And … well, by the time we finally arrived at the holiday, with my bladder bursting, the baby yelling again, Caroline moaning about being bored and Julian snapping at her, you know what? I was thinking of giving up one of my nine lives voluntarily, if only I could be back at home in Little Broomford, playing in the grounds with Oliver or lying in my nice comfy bed!

‘It’s all right, Charlie,’ Caroline was soothing me as she carried me, in my basket, into the strange place they were calling the Holiday Cottage. ‘I’ll let you out in a minute.’

While of course it was true I didn’t like being in the basket, I was more concerned now about relieving myself before I burst, so I was grateful to see Laura was following her, carrying, among other things, my proper litter tray from home, the one I remembered using when I was very little, and then again after I came home from having thatoperation at the vet’s. No grown-up cat likes using a litter tray if they have the option of a proper toilet in a flowerbed outside, of course, but the circumstances were now urgent. As soon as they’d shut the door and let me out of the basket, I zoomed across the room into my tray. And only then did I feel comfortable enough to take in my surroundings. Caroline had already gone off to explore the cottage, so I bounded after her so we could look around together. It didn’t take long.

‘It’stiny,’ Caroline complained as we went back downstairs.

Julian laughed.‘You only think that because you’ve always lived in a big house. This is quite a decent size by normal standards.’

‘There are only two bedrooms!’

‘How many do you think we need?’ Laura said. ‘Daddy’s right – we’re very spoilt, at home. Your dad has worked hard all his life to afford the lovely home we have. But this cottage is so pretty, don’t you think? It’s obviously very old, but it’s nice and cosy. And just look at the view from this window!’ She put her paws around Julian. ‘Well done, darling. It’s a lovely choice.’

Caroline went to join them looking out of the window, and gasped,‘Oh! The sea is rightthere! It almost looks like we could jump into it from here!’

I leapt up onto the windowsill to see what was so exciting– and nearly fell off again with fright. Have any of you ever seen the sea? No? Well, I don’t know how to begin to describe it to you. Try to picture that huge pond we’ve got in the grounds of the Big House. You know, Oliver, where you once told me that according to Cat legend, an ancient Siamese called Old Chalky fell in one day while being chased by a fox, and lost his ninth life. Now, imagine that pond being the size of the whole of Little Broomford. And not only that, it moves! It goes backwards and forwards, up and down, looking like it’s going to come and get you. Needless to say, my first instinct was to run, but I fought the urge, because only a scaredy-cat leaves his human family to face danger on their own. So despite the trembling of my heart, I faced up to that horrible, threatening, moving thing beyond the window, arching my back and growling at it as fiercely as I could. Not that it took any notice – it just kept on coming.

Caroline and Laura were both laughing. How could they find this so amusing?

‘Charlie, you funny little cat, it’s the sea!’ Caroline said, picking me up and, to my horror, holding me right against the window. ‘It won’t hurt you!’

‘He’s never seen it before, and cats don’t like water,’ Laura said. ‘Put him down, he’s struggling.’

I was. I couldn’t understand why none of them seemed bothered about the fact that there was only this thin bit of glass between us and disaster.

‘This is another reason why we must make sure he doesn’t get out of the cottage,’ Julian warned.

‘Oh, don’t worry!’ I meowed as I ran off to find out where my bed had been put. ‘I’m not getting any closer to thatsea thing than I can help, thank you very much!’

Thankfully, the kitchen, where they’d put my bed, felt nice and safe. Its window, as I discovered when I plucked up the courage to jump up and investigate, looked out over the garden instead of the sea. The garden looked very small. I could see a wall going all the way round it, not a particularly high wall, so there was definitely a danger that we could be prone to illegal visits from strange cats who didn’t realise this was now my territory. I puzzled for a while over how I was supposed to defend the garden if I wasn’t going to be allowed outside. I doubted whether growling from the windowsill was going to have any more effect on a feline interloper than it did on the sea. This was a worry, but I’d have to face it when it happened. Meanwhile I was pleased to see my dinner had been dished up and was waiting for me in my bowl, and after eating this and having a good wash, I felt a bit more settled. I joined the family back in the living room, averting my eyes from the big window. The sea still hadn’t come through into the room, so perhaps it had given up. I jumped up on Caroline’s lap and she stroked me nicely while she watched TV, and needless to say I eventually dozed off.

When I woke up, I was lying in one of the armchairs– Caroline must have put me there when she got up – and nobody was around.

‘Hello?’ I meowed as I stood up and stretched myself. ‘Where are you all?’

No response. I wandered out of the lounge and upstairs, but both bedrooms were empty too. There was a funny kind of cot that looked more like a cage next to the bed in the bigger bedroom, but Jessica wasn’t in it. Nobody was in the little bathroom either and I finally realised they’d all actuallygone out and left me! I meowed with indignation. I mean to say, I’m obviously used to being on my own at home, quite often all day. But to be left in this strange place, with a huge sea probably on the point of breaking through the windows, and marauding local cats plotting to surround the property – this was a different matter! I trotted around the cottage for a while, crying to myself in frustration, not daring to look outside, and then, suddenly, to my relief, I heard the front door opening and the sounds of my family returning. I was even pleased to hear baby Jessica’s shrieking as they pushed her pram into the porch. At least it meant I wasn’talone in this place anymore.

‘Make sure the front door is closed behind us before you open the inside one!’ Julian was saying.

‘There’s not enough room for us all in this silly little porch,’ Caroline retorted. ‘Can’t you leave the pram outside?’

‘No, we can’t,’ Laura said. ‘I don’t want it getting wet if it rains, or damp from the sea spray overnight.’

‘No, of course not,’ Caroline muttered, her tone of voice a bit odd. ‘Can’t have Jessica getting damp.’

‘I told you this was a bad idea,’ Julian said crossly. I walked up to the glass door that separated the porch from the lounge and stared at them through the glass. They were all trying to cram into that tiny space, elbowing each other and almost falling on top of Jessica’s pram. What on earthwere they playing at? ‘I told you we should have shut Charlie in the kitchen. That’s what we’ll have to do in future, so we can open the doors without having to worry about him getting out. This is ridiculous.’

‘I don’t think hewants to get out, Daddy. Look, he’s just sitting there watching us,’ Caroline said, squashing herself against the other side of the glass door as Julian struggled to close the outside one.

‘We don’t want to take that chance, do we?’ Laura pointed out.

‘But it was really hot in the kitchen! Poor Charlie will beboiled in there, without any windows open!’

Boiled? I didn’t like the sound of that! Just another worry to add to the list, although personally, I couldn’t think of anything nicer than being really hot.

Finally, the outside door was closed and Caroline opened the glass one, almost falling in on top of me.

‘Well, we’re certainly not doingthat again,’ Laura said as she wheeled the little pram inside, and even Caroline didn’t argue this time.

‘We went for a walk along the seafront, Charlie!’ she said, throwing herself down on the floor next to me. ‘There’s a really nice beach. We’re going down there tomorrow. Daddy said it was too late today – for some reason,’ she added quietly, pushing her eyebrows up to the top of her head.

‘You know why, Caroline,’ Julian said sharply. ‘We need to settle Jessica down for the night. It’ll probably take a while, being in the travel cot and in a strange place.’

‘Yes, so everyone else has to suffer,’ she muttered.

‘Caroline,’ Laura said in a warning voice. ‘Don’t start. It’s been a long day, we’re all tired, and—’

‘No we’re not!I’m not! It’s not even late! I’d have liked to have a walk on the beach, and a paddle in the sea, but no, we have to come back because ofJessica. Jessica needs her sleep, Jessica needs her nappy changed, Jessica needs everyone running around after her like she’s the one in charge of this family!’

‘That’s enough,’ Julian said. But he said it in a quiet, sad voice instead of a cross one, and when I looked up at Caroline I saw a little drip of a tear running down her cheek. I rubbed my head against her legs and she curled around me where she sat on the floor, hiding her face against my fur.

‘I still love you,’ I purred at her.

I’d have liked to ask her a few questions, like: What is a beach? What is a paddle? How can you walk on the seafront, if the sea is moving water? And: How did you stop the sea from getting at you? Wasn’t it dangerous? But even if I could have got her to understand me, now didn’t seem like a good time to try.

Laura carried Jessica upstairs and shut the door of their bedroom, and Julian went into the kitchen to make coffee. Then he turned the TV back on and sat in silence with Caroline, watching pictures of water on it. The water looked very deep and dark, almost worse than the sea outside our window. And then, suddenly, lots of little fish swam into the picture. That was a lot more interesting. I jumped off Caroline’s lap and strolled a little closer to the TV. I knew the fish were just pictures – not that I could see the point of it, the whole TV thing is too weird to take on board, if you ask me. But still, they were a definite attraction. I jumped onto the shelf where the TV sat, and put a paw out to the screen, patting a nice bright orange fish that looked like it ought to be tasty. Of course, it just felt hard and cold. But I liked watching the fish anyway, so I stayed on the shelf, aiming my paw out every now and then, to pretend to myself that I was trying to catch them.

Caroline was laughing at me. At least she’d cheered up a bit. Even Julian chuckled as he said, ‘Charlie, they’re not real! You silly little cat.’

‘I know! I’m just playing!’ I retorted, somewhat offended. I had a swipe at another, bigger one.

‘That’s a catfish!’ Caroline said, laughing again.

It didn’t look anything like a cat to me. Ridiculous name for a fish. But it was nice to hear her laugh, so I had another swipe – unfortunately, just as Laura came back into the lounge.

‘Charlie, get down from there!’ she said. ‘Julian, don’t let him do that. He’ll scratch the TV. It’s not ours, you know.’

I jumped down, chastised again, and slunk under Caroline’s legs, but not before I’d caught sight of her face. She wasn’t laughing anymore; she was scowling. And even Julian’s mouth was turned down at the corners. I wondered if this was how a holiday was supposed to be – everyone snapping at each other and being moody. If so, I was tempted to agree with Caroline that it wasn’t going to be much fun, and perhaps we should have stayed at home.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER FOUR

When I woke up the next morning, it took me a while to remember where I was. The sun was shining brightly through the little kitchen window and it was hot in there already. I could hear footsteps upstairs– the floor creaked when anyone walked on it – and Jessica was complaining as usual. I wondered what her problem was. She had an easy life, if you asked me. If she’d been a cat kitten, she’d have been weaned, toilet trained and be learning to hunt by now, but it seems human kittens need babying forever. I got up and had a good stretch. I was hungry, and as nobody had come downstairs yet I had to yowl at the top of my voice to get their attention. Caroline came bounding down from her bedroom, still in her pyjamas.

‘Charlie needs feeding, Dad! Shall I give him his breakfast?’

‘Yes please, Caroline,’ Julian called back. ‘We’ll be down in a minute.’

‘We’re going to the beach today, Charlie,’ she told me as she dished up my food. She gave my head a little stroke as she put down my bowl. ‘Daddy and Laura have promised. I hope you’ll be all right here on your own.’

I couldn’t stop eating to reply to her, and in any case what was I supposed to say? Now I was getting used to the cottage, I wouldn’t have minded being left alone so much if I’d had the run of the place. I’d be out in that garden for a start, sniffing out all the best places in the flowerbeds for my toilet, investigating any smells of mice, voles, rabbits and – always to be avoided of course – foxes. Chasing birds, climbing trees, playing in the bushes, to say nothing of facing any possible opposition from local cats, while I was establishing my position as territory holder. But no, I wasapparently going to be a prisoner in this kitchen all day with just a litter tray for company. The only good thing about it was the fact that I couldn’t see the monstrous sea from in here. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we’d all survived the night without it getting into the cottage but from what I’d seen yesterday, it was unlikely to give up trying.

‘I’m sorry we can’t take you with us, Charlie,’ Caroline was saying as she poured herself a glass of milk. ‘But I don’t think you’d like it anyway. And I don’t suppose we’ll be staying long, because of Jessicaobviously.’

In that case I was grateful to Jessica for once. I couldn’t think what I was going to do all day, apart from sleeping, which I supposed wasn’t such a bad idea.

Everyone was soon downstairs having their breakfasts, so after I’d finished eating and washing, I shot upstairs quickly. I had this idea that if I hid under one of the beds, they might not find me when it was time to leave, and wouldn’t be able to shut me in the kitchen. The big bedroom was nice and sunny so I trotted in there. There was a lovely clean-sheet smell coming from Jessica’s strange new cot. I walked round it, sniffing appreciatively, then jumped up on the big bed next to it and looked down insideS. There was a nice fluffy white blanket in there, and a pink toy rabbit with silky ears. It all looked very cosy and tempting. It couldn’t hurt for me to have a little lie down in there, could it, while the baby wasn’t using it? I jumped down into it from the bed. The sheet was soft, and still warm from Jessica. I purred happily to myself as I started turning round and round to make a nice little nest for myself out of the blanket, finally snuggling down with my nose tucked up under my tail. With a bit of luck, they wouldn’t think to look for me in here and I could spend the day in comfort while they were out. I closed my eyes, still purring, and started to drift off into a dream …

‘CHARLIE!’

The shriek was so loud and high-pitched, I nearly jumped out of my fur. Laura was standing next to the cot, staring down at me, a look of horror on her face.

‘What’s the matter? Where is he?’ I heard Julian shouting as he came up the stairs.

‘In the baby’scot, for God’s sake! Look at him!’ She sounded close to tears. ‘You bad boy!’ she snapped at me. ‘Get out!’

‘Sorry,’ I meowed, getting up and stretching.

‘I said get out!’ she said again, reaching down and picking me up quite roughly. ‘Take him downstairs and shut him in the kitchen,’ she said to Julian, handing me over as if I was something disgusting she couldn’t bear the sight of. ‘I can’t have this, Julian – I’m going to have to strip the cot now and wash everything.’

‘Really?’ he said. ‘But surely—’

‘He was curled up on her sheet! In her blanket! With his head on her rabbit! There’ll be cat’s hairs and … and germs, and goodness knows what … on it all.’

‘He’s quite clean, Laura,’ Julian said gently. He gave me a little stroke as he said it, and I responded with a grateful meow. Of course I was clean! I’d only just washed myself that morning, hadn’t I! ‘It used to beyou tellingme cats were clean animals, remember? When I wouldn’t let Oliver get anywhere near Caroline, while she was ill?’

‘That was different,’ she said, although she didn’t explain why. She started taking the sheet and blanket out of the cot, inspecting them as if I might have put muddy paw prints on them.

‘Just give them a shake outside,’ Julian said. ‘It’ll only be a few hairs, if anything. He’s only been up here a few minutes.’

‘They’re going in the wash,’ she retorted, walking ahead of him out of the room. ‘And in future, keep this bedroom door shut, please.’

My world was shrinking. Pretty soon the only place I was going to be allowed to go was my own bed. I could see it coming!

The time passed slowly after they went out. For a while I sat by the washing machine, watching Jessica’s sheet, fluffy blanket and pink toy rabbit going round and round, but that quickly got boring. I jumped up onto the windowsill and looked out at the garden. It was frustrating not to be able to tell the birds to clear off. I growled at them from behind the window but I could tell they were laughing at me because I couldn’t get out. There was the usual chattering mob of starlings, a pair of nice ripe blackbirds and a fluttering of finches, but every now and then the whole congregation was scattered by a huge ugly intruder who flew in abruptly, landed amongst them and strutted through thecrowd as if he owned the place.Seagulls. I’d seen them before, of course, flying high in the sky over Little Broomford, wheeling and diving and calling out rudely to each other. Older cats had told me these seagulls were usually making their way to the coast, or sometimes coming inland for a while to take shelter from a storm. But none seemed to live permanently around our parts so I’d never before seen them at such close quarters and, to be honest, the first time one landed in the cottage garden I was glad therewas a window between us. I’d had no idea they were so big. His feet were huge, and his beak looked like it could swallow a little cat with one bite. I watched him waddle into the crowd of smaller birds, dispersing them just with a glare from his beady eyes, and found myself backing away slightly on my windowsill even though I knew I was safe.

‘Don’t be such a scaredy-cat, Charlie,’ I told myself sternly. ‘It’s just a bird! Since when have you been frightened of anything with feathers? You’ve eaten bigger things than him for breakfast!’

That wasn’t strictly true. He would’ve been big enough for breakfast, lunch and dinner for several cats. But I couldn’t imagine trying to catch him anyway. His walk was even more ungainly than a stupid fat pigeon’s, but when he took off in flight it was with such a sudden ferocious flapping of his huge wings that all the other birds went rushing for cover, and he was instantly airborne, swooping aloft in the currents, calling back mockingly at those who were still on the ground. I’ve sometimes chased ducks as they take off from beside that big pond in my grounds. They’re always good for a laugh. When they take off after swimming on the water, they skim the surface quite gracefully, but on land it’s completely different. They have to take such a long, waddling run to get up into the air, it feels like I could bring one down with just a swipe of my paw. But this seagull wasn’t likethat. There was something arrogant about him that made me quiver from head to tail. I didn’t like him. But however much I shouted at him from the window, I had a feeling he’d be back.

I was glad to hear the family coming home at long last. Caroline came straight into the kitchen to see me.

‘Have you been lonely, Charlie boy?’ she crooned, squatting down to hug me.

‘Yes!’ I purred into her ear. ‘And there was this big seagull in the garden—’

‘We had to give up on our picnic and bring it home,’ she said, ignoring me. ‘The seagulls were dive-bombing us on the beach, trying to steal our sandwiches! Laura was going frantic about Jessica getting her fingers bitten.’

I sat up, instantly alert. So I was right! Seagulls were bullies, aggressive yobs, just as I’d suspected. Trying to steal sandwiches from humans, indeed! Who did they think they were? Next time I saw one in the garden I’d … I’d … well, I’d growl and hiss at him from the window, that was for sure.

‘I won’t be taking her on that beach again, I can tell you that,’ Laura was saying as she came into the kitchen with Jessica in her arms. ‘The poor little mite was terrified.’

‘You were,’ Caroline said, half under her breath. ‘Jessica didn’t even notice.’

‘Caroline, put the kettle on, would you, please? And go and brush the sand off your shorts before you sit down in the lounge. I hope you left your shoes in the porch?’

‘Yes.’ Caroline went to the tap to fill the kettle. ‘Just a few stupid seagulls,’ she muttered to me. ‘You’d have seen them off, Charlie, wouldn’t you?’

I was flattered by her confidence in me. But I wasn’t so sure she was right.

A little later I was sunning myself on my windowsill, where Caroline had kindly put a cushion for me to sit, when there was a knock on the front door.

‘Who on earth can that be?’ Laura said. And then, as Julian opened the door, ‘Careful, darling, close the porch door first. Charlie hasn’t been shut in the kitchen.’

‘OK.’ I heard Julian respond. And then, ‘Oh, hello Mrs Grimshaw.’

‘Hello, love,’ came a stranger’s voice. ‘And call me Annie, please. Everyone does.’

I jumped down from my perch and padded into the lounge to investigate.

‘So this is your kitty cat you were telling me about,’ the woman said as soon as she saw me. ‘Hello, little puss. Nice puss!’

I swished my tail at her. For one thing I really object to being calledPuss. I’m sure you all agree, it’s so patronising. If someone wants to say hello to you, why don’t they find out your name first? Also, I didn’t know yet whether she was friend or foe. She was short and plump, with a red face and a very loud voice that made her sound like she was shouting.

‘Charlie. His name’s Charlie,’ Caroline said, and I blinked my thanks at her.

‘Charlie. Right.’ The woman nodded. ‘Nice markings in his coat, hasn’t he?’

‘That’s because I’m a tabby, you silly female,’ I meowed. Didn’t she know anything?

‘He’s a tabby,’ Caroline said. ‘His father was a tabby, his mother was grey, so some of the kittens were like him and the others were—’

‘I see,’ the woman said, without waiting for Caroline to finish. ‘So, how are you all settling down?’

‘Good, thank you, er, Annie,’ Julian said. ‘The cottage is lovely.’

I could see Caroline was looking as puzzled as I was about this loud voiced, red-faced person who was ignorant about cats. Julian must have noticed because he turned to her now and said,‘Annie owns this cottage, Caroline. She lives next door. I picked up the key from her yesterday when we arrived.’

‘Pleased to meet you,’ Caroline said politely.

‘Itis lovely here,’ Laura agreed. ‘Such a beautiful beach. We were surprised it wasn’t more crowded.’

Annie’s face went even redder.

‘Tell me about it!’ she boomed. ‘We’re not getting the usual number of visitors in Mudditon this year. The season looks to be a dead loss. To be fair, it’s not been too bad for me, as I get a lot of repeat bookings for the cottage, you see. But the hotels and the bed-and-breakfasts have suffered, and so have all the shops and the caf?s.’ She shook her head. ‘Everyone’s having a bad time of it.’

‘Why?’ Julian said. ‘I mean, I know it’s a quiet little place but I thought it was usually very popular in the summer.’

‘It is, usually. Busting at the seams this time of year, until all this panic about the seagulls.’

I saw Julian and Laura exchange a look.

‘We had seagulls coming after our sandwiches on the beach earlier,’ Julian said. ‘Has it been a problem here, then?’

‘I should’ve warned you,’ Annie said, shaking her head. ‘You’ll be all right if you don’t take food down there. They’ve got so cheeky, you see. Lost their fear of humans, they have. It’s because people feed them, if you want my opinion. They should just let them be – they’re wild birds, they’re supposed to find their own food, but now they’ve got a taste for ham sandwiches and ice creams.’

‘I don’t think we’d better go to the beach anymore, then, Julian,’ Laura said in a worried voice. ‘Not with Jessica being so tiny.’

‘But Annie said it’s OK if we don’t take food down there, Laura,’ Caroline said.

‘Yes. But of course, even if people are sitting outside the beach caf?, or in the pub garden, they’re getting gulls going after their lunches.’ Annie shook her head again. ‘It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the media making so much of it.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Oh, you know what they’re like. The local paper ran a front page story, towards the end of last year’s season.Tourists under siege from aggressive gulls– with pictures of people cowering on the beach while seagulls swooped all round them. Next thing you know,South West News got hold of the story. Then it got into the national papers, and that was when the bookings for this year started dropping off, you see. People were coming out of the woodwork to complain about gulls making off with their doughnuts and biting their babies.’

She stopped, glancing at Laura who was holding Jessica close to her as if she was in imminent danger of attack.‘It was all being exaggerated, out of all proportion,’ she went on more quietly. ‘You’re safe here, honestly, love. Just, well, I wouldn’t eat outside, if you’re worried, that’s all.’

Laura didn’t look particularly reassured. ‘I take it you didn’t hear about this before you decided we were coming here,’ she said to Julian in an accusing voice.

‘No, of course I didn’t. But as Annie says, it’s all been exaggerated anyway. Just a few seagulls, for goodness’ sake! What else do you expect, in a seaside town?’

‘That’s what I said,’ Caroline muttered, but everyone ignored her.

‘Well, it’s true the gulls are causing some problems, but it’s not as if Mudditon’s the only place it’s happened,’ Annie said. ‘And the council’s looking into ways of dealing with it. They’ve put up some notices telling people not to feed the gulls, but it’s not enough, in my opinion. They need to do more, or the tourism here is going to go completely down the pan.’

‘That’s a real shame,’ Julian said. ‘It’s such a nice little place.’

‘And people are going to lose their livelihoods, if it goes on.’ Annie sighed and looked around at us all. ‘Anyway, I just came to check you had everything you need.’

‘Yes, it’s very comfortable, thank you,’ Laura said a bit stiffly.

‘Well, look, please don’t let this spoil your holiday. As I said, just go inside to eat, to be on the safe side, and you’ll be fine.’

‘Thank you.’ Julian went to the door with her. ‘Poor woman’s worried about losing bookings herself, I imagine,’ he commented after she’d gone.

‘She should have told you about it when you booked the cottage!’ Laura retorted.

‘Come on, I’m sure she’s right that it’s all been exaggerated.’

‘Did itlook exaggerated when those gulls attacked us on the beach? It was just pure luck Jessica didn’t get bitten!’

‘Well, now we know, we won’t take food to the beach in future. We could go inside the beach caf? tomorrow and treat ourselves to a nice lunch there. If it stays this hot, we won’t want to stay on the beach all day anyway. We don’t want Jessica getting too much sun, do we?’

Laura nodded.‘That’s true. OK, we’ll try the caf? tomorrow. Or we could come back and eat here, I suppose. I do feel a bit sorry for Charlie being shut up in here all day without any company.’

I meowed with surprise. Somebody was actually considering my feelings! Caroline looked round at me and laughed.

‘I think Charlie agrees with that!’ she said. And then she looked at her father and added, ‘Please can I play games on your tablet, Dad, if we’re not going back to the beach?’

‘Yes, OK, for a little while,’ he said, passing her his computer thing.

‘Yes!’ she exclaimed happily, jumping up to take it from him. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about, but she seemed to get an enormous amount of pleasure from pressing that thing and watching pictures moving on it. She sat on the sofa with it and I jumped up onto her lap, purring contentedly. I hoped maybe my little family was starting to settle down now and get along better again. If only it would last!

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER FIVE

Are you all keeping up with my story so far? Good. What did you say, Smudge?When are we getting to the scary bit? Well, I’m building up the tension, aren’t I. Setting the scene. When we do get to the most exciting part, you’ll probably be the first one to turn tail and run off in fright!

In any case I was just about to skip forward slightly in the story, because for a while nothing much changed. It was nice sunny weather, and every day they all went off to the beach while I stayed on my own in the kitchen. Sometimes they came back for lunch, sometimes they apparently ate in the caf?, wherever that was. It was boring. I spent a lot of time asleep. Caroline thought it was boring too, even though she said she liked swimming in the sea. Swimming in the sea? I was quite alarmed for her, as you can probably imagine. We cats have never bothered with all thatswimming malarkey, have we– what’s the point in getting wet all over? It’s bad enough if we get caught in the rain, or if we have an unfortunate accident and fall into a pond, which of course is embarrassing as well as being frankly horrible.

The next Sunday– hard to tell what day it was, when nobody had been going to school or work, Julian packed his bag to go off back to Little Broomford. Laura looked sad when they said goodbye, and Caroline pleaded with him to take her back with him.

‘Don’t be silly,’ he said. ‘I’ll be going to work. You’ll have much more fun here, swimming every day.’

But the following day it poured with rain. There was no going to the beach, and Laura was stressed because she’d run out of clean clothes for Jessica, the washer-drier machine in the cottage wasn’t very efficient and everything had to be finished off drying inside. I didn’t mind, of course, because after all, there’s nothing nicer than winding yourself up in clean warm towels and clothes hanging onan airer, is there? I was having a lovely time of it, unfortunately pulling a few things off the airer onto the floor in the process, but when Laura found me she was livid, moaning at me about having to wash things twice, and I ended up being shut in the kitchen again.

Caroline was miserable too.

‘I wish I had a tablet or a laptop of my own,’ she complained to Laura. ‘Now Daddy’s taken his with him, I’ve got nothing whatsoever to do. If you’d even let me have aphone it would be better than nothing.’

‘You don’t need a phone, at your age,’ Laura said. ‘Why don’t you read a book?’

‘Iwas reading a book, on Daddy’s tablet. I was halfway through it and now he’s taken it away. Everyone my age has a tablet of their own.And a phone! It’s pathetic – I can’t even text my friends. I feel like a prisoner.’

But Laura was ignoring her, tutting to herself about the washing. Caroline sat down on the kitchen floor next to my bed and whispered in my ear about how fed up she was. I agreed. Holidays weren’t much fun for anybody, as far as I could see.

*

Julian phoned Laura that evening to say he’d got safely home, and then he phoned her every evening after he’d been to work. I heard Laura talking to him, complaining that the weather was awful and Caroline was bored.

‘Did you phone for Caroline’s blood test results?’ she asked the second time he called.

I gathered from her end of the conversation that he had, but that the results still weren’t through.

‘Oh dear. I expect you’re right, it’s this uncertainty about her health that’s making her so edgy,’ she said.

It was true Caroline wasn’t being very nice. Every evening she pulled a face when she saw what Laura had cooked her for dinner.

‘You never used to be so fussy!’ Laura snapped one day. ‘I give up! Nothing I cook seems to be good enough for you anymore.’

‘I’m not being fussy. I keep telling you, but you won’t listen: I just don’t want to eat meat anymore.’

‘Well, I’mnot cooking special vegetarian dinners for you, just because you’re being difficult.’

Caroline looked like she was going to cry.

‘I haven’tasked you to cook for me, have I? I’ll just eat salads.’

Laura gave her a suspicious glance.‘You’re not trying todiet, are you? Caroline, you don’t need to—’

‘No, I’m not! I just want to be listened to, and treated like aperson!’ she said, and as usual, ran off to her bedroom.

I didn’t really understand. If she wasn’t being treated like a person, what did she think – that she was being treated like a cat? It wasn’t as if she was being given my cat food, on a dish on the floor, or being shut in the kitchen every time she put a paw wrong. But I loved Caroline best in allthe world, so I always ran after her and snuggled up to her when she was upset, anyway.

As well as the phone calls from Julian, I knew Laura had been talking to Nicky. I’d heard her laughing, the way human females only seem to do when they’re talking to other females. Towards the end of that first week without Julian, I was lying on the sofa while she was having one of these conversations, and I heard her saying:

‘Oh, Nicky, that would be so nice. Yes, please come! It would make it all so much more fun. We can have nice long chats and you can tell me more about what’s going on with Daniel. You’re right, it might do him good to be left to fend for himself for a week. You will? That’s wonderful! Yes, of course Julian will bring you down. And take you back the following weekend. I’m looking forward so much to seeing you!’

Laura was in a much better mood for the rest of the day, and the following evening when Julian arrived back, he had Nicky and baby Benjamin in the car with him. It was nice to see Nicky. She made a fuss of me, and Caroline. Everyone seemed quite cheerful for a change. Laura bustled around turning the sofa in the lounge into a bed, and helping Nicky to put up another of those funny travel cots, for Benjamin.

‘You’ll have to keep an eye on Charlie,’ she warned Nicky. ‘He jumped into Jessica’s cot last week. We found him curled up in her blanket, would you believe?’

Nicky laughed.‘Ah, how cute!’

‘Cute?’ Laura repeated, looking startled. Then she sighed. ‘Well, OK, perhaps I did overreact a little.’

Yes, you did! I meowed in agreement. At least it didn’t seem like Nicky would be shutting me in the kitchen every time I glanced in Benjamin’s direction. She was more indulgent to Caroline, too, letting her play games on her phone and shrugging off Laura’s complaints about her fussy eating with the advice, ‘It’s probably just a phase. Try not to stress about it.’

But the happy atmosphere disappeared somewhat during the night-time. One mewing human kitten is bad enough in such a small house. Two is just unbearable. One was waking up the other one, and both of them were waking up everyone else, including me. I burrowed right underneath my furry blanket and put my head under my tail but it still didn’t drown out the crying. In the end, I joined in. It seemed like the only option left to me. But that just resulted in Julian coming into the kitchen in his pyjamas to tell me off.

‘It’s bad enough, without you making matters worse!’ he snapped.

I gave up and sat on the windowsill for the rest of the night, staring out at the dark little garden and wishing I could go out hunting.

After they’d all had breakfast, the bad night seemed to be forgotten. The weather had turned sunny again and Julian and Caroline went to the beach on their own, so Laura and Nicky could sit and chat. This seemed to please everyone. I sat on Nicky’s lap and purred happily while listening to their conversation.

‘Obviously I’mpleased his business has taken off so well,’ Nicky told Laura, and I quickly realised she was talking about her own male, Daniel. I knew, from hearing them talk so often before, that Daniel had given up his old job in London to start a car repair business. ‘And of course I understand that he has to work hard now that he’s his own boss. But …’

‘But it’s not the hours he’s working that you’re objecting to, is it,’ Laura said quietly.

‘No. For God’s sake, Laura, I’m not being unreasonable, am I? I mean, fair enough if he wants a quick drink sometimes after working so hard all day – I don’t blame him for that – but it doesn’t stop there. He’s in the pub most of the evening, more often than not. It makes me feel like he doesn’t evenwant to come home to me.’

‘I can imagine.’ Laura reached out and took hold of Nicky’s paw. ‘And he must hardly see Benjamin at all.’

‘Some weeks hedoesn’t see him at all. Benny’s asleep long before Dan staggers home. And of course, he’s often working weekends too. Oh, I don’t want to sound like a nagging wife. I know some couples manage without seeing much of each other because of their jobs. But one of the reasons we both changed to working in the village was so that we didn’t have to spend all those long hours commuting, and never being at home.’

‘And now you must wonder whether you’re really any better off.’ Laura sighed. ‘Well, at least you’re happy with whatyou’re doing, Nick. The childminding work fits in so well with looking after Benjamin. I’m hoping to find something similar myself, when Jessica’s a bit older.’

‘You’ll have no trouble, with your nursing qualifications. And you’re right, I know we women need to find satisfaction with our own lives instead of relying on our men to make us happy. But …’

‘You and Dan wereso happy. And it’s not as if you’ve been married long! He has to be made to see sense.’ Laura grinned suddenly and nudged Nicky. ‘If he’s not careful you’ll take off with Kevin the Creep. Then he’ll be sorry!’

‘Oh, please!’ Nicky burst out laughing. ‘Don’t remind me about Kevin!’

And both of them doubled up with laughter. Nicky was shaking so much I had to jump off her lap. I had no idea who Kevin the Creep was. Where did he creep, and why? Perhaps he had poorly legs. Or perhaps he was a snake, for all I knew. But at least he was responsible for cheering up my two human friends– for now!

Once Julian had gone off back to work again, the atmosphere in the cottage changed. Laura and Nicky were still being happy and chatty together, but Caroline’s mood was even worse.

‘Now I’m the only one with nobody to talk to,’ she complained. ‘Even Jessica has got Benjamin to keep her company! Why can’tI have a friend to stay?’

‘Oh, Caroline, be reasonable,’ Laura said. ‘There isn’t room. It’s squashed enough here, as it is.’

‘Well, after Nicky goes home, then? Please, Laura? If Grace came down we could go out together and I wouldn’t be in your way anymore.’

Laura looked shocked.‘You’re not in myway, Caroline. I’ve never said that.’

‘You don’t have to say it,’ Caroline grumbled in response. ‘It’s obvious.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Isn’t it? Nobody cares that I’m totally bored here in this crappy place.’

‘Caroline!’

‘Well, you think that too, really, don’t you? You’ve only cheered up because Nicky’s here. It’s totally unfair. I feel more lonely now than I did when I was ill!’

There was a horrible silence. Laura was blinking at Caroline, her paw over her mouth. Nicky, who had left the room while the argument was going on, came back in and put her arm round Laura as Caroline stomped off up the stairs.

‘She didn’t mean it,’ Nicky said quietly.

‘Yes Idid!’ Caroline flung back from the top of the stairs. ‘You don’t understand!’

‘We’re trying to, Caroline,’ Nicky called back. Then, to Laura, she added, ‘Why not ask Julian what he thinks of the idea?’

‘Seriously? You think I should havetwo moody girls down here while he’s at work in London?’

‘Actually I suspect Caroline’s right about one thing – she’d be a lot happier and less trouble if she had company.’

Laura sighed.‘I suppose so. Perhaps we have been unfair to her. It shook me to the core just now to hear her saying she was lonely. The poor child spent all that time in hospital, and lying at home on her own when she was ill. Have I lost my compassion, Nicky?’

‘Of course you haven’t. You’ve got used to her feeling well, now, and she’s been trying your patience lately. Plus you’ve got your hands full with Jessica.’

‘I sometimes think Caroline might be jealous of her, you know.’

‘She wouldn’t be human if she wasn’t, a little bit. Especially where Julian’s concerned.’

‘Yes. After all, it was just him and Caroline, for such a long time. And he was very overprotective about her when she was ill. Understandably.’

‘Understandable, yes, but it meant she didn’t get to see other children. And now shehas made friends, she needs to spend time with them. It’s only natural.’

‘I know. You’re right. Well, I’ll see what Julian says when we talk tonight.’

I trotted upstairs to jump on Caroline’s bed with her. I expected to find her lying flat on her tummy with her face on the pillow, as she normally did after an argument. But to my surprise her bedroom door was closed, and through the door I could hear her talking. I pushed on the door with my head but it wouldn’t open, so I sat up and scratched at it with my front paws. The talking stopped. Then she said, more quietly, ‘Wait a minute, I can hear someone outside’, and came to open the door. She looked down at me and smiled, picking me up and carrying me into the room, closing the door behind her again.

‘It’s only Charlie,’ she said, and I saw that she was talking into a phone. Laura’s phone! I meowed with surprise. ‘Ssh, Charlie, lie down quietly. It’s OK, Grace, I’ve shut the door again. They can’t hear me. So will you come? It’ll be so cool. We can go swimming and stuff, and we can sleep in my bed together, it’ll be such a laugh! I’mdying down here on my own.’

I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but Caroline was saying, ‘Right,’ and ‘Yeah, I know,’ while she listened, and then she said, ‘Yeah, Laura’s the same, she just doesn’t understand. And everything’s about Jessica all the time. It’s like I don’t matter since she arrived. OK then, ask your mum. And I’ll try to talk to my dad tonight.’

After she turned off the phone, she sat on her bed for a while, hugging her knees and humming to herself. She picked me up and rubbed her face against my fur.

‘Oh, Charlie,’ she whispered in my ear, making it twitch and tremble with her warm breath, ‘Iso hope Grace is allowed to come. We’ll have an amazing time together and all the other girls will be well jealous. Surely I deserve this, before they make me say goodbye to all my friends forever and go to that stupid private school.’

And all I could do was purr back at her in agreement. I just wanted her to be happy, you see. How was I to know it was all going to go horribly wrong? Or that I’d end up being responsible for putting everything right again?

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER SIX

As it happened, there was another development that evening, which changed everything. I was in the lounge with Laura and Nicky when Julian made his usual phone call. Within minutes of listening to him on her phone, Laura’s expression changed and she looked like she was going to burst out mewing.

‘Oh, no,’ she said, very quietly. ‘Oh dear, I was desperately hoping it wouldn’t be necessary. Yes, of course you’re worried, darling – so am I. Well, the sooner it’s done the better. It may still be a false alarm, they just have to check, if there’s any doubt, don’t they? Right, so you’ll take her back with you on Sunday?’

There was a silence as she listened to Julian’s response, and then Laura gave a huge sigh and went on: ‘She won’t want to come back again afterwards, you know. I feel awful now about getting impatient with her. What if her moods and rudenessare because she’s sick again? She told me today she feels more lonely down here than she did when she was ill. It really brought me up sharply. Yes, she was being stroppy, but even so …’ There was another pause, and then: ‘Well, she’d started demanding that we let her friend Grace come down to stay for a week – because I’ve got Nicky here, you know, so I suppose she feels left out.’

It didn’t take much guesswork to realise they were talking about Caroline and that there had been some bad news. They went on talking for a while, with Laura saying ‘Yes’ and ‘I agree’, and then finally she said: ‘OK then, I think that’s a good plan. Shall I call her down so you can talk to her now?’

Caroline came bounding down the stairs as soon as Laura yelled that her dad was on the phone. She looked excited.

‘I’m going to ask him if he can bring Grace back with him this weekend,’ she said. ‘I bet he’ll agree.’

‘Caroline, Daddy’s got something to tell you …’ Laura warned her, but the phone had already been taken out of her paw and Caroline was babbling excitedly to Julian about her idea for Grace to visit.

Laura and Nicky exchanged a look, and Nicky grasped Laura’s paw. Like me, she must have guessed what the conversation had meant.

‘What?’ Caroline suddenly demanded. ‘I’ve got to go back to the hospital? Why?’ Then she fell silent, the corners of her mouth turning down. ‘Oh,’ she said quietly. And then: ‘Yes. All right. I suppose so. OK. Bye, Dad.’

She handed the phone back to Laura, silently, scowling to herself.

‘It’s probably nothing to worry about, sweetheart,’ Laura began.

‘Not foryou, maybe,’ Caroline shot back. ‘It’s me who’s got to go and have the horrible bone marrow thing done again. Why? They said I was better now. It’s not fair!’

‘No. You’re right, it isn’t. It’s veryunfair. But we have to trust the doctors. There was apparently something slightly borderline in your blood test, which is why it’s taken longer than usual to hear back about it. They need to investigate it further. It might be nothing whatever to do with the leukaemia, but the biopsy is just to rule that out. Did Daddy tell you what he’s going to do?’

‘Yes, he’ll take me back with him on Sunday. That’s the only good thing about it. I can get away from this boring dump.’

‘You’ll have your biopsy done on Monday, and he’ll bring you back again.’ Laura paused, looking at Caroline’s face. ‘And if it’s OK with her parents, he’ll bring Grace back with you.’

‘Oh!’ She brightened up immediately. ‘Really? He didn’t say!’

‘No, well, he’s going to phone her mum and dad now, so he probably didn’t want to get your hopes up yet. But, well, I thought it would cheer you up to know that’s the plan. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, shall we?’

‘Yes. Oh, thanks, Laura! It’ll be so cool …’, and she was off again on a surge of excitement about having Grace to stay. Borrowing Laura’s phone, this time with her permission, she ran back upstairs to call her friend again.

Laura glanced at Nicky and shook her head.‘It’s as if she’s forgotten about the possibility of the leukaemia recurring already! I hope I did the right thing, telling her about Grace.’

‘I think so. It’ll take her mind off it. I’m sure Sarah and Martin will agree to let her come – especially in the circumstances.’

‘Oh, Nicky!’ Laura said, wiping her eyes. ‘I’m so frightened for her. Please don’t let this be bad news. I can’t bear to think she’d have to go through all that again.’

‘Try to think positive,’ Nicky said, putting her arm round Laura. ‘At least you won’t have too long to wait. Come on, you need to be brave for Caroline now.’

‘And more patient with her.’

‘No. Then she’llreally worry that you believe she’s ill again!’ Nicky said, smiling. ‘I think it’s important for now that everything stays normal, don’t you? She waited a long time to be treated like a normal girl. Don’t change that now, unless you have to.’

They hugged each other then, and Laura wiped her eyes again and got up to make a cup of tea. I jumped up on Nicky’s lap. I wanted to be hugged too. I was just as worried about Caroline as they were, but I had nobody to talk to about it.

Julian took Nicky and Benjamin home that Sunday when he left with Caroline, who was looking pale and subdued now she knew the hospital appointment was the next day. Laura reminded her, as she kissed her goodbye, that she had Grace’s visit to look forward to, and she nodded and gave a little smile. For the next two days until Julian brought her back again with Grace, it was very quiet in the holiday cottage with just me, Laura and Jessica, apart from the times when Jessica was mewing at the top of her lungs, of course. Laura looked sad and worried, and seemed to keep forgetting I was there. I was very pleased to see Julian’s car arriving outside again when they came back.

‘How did it go?’ Laura said, the minute they walked in. I’d been shut in the kitchen, as usual, while the doors were opened and closed but I was listening from behind the kitchen door.

‘Fine,’ Julian said. ‘Caroline was very brave. We just have to wait for the result again now.’

‘Well done, Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘At least it’s all over now, and you’ve got Grace here to take your mind off it.’

‘My mindis off it,’ Caroline said. ‘I don’t want to think about it ever again. I’mnot going to be ill again, and I’mnot going back to that hospital anymore.’

‘Well, that’s a good attitude to have, but …’

‘Let’s go and play in my room, Grace!’ Caroline said without waiting for Laura to finish. ‘Come on, I’ll show you round!’

‘Where’s Charlie?’ I heard Grace say. ‘Can I say hello to him?’

Oh, at last! Someone remembered I was there! I meowed at her through the door, and then finally I was let out to join in the reunion.

‘Come on, Charlie, come upstairs with us!’ Caroline said, and all three of us bounded up to her bedroom, the two girls laughing excitedly.

‘I’m glad she’s OK,’ I heard Laura say a bit cautiously as we went.

‘Yes,’ Julian replied in a similar tone. ‘A bit over the top, though, if you know what I mean. All this hysterical excitement. I wonder if she’s covering up how she really feels.’

‘Scared?’

‘Yes. Of course.’

That night Caroline and Grace lay awake for half the night giggling, curled up together in Caroline’s bed. Every now and then I’d hear Julian or Laura saying ‘Shush! Keep the noise down! Go to sleep!’

Julian went back to work again the next day, and everything settled down a bit, but Caroline and Grace certainlydidn’t keep their noise down. Grace had brought something with her that played music, loudly, and the girls took to singing along at the tops of their voices, sometimes dancing too, and making up their own songs. Sometimes I joined in. I think I sing quite nicely, but for some reason it always made the two girls fall about laughing, which was a bit hurtful.

‘Charlie, stopcaterwauling!’ Caroline said on one occasion, making Grace laugh even more. I’d never heard that word before but I guessed it wasn’t complimentary. Even Laura was laughing, but then she stopped and, still smiling, said, ‘I’m glad you’re having fun, girls, but please keep it down a bit when Jessica’s asleep.’

When they weren’t singing and dancing, the girls were down at the beach. They didn’t have to come home for Jessica’s feeds or naps anymore, as Laura was happy for them to be out together on their own, as long as they came back at the time she’d told them. One day they were apparently late, though, and gottold off.

‘Youmust come back on time, or I won’t be able to let you go out on your own anymore,’ Laura said. ‘I’m responsible for Grace’s safety while she’s here, Caroline, as well as yours.’

‘It’s justten minutes!’ she retorted. ‘Chill, Laura, for God’s sake!’

Laura sighed. I wondered if she was finding it hard to bemore patient with Caroline, like she’d said she would.

‘Please don’t speak to me like that, Caroline. It isn’t clever, it’s just rude. You can both go upstairs and get changed now – dinner’s nearly ready.’

‘All right, but I don’t want any meat.’

‘Well, it’s take it or leave it, I’m afraid. I’m not messing around making two different meals.’

The girls went up to their room, and I ran after them.

‘See what I mean?’ Caroline was muttering to Grace. ‘She’s, like,totally unfair to me.’

‘Don’t worry, my mum and dad are just the same. They think everything my sister Rose does is amazing, but me, I can’t do a thing right these days.’

‘But Laura was always really nice to me before Jessica was born.’

‘Maybe the younger one is always the favourite,’ Grace said.

‘That’s what I think as well. If she and Daddy were really so worried about the leukaemia, you’d think they’d be nicer to me. It’s bad enough they’re making me go to a different school from you and all the others! I don’t want to go. Sometimes I feel like running away from home.’

‘Me too. I don’t want you to go to St Margaret’s, either. I’m really scared about starting at Great Broomford High without you. But when I try to talk to Mum and Dad about it, they’re just, like,Oh, you’ll soon get used to it. They don’t care about my feelings at all.’

‘If we ran away together before next week, when we’re supposed to be going home, we wouldn’t even have to go to high school,’ Caroline said quietly. ‘And I wouldn’t have to go back to that horrible hospital ever again.’

‘Unless they found us. Then we’d be in even more trouble.’

‘Yeah.’

They sat on the bed together, holding paws, looking so sad I wanted to mew myself. But to be honest, I was too shocked. You can probably imagine how worried I was. Half-grown kittens like Caroline and Grace, talking about running away from home! They’d never survive out there. They weren’t used to hunting for their own food, and goodness only knew whose territory they might wander into.

‘You mustn’t do it!’ I meowed at them. ‘It doesn’t matter if your adults get cross with you – they get cross with me, too, butI’m not leaving home, am I?’

Grace finally gave a little giggle.‘We’re making Charlie sad too,’ she said, jumping up and starting to change out of her sandy clothes. ‘Come on, Caro, let’s have dinner and then we can write some more songs.’

‘OK.’ Caroline grinned. ‘I’m so glad you’re here. Everything feels better now I’ve got you to talk to.’

But that, of course, was before the Really Bad Thing happened.

*

It was the following day, and as usual the two girls had been to the beach. When they got home it was still warm and sunny, so they went outside to play in the garden. I watched them from my kitchen window as they danced around, shrieking and laughing, pretending to bepop stars, whatever they are. It was nice to see them being happy.

‘I’m going in to get your iPad,’ Caroline yelled, and she burst in through the kitchen door.

I heard her race upstairs to their bedroom, and back down again, turning the music thing on as she went back into the garden.

‘You’ve left the door open,’ I meowed to her, but she didn’t answer. She was already running across the grass to Grace, the music blaring.

I jumped down from the windowsill and stood in the doorway, watching them.

‘You’ve left the door open!’ I called again, but neither of them looked round.

Just then, a stupid pigeon landed on the lawn, right near where they were sitting, and before I even realised what I was doing, I’d shot out of the door and across the grass after him, startling him into taking off again, with a clumsy flapping of his silly wings. Well, it was my job. And very satisfying it was too.

‘Charlie!’ Caroline screamed, making me jump almost out of my fur. She lunged at me, grabbing me round my tummy so that I wriggled and protested. ‘What are you doing out here? Oh, God, I left the door open, Grace! Quick, Charlie, let’s get you back inside.’

But needless to say, Laura had already heard the commotion and was coming out of the kitchen door after us, looking cross.

‘What onearth are you doing?’ she said to Caroline. ‘He could have run away and got lost!’

‘I know!’ Caroline said, starting to mew. ‘I’m sorry, Laura, I didn’t realise I’d left the door open.’

‘Well, youshould have realised! Daddy warned you, Caroline, about keeping Charlie safe. It was you who insisted on bringing him down here with us.’

‘I know!’ she said again. ‘I’ll be more careful, I promise. Please don’t tell Daddy or he’ll take Charlie home and put him in the cattery.’

‘Don’t say that!’ I meowed. I was being carried back into the kitchen now. I must say I’d enjoyed my brief couple of minutes of freedom, though. And I didn’t like Caroline getting the blame. I knew I wasn’t supposed to go out, after all. It was the stupid pigeon’s fault.

‘Well, if it happens again, hewill have to go to the cattery,’ Laura said, closing the kitchen door firmly. ‘That’s if he doesn’t end up lost, or run over by a car.’

As you can probably imagine, I had my paws over my ears at this point.

‘I said I was sorry!’ Caroline mewed. ‘I didn’t mean it!’

Laura shook her head.‘Go and play upstairs,’ she said, as she walked away.

I followed the girls up to their bedroom once again. Caroline was mewing properly now.

‘They don’t want me around, I’m always getting the blame for everything. I might just as well run away!’ she sobbed to Grace.

‘If you do, I’ll come with you,’ Grace said.

‘So, shall we actuallydo it, Grace?’ They looked at each other for a moment, Caroline still sniffing with tears. ‘If we do it now, we won’t have to start at our new schools. It’s nearly the end of August already.’

‘Yeah, let’s do it. I don’t want to go back home anyway.’

‘And I don’t want to stay where I’m always getting moaned at. But where can we go?’

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Grace said. ‘I was thinking about it after we talked yesterday. I’ve got this great-aunt called Barbara – she’s quite old, but she must be nice, ’cos she sends me and Rose money every year for our birthdays and Christmas. She lives in Duncombe. It’s the next village along the coast, I saw it when Daddy showed me on the map where Mudditon is. I bet she wouldn’t mind letting us stay with her.’

‘But your parents will guess that’s where we are.’

‘No, they won’t. The only time they mention her is when she sends us the cheques. We’ve never been to her house. I’ve only met her once, as far as I know. She came to stay with us, years ago, but she went home the next day.’

‘How would you be able to find her house, then, if you’ve never been there?’

‘It’s a really easy address: April Cottage, Duck Pond Lane. I know it off by heart because every birthday and Christmas, Mum makes us write her a thankyou letter for the money.’

‘April Cottage, Duck Pond Lane,’ Caroline was repeating. ‘It sounds nice. Do you really think she’ll let us stay with her? Do you think you should phone her and ask her?’

‘I haven’t got her phone number. But I’m sure she will. She must really like me, or she wouldn’t send me so much money. It was fifty pounds last time!’

‘Wow!’ Caroline said. ‘She must bewell loaded.’

‘Yeah. She’s probably, like, one of those old ladies who couldn’t have her own children so she loves other people’s. I betshe won’t tell us off all the time.’

‘Perhaps she’ll adopt us!’ Caroline said, giggling.

‘Yeah! Then we’ll be sisters!’

And the two girls collapsed on the bed together, laughing with excitement. But the whole time they’d been talking, I’d been sitting on the floor listening, frozen to the spot with horror. Whatwere they thinking of, plotting to run off on their own like that? They’d get lost! They’d get attacked by feral humans! And their parents would be really, really scared and upset –especially as Julian and Laura were already so worried about Caroline being ill again. I meowed at them until I thought I’d lose my voice, but they took absolutely no notice of me – they were too busy giggling over the packing of their little pink rucksacks, putting in pyjamas and socks and a torch and talking about stealing some food and drink from the kitchen when Laura’s back was turned.

This was awful. It was as if they thought it was one of those adventure games Caroline played on Julian’s computer. I’d heard her shout ‘I’m dead! Again!’ sometimes when she was playing one of them, laughing as if it was funny to be dead, as if she could come back to life again and no harm would be done. Surely she understood that humans don’t have nine lives? If anything happened to her, or Grace, I’d never forgive myself. But what could I do to stop them? I was just a little cat and nobody ever listened to me. I stood for a moment in the doorway of their room, trying to calm myself down. And I made a promise to myself that I’d do everything I possibly could to save the two girls, whatever the danger to me and no matter how many lives I lost in the process.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER SEVEN

I ran downstairs and into the kitchen where Laura was cooking dinner.

‘They’re talking about running away!’ I shouted at her in Cat. ‘They’re packing their bags!’

‘Charlie, please don’t get under my feet while I’m cooking,’ she said without looking at me.

It’s the most frustrating thing, isn’t it, when you need to say something really important but you know they won’t make any effort to understand you. I meowed my head off at her and tried walking round her legs to get her attention, only to be told off and sent out of the kitchen. I was still hoping there was a chance the girls would realise it was a silly idea and change their minds. But when they sat at the table later, giving each other secret little smiles and eating up all their dinners without making any fuss at all, even remembering to say thank you to Laura for cooking it, I had ahorrible, sinking feeling in my tummy that they were purposely being extra good so that she wouldn’t suspect anything. They went up to bed earlier than usual – I know, because Laura looked up in surprise and said: ‘Well, I might as well have an early night myself, too, while Jessica’s settled so nicely.’

The cottage was soon in darkness, and I could hear Laura’s steady breathing as I loitered at the bottom of the stairs. I crept up and sat outside the door of Caroline’s room. They kept the bedroom doors closed now, to keep me out, but I could hear the girls whispering to each other. Perhaps if I stayed there, I could keep guard over them. I settled down, keeping one eye open, but of course, it’s so hard not to fall asleep, isn’t it, when it’s quiet and dark and you’ve had a stressful day. Suddenly, though, their bedroom light went on and I heard them padding about, whispering again, and the next thing I knew, the door was opened and they came tiptoeing out, almost falling over me on the dark landing.

‘Ssh!’ Caroline whispered at me fiercely. Then she picked me up and carried me downstairs with them. What was she doing? Surely she wasn’t taking me with them? But downstairs in the lounge, she sat down for a minute with me on her lap.

‘I’m going to miss Charlie, though!’ she whispered to Grace, and her eyes filled up with tears.

‘Don’t go, then!’ I meowed at her. ‘Please! It’s a crazy idea!’

‘Ssh, Charlie,’ Grace warned me. ‘Caro, put him down, or he’ll wake Laura up. Come on, we ought to get going. Goodbye, Charlie. I’ll miss you too.’

They both gave me a stroke, and Caroline’s tears dripped on my head. I meowed and Caroline put me down quickly, and before I could even try to trip them up again they were picking up their bags and turning towards the door.

I started to run back up the stairs. If I woke Laura up now, she could still catch them. They’d get a terrible telling off, but it was better than getting lost or attacked, wasn’t it?

‘Laura!’ I meowed at the top of my voice. ‘Quick, wake up! It’s an emergency! They’re running away!’

But her bedroom door was still closed. I started to scratch at it desperately, but then I heard the sound of the porch door being opened. It was too late! They were going! Frantic now, I shot back down again, just in time to wriggle through the glass door to the porch before Caroline closed it. It was so dark, neither of the girls noticed me, and when Caroline opened the outside door I slipped out in front of them and hid, shaking, under the hedge. It was dark, really dark, and the girls were holding hands and shining their little torch in front of them as they walked off. I could see OK, obviously, but I knew their night vision would be rubbish. Humans, as Oliver explained to me when I was a little kitten, are a seriously underdeveloped species compared with us cats. They can’t see, smell or even hear half as well as we can, which is probably why they need us to look after them. I only hesitated for a minute, twitching my tail anxiously as I watched their torchlight getting fainter in the distance.

It was no good. I’d never thought of myself as a scaredy-cat, and this was no time to start becoming one. I’d promised myself to do all I could to rescue those two human kittens, hadn’t I? So with my little heart pounding in my chest, I set off to follow them into the unknown.

Oh, I’m really sorry, Tabitha. I forgot to warn you, didn’t I? Yes, we’ve got to one of the scary parts now. But look, don’t keep mewing about it, you can see I survived, or I wouldn’t be here now, talking to you, would I? Is everyone else all right for me to carry on? Any little kittens need taking home? Oliver, can you see if anyone’s hiding behind the dustbins? Honestly, sometimes the responsibility of being a famous hero cat is quite a burden.

Well, you can probably imagine how I was feeling at this point in the story. Yes, Tabitha, that’s right – scared out of my fur. I was in a strange place a long way from home, with no familiar smells, and to make matters worse, there was a crashing and booming noise going on nearby that I couldn’t identify. I scurried along, following the light of Grace’s torch and keeping close to the hedges. If circumstances had been different I might have had a sniff around to see what creatures were lurking there, but I knew I mustn’t lose sight of the girls.

Then we turned a corner and crossed a road and for a minute I stood rooted to the spot, my back arched, my fur standing on end. I thought we must surely have reached the end of the world. Ahead of us was… nothing. Well, there wassomething, something huge and black that, when the moon kindly poked itself out from behind a cloud for a minute, I could see was moving, sliding backwards and forwards and making the crashing sound I’d heard. It took me a while to realise this wasit– the sea, that monstrous moving thing I’d glimpsed from the lounge window of the cottage. In the dark and close up, it looked even more threatening. I’d had no idea it was so noisy!Whoosh, crash. Whoosh, crash. Whoosh, crash. I wanted to hiss at it to shut up, but I was afraid it would come up onto the road and attack me.

‘Let’s walk along the beach,’ I heard Caroline saying to Grace.

‘No! What if we got caught out by the tide?’ Their voices carried back to me on the breeze, almost drowned out by the sea’s constant shouting.

‘OK. But we’d better follow the road along the coast anyway, or we might get lost.’

So we trotted on, with me always at a little distance behind them. For a while the road went along right by the sea, then we turned a corner up a hill and away from it. We went round more bends, down the hill, back up again, and came to a place where the torch showed three different roads.

‘I think it must be this way,’ Grace said, not actually sounding too sure about it at all, and off we went again.

There didn’t seem to be any houses around now. Just darkness and the occasional owl hooting at us from the trees. I was beginning to think I should just run up to the girls and let them see I’d followed them. They’d have to pick me up and take me back to the cottage then, wouldn’t they? But supposingthey didn’t? Supposing they took me with them to run away instead – then I’d be stuck, unable to do anything to help. You might well be wondering what on earth I thought I was going to do to help anyway and, believe me, so was I. I suppose I was hoping I could see where the Great Aunt person’s house was, and then find my way back with my amazing sense of smell and memory. I was obviously marking as many spots along the road as I could with my scent, but the occasional whiff of another cat’s scent was stressing me out. And I hadn’t got as far as working out how, if I did manage to get back, I was going to persuade Laura that I knew where the girls were. There’s only room in our heads for one plan at a time, after all.

It all started to go wrong when Grace suddenly stopped walking, saying her shoes were hurting her feet. We’d been walking for ages. If I’d worn shoes on my paws I bet they’d have been hurting too. I don’t know why humans seem to need to wear so much stuff on their bodies, but I suppose if we had no fur, like them, we might do the same, especially as we don’t like being cold. Once again it seems to be a design fault in their species. I suppose we should feel sorry for them. They look so ridiculous when they take their clothes off, don’t they – all bald and bare.

Sorry, I’m getting side-tracked from the story now.

‘Well, is it much further?’ Caroline was asking Grace as she took off her shoes, rubbed her back paws and put the shoes back on again. ‘I thought we might have been there by now.’

‘Me too,’ Grace admitted. She sounded a bit frightened. ‘I didn’t think it would be this far, Caro.’ There was a long pause. Then she added in a little voice that I could only just hear: ‘You don’t think we’ve come the wrong way, do you?’

‘Well, I don’t know, do I?’ Caroline said. ‘It’syour aunt’s house we’re going to. I thought you knew the way.’

‘I thought I did, too. But I’m wondering now if we should have gone the other way along the coast.’

‘What? You’re joking, aren’t you?’

‘No. I’m not sure. I told you I’ve never been there, I just knew it was the next village along, but I can’t remember which way. I wish I’d had another look at a map before we started out.’

‘So, what are we going to do?’ Caroline said, her voice all shaky. ‘It’s the middle of the night, we don’t know where we are, the bags are getting heavy …’

‘And my feet hurt. Let’s go back, Caro. I’m sorry, it’s my fault, maybe this was a bad idea.’ Grace sounded like she was going to start mewing.

‘I don’t know if we’ll find our way back, though,’ Caroline said. ‘We went round so many corners.’

‘I’ll show you!’ I meowed at once. Now was the time to show myself. I’d be their Rescue Cat, leading them home safely … as long as I could find the right way myself, of course. But before I could run up to them, there was the sound of a car coming along the road behind us. We hadn’t seen any cars since leaving the cottage. Probably they were all fast asleep at their homes, and I wasn’t sorry, because the road was narrow, with no pavements. You know how aggressive cars can be, wanting the whole road to themselves. This one was purring quite loudly and its eyes were shining very brightly. I jumped back into the bushes, and I saw the girls hiding themselves too. The car roared past us, but as we all stood and watched it continue down the next hill, the light from its big eyes danced off something vast and shiny down in front of us.

‘The sea!’ Grace shouted. ‘We’re heading back towards the coast!’

‘Yeah, butwhich coast?’ Caroline said. ‘It could be the other side of England for all we know, the distance we’ve walked!’

‘Or itcould be the right coast, and we might be just coming into Duncombe. Come on, Caro, let’s get going again. It doesn’t look far.’

So off we trudged. Before long we could hear the crashing of the sea again, and one or two little cottages loomed up out of the darkness.

‘How are we supposed to know whether it’s Duncombe or not?’ Caroline demanded. She sounded fed up, and I didn’t blame her. ‘We didn’t think this through properly, Grace. It’s too dark to see anything, and there’s nobody around to ask.’

‘And I can’t walk any further. I’ve got blisters on both feet now. We’re going to have to stay here till the morning.’

‘What?’ Caroline shrieked. ‘Well, I’mnot sleeping on the beach.’

‘There might be a nice dry bit of sand, up against the sea wall,’ Grace said. ‘At least it’s not cold. What else can we do?’

Shining the torch in front of them, they started to walk down a slope towards the sea.

‘No!’ I meowed after them in terror. ‘The sea will get you!’

But they couldn’t hear me because it was crashing so loudly. I have to be honest here. For a minute – just a minute, you understand – I was too scared to follow them. I stood at the top of that slope, looking down at the sea, my tail swishing back and forth for all it was worth. The sea was so big, and I was just one little cat, not much older than little Timmy Kitten over there behind the dustbin. What chance would I have, if it came after me? Then I thought about those two children, all alone in the dark, talking about going to sleep down there. They were braver than me! What a scaredy-cat I was being. But just as I was plucking up my courage to run after them, I heard Caroline calling out:

‘Look! The door of this one’s not locked.’

I crept a little way down the slope to see what they were looking at. There was a row of funny little houses, each of them looking only big enough for a couple of cats to live in. Caroline had pushed the door of one of them open and they were staring inside.

‘There’s nothing in here. I don’t think anyone can be using it. The others have all got padlocks on.’

‘It’s not ours, though, Caro. I think beach huts belong to the council, and people just rent them for their holidays.’

‘I know, but we need somewhere to sleep, don’t we? It’s an emergency. Surely it won’t hurt. There’s nobody around.’

‘But what if someone comes and finds us? We’ll get into trouble. I’m scared. I wish we hadn’t left home now.’

‘So do I, Grace, but it’s no good us just standing here crying about it. Come on, I think we should stay in the hut, nobody’s going to know. If you like, we can take it in turns to stay awake and keep watch.’

‘OK,’ Grace said, sounding doubtful. ‘I do need to take my shoes off for a while. And we could eat some of our biscuits.’

‘Yes, good idea, I’m starving.’

And they disappeared inside the little hut together, closing the door after them and leaving me standing there in the moonlight, wondering whereI was going to sleep. I was starving too, I might add! And tired. It had been a long walk, much longer than my normal evening constitutional round the grounds of my house back in Little Broomford. Thinking about home made me mew to myself sadly for a while. But as Caroline had said, there was no use crying, was there? I didn’t want to go too far away from the girls, so I had to ignore the rumbling of my tummy, forget about hunting for food and concentrate on the priority of getting some sleep. I crept cautiously down the rest of the slope and trotted along the path next to the little huts. At the end of the path wasa bench, like the ones on our village green where people sit to chat to each other. I crept under the bench and put my head on my paws. I knew I should really keep a watch on the door of the hut where the girls were. I had no idea whether they were in danger or not. But it was no good. Exhaustion overcame me and, before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hello everyone, I’m glad to see you’ve all come back again today to hear some more of my story. It was a good idea of yours, Oliver, to have a break so that we could all go home for our dinners and get some sleep. I hope none of you had nightmares about my experiences with the sea. It actually doesn’t hurt you, you know, as long as you don’t walk right up to it. As an experienced traveller now, I can reassure you all of that, but of course, at the time I’m telling you about, I didn’t know any more than you do. No, Tabitha, there’s no sea around here, I promise you. We’d haveheard it by now if there was.

So let’s get back to my incredible story, shall we? I was just telling you how I fell asleep under the bench. Well, when I woke up, it was already bright sunshine so I must have slept soundly all night despite the scary situation. I felt bad that I hadn’t even managed to keep one eye open in case I was needed to protect the girls. I had a stretch and a quick wash, and padded cautiously along the walkway to the hut where the children had gone to sleep. To my horror, the door was open and neither of them were in there! I looked all around and in the distance I could see another small building, where a female human was carrying chairs and little tables and arranging them outside. And then, to my relief, I saw Caroline and Grace standing in front of the building, taking sandwiches and bottles of water from a young male serving them from the window. It must have been a shop of some kind. I wasso hungry I would have liked to run up and grab myself a bite of one of those sandwiches, but I was pretty sure I should stay out of sight. So I slunk carefully along, keeping to the shadows, until I was close enough to hear them.

‘Thank you,’ Caroline was saying to the boy, giving him some money. ‘And we wondered if you could tell us how far it is to Duncombe?’

‘We’re on our way there, to stay with my aunt,’ Grace added.

‘Duncombe?’ the woman putting out the chairs said, turning round to look at them in surprise. ‘You’re a bit off the beaten track here, then, my lovely. You need to get back on the main road into Mudditon and it’s about five miles further on from there. Your parents waiting for you in the car, are they?’

‘No, we’re—’

‘Yes! Yes, they’re … um … waiting for us, up the road,’ Caroline interrupted Grace quickly.

‘Right. Well, that’s just as well, because if you were trying to get there without a car, you’d have a job. The morning bus has gone, and the next one isn’t till one o’clock. And that only takes you as far as Mudditon.’

‘Is it too far to walk to Duncombe?’ Grace asked, glancing at Caroline.

‘Oh, bless you, you’d take all day and night to walk there, and that’s a fact!’ the woman said, laughing. ‘Get yourselves off back to Mum and Dad now, if they’re waiting for you up the top.’

‘Oh, it’s all right, they’re just … um … having their breakfast,’ Caroline said.

‘Yes,’ Grace joined in. ‘They said we could come down here and eat ours on the beach.’

The woman stared after them, shaking her head, as they walked away.

‘I don’t think she suspected anything,’ Grace whispered as they passed by without noticing me shrinking back into a gap in the wall.

‘Let’s sit on the beach to have these, then, while we decide what to do,’ Caroline suggested. ‘It looks like we’ll have to wait for the next bus, Grace.’

‘Yes, and then it’ll just take us back where we started. I’m sorry, Caro. Ihave brought us in the wrong direction, haven’t I?’

‘Well, it’s not your fault. We’ll just have to start again from Mudditon.’

And they proceeded to climb down some steps, taking them even closer to the sea. I must say, the sea didn’t look so scary now. It had turned from black to a nice blue colour, with shiny white bits in it, and was swishing backwards and forwards a lot more gently. Instead of roaring and thumping it was just making gentle whooshing noises. I still didn’t fancy getting any closer, but it wasn’t making my heart race with fear now. I sat down in the shadow of the huts and watched my two bad little human kittens sitting themselves down on the part they called the beach. Caroline got a jumper out of her rucksack and laid it on the ground, and they spread their sandwiches out on it and started eating. My mouth was watering and my tummy rumbled so loudly I thought they’d hear it. I’d have to hunt soon, or find someone to feed me, or I’d never have the strength to get back home!

At this thought, I mewed sadly to myself with the sudden realisation that I didn’t even know when I was ever going toget home, if the holiday cottage was even my home now. The girls were talking about getting on a bus! What about me? Could I get on it with them? I knew what a bus was, of course– one comes to Little Broomford a few times every day, as you know. (It’s a very large green car, Timmy Kitten, if you’ve never seen it. It snorts and grunts when it stops outside the village shop, and lots of humans climb onto it with shopping bags.) And of course, the human kittens all get on another bus every day to go to school, don’t they. But I’d never heard of a cat getting on a bus, and anyway I didn’t want the girls to see me following them. What was I going to do? I doubted I could run fast enough to keep up with the bus. I’d just have to try to find my way back to Mudditon on my own. The girls would carry on trying to get to the place where the Great Aunt lived, risking their lives again with predators and all sorts of unknown dangers, and my mission to save them would have failed miserably. I was despondent now, as you can imagine, as well as feeling hungry andlost.

I wasn’t allowed to dwell on this for long, though, because suddenly there was a loud squawking and screeching in the air above me, and out of nowhere, two huge seagulls came flapping down, skimming the roofs of the huts behind me, circling round each other for a minute over the beach and then suddenlyswooping down on the two girls, trying to grab their food.

‘Leave them alone!’ I meowed out loud without stopping to think, but of course, nobody could hear me because of the squawking of the gulls and now, the screams of the girls as they waved their paws around, trying to defend themselves.

‘Go away!’ Grace was yelling, flapping her paw at one of them. Bits of sandwich fell onto the beach and the gull started grabbing at them with his big hooked beak.

‘Ouch! Get off!’ Caroline was shouting at the other bird. She dropped the sandwich she’d been holding and jumped up, crying and clutching one paw in the other. ‘It bit my finger, Grace! Ouch! Goaway!’ Still holding her sore paw, she started to run away from the gulls, but she was too busy looking back at them and crying, to see where she was going.

‘Watch out for the rocks, Caro!’ screamed Grace.

Too late. I watched in horror as Caroline’s paw caught on a rock and she went crashing down onto the ground. Her head hit another rock and she made a noise that sounded like ‘Oomph’ before lying very still, with Grace running towards her, screaming her name.

I suppose you all think, if I’m such a brave young cat, why was I still standing up there on the pathway by the beach huts instead of galloping down the beach to help? But look, sometimes things are so bad that even the cleverest cat in the world wouldn’t know what to do, right? I admit it, I just stood up there and stared, my heart pounding, my muscles taut and tense, my tail twitching, quivering with fear and indecision. What couldI do? I wasn’t big enough to pick her up, was I? Evendogs wouldn’t be much better in a situation like this, I’ll have you know. They might go and lie down next to the wounded human and lick her face with their slobbery wet tongues, but at the end of the day, what’s the point of that? My instinct, to be honest, was to run for my life, but I think it says something for me, at least, that I didn’t. I was so scared for Caroline, I had to wait to see if she was all right. The seagulls had no such finer feelings, I can tell you. There they were, squabbling over the last few crusts of the girls’ sandwiches, not caring in the least about the trouble they’d caused, and within a few minutes they’d flapped their massive wings and taken off into the sky again.

‘Yes, clear off, you bullies, you!’ I meowed at them from the safety of the ground. I didn’tthink they’d ever been known to eat cats.

When I looked back at Caroline again, I saw to my relief that she’d now woken up and lifted her head. She let out a moan, and Grace cried out:

‘Oh, no! Your head! You’re bleeding!’

‘Ow, ow, ow!’ Caroline was crying, holding her paw up to her head. ‘No, it’s my finger that’s bleeding. That horrible seagull bit me, Grace!’

‘And you hit your head, look– you’ve cut it open. Oh, Caro, we need to go to a hospital. I’d better go and get help.’

‘No!’ Caroline mewed. ‘We’ll get into terrible trouble, Grace. And I’mnot going to hospital. I hate hospitals!’

‘But you’re hurt!’

‘I’ll be all right. Just give me a minute. I’ll … I’ll wrap something round my finger, and maybe you can help me clean up my head … we can use the sink in that toilet block behind the caf?.’

She tried to stand up, but she must have been feeling dizzy, like you do if you’ve chased your tail for ages, because she quickly sat back down again and held her head. There was red blood dripping down the back of her neck onto her T-shirt and even though Grace tried to wrap a tissue round her finger, blood was still coming through that too.

This was no good. I knew I had to do something now, or I’d definitely have to consider myself a champion scaredy-cat for the rest of my nine lives. And there was only one option. I belted back along the pathway to the little caf? where they’d bought the sandwiches. The woman was inside now – I could hear her talking to the boy, and laughing.

‘Quick!’ I meowed at them in Cat from the doorway. ‘I need your help! It’s an emergency!’

‘Oh look,’ said the boy. ‘A nice little tabby cat. I haven’t seen him around here before. He doesn’t look like one of the ferals.’

‘No, he’s not. He looks well cared for. Are you lost, puss? He’s only a kitten, Robbie.’

She came over and bent down to stroke me. I wanted to tell her I was getting a bit big to be called a kitten, and that my name wasn’tPuss, but there really wasn’t time for any pleasantries.

‘Outside!’ I meowed. ‘On the beach! Quick!’ I walked back out of the door, turned round and meowed at them again urgently. ‘Come on!’

‘What’s up with him?’ the boy said, without moving.

But the woman, frowning and muttering to herself, wiped her hands on a towel and followed me out of the door.

‘What is it, puss?’ she said. ‘Hungry, I suppose, are you, or …’ She stopped, staring down at the beach. ‘What’s going on down there?’ And then she called back through the door to the boy: ‘Robbie, call an ambulance. There’s been an accident on the beach. A little girl, tell them. Nine-nine-nine, you fool, and hurry up about it!’

Then she ran, as fast as a plump little human female can, down the steps and across the beach, calling out to the girls as I watched her approaching them.

‘Don’t try to get up, dearie. There’s an ambulance on its way.’

‘Oh no,’ Caroline said. ‘Please, we don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine. Honestly, we’ll just get going.’

‘Caro,’ Grace said. ‘I actually think you should get your head looked at. It looks quite bad.’

‘Yes, my lovely, that’s a nasty cut on your head, it probably needs stitches – and look at your poor finger too! How did that happen?’

‘A seagull bit her,’ Grace said.

‘Oh, they’re a dratted nuisance, those damn birds,’ the woman said. ‘Now then, why don’t you go and fetch your mummy and daddy from the car,’ she added to Grace. ‘Tell them the ambulance is coming, and I’ll stay here with your friend until they get here.’

Even from where I was watching, I could see the look Grace exchanged with Caroline.

‘Don’t say anything,’ Caroline warned her.

‘Wehave to,’ Grace said. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore, Caro. It’s all gone wrong, and we shouldn’t have done it in the first place. We’re going to have to go back. After you’ve been to hospital.’

‘Back where, my lovely?’ the woman asked, looking from one of them to the other.

Grace looked down at the ground.‘We told you a lie,’ she said, so quietly that I had to prick up my ears to hear her. ‘Our parents aren’t with us. We were trying to run away.’

‘But only to Grace’s great aunt’s house,’ Caroline said, as if that made it all right. ‘We were going to stay with her.’

‘That’s why you wanted to go to Duncombe. I did think it strange. And your parents didn’t know.’

The girls both shook their heads.

‘Are we going to get into really big trouble?’ Caroline mumbled.

‘Not from me, dearie. It’s not for me to say. But your poor parents will be beside themselves, you know. You’ll have worried the life out of them. Let me give them a call, for you, shall I? Let them know you’re all right?’

‘My parents probably don’t even know we’ve gone,’ Grace said, starting to cry now. ‘I’m supposed to be staying with you in Mudditon, aren’t I?’

‘Laura might have told them. And she’ll definitely have told my dad, and he’ll have totally freaked out. He’s probably had to come back down from London. I’ll be grounded for the rest of the holidays!’ Caroline said, joining in with the mewing.

‘Well, look, let’s not all get ourselves in a state about it,’ soothed the plump female. ‘First things first, you need that head injury checked, dearie, and here come the paramedics now, so let’s get you sorted out and we’ll worry about everything else afterwards.’

Two males wearing identical clothing were running down the beach now, carrying bags and looking very serious. They got down on the rocks next to Caroline and started looking at her head and her finger, and talking to her, and to Grace, asking them questions I couldn’t hear properly. They took quite a long time. They put white bandages round both her hurt places and, finally, took one of her arms each to sit her up.

‘She needs the stretcher,’ I heard one of them say as Caroline swayed slightly and put her paws up to her head again. ‘All right, sweetheart, we’re going to lift you now. One, two, three …’ She was laid onto a thing like a sheet that they’d put on the beach. ‘Still feeling dizzy?’

‘No, I’m all right while I’m lying down,’ Caroline said. ‘I really don’t think I need to go to hospital. I don’t like hospitals.’

‘It’ll be fine, love, they’ll take good care of you, you’ll see. Anyway we’ve already told them we’re on our way, so it’s out of our hands. And now we’ve got your names and your holiday address, we’ll be calling your details over to the hospital so they can get your parents there.’

‘But we don’t want—’ she started.

‘Has to be done, sweetheart,’ he said firmly. ‘No choice in the matter. You’ll be glad to see them when they get there, you know. Everyone has arguments, pet, but at the end of the day, they’re still your parents, see?’

‘I know,’ Grace said in a little voice as she followed them up the beach. ‘We shouldn’t have done it, Caro. We’ll just have to take the telling-off.’

I shrunk myself back into the shadows again as they all came back up the steps. I was glad they were going to the hospital. Glad they were going to be taken home, too. But as for me, I had no idea what I was going to do. I followed behind them, at a distance again, up the slope to the road where this big yellow car they called an ambulance was waiting. The female from the caf? called out goodbye to them.

‘You’ll be all right now, dearie!’ she said.

And then, as Caroline was carried inside the ambulance, with Grace climbing in next to her, the woman said:

‘Oh, there’s that little tabby cat again! I could swear he was trying to let me know there was an accident on the beach.’

I ran back quickly to the nearest bushes, trying to hide. I’d have liked to get into the ambulance and go with Caroline and Grace, to be honest, but I knew I wouldn’t be allowed.

‘It looked a bit like Charlie,’ I heard Caroline say.

I couldn’t help a pitiful little mew escaping from my lips. I felt so lost and lonely now the girls were being taken away. I don’t suppose they heard me, from inside the ambulance. But as the men started to close the doors of the ambulance, I saw Caroline’s face staring back out at me. I couldn’t have been as well hidden as I thought I was. And at the very last moment, just as the doors closed, I thought I saw her eyes growing wide with surprise and her mouth making the word ‘Charlie!’

And then they were gone. And I was all alone.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER NINE

Despite all my worries, I knew my priority now was, of course, to get hold of some food. I’m not a bad hunter, even though I do say so myself. Oliver here gave me lessons from my early kittenhood. But the scrubby little bush things near the caf? didn’t look very promising in terms of mice orshrews, and the only birds around were seagulls. I certainly wasn’t intending to mess withthem after what I’d just witnessed. I sat down and washed myself again – always a good bet in times of uncertainty – and suddenly a voice behind me said:

‘Well, little puss, shall we see if we’ve got anything nice to reward you with?’

It was the female from the caf?, and before I knew it she’d picked me up and carried me inside with her.

‘What are you rewarding him for?’ the boy asked her as, to my delight, she proceeded to pour me out a big dish full of milk and started looking in the fridge for some scraps.

‘He came to let me know about that little girl, I’m sure of it. Told me there was an accident down on the beach, he did.’

‘Yeah, right, Auntie Stella!’ the boy laughed. ‘The amazing talking cat, is he?’

‘You can laugh,’ she said, giving me a stroke as she put down a second bowl, full of bits of lovely leftover fish. ‘But I’m telling you, if hecould speak he would have been saying:Quick, it’s an emergency!’

Fancy that. At last, a human with a pretty good grasp of Cat! I’d have to converse with her a little more, just as soon as I’d finished this delicious meal. I was enjoying it so much, I was purring out loud while I ate, but I still couldn’t help hearing the conversation going on between the female, who seemed to be called Auntie Stella, and the boy.

‘Hope the little girl will be all right,’ she was saying. ‘That was a nasty cut on her head.’

‘I thought you said it was her finger?’ the boy said.

‘I knew you weren’t listening. I told you, she hit her head when she fell over. She was running away from the dratted seagulls because one of them bit her finger when it pinched a bit of her sandwich. Damn things are getting to be a real nuisance around here, if you ask me. There’ve been a few people lately who’ve been attacked like that on the beach.’

‘Poor kid, she must have been frightened. I don’t like their big beaks myself.’

‘No, well, you’re a big wuss, aren’t you,’ she said, laughing. ‘And yes, I do feel sorry for the girl of course, but you know, they were asking for trouble, running away from home like that – silly children. God only knows what might have happened to them, far worse things than a sore finger or even a bumped head.’

I stopped eating for a minute at this, and gave a little meow of agreement. Wasn’t this exactly why I’d been so worried about the girls myself? I agreed with Stella – it had been a relief, in a way, that they had to go to hospital rather than carry on with their mad running away idea. But it wasn’t until I’d finished my food, licked the bowl clean and started to washmyself that the reality of my situation came flooding back to me in a rush. I was lost and alone in a strange place, and although my poor Caroline was safe now, I had no idea how badly injured she might be or whether the hospital would be able to make her better. Or whether I’d even be able to get back to her again, to find out. Now that my urgent need for food and milk had been satisfied, these worries were suddenly so overwhelming to me that I didn’t know what to do, apart from pacing up and down and crying.

‘Poor little thing’s still hungry,’ said the boy, watching me.

‘I don’t think so, Robbie.’ The female bent down and picked me up, giving me a little stroke and looking at me carefully. ‘I’m sure he’s somebody’s missing pet, you know. But he’s not wearing a collar.’

No, I wasn’t. I never do. I know some of you are happy about wearing them, but personally I can’t stand the things. After I chewed my way out of the first two Julian bought me, my family gave up trying.

‘Tell you what,’ the boy said. ‘Shall I put a picture of him on Twitter?’

‘Bloody Twitter, leave off about it for God’s sake. You’re never off your bloomin’ phone doing your cheeps and whatnot when you’re supposed to be washing up.’

‘Tweets, Auntie Stella!’ he said, laughing. ‘Tweets, not cheeps.’ He held his phone up in front of me and pressed something on it. ‘Look this way, little cat,’ he called. ‘That’s it.’ He pressed again. ‘Good one. Right, I’ll just share this on Twitter – and on Instagram and WhatsApp, while I’m about it. I’ll say he’s a lost kitten—’

‘I don’t know what the hell you’re on about, bloomin’What’s Up,’ Stella grumbled. ‘How’s a picture of him on your phone supposed to help?’

‘Oh, Auntie, you’re, like,so old school,’ he said, laughing again. ‘The picture goes all over the world! Everyone who sees it can share it with other people and thousands of people will end up looking at him. Someone’s bound to recognise him. That’s how these things work, see?’

Needless to say, I didn’t understand what he meant, any more than Stella seemed to. Caroline had sometimes done that thing before, holding up her dad’s or Laura’s phone and saying she was taking a picture of me, but when she showed me the picture of a little cat on the phone later, I couldn’t understand why she thought it was me. It could have been any little tabby, surely.

‘Well, for someone soold school, as you put it,’ Stella was saying now, ‘at least I know the right thing to do with our little furry friend here. I’m going to take him to the vet up the road, and they can scan him with their scanner thing to find out whether he’s got an identity chip.’

If the boy responded to this, I wasn’t there to hear it. As you can probably imagine, as soon as I heard the wordvet, I’d yowled in fright and jumped out of Stella’s arms. And by the time she’d finished her sentence I was on my way out of the door. Pity. I’d been enjoying her company up till then.

*

I started off running back past the beach huts and past the bench where I’d slept the previous night. Then the pathway ran out, and I plunged into an area of little soft sandy hills with tufts of horrible stiff grass, and spiteful prickly bushes growing on them. It was difficult to run, and I didn’t like the feel of the sand – I had to keep stopping and shaking mypaws. Yes, it was a bit like when you walk on snow, Smudge, but it was hot instead of cold, and had a gritty feel to it. Sometimes I felt like I was going to sink. But I was too scared to turn back now, in case the Stella woman was coming after me to take me to the vet. It was slow going, and seemed to go on forever. Despite feeling a bit stronger thanks to my delicious meal, I was getting tired from the effort of running on such difficult ground. After a while, I obviously had to stop for a cat nap, so I hid myself behind one of the prickly bushes. I didn’t sleep too well – I had a very vivid dream where I was being attacked by a giant dog with big sharp teeth, and I woke up to find I’d inadvertently wriggled closer to the bush and got scratches on my head and my back. Yelping to myself miserably, I trudged on through the sand, without any idea where I was going. It was only by sheer luck that I caught a tiny little bird who’d been feeding from the prickly bushes. I’d never seen one like him before, and he was barely more than a mouthful by the time I’d dispensed with his feathers. But he kept me going for a little longer.

To my relief, soon after I’d finished my makeshift lunch I noticed a rough path leading up the cliff, away from the sea again. Treading gingerly through an overgrowth of the horrible spiky grass, I followed the path and found to my surprise that it came out on a road. Not only that, but I was pretty sure from my superior feline sense of direction that it was the road where the girls and I had started our journey away from Mudditon-on-Sea the previous night. I was heading home, and by following the coast it had taken me far less time than it took us to make the journey on the road! All I had to do was find the littlelane that led to the holiday cottage, and I’d be safe, back with Julian and Laura and baby Jessica and … well, eventually Caroline and Grace, too, once they’d been rescued from the hospital place.

Oh, if only that had been true, my friends! I raced along the road and turned hopefully into the next little lane. I didn’t recognise it, but I was sure that at any moment I’d smell something familiar, preferably my own scent markings from the night before. No such luck. I went from one lane to another, and then into streets that were more built up, with big houses, shops, and lots of humans wandering about looking in the shop windows. I turned this corner and that corner, but it was no good. I was hopelessly lost.

Finally I turned down a narrow road that arrived back by the sea, but instead of the sandy beach thing I’d come to expect, this time there was just a pathway and a sheer drop down into the water. I backed away from the edge, terrified of falling in, as you can probably imagine, and stared at the sea. It wasn’t moving so much here. There were lots of little boats floating on the water – I knew what they were from pictures I’d seen on the television. They seemed to be tied up here to stop them from running away, and they were nudging each other in their sleep, some of them making a jangling noise like the bells on cats’ collars but much louder. There were humans around here too, some ofthem walking along the edge, others sitting on benches looking out to sea. There was a little caf?, with a picture of ice creams on a sign outside, and a pub – it looked very similar to the one where you live Oliver, in our village – with a roof made of that thatch stuff, and baskets of flowers hanging by the door.

‘It’s so pretty here, isn’t it,’ I heard a female human say to her male as they walked past. ‘I’m so glad we decided to come to Mudditon again this year.’

So I was right, I thought to myself.I’m back in Mudditon. But it seemed Mudditon was quite a big place, even bigger than Little Broomford, and just my luck, I was in the wrong part, with no idea where theright part was. There was nothing else for it but to find a warm little spot in the sun behind a wall, and have another little sleep. As always, cat logic decreed that I’d feel better afterwards, and even if I didn’t, it’d be easier to cope if I was well rested.

When I woke up, it was dark. I must have had a longer sleep than I intended. For a minute I couldn’t think where I was, or what had woken me up. I lifted my head and pricked up my ears. I could hear something, but more to the point, I couldsense something– some kind of threat nearby. You’ll understand what I mean when I say I could feel it in my whiskers. Then the sound came again, and I was up on my paws at once, instantly alert. There was a strange cat somewhere close to me, and whoever it was, he was making the low, rumbling, growly noise inhis chest that we all know means only one thing. He wasn’t best pleased to see me.

I waited, still and tense, only my eyes moving, checking all directions. I knew I had the disadvantage. I was a stranger, in someone else’s territory, and I still couldn’t see the other cat. If I ran, I’d only precipitate the attack. But when it came, it still took me by surprise. The skinny black cat jumped out of the shadows and went straight for my throat with his claws, forcing me to the ground.

‘OK, OK,’ I managed to squawk desperately as I wriggled on my back, trying to get free. ‘Sorry. I’ll clear off.’

But that didn’t seem to be enough for him. With his claws still into me, he rolled us both over so that his back paws were kicking me. At the same time he was trying to get a mouthful of my face to sink his teeth into. Obviously not a happy chap at all.

Now, I should say here that I hadn’t forgotten your lessons, Oliver, my mentor. I know you taught me that it’s always best to try to resolve a sticky situation like this by the most expedient means possible. By running away. Yes, you did explain that most sensible cats will drop the aggression if you retreat. After all, what’s the point in wasting energy? But I don’t think this guy had ever had the rules explained to him. He didn’t seem to like me at all. I was getting less and less keen on him by the minute, too. Fighting back was now my only option. For a few minutes we rolled over each other, teeth and claws out,screaming abuse at each other. It was the first time ever, you understand, that I’d been involved in a real, full-on, serious cat fight, and looking back I’m quite surprised at how my survival instinct took over. I did get myself free at one point, and managed to jump up on my paws again, arching my back at him, my fur up on end, hissing in his face, swiping at him with my paw.Take that, you skinny, stinky black Tom cat, you! And then it happened. Out of nowhere, there was another cat on my back, clawing me, biting me, and then another pounced from the other direction, wrestling me back onto the ground, swiping at my face. I tried to wriggle free but he’d got me in the eye, and I felt it swell up and close. Yet another body landed on top of me and I began to realise I was done for. Oh, I tried my best to fight back, my friends, I can assure you. I didn’t want to forfeit one of my lives at such a young age. But it was three cats, or four, or maybe more – I couldn’t tell anymore – versus one.

‘I submit!’ I cried, flattening my ears and trying to roll onto my side to prove it.

The biggest of the cats who’d joined in as reinforcements, a scrawny looking manky tortie with one ear missing and scars on his head, towered over me scornfully.

‘All right, boys,’ he said to the others, although his Cat accent was so strange, I had trouble understanding him. ‘Let’s leave the Cowardy Cat to wallow in his own pee, shall we? I don’t think we’ll see him around here again.’

With that they all slunk away, looking back over their shoulders once or twice to smirk at me.

I lay there for a moment panting, watching them out of my one good eye. I hurt all over, my heart was racing and I felt like crying for my lovely warm bed in my lovely comfortable home with my kind, gentle human companions. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I wasnot going to lie here and die, and I wasn’t going to give those thugs the pleasure of seeing me behave like a terrified new-born kitten. I wasnot a Cowardy Cat! And I was notwallowing in pee! Thecheek of that ugly great bony bruiser– I was a well brought up, decent, family pet who’d been taught to respect other cats’ territories and stay out of fights. I wasn’t going to stand for this! The physical abuse was bad enough but the insults simply could not be borne.

I struggled to my paws, gasping from the pain in one leg and shuddering at the dark stain of blood I’d left behind me on the ground. I felt a growl growing in the back of my throat as my anger and determination took hold of me. And crazy though it might have been – looking back, I guess it definitely was – I decided that perhaps it would be better, after all, to lose a life defending my honour against that gang of hoodlums, than to lose it lying broken and defeated on the ground. I took a couple of deep breaths – and hobbled after them.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER TEN

Tabitha, please don’t cry. Or you, Nancy. I did warn you, didn’t I, about the scary parts? Honestly, nobody would believe the pair of you are my sisters, you’ve got such nervous dispositions, for the siblings of a local hero. Do you want to go home? No? You’re too excited about the rest of the story? Well, in that case I’d better get on with it!

Can you imagine how I felt, my friends, limping along the pavement in that strange place, with every bone in my body hurting and blood dripping down my face, knowing I was probably going to be finished off at any moment? If I hadn’t been so angry, I’d have gone in the opposite direction, trust me. But I hobbled on, round the corner where I’d seen my attackers go, and into an alleyway that eventually came out in a small yard. There were big tall buildings around the yard, but it didn’t look like anyone lived there – everything was closed up and some of the windows were broken. There was one lamppost, right in the far corner and, as I approached, I saw him sitting there – the big one-eared tortie – and he was on his own. I had the advantage of being in the shadows, but on the other hand he was twice my size and presumably had two working eyes against my one.

I flattened myself against the wall of a building and crept slowly closer. He was engrossed in washing himself, and didn’t even look up once before I finally made my move. I’d like to say I pounced, but although I’m proud of the fact that I took him by surprise, I have to admit it was more a case of flopping myself at him, with what little strength I had left. I’d timed it so that I got him while he was engaged in cleaning his private parts, so I was able to knock him off balance without too much trouble. He made a grunt of surprise as he toppled backwards, and I immediately threw myself on top of him and, yowling my fury straight in his ear, I took a very satisfying bite out of his neck.

‘Ouch! What in the name of bloody catnip?’ he squawked, in his peculiar Cat accent. ‘Get off me! Who the dog’s backside are you? Boys! Where are you! I’m being attacked!’

He squirmed, trying to get to his paws, but I aimed a swipe for his face and followed it up with another bite. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for him to throw me off. He was skinny, but muscular as well as being big, and I hadn’t hurt him anywhere near as much as I’d been hurt. I put my head down and hissed, waiting for him to start on me again, but just as he was aiming his claws at me, he suddenly blinked in surpriseand growled: ‘Well, by my tail and whiskers! If it ain’t the little Cowardy Cat, come back for more.’

‘Take that back,’ I hissed, forcing myself to sound really brave. ‘I’mnot a Cowardy Cat. It was four or five of you against one.’ Out of the corner of my good eye, I saw some dark shapes moving towards us in the shadows. ‘And if yourboys are coming back to do the same thing again, then they’ll probably succeed in finishing me off. If you think that’s a fair fight, then I don’t know what kind of hovel you were all brought up in …’

‘Talk posh, don’t you, Sunshine?’ He lowered his paw. ‘All right, boys!’ he called. ‘It’s only the little Cowardy—’ He stopped, looked me up and down, and then went on: ‘The littlebrave tabby from earlier on. No, leave him alone, Black. We’ve already done him enough damage, and it took a lot of guts for him to come after me. He doesn’t look very old but he’s a good fighter.’

And do you know what? He lay back down again, deliberately, in the submissive position in front of me. I could hardly believe my one eye. The other cats hung back, waiting, and when he got to his paws again he came up and rubbed himself against me.

‘Sorry about earlier,’ he said gruffly. ‘But for the love of catnip, what’s a posh lad like you doing around these parts?’

‘I got lost,’ I said. Now the danger seemed to be over and I was apparently still alive, I was starting to shake from head to tail. ‘My humans are staying somewhere around here, but I don’t know where.’

‘Your humans?’ he repeated, looking at me as if I’d spoken in Dog or Cow or something. ‘You have your own pet humans?’

I might be a bit slow, but it was actually only then that the truth dawned on me. These guys were the real deal– thealley cats we’ve all been warned to stay away from, the ones our mothers told us scary stories about before we could even walk.Ferals. The very word strikes fear into the heart of a cosseted domestic cat. Yes, I’m not surprised you’ve all frozen in terror.

‘Um, yes,’ I squawked, starting to back away.

‘And is it true that they let you live in their houses?’ he asked, staring at me now with wide eyes. ‘And feed you, and give you funny names? Don’t run away, I’m not going to hurt you anymore. I want to know all about it. Gather round, boys. This young tabby lives with humans!Have they given you a funny name? What is it?’

‘Charlie,’ I meowed quietly. They all stared at me in stunned silence.

‘Charlie,’ the tortie repeated. ‘Blimey whiskers. It makes you sound … like a human.’

‘So what’syour name?’ I asked timidly.

‘Name?’ he retorted. ‘We don’t have names! Why wouldwe want fancy names?’

‘So you could call to each other?’ I suggested.

‘Oh, that! We just call each other what weare. Like:he’s black.He’s tail-less. And him over there, he’s stinky.’

‘Oh, I see.’ As far as I was concerned, they were all pretty stinky. But I didn’t think it’d be wise to mention that, at this point. ‘So what areyou?’

‘Big, of course,’ he said, stretching himself up to his full height. ‘That’s why I’m in charge.’

‘Right.’ And I couldn’t help it. Despite everything, I couldn’t ignore my upbringing, you see. It was only polite to say, rubbing my face against his: ‘Well, I’m pleased to meet you, Big.’

‘You too, um,Charlie,’ he said, seeming to have difficulty with the pronunciation. ‘And if you’re lost, I suppose you’d better stick with us. At least till you find your pet humans again, eh? You won’t last long in this area without us to protect you.’

Well, that’d certainly be an improvement on having them beating the poo out of me.

‘Right, OK, thank you. You live around here, do you?’ I added, as we didn’t appear to be hurrying off home anywhere.

‘Born and bred in this yard,’ Big said proudly. ‘All the boys were. The whole of this area – the yard and the alleyways off it – is our territory. Humans don’t like us, of course, apart from the odd one or two who seem to feel sorry for us and bring us food occasionally.’

‘So you have to hunt every day, I suppose?’ I stared around me. There didn’t seem to be any bushes or trees or even grass around. ‘Just mice and rats, is it?’

‘And fish, if we can get it,’ said Black, who’d been creeping closer to get in on the conversation.

‘Yeah, the humans go out in their boats every morning and come back with loads of them,’ Big explained. ‘We take it in turns to creep up and try to nick a fish or two without them seeing us. Most of them shout at us or kick us if they catch us at it, but sometimes there’s a tame human who actuallygives us a fish.’

‘Not often, though,’ Stinky complained. ‘You’d think they’d share, wouldn’t you – I can’t see why they need so many fish just for themselves.’

‘Greedy,’ said Big. ‘That’s their trouble.’

I yawned. It was fascinating, now everyone had calmed down, to hear about the ferals’ lifestyle, but I’m sure you’ll agree I’d had a tiring day one way or another, and it must have been the middle of the night by now. I looked around me, puzzled.

‘Where are your beds?’

‘Beds?’ They all stared at me. ‘Are you being funny?’

‘No. Sorry, why?’

‘We sleep here, in the yard,Charlie. In corners, behind walls, in doorways, or down one of the alleyways. Sometimes in summer we sleep on the roof tops,’ Big said. ‘I’ll find you a little place near me, when it’s sleep time.’

‘Isn’t it sleep time yet, then?’ I asked, stifling another yawn. I’d always thought any time was sleep time for cats!

‘No, it’s scavenging time, for catnip’s sake,’ he said, looking exasperated. ‘Don’t you know anything?’

Evidently not. I didn’t even know what scavenging was, but I wasn’t about to admit it.

‘It’s how we get most of our food nowadays,’ Tail-less kindly explained, seeing my blank look. ‘Humans make it easy for us, they’re so lazy and untidy. They feed in the street, don’t finish their food, and throw what’s left over in bins. But sometimes they just drop it on the ground instead. And also the bins get full up, and overflow, so there’s always plenty for us. The best places are outside their eating houses.Caf?s, they call them,’ he added, as if I didn’t know. ‘And the ones they callfish and chip shops– they’re the best. Andtakeaways.’

The others were all meowing agreement.

‘Come on, then, let’s go,’ Stinky urged. ‘I’m starving.’

So was I, now he came to mention it.

‘You’d better come with us,’ said Big. ‘Seems like you need an education.’

And with that, he led the way back out of the yard. I watched them moving off for a minute. I was so tired, and so sore from my wounds, that getting an education wasn’t exactly uppermost in my mind. But what else could I do? As he’d pointed out, it seemed I’d be in danger around here if I didn’t stick with them.

‘Why can’t we go in the morning?’ I called out, in one last attempt to get time for a nap.

They all turned round and stared at me again. I was getting used to it.

‘In themorning?’ squawked Black. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

‘We can’t scavenge humans’ waste food during the daytime,’ Big explained patiently, as if I was a particularly dim little kitten. ‘That’s when the seagulls are out in force.’

‘Oh. Yes, I’ve seen some of them around. They’re not very nice, are they?’

‘Not very nice!’ Tail-less mimicked. ‘What an understatement, eh, boys? They’re thieving, spiteful, vicious hoodlums, that’s what they are,’ he added in a hiss. ‘We hate them, and they hate us. They’ve been known to kill cats, you know.’

That’s rich coming from you lot! I wanted to meow, knowing how close they’d come to killing this particular cat themselves. But I thought better of it, since I’d apparently now been adopted as their slightly odd posh friend.

‘I can well believe it,’ I said instead, limping after them. ‘One of them bit my human kitten’s finger.’

‘It probably deserved it,’ Big said dismissively. ‘But that’s not the point. We don’t go anywhere near the bins when they’re awake, right? We wait till the eating houses are closed for the night, then we go and get as many scraps as we can before the gulls wake up.’

‘It’s bad enough risking life and paw when the fishing boats come in,’ Stinky told me. ‘The gulls follow the boats back in from the sea – loads of them, all swarming together and shouting their heads off. If we want to try sneaking a fish when they’re unloaded, we have to be very quick and very crafty.’

‘One of us makes a run for the fish, while the others watch out for gulls and try to protect him,’ Big explained.

It sounded so dangerous, I wondered why they bothered, instead of just hunting for easy prey like mice. But then I remembered how delicious a mouthful of lovely fresh fish tasted, and my mouth started to water. I was weak with hunger. I’d have to take my lessons from these boys, whether I liked it or not.

By now we were approaching the area where all the shops were. I stayed close to the ferals, unsure what the procedure was.

‘Stay in that doorway, and watch me,’ Big said.

He stalked towards a rubbish bin outside the shop next to the one where I was waiting, and with a quick glance around him, leapt up onto the top of the bin, grabbed something in his mouth and ran back to me. It was all done in the flash of a cat’s eye.

‘Here you go,’ he said, dropping his trophy at my paws. ‘Help yourself. I’m going back for more.’

I sniffed the lump of food. Fish! Yes– just what I needed. I took a hungry bite and my appetite diminished straight away. What kind of fish was this? The outside was hard and crunchy! I spat it out, and tore at what was left of it with my teeth to investigate further. The inside looked nice enough – good white fish meat, a bit bland, but I had to be grateful for small mercies.

‘What on earth is it?’ I asked Big when he returned with another lump from the bin. ‘It’s all crunchy and horrible on the outside!’

‘Bit ungrateful, aren’t you?’ he remarked. ‘Is it true what they say about domestic cats – you’re so pampered, you can afford to be fussy eaters?’

‘Sorry,’ I said, immediately feeling ashamed. ‘You’re right. I’ve been used to the lovely food my humans hunt for me in the supermarkets. I suppose Iam spoilt.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said easily. ‘You’ll have to eat whatever you can get now, like us, or you’ll starve. This is the type of fish humans buy from fish and chip shops. For some reason they like it covered in this stuff. Batter, they call it. Ruins the taste, doesn’t it, but thefish meat inside is OK, until it starts to go off, anyway. That’s why we only take what’s at the top of the bin.’ He took a bite of the second lump of food he’d brought back. ‘Want to try some of this?’

‘What is it?’ I asked doubtfully. It looked like mouse meat wrapped in bread.

‘They call it a burger. Don’t your humans eat them? I thought they all did. Round here, they even walk along the street eating them. Crazy! Then they wonder why the seagulls attack them!’

‘I think they do have them at home sometimes,’ I said. Just thinking about Laura cooking the dinners for my family made me feel sad all over again. ‘But I’ve never tried one.’

‘Help yourself. I’ll see what else I can find. Then we’ll move on to catch the others up at the Chinese takeaway. That’ll be an experience for you!’

I nibbled at the burger, discarding the bread, and then felt bad for being fussy. The meat part wasn’t bad, but it was smothered in something yellow and spicy that made me want to throw up. Then Big came back again, this time with a mouthful of chips. I knew all aboutthem– I’d occasionally stolen one or two from my humans’ dinner plates when they hadn’t eaten them all. But these were different: greasy and slimy. I forced one down and hoped I wasn’t going to have an upset stomach.

‘If this is the sort of food humans eat around here,’ I commented, ‘they must have very strange tastes.’

‘Well, let’s face it,’ he said. ‘Humans are just plain weird. I’ve given up trying to work them out. I can’t understand what you see in them.’

And so the night went on. Exhausted, aching and starting to feel sick, I was forced to sample things I thought no self-respecting cat would ever let pass their whiskers. Now that my hunger had been eased, I really didn’twant to try balls of pig meat smeared with a bright red spicy sauce, or prawns that had been ruined by being covered in that awful batter stuff. But I didn’t want to offend Big and his friends, who were teaching me how to scavenge and might just as happily have left me to starve.

‘You’ll get a taste for these things in due course,’ Tail-less tried to comfort me as I retched on a piece of funny-tasting red sausage wrapped in stale bread.

But I wasn’t sure I ever could. When they finally led me back to their yard, Big showed me his sleeping place in a mossy crevice of a brick wall – and taking pity on me, offered to share it with me. Then I lay awake for ages, watching the dawn break, thinking about Julian and Laura, and whether they’d gone to the hospital to find Caroline and Grace. And whether Caroline’s wounds hurt as much as mine did. And … whether they all missed me. But eventually I mewed myself quietly to sleep, curled up against Big’s bony back, and dreamt I was back here in Little Broomford, chasing stupid pigeons in the Big House grounds. Oh, if only that dream would come true!

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When I woke up the sun was shining brightly, but I could see from the length of the shadows that the day was already half over. I guessed I’d have to get used to this more nocturnal lifestyle while I was living with the feral gang. I just hoped it wasn’t going to go on for too long.

‘I need to start exploring the town again, to try to find my human family,’ I told Big when I found him washing himself under the lamppost. ‘It’s not that I don’t appreciate your generosity in letting me stay with you and the boys. It’s very good of you to give me your protection.’

As you can tell, despite him calling me a hero the previous day, and seeming to like me well enough now, I was still a little wary of Big and I didn’t want to offend him.

‘All right, all right, no need for all that,’ he said. ‘I get it, you’re not one of us, and I suppose you’re missing your nice easy life with your tame humans.’ He paused. ‘But I’m not sure you should be off exploring on your own. You’re only a kid, and not very streetwise. You’ll probably get yourself lost again. Your eye is so swollen you can’t see properly.’

Yes, and whose fault was that?

‘What am I going to do, then? If I don’t find them soon, they might finish their holiday and go back to our normal home. And I’d never be able to get backthere on my own. It’s on the other side of the universe – our car had to carry us here and it took nearly a whole day.’

‘Oh, they’reholiday humans, are they? Huh! They’re the worst sort,’ he said.

‘Mine aren’t!’ I retorted. ‘They’re very kind humans, actually, and they love cats.’

‘I bet they wouldn’t loveus. Humans never do. They treat us like we’re rats,’ he said. ‘But still, I think a couple of us should come with you if you’re going to start touring the streets looking for them. I warn you, though, there could be a few fights if we trespass into other cats’ territories.’

‘I expect you’ll win, though.’

‘Of course we will. That goes without saying!’

Black, Stinky and Tail-less had joined us by now, and Tail-less was meowing about going to the harbour to try to steal a fish or two.

‘Good idea,’ Big agreed. ‘Let’s show our new little friend how it’s done. We have to be careful, as well as crafty,’ he said, as we began to move off.

‘Yes, you explained about the angry humans and the vicious seagulls,’ I said. It didn’t sound like my idea of fun. ‘Shouldn’t we just stay away?’ I think I’d proved myself not to be a Cowardy Cat now, but to be fair, my bites and scratches from the previous day were still sore, and I was walking with a limp.

‘What, and miss the chance of a nice bit of fish, fresh from the sea?’ squawked Stinky.

‘You can stay in the shadow of the humans’ pub place, and watch us from there,’ Big said. ‘Tail-less will stay with you and watch out for seagulls swooping down. Black and Stinky – you stand guard by the harbourmaster’s hut as usual. I’ll be the runner today. If anyone sees one of those humans by the boats, coming after me, you give me the cat-call, OK?’

Despite my anxiety, the whole operation was actually carried out so quickly, the humans still had their backs turned when Big returned, a whole fish hanging from his mouth.

‘Tuck in,’ he meowed to me and Tail-less. ‘I’m going back for another.’

‘Cod. Yum, my favourite,’ said Tail-less.

And I have to admit, it was the freshest, most delicious fish I’d ever tasted. No wonder these boys took such a risk for it.

Suddenly, there was a loud yowl of warning from where Black and Stinky were positioned. Big, another fish in his mouth, turned tail and dashed back towards us. The two humans had turned away from their boats and one of them was throwing something at him while the other one yelled:

‘Bloody cats! Thieving bloody varmints! Get out of here, you pesky moth-eaten bag of bones!’

‘Phew!’ meowed Big as he skidded to a halt beside us. ‘That was a close shave.’

‘I can’t believe how rude that human was to you,’ I sympathised. ‘There was no need to call you names like that.’

Big and Tail-less both gave me a funny look.

‘Oh, he was just making a lot of angry growling noises,’ he said without much interest.

I thought perhaps he’d been running too fast to hear what was being said. But a little later, while we were finishing off the fish round the back of the pub, a couple of humans strolled past, holding each other’s paws, the way they do sometimes if they like each other.

‘Ah, look at the poor little cats,’ the female said, stopping and bending down towards us. ‘Do you think they’re strays, Kev?’

‘No, I think they’re feral cats, Gemma. Don’t touch them, they might be carrying some kind of disease. And they might attack you.’

‘What a cheek!’ I muttered to Big, but he wasn’t taking any notice.

‘Poor things,’ said the female. ‘It’s not their fault, Kev – they were probably someone’s pets once. They might have got lost, and turned feral to survive.’

I pricked up my ears at this. Was I going toturn feral too, if I didn’t find my way home? Would I end up living my whole life like this, stealing fish, raiding bins for humans’ rubbish, sleeping rough and starting to talk in the strange, guttural Cat accent of my new friends? I started to shiver at the thought of it.

‘No, most of them will have been born in the alleyways around here to feral mothers,’ said the male. ‘They’re vermin, Gemma. There’s a lot to be said for the idea of a cull.’

‘What?’ She let go of his paw, looking at him in horror. ‘I can’t believe you just said that! What have these poor little things done to deserve that?’

As you can imagine, I was liking her a whole lot more than her male! I couldn’t help myself from purring and going to rub myself against her legs in gratitude. It seemed ages since I’d had any human affection.

‘Don’t let it touch you!’ the male said, pulling her away from me. ‘It’s probably riddled with fleas and disease.’

‘I’m not!’ I meowed. ‘I’m a pet! I’m lost! I want some love!’

‘What are you doing?’ Big meowed at me at the same time. ‘Stay away from them, Charlie, for the love of catnip! You don’t know whether they’re tame humans or not.’

‘They were. Well,she was,’ I mewed sadly as I watched them walk away. I noticed they weren’t holding paws anymore and the female was walking apart from the male, looking cross. ‘She was being kind, but the male was horrible, wasn’t he.’

All the other cats were staring at me.

‘So what are you, some kind of expert in human behaviour now?’ Big demanded. ‘I’m telling you, it’s impossible to know what they’re thinking. Not all of them are like the pet humans you used to have, you know.’

The wordsused to have filled my heart with despair. Iwas going to go back to my family. I had to find my way back! But in the meantime, something was puzzling me.

‘Didn’t you hear what that male was saying?’ I asked Big quietly. Maybe he was a bit deaf.

‘I didn’t notice any particular body language from him, no,’ he said. ‘But then again, humans don’t use much, do they.’

‘I mean what he wassaying. Verbalising.’

‘Oh, you mean all that growling and whining they do. It’s meaningless. Don’t worry about it. It’s only when they bark like dogs we have to make ourselves scarce.’

‘No,’ I protested, ‘it’s not meaningless at all. Do you mean to say you can’t understand Human?’

‘There’s nothing to understand,’ he insisted. But he was giving me another funny look now. ‘You’re not telling me you think you can translate it?’

‘I thought all cats could. We’re born bilingual. I mean, we can’tspeak it, of course, and they can’t understand Cat, sadly, but …’

Stinky and Black were sniggering. Big and Tail-less were frozen on the spot, looking at me as if I had two heads.

‘Prove it,’ Tail-less demanded.

‘Yeah, go on,’ Black said. ‘Tell us what those humans were saying.’

‘All right. But you won’t like it. The male said we were all vermin, we carry disease, and we should be culled.’

‘What?’ Stinky squawked. ‘I hope you’re making this up!’

‘No, I’m not. But the female felt sorry for us and told him off.’

There was silence for a while. They were starting to look at me differently– almost like they respected me.

‘And you’re saying you can understandeverything humans say?’ Big demanded.

‘Well, they do sometimes come out with new words I haven’t heard before. But I can usually get the gist of it.’

‘I suppose it’s because you were born to domestic cat parents,’ he said wonderingly, ‘and you’ve been raised by humans, lived with them from kittenhood.’

‘Well, all the cats I know can understand Human,’ I said. ‘So I didn’t think it was unusual.’

‘We’ve only ever had other feral cats for company,’ Stinky said. ‘All of our mothers were ferals. All the females we mate with, and all our kittens, are ferals too.’

‘Yeah, we’ve never been friends with a posh domestic cat like you before,’ Black said. ‘We normally leave them for dead if they stray into our territory.’

‘I know.’

There was another silence.

‘Well, we’re sorry about that now, aren’t we, boys,’ Big said. ‘And it looks like you might be a useful little cat to have around, after all.’

‘How?’

‘You can give us the low-down on what any passing humans are saying. There are always rumours going around our community about them plotting to poison us or chase us out of town, but we’ve never known whether there’s any truth in it all.’

‘Good idea,’ Tail-less said, ‘And in return we’ll keep trying to help you find your humans. You don’t belong round here, that’s for sure. You’re … well, you’redifferent.’

I wasn’t sure if the look he was giving me now was one of admiration or wariness. But it was a fair enough bargain. And if it resulted in me finding my family, preferably before I turned feral myself, it was the only way to go.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘I’ll be your translator. Now, can we start searching for my holiday home?’

That evening, while Black and Stinky went scavenging for scraps in the bins as usual, Big and Tail-less took me on a tour of some of the streets of the town. The houses here seemed mostly to be very large, with signs outside printed with names in Human.

‘Hotels,’ Big explained. ‘Holiday humans stay in them and get fed. The bins round the backs are good for scavenging. I’m guessing your humans will be in one of these?’

‘No,’ I meowed sadly. ‘They’re staying in a little house – a cottage. It’s in a quiet lane, not a street like this with -pavements. It’s near the sea.’

‘Hmm. Sounds like it’s further out of town. Well, we’ve covered quite a lot of ground already tonight. I suggest we call off the search for now and get something to eat. Don’t worry, young Charlie.’ He was sounding quite affectionate towards me now. ‘We’ll search the streets every day. We’ll get there in the end.’

I hoped he was right. But I was beginning to feel like it might be an impossible mission.

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CHAPTER TWELVE

Yes, my friends, you’re right in thinking I was becoming used to the feral cats by now. After living with them like that, I can tell you I actually have a lot of sympathy for them. They’ve got a terrible reputation, and it’s true they can be very aggressive. I’ve got the scars to prove it! But it’s understandable. They’ve got tough lives, and after all, they didn’t choose to be born into those circumstances. I understand now why they hang around in gangs, too. On their own, they’d be prey to all sorts of dangers. They need each other for protection. It’s all very well for domestic cats like us to say we enjoy our own company. We can pick and choose which cats we want to spend time with, and who’s allowed into our territory, or we can be completely solitary if we want to. We’ve got humans to protect us and we can choose to stay inside our nice warm homes whenever we like. I found myself wishing I could do more to help those cats, but to be honest, I don’t think they’d have been able to adapt to a life like ours.

For one thing, none of them had ever heard about going to the vet forthat operation. They looked absolutely horrified when I told them I’d had it.

‘I thought you said your humans were kind!’ Black said.

‘They are. I know it seems like a cruel thing to do, but honestly, it’s just like my friend Oliver explained to me when I was a little kitten: what you’ve never had, you never miss.’

‘Well, I’m as sure as a dog’s backside thatI’d miss it,’ Big said. ‘We all would! Apart from the fresh fish, it’s the only thing that makes our lives worth living.’

I thought about this for a while. There were so many things that mademy life worth living when I was at home in Little Broomford, I felt almost guilty about it, not to say even more homesick.

‘We have humans to love us,’ I tried to explain. ‘We sit on their laps and get stroked and cuddled. It makes up for not mating.’

‘You must be joking,’ Stinky said. ‘That sounds awful. I’m surprised you put up with it.’

‘And it can’t possibly compare with a quick session with Blotchy Face when she’s on heat,’ Black put in.

‘Yeah, she’d soon make you forget about your humans, Charlie!’ said Tail-less.

I felt sorry for Blotchy Face, whoever she was. She must have spent her whole life being pregnant and having loads of kittens.

As the boys continued to discuss their mating rituals, I distanced myself from the conversation. I couldn’t help thinking about my sisters back at home. I was glad to remember most of you females have been spayed.

‘I was neutered before I was old enough to want to mate with anyone,’ I tried to explain to the boys when their banter had finally died down. ‘Our humans get us done because they want to take care of us. They don’t want our females to have lots of kittens who might not be looked after by anyone.’

‘Our females look after their own kittens,’ Black retorted. ‘Well, for a few weeks, anyway, till they can fend for themselves.’

And then they just end up living rough, like you, I wanted to say. But I knew it was no use. They’d never understand. The gulf between our lifestyles was too vast.

But the one thing they envied, once they were actually convinced I wasn’t faking, was my ability to understand Human. That same day, I proved my worth to them by translating a very interesting conversation that was going on outside the little caf? near our yard. Two females were sitting together at a table with cups in their paws, talking earnestly about seagulls.

‘Damn things are a real nuisance,’ one of them said, pointing out a couple of gulls circling above. ‘Ever since a few people were attacked, it’s been putting off holidaymakers from coming here.’

‘I know. Business is going down the pan for the beach caf?s and kiosks. Nobody wants to risk eating in the open air.’

I remembered how we were told the same thing by the Annie female who owned our holiday cottage. And because I still felt cross about Caroline having her finger bitten, I listened closely to the women now.

‘It’s the fault of people who leave their food rubbish lying around,’ the first one said. ‘I’m glad the council’s putting up new notices, warning people about dropping litter and threatening them with fines. It’s about time they clamped down on it.’

‘Yes, and on the people who feed the gulls, too! Some holidaymakers think they’re being kind, until they get swooped on and pecked. The gulls should be left to feed themselves with their natural food.’

‘There are signs up now about that too,’ said the other woman. ‘Please Do Not Feed the Gulls. They are Becoming a Nuisance. I just hope it works, otherwise Mudditon is never going to recover from this year’s slump in bookings.’ She paused, and I suddenly realised she was looking straight at me. I’d been so interested in what they were saying, I’d poked my head a little way out of the hiding place behind the fence where I’d been resting with the gang. ‘Look at that little cat watching us,’ she said, nudging her companion. ‘Haven’t seen him around here before.’

‘No. I suppose he’s one of the ferals, but he doesn’t seem as nervous as most of them, does he, Jean? Hello, puss!’

I shrank back behind the fence. Big was growling at me.

‘Stay out of sight, Charlie, for catnip’s sake! I keep telling you –you might like humans, but they don’t like us!’

‘Sorry. I’m trying to listen to what they’re saying. It’s interesting. I’ll tell you in a minute.’

‘Well, I know some people think they’re a nuisance,’ the first woman went on, ‘but the feral cats do have their uses.’

‘Do they? I can’t think what, although I do feel sorry for them.’

‘Well, there was a bit in the local paper this week about how they prowl around at night, foraging for food in the streets and around the bins. They’re actually keeping down the amount of food waste, Shirley. I’d sooner the wild cats ate the leftovers people throw away, than the seagulls, andhopefully in the end they’ll give up, if there isn’t enough food lying around for them, and they’ll go back to eating their natural diet.’

‘Yes, that’s true, I suppose. And of course, the cats keep down the numbers of rats and mice, too. It’s a shame they can’t catch the odd seagull! Or at least chase them away. Then we’d really have cause to be grateful to them.’

‘Yes, and perhaps the council would stop threatening to exterminate the poor things. They should realise they’re actually performing a public service!’

Their conversation turned to something less interesting then, so I turned back to the other cats and related what I’d overheard.

‘She actually said we perform a public service?’ Black meowed in surprise.

‘I thought all the humans hated us,’ said Tail-less.

‘Well, it seems like some of them, at least, realise that you’re helping to keep the seagulls away by getting to the food waste before they do,’ I said. ‘Of course, if you couldcatch seagulls, or chase them off, you’d make yourselves really popular, but that’s not going to happen, is it.’

There was a silence.

‘You’re surely not going to tell me you can catch seagulls?’ I said in disbelief. ‘They’re huge! And scary!’

‘Sadly, that’s something even we wouldn’t attempt,’ Big said. ‘But chasing them away? We haven’t tried that yet. What do you think, boys? Might be a bit of fun!’

‘Are you mad?’ I said. ‘They’ve got those massive great beaks. They’ll turn on you and take a bite out of your faces!’

‘Not if we all charge at them together,’ Stinky said. ‘We’re quite a force, when we work as a team, Charlie.’

‘I know,’ I said, giving my wounded paw a little lick. ‘Tell me about it. Butseagulls? Really?’

‘Worth a try, isn’t it?’ Black said. ‘If it means the humans around here would leave us alone and stop throwing things at us.’

‘Right, that’s settled,’ said Big. ‘We’ll get up a bit earlier than usual tomorrow, boys, and see what we can do. You can watch, Charlie. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’re a lot tougher than you look, after the way you came back forme the other day. But you’re still injured. You might be able to help when that leg heals up, but meanwhile just watch and learn.’

Despite my constant worries about finding Caroline and my futile attempts to find the holiday cottage, I must admit I fell asleep that night feeling ever so slightly proud of myself. I was learning to scavenge. I was learning to steal fish. I was going to learn to chase seagulls. I was tough, I was brave– I was surviving. For a minute I’d almost forgotten I didn’t want to become like the ferals.

Over the next couple of days, between continuing the search for my holiday home and practising chasing seagulls, our little gang was kept busy. To begin with, they only chased one solitary gull at a time, picking them when they were engrossed in feeding on something dropped on the pavement, or strutting towards humans eating on the beach. It was satisfying to see the look of alarm in their beady eyes as they took off, shouting at us crossly. Gradually they progressed to chasing off three or four at a time, and by then I was so caught up in the excitement, I couldn’t resist joining in. The five of us would rush them at once, and so far we’d escaped any injuries so we were beginning to feel invincible. Inevitably, though, there came the time when, occupied with chasing off two fat gulls coming in to land on the beach, we didn’t notice one of their friends running up behind us. Flapping his huge wings, he forced poor Stinky to the ground and began pecking him viciously.

‘Get off me!’ he screamed, trying in vain to fight back with his claws and teeth.

Within seconds the rest of us were rushing at the gull, who gave one disgusted‘Caw’ and took off to follow his friends.

‘Are you OK, Stinky?’ I asked. I was secretly pretty pleased with myself for joining in with his rescue without a second thought for my own safety, despite my injured leg. I was becoming braver and more heroic by the day!

‘Just a few scratches,’ he said, getting to his paws.

But after we’d all calmed down, I noticed him wiping blood from his head and licking a sore area of his flank where the fur had been pulled out.

‘I’ll kill that seagull for you if he comes near us again,’ I told him.

‘Nice thought, Charlie, boy,’ he said. ‘But it’d take more than one of you.’

If nothing else, the incident had reminded us all about the wisdom of keeping very close together.

Normally we’d make ourselves scarce as soon as we’d got rid of the gulls, before any humans on the beach could pay too much attention to us, as the other boys still had an instinctive distrust of them. But on a couple of occasions, as we darted back out of sight behind a rocky outcrop where we could lie in wait, there was a burst of noise from various humans who’d been watching us.

‘What’s that?’ Tail-less asked nervously the first time it happened.

‘They’re cheering,’ I said. ‘And clapping – banging their front paws together. They do it when they’re pleased.’

‘Really?’ said Big. ‘I thought they sounded fierce.’

‘No. They’re telling us we did a good job.’ I looked around at the others. ‘See? It’s just as we hoped. The humans are on our side when it comes to chasing the seagulls away from their picnics.’

This seemed to spur my friends on. It was as if we were on a mission: every time we saw a gull anywhere near humans, or looking as if it was going to start helping itself to human food, we scared it away.

‘Let’s hope those pesky gulls get the message in the end,’ Stinky said. ‘We don’t want them on our patch.’

And so it was that for the remainder of my time with the ferals, we dispersed more seagulls from the town than any cats anywhere could ever have done before. We were strong, we were powerful, we were fearless and undefeatable. Before long, we could see we were really making a difference, starting to keep the area free of scavenging seagulls and pleasing the human population, who on the whole were becoming kinder towards us.

I was particularly aware of this because of listening to the conversations of the two females called Jean and Shirley. Unknown to Big– who would definitely have tried to stop me – I’d started hanging around the caf? where they seemed to meet every day. They’d noticed me outside the fence again, and had called out hello to me in such friendly voices, I knew they were kind humans who wouldn’t hurt me. I was desperate for some human affection, and I knew Big wouldn’t understand. So I waited until he was having a nap, and went back to the caf? on my own. This time when Jean noticed me and said ‘Here he is again! Hello, little tabby cat. You’re a friendly one, aren’t you?’ – I scampered up to her and wound myself around her legs.

‘Ah, he’s really quite tame,’ Shirley crooned, reaching down to stroke me. ‘And he only looks young, Jean, not much more than a kitten. Perhaps he isn’t a feral after all.’

‘But look at the state of him. He’s definitely been fighting – and his coat’s in a terrible state. Poor little thing. How come you’re so friendly?’ Jean added, as I started to purr with the contentment of being stroked.

‘Because I’m not feral! I’m a pet, and I’m lost,’ I meowed, rubbing my head against her hand.

‘Perhaps he’s actually a lost pet,’ Shirley said, as if I hadn’t just been telling her that.

‘I don’t know,’ Jean said, looking at me doubtfully. ‘If he is, I reckon he’s been living rough for most of his life.’

‘Someone must be feeding him, then, unless he’s just hunting mice and birds.’

‘Or else he’s living on scraps, like all the other ferals – and helping to keep those dratted gulls away,’ Jean said, and then she laughed, and added, ‘although I can’t imagine this little chap chasing a seagull like the others have been doing, can you, Shirley?’

I felt a bit offended, then. Little did they know, I was getting as good at it as any of them! Anyway I didn’t hang around for much longer – I was too worried that Big would wake up and come looking for me, and I could just imagine how he’d feel about me not only fraternising with strange humans, but letting them stroke me. But I felt a bit better for having made friends with them, and I was determined to come back again whenever I could. It was, after all, how I got information for the other boys about what humans were saying. And, eventually, it was how I came to be taken home to my family. But that’s another story, and I can see there are some small kittens among you getting sleepy. So Ithink we should probably say goodnight for now, and I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Morning, everyone. I hope you’re all feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today? No? What’s up? Oh, you didn’t get much sleep, Smudge? Or you, Oliver? Nancy?None of you could get to sleep, could you… for worrying about the end of my story, wondering how I finally got brought home again? Well, I’m sorry, I must say. Imagine howI felt, wondering about it myself, night after night, curled up in that nook in the brick wall with Big snoring next to me. I might have gone a little bit feral myself in some ways, but I never quite got used to not having a soft, comfy bed to sleep in. So think yourselves lucky! I shall never take my good fortune for granted again, I can assure you.

One of the things that bothered me most during those long, uncomfortable nights, when I was often sleepless with homesickness and anxiety about the future, was that my family would be getting used to living without me. Caroline might have forgotten about me. What if they gave up on me, and got themselves a new cat to replace me? If they saw me now, would they even recognise me? I had no doubt I’d changed since I’d been living rough. Quite apart from the scars I’d got from that fight, and the slight limp I still had because of my leg wound, I could feel that I was thinner. I was probably unhealthy-looking from my peculiar diet, too, although my muscles felt harder and stronger. My fur was getting matted because, although I refused to neglect my personal hygiene, and I puzzled my new friends by insisting on washing myself thoroughly after every meal, I’d been used to having my coat cared for and brushed by my humans too. I guessed I’d be taunted and teased if I mentioned any concerns about my appearance, but I hated to think that I’d probably also got fleas by now. All the boys spent so much time scratching themselves, I had to accept it was inevitable, and started to regret all the times I’d fought against Julian and Laura when they’d been administering flea treatments to the back of my neck. We really should show more appreciation of how much our humans do for us, you know, but of course, we cats prefer to think we could manage without them. I’ve learnt my lesson the hard way. I always thought they needed us more than we need them, but in fact – I hate to say it, and you might not believe it – but the reverse is probably true.

Another thing I missed wasplaying. It probably sounds strange, but feral cats don’t play, not once they’ve grown out of their kittenhood, anyway. Their lives are too dangerous, too hard, and they have enough to do, trying to get food and keep safe from predators. Ah, don’t cry for them, Tabitha. They don’t know any different, remember. They’ve never had humans gettingdown on a nice soft carpet with them and rolling balls to them or tickling them, never had presents of toy mice filled with catnip … All right, I’m making you all upset now, I can see, so I’ll move on. But, you see,I missed it. I missed just having the freedom to leap around in the sunshine, chasing my tail or my shadow or some fluttery butterflies. After all, I was still only half grown. Now you know what I meant at the beginning of my story when I said I’d had to grow up fast.

Walking the streets day after day with one or more of the gang, trying to find the part of town where I’d been staying with my family, I was getting more and more dispirited. I knew I needed to find the holiday cottage before they moved back to Little Broomford, otherwise how on earth would I ever find them again? But I had no idea how much time had passed, and whether in fact they might have goneback already. Even if Carolinehadn’t forgotten about me, I hated to think of her missing me as much as I was missing her. And what if all the worries had proved true, about her being ill again? Or what if they hadn’t been able to make her head better at the hospital? I meowed to myself in distress at the thought of poor Caroline lying in bed, sick or in pain, without me there to cuddle up to her. Even if my family had left Mudditon now, I couldn’t give up searching for the cottage – it was my only linkwith them here. What else could I do?

‘I’m beginning to forget what my holiday home looked like,’ I admitted sadly one day to Big. ‘I’m not sure I’d know it now, if I saw it.’

‘Well, you know you’re welcome to stay with us permanently,’ he said. ‘You’ve fitted in really well. I’d never have thought it, when we first met. You’re almost one of us now.’

He was being kind, and I rubbed my face against his to show I appreciated it, but I don’t think he really meant it. I was doing my best, but I’d never quite be able to embrace their lifestyle. I was too fastidious, my accent still too genteel, and I couldn’t share their obsessive interest in female cats. And more to the point, however kind he was, and however much I could feel myself gradually changing, becoming more like my new friends and less like the little kitten I’d been before, staying with the feral cats permanently was obviously not what I wanted. I wanted to go home. I wanted my old life back. I just didn’t know how to make it happen.

But to pay them back for their friendship, I continued to act as their Human language translator, and I was able to report to them that there was a lot more talk around the town about our campaign against the seagulls. On one occasion, when I managed to sneak back to see my two human friends outside the caf? again, I found the one called Shirley reading a newspaper.

‘Look at this in the local paper, Jean,’ she said suddenly. ‘Wild cats chase seagulls off Mudditon beach.“They saved our toddler from attack” says local mum Claire, 32. “The feral cats are doing a good job. Let them stay!”’

‘You see?’ said Shirley. ‘I told you the cats were helpful in their way. Good for them. I’m glad people are taking notice. I never liked seeing those poor starving cats being persecuted.’

I’d been listening from behind the fence up till then, but now I decided it was time to join them again.

‘Talking of poor starving cats,’ said Jean when I trotted towards them, ‘here’s our little tabby friend again, Shirley.’

‘Ah, he seems to have adopted us!’ Shirley said as I rubbed against her legs, purring.

‘Yes. He certainly seems too friendly to be a feral.’

‘But he isn’t wearing a collar, Jean.’

I was only half listening at this point, as I’d found a little bit of cake that someone had dropped under the table, and was intent on gobbling it up.

‘Look at him eating those crumbs, though!’ Jean said. ‘He must be absolutely starving, poor thing. Is there any milk left in the jug?’

At the mention of milk, as you can imagine, I let out a huge meow and, throwing caution to the wind, jumped straight up onto Jean’s lap.

‘Oh!’ she said, making a surprised noise that turned into a laugh. ‘He must have smelt it!’

She was pouring milk from a little white jug into a saucer. I tried to get my head under her arm so that I could drink it, but she held me back, saying‘Careful, little cat! You’ll spill it!’ and she put the saucer down on the ground instead.

‘There you go, boy,’ she said, as I jumped off her lap again and began gulping up the milk furiously.

‘Thank you, that was delicious,’ I meowed. ‘Have you got any more?’

But they both just watched me, laughing, as I washed my whiskers.

‘He’s so sweet,’ Shirley said. ‘I’m tempted to take him home with me, you know. He’s just crying out for some love and care.’

I froze on the spot. They were nice humans, and I was grateful for the milk, of course, but I didn’t like the sound of this. If they took me home, they might want to keep me. And then what? I’dnever get back to Little Broomford or see Caroline again.

‘Goodbye,’ I said. ‘Thanks again.’ Well, I didn’t want to appear ungrateful. But I ran back to the yard where my friends were dozing in the sunshine, and lay down next to Big, feeling slightly ashamed now of my secret visits. It wasn’t fair that I’d had a lovely dish of milk and hadn’t been able to share it with them, but I knew they’d have been too afraid to trust Jean and Shirley.

I tried to make up for it by telling them later that I’d overheard some humans talking about the report in the newspaper while they were asleep. I emphasised the part about people calling for feral cats to be allowed to stay. This was all good news to my friends, of course. Not that they ever lost their distrust of humans in general, but they began to understand that not all of them were intent on hurting them or getting rid of them.

Everything started to change a couple of days later, because of a woman with a chocolate ice cream.

She was quite an elderly human, one of those whose fur have gone white and hobble along holding a stick in one paw. Why they don’t just give up and walk on four paws when they get too old to balance on two, I’ll never understand, but there it is. The boys and I were patrolling the seafront on the other side of the harbour this particular day. We’d already seen off a few seagulls, and had attracted the attention of a group of holiday humans who stood watching us, exclaiming and cheering us on. This old woman came tottering along with her stick, and in the other paw she had a chocolate ice cream, the type they eat out of a pointy biscuity thing, with a stick of chocolate poking out of it. My mouth watered as I watched her licking it, remembering how much Caroline loved those, and how she sometimes gave me the last bit to finish off. I wondered if I’d ever get to enjoy that kind of treat again.

Suddenly there was a shout from the crowd:‘Watch out, love!’

A huge seagull had swooped down from a lamppost and was aiming straight for the woman, trying to grab her ice cream. Suddenly I had a flashback to the day I’d watched Caroline being attacked on the beach for her sandwiches. I pictured Caroline’s poor bleeding finger again, remembered how she’d fallen, and the noise she’d made when her head hit the rock. How she lay there, lifeless, for a minute, before opening her eyes and looking so ill. I let out a little mew of anguish. Where was my poor Caroline now? Perhaps she was still at the hospital – I had no idea what they did at these places, except what Oliver had told me about Caroline being in one when she was very ill before, and that they’d kept her there a long time, trying to make her better. Perhaps this time they hadn’t even been able to make her better – it was bad enough her seeming to be ill again, without having got so badly hurt that day on the beach. And it was all the fault of a nasty, spiteful seagull – just like this one who was going for the poor old female’s ice cream! Overcome with fury at seagulls in general, I didn’t even stop to consider whether the rest of the gang was behind me, or whether in fact they’d even noticed the poor old human’s desperate situation at all. I just charged forward, hissing and spitting for all I was worth.

Of course, the other boys quickly came after me, Big shouting at me for not staying with them. I like to think I got the gull pretty flustered on my own, jumping up at him and yowling my head off, but once I had the gang’s support he didn’t need telling anymore. He flapped away crossly without having nabbed the chocolate ice cream. The poor human had dropped it on the ground, though, as she stumbled, letting go of her stick, and she was only saved from falling over by a couple of young male humans who rushed to help her.

‘Well done, Charlie,’ Big said gruffly, as between us all we quickly licked up as much of the ice cream off the pavement as we could. No point in it going to waste and, as you know, humans are far too pernickety to eat off the ground. ‘But it was a bit daft, wasn’t it, not waiting for us? For the love of catnip, don’t you realise that gull could have had your eye out?’

I flinched. One eye was already still quite sore and swollen. The thought of the other one being pecked out by a seagull was enough to make me realise how lucky I’d been, and how foolhardy. I’d landed badly on my wounded leg too, with all that jumping up at the gull.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I just felt so cross, I got carried away.’

‘It was bloody brave of you, young Charlie,’ said Black, coming to rub his face against mine. ‘I don’t think I’d have dared go for that gull on my own. Good for you.’

This was praise indeed, coming from Black. He was the most aggressive of the boys and I hadn’t forgotten that he’d been the first one to attack me, that day when I’d been alone and defenceless. Up till now I’d always believed he still looked down on me somewhat as a naive, posh little house kitten.

‘Thank you,’ I purred. ‘Thank you all,’ I added as the other boys joined in with the congratulations. I looked around at them all. My new friends. I finally felt completely accepted by them now. I should be able to confide in them, shouldn’t I – explain why I’d suddenly been able to behave so bravely. ‘It was because of Caroline, you see – my human kitten,’ I said. ‘I told you she got attacked by a seagull, didn’t I?’

‘So what?’ Stinky said.

‘Well, she hurt herself – badly. Her poor head was broken, and bleeding, and she might still be in hospital, and she might be very ill, everyone’s worried about her, and … and I miss her so much, she’s my favourite human in the whole world, and I just want to go home to her again and findout if she’s all right, and …’

I stopped. All the boys were staring at me. I realised I’d been making a terrible mewing noise at the back of my throat all through this long meow – that in fact I was probably sounding more like a pathetic baby kitten than a brave seagull-chaser.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘But that was what made me so cross with that seagull.’

‘Well, at least something good came of it, then!’ Black said cheerfully.

They all turned away, and I tried to calm myself down again. It had been pointless, after all, trying to explain to them how I felt about Caroline. They’d never understand.

But just then, Big turned back again, breaking away from the others, and he came over to me and rubbed his face against mine. He didn’t say anything. He probably didn’t have a clue what to say, probably hadn’t even followed a single word of my meow. But he was showing he cared – and that, for now, was something. For now, it had to be enough. But after that day, I was even more determined I’d somehow find Caroline again, even if it took me the rest of my nine lives.

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

There was one thing about the Chocolate Ice Cream Incident that I didn’t tell the others. Never having lived with humans, the feral boys had no understanding about the kind of toys they played with. So it would have been hard to explain to them that I knew people in the crowd watching us that day, and probably other days too, had been taking photos of us. I’d glimpsed them holding their phones and cameras up in the air and aiming them at us as we stalked the gulls before a chase, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise to me to find out eventually that someone had captured a picture of megoing to the rescue of the Ice Cream woman. This is how I found out.

Once again it was because of my new human friends Jean and Shirley. When I made my secret visits to them at the caf?, I often heard them talking about whatever had been written in their newspaper. On this particular occasion, a day or two after the Battle for the Chocolate Ice Cream, they were sitting with their heads close together, laughing, apparently, at a picture in it.

‘That’s so funny, Jean!’ the one called Shirley was saying. ‘Just look at that seagull, terrified of one little cat!’

‘Well, you’re right about one thing, Shirl, I’ll give you that – the wild cats have certainly started being a deterrent around here. I hope that poor old dear wasn’t badly hurt.’

‘No. My niece Holly was down on the seafront that day, as it happens, and saw the whole thing. She said the cat scared the seagull right off, and although the poor woman got a nasty shock and did drop her ice cream when she stumbled, she wasn’t hurt. Someone caught her and stopped her from falling over. Apparently a lot of other cats joined in afterwards but this little one had already saved the day.’ Then she picked the paper up again and held it closer to her face. ‘Hang on a minute!’ she said, sounding excited. ‘Who does this look like to you?’

They both stared at the paper again, then at me– I was sitting by Jean’s feet, where I’d been washing my whiskers after their usual treat of a saucer of milk.

‘Are you saying you think it’s him – our little friend here?’ Jean looked back at the paper again. ‘Well, you could be right, although to be fair there are probably lots of little feral tabbies like this around.’

‘Well, the person who sent this picture into the paper wasn’t the only one to have his camera out,’ said Shirley. ‘My niece told me she’d filmed the whole thing on her phone. She’s going to show me when she comes round tonight. She’s put it on Facebook, and YouTube apparently. She says it might go viral, whatever that means. She seems to think it’ll make her famous. Kids, eh? The ideas they get into their heads!’

‘It’s more likely to make the little cat famous!’ her friend remarked, and they both laughed.

Well, by now, as you can imagine, I was meowing my head off at them.

‘Itwas me who chased the seagull away from that old lady!’ I said. ‘Iam that cat!’

But Jean had folded up the paper now and they were talking about something else. And even though I jumped up on Shirley’s lap and nudged her hands and arms with my head until she almost spilt her tea over me, they just gave me a little stroke and laughed at me, and nothing more was said about the picture.

When I rejoined Big and the others back at the yard, I was still so worked up about the whole thing, I couldn’t resist telling him what I’d overheard.

‘You mean to tell me you’ve been hanging around outside that caf? on your own while we were asleep?’ he meowed at me. ‘Have you suddenly got a death wish, these last few days?’

‘I couldn’t sleep,’ I said. ‘I was just listening.’ I wondered if he could smell humans on me. What would he say if he knew I’d actually been cuddling up with them?

‘Charlie,’ he said in a stern meow, ‘I keep telling you not to take risks around humans. Even if some of them might not mind us so much now, you don’t know which ones might still be dangerous.’

‘They were talking aboutme, though! They had a picture of me in their newspaper.’

He gave me a pitying look.‘Charlie, do us all a favour, right? Don’t let all the fuss about your bravery the other day go to your head. You’re a good little cat, at the end of the day, but nobody likes a show off.’

‘I’m not showing off!’ I protested. ‘I could hear what they were saying.’

‘Yes, I know you can understand Human. But please, don’t start telling me they’ve got pictures of you. That’s just too far-fetched for common sense.’

I knew I’d never convince him otherwise. For a start, he didn’t know about cameras and phones making pictures. Even I didn’t understand how it worked, how a picture of me had got from someone’s phone into the newspaper, but I did at least believe it was possible – I knew how clever humans could be with things like that. I didn’t like Big thinking I was just a show off, so I just dropped the subject. But Jean’s and Shirley’s words lingered in my head, and in my dreams, giving me a funny, fluttery, hopeful feeling that wouldn’t quite go away. Could it be true? Could the pictures from the humans’ cameras really make me famous? And if they did, would it actually be such a bad thing, after all – especially if I got famous enough to be sent back home to my family?

What happened next, though, was so surprising, I still have trouble understanding it myself, even though I’ve learnt more about it since. There are lots of things in the human world, of course, that I still don’t understand. So if any of the older cats among you can enlighten me, I’m always willing to be educated, even now I’m not a little kitten anymore.

A few days after I heard about my picture being in the newspaper, Big and I were walking along the street where all the shops were. We were once again heading to a different part of town to see if I recognised anywhere that could have been my holiday home. I remember I was feeling particularly sad, as we trotted along together, because Big had just asked me whether I should be thinking about giving up now. I’d already suspected that a couple of the boys were getting tired of helping me with the search, but Big was very loyal to me, and had said he’d keep on coming out with me for as long as I wanted to. I guessed he just thought that by giving up I could spare myself more disappointment. But how could I ever give up looking for Caroline and the rest of my family? It would feel like I’d forgotten them and stopped caring about them, and that was never going to happen.

I was getting to know the shops. There were the ones selling food, of course, where the windows were full of bread and cakes, or those boring things humans eat that grow on trees or bushes, and of course there was our favourite, the shop that displayed delicious looking body parts of dead prey, and whole chickens hanging up on hooks. Other shops were less interesting. They had humans’ clothes in the windows, or shoes, or books, or toys for human kittens. Then right at the end of the row of shops was one with lots of televisions in the window. If there weren’t any humans hanging around outside, we sometimes loitered here for a few minutes because the televisions were usually turned on, showing various different pictures, and Big and the other cats found them fascinating. They had no idea what televisions were, of course, never having been inside a human house. I’d tried to explain, but of course like all of us I’ve never really understood the need for them myself.

‘You mean they just sit there and watch these things all the time?’ Stinky had retorted when I first told him my family had two of them in our proper home at Little Broomford.

‘Well, mostly in the evenings, but yes, they can watch them whenever they want to. Sometimes there are special pictures for human kittens to watch. And sometimes there are pictures of lots of male humans chasing each other and kicking a ball. I’ve noticed that if I walk in front of the television waving my tail, they sometimes tell me off. But if the picture is of something like birds or fish, and I sit on the shelf on top of it and dangle a paw over it, they find it quite funny.’

‘Suffering catnip!’ Black had said. ‘Humans are the weirdest creatures in the world.’

‘And the pictures keep moving!’ Big had said.

‘Yes. I suppose it gives them some sort of a thrill, like us watching a bird hopping, or a mouse creeping along.’

‘But at least we eventually pounce on the prey and eat it,’ one of the boys had said, and I’d had to agree, the whole thing about watching television really did seem like a pointless exercise to us.

This particular day, it was raining, with a stiff breeze blowing up the shopping street from the sea, and most of the humans must have stayed inside their houses, so Big and I spent a while staring at the moving pictures in the shop window. One of the television screens was showing pictures of almost naked humans swimming in a big bath of water. When the first one reached the edge of the bath, he threw both his front paws into the air and the humans who were watching stood up and clapped their paws together. Very strange. On another screen, there were pictures of pairs of humans holding on to each other and swaying together in very strange, unnatural looking positions. The females were wearing fancy flamboyant dresses so I could only surmise that the smartly dressed males were trying to stop them from tripping over.

‘It’s true,’ I commented to Big now. ‘The longer I’m away from my humans, the more I agree that they’re all a bit odd.’

And then I looked at the next television screen. And I nearly jumped with all four paws off the ground.

‘Oh my claws and whiskers!’ I meowed. I was beginning to pick up some of the boys’ vernacular. ‘It’s me! Big, look, it’sme on there, for the love of catnip!’

‘It can’t be!’ Big was staring at the same screen now. ‘It must be some other tabby with the same eyes …’ He glanced at my still slightly swollen right eye. ‘And the same scars on his head … and … oh. The same limp when he runs. That’s a coincidence. And …’ He broke off. ‘Bloody catnip, Charlie! It’syou!’

We both stared at the picture on the screen as it continued to show me running forwards across the pavement and then leaping into the air, and then the seagull flying off with an angry squawk and the old lady stumbling, dropping her chocolate ice cream, and being helped by the two young humans.

‘It’s me,’ I repeated.

‘It is,’ he agreed, turning to stare at me now. ‘How in the name of all the dogs and foxes did you do that?’

‘I didn’t do anything! It’s … I don’t know! Somehow my life has got repeated in pictures on that television.’

‘That’s impossible! You haven’t been inside that shop, have you?’

‘No, of course I haven’t. I don’t understand it any more than you do. I told you I think someone has put a picture of me in a newspaper, but …’

‘Yes, and that was unbelievable enough – I thought you were making it up. Butthis…’ He stared back at the shop window again, where the television screen was now just showing a male human with his mouth opening and closing as if he was talking to us, with a lot of Human writing running along the bottom of the screen. ‘This is justimpossible. It defies all common sense.’

‘I know. But it was definitely me, wasn’t it. It was me jumping up at that seagull.’

‘Yes, it was, although if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d say you’d finally taken leave of your senses.’

We stayed there in the rain, with the wind whistling around our whiskers, for quite a long time after that, in case we saw the pictures of me again, but it didn’t happen. In the end we waited so long, we got drenching wet and cold, and didn’t bother with searching for my holiday home that day after all.

‘Let’s not tell the other boys what we saw in that shop,’ Big said quietly as we headed back to the yard. ‘They’ll think we’ve both been at the catnip.’

‘OK,’ I agreed. I was beginning to wonder if I’d dreamt it, anyway. It all seemed so unreal and unlikely. ‘But wedid see it, though, didn’t we?’

‘Yes.’ He turned to stare at me again. ‘And I’m still trying to make sense of it. The only thing I can think of is that you’ve got some kind of magic power – what with this, and understanding Human, and the way you were brave enough to come back and attack me, all on your own, that first day we met. It never did seem quite natural. Are you sure you’re really a normal cat?’

‘Yes, I am!’ I meowed, feeling a bit scared now.

I had no idea what had happened there. But if I’d really had magic powers, there was one thing I was sure of: I’d have magicked myself back to my human family by now and would be sitting on Caroline’s lap, purring into her ear, and not caring if she spent all day every day looking at strange moving pictures on the television, just as longas I never lost her again.

The following day, we were walking past the pub at the harbour when we saw another strange thing. Inside the pub window was a big piece of paper with a picture of a cat on it and some large Human writing underneath. This time it was Tail-less who noticed.

‘Blinking codfish, Charlie!’ he meowed. ‘That cat in the picture looks just like you!’

Big, still feeling spooked by what we’d seen on the television screen, immediately crept up for a closer look.

‘Itdoes look like you,’ he told me, almost accusingly, when he came back, ‘but I don’t think it is. That cat looks fatter, and more groomed, and it hasn’t got scars on its head or a nasty eye, like you.’

‘Right,’ I said. Even from a little distance, I could see it was true that the cat in the picture didn’t have my wounds.

Of course, I wasn’t sure exactly what I looked like, apart from what my humans, and other cats, had told me. Caroline had sometimes picked me up and held me in front of that shiny thing they call a mirror, and said things like ‘Ah, Charlie, look at you!’ – but all I could see was the little tabby kitten whoalways seemed to appear in the mirrors around the house, copying whatever I was doing. When I was very young, I thought he was another kitten who lived in the house, but Ollie soon put me right on that, explaining that he wasn’t real – he had no scent and if I tried to rub faces with him, all I’d get was the hard shiny surface of the mirror. I presume you all think the same as Ollie and I do – that the mirror cats are something like the pictures on television.

So the mirror cat in our house may, perhaps, have been a picture of me. If it was, then I had a good idea what I used to look like before I got lost and started living rough. Before I got badly beaten up by a gang of alley cats, almost lost the sight in one eye and apparently gained some scars that I supposed would last my whole nine lives. But I didn’t want to freak Big out any more than I’d done already.

‘OK. Obviously not me, then,’ I said.

We saw another picture, exactly the same, in the caf? window. Another one in the window of the fish and chip shop when we went scavenging that evening. Next day, there was one in the bookshop, one in the bread shop, and one in the window of the Chinese takeaway shop. When we walked back past the caf?, Shirley and Jean were sitting in their usual spot outside. I lingered behind the fence for a while to listen to their conversation, and Big waited for me. He didn’t mind me using my two friends as sources of inside information, as long as he was there to keep an eye on me and I didn’t venture too close.

‘It’s such a shame, isn’t it,’ Shirley was saying. ‘They must be so desperate to get him back. The pictures are going up everywhere.’

‘Yes. Well, of course, since it was on the News, everyone knows about that cat who chased the seagull away from the old lady. The family who put up the notices seem to be convinced it’s their cat, don’t they? They were staying here all through August, I heard – down at the Oversands end of the bay, in one of those rental cottages, apparently. The little girl’s inconsolable. There’s some story about her being very ill, and she seems to think it’s her fault the cat went missing.’

‘Ah, bless her, poor little love. And that’s her little cat in the picture, is it, Jean?’

‘Yes. Look, have you read it?LOST: CHARLIE. Young neutered male tabby. Last seen on 28 August in the Oversands area of Mudditon-on-Sea. Believed to be still in Mudditon. Microchipped. Reward for safe return. And it’s got a mobile number and email address. Apparently the girl’s father has been staying in Mudditon again since they saw the cat on the News – walking the streets, calling out for Charlie.’

‘Well, I do hope he finds him, for that little girl’s sake. If itis that same cat, of course. Tabby cats are two a penny, though, aren’t they? For a start, there’s our little friend who visits us here. He’s a tabby, and he looks about the right age, doesn’t he. And we did think he looked like the cat who was in the paper.’

‘Yes, but come on, Shirl – he’s much skinnier than this one in the poster, and so scruffy looking, poor little thing. He really doesn’t look like this cute kitten in the pictures, at all. To be honest, I wonder if the family are just clutching at straws. I’d be very surprised if the cat in these posters is the same one who chased the seagull.’

‘But then again, we’ve both been saying our little one doesn’t really behave like a feral, haven’t we. He seems too trusting.’

I’m sure you can imagine how I felt as I listened to all this! I was mewing to myself like crazy and twitching all over with distress.

‘What the dog’s bum is up with you?’ Big kept asking me, but I was too intent on listening, to reply. Julian was looking for me! It seemed that so much time had passed, my family must have actually gone home to Little Broomford, but they hadn’t forgotten me. Caroline was pining for me! Julian had come back specially to put up pictures of me, he was walking the streets calling me! If only he would walk past here right now, I’d run to him, and I’d be rescued. I’d be taken home, I’d see Caroline, I’d be back to my old life, to you, Oliver, and you, all my other old friends in Little Broomford.

But then I mewed again with a new bout of anguish. What if he never happened to walk along the same street or path or alleyway at the same time as me? What if he gave up, like Big had suggested I ought to give up looking for the holiday cottage? Then he’d go back home without me, telling Caroline I was nowhere to be found. The pictures would be taken down again, and all the humans around here would stop talking about me the way Jean and Shirley were doing now, and nobody would look for me, and I’d have lost my only opportunity of going back to my real life. How could I afford to take that chance?

I glanced at Big. He was looking at me with such concern, meowing quietly to me about calming down and not getting myself upset, and why didn’t I tell him what the humans were saying? And I felt yet another wave of distress as I realised how fond I’d become of him and the other boys, how they’d taken me into their gang and looked after me, despite the fact that I was so different from them, and despite them thinking I was weird and posh and possibly magic on top of everything else. They’d be upset with me for leaving them now. Or perhaps they wouldn’t – perhaps they’d just think that was part of my weirdness, and forget about me as quickly as they’d accepted me.

‘Well,’ Jean was saying, ‘even if it really is our little cat, Shirl, there’s not a lot we can do until we see him again – then we could have another good look at him. Now, shall we get the bill? I need to get back and start a bit of housework.’

So this was it. I had to trust those two females; trust them, and trust my own grasp of Human language, or my chance was gone. I poised myself, preparing to make a dash for it.

‘Where are you going, Charlie?’ Big said, but there was something in his voice that made me think he’d guessed this was goodbye.

‘I’m sorry, Big,’ I meowed. ‘Thanks for everything. Say goodbye to the boys for me. I’ll miss you all.’

‘Charlie!’ he yowled as I ran straight round the end of the fence and threw myself at the legs of the nearest of the two females. ‘For the love of bloody rats’ intestines, don’t do it! They’ll skin you alive! They’ll roast you and eat you with their stinky red ketchup!’

‘Goodbye, Big,’ I mewed back to him loudly, as Shirley, gasping with surprise and squawking to Jean about what a coincidence it was that I’d turned up at that very moment, bent down to pick me up. ‘I’m really sorry,’ I called back as he continued to yowl after me ‘But I’m going home.’

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It wasn’t until I was being held tightly in the arms of this human female I’d adopted as my friend, that I realised just how much I’d changed since I’d been living rough with the feral cats. She was squashing me against her enormous chest with her big plump arms, she was so determined notto let me go, and I was having to clench my teeth, shut my eyes tight and force myself to lie still, so strong was my instinct to nip her sharply on her wrist, jump down and run away. But even while I was struggling with myself I was wondering how it was that I seemed to have lost my trust in humans. I’d never been frightened of them in the old days. Oliver had taught me that although there were definitely some bad ones in the world, most of them were kind to us cats and wanted to be our friends. Yes, I’ve always remembered that, Ollie, because I was impressed that you’d learned to trust humans again despite having had a horrible experience with a very cruel human when you were a tiny kitten.

I was thinking about this now, telling myself to remember Oliver’s wise words, as Shirley was holding me in her tight grip.

‘Isn’t this incredible, Jean?’ she was saying. ‘Just as we were talking about him, he turned up!’

‘Yes, it’s amazing,’ agreed Jean, ‘it’s almost as if he was sat behind the fence listening to our whole conversation.’

‘I wonder if heis the missing Charlie. You’re right, though, he’s not like the picture in the poster. His coat is in a terrible state, and he’s got a few battle scars. And I don’t like the look of that poor eye.’

‘Well, the poster says he’s microchipped, so there’s only one way to find out whether it’s him,’ said Jean.

‘Yes!’ I meowed urgently. ‘The only way is to take me to Julian! He’ll recognise me straight away! Call his number! You said it was on that notice!’

But instead, they were fussing around, paying for their tea, getting their handbags and suddenly I was being carried off, out of the caf? and along the road.

‘Where are we going?’ I squealed, struggling furiously, as they carried me further and further away from the yard and my new friends. Even now, they’d probably be talking about me, wondering together at my stupidity in running off with humans. Would they miss me? Or would they just be glad tobe rid of a nuisance and a liability?

‘Calm down, little cat,’ Shirley soothed me. ‘We’re not going to hurt you.’

‘Here we are,’ Jean said suddenly, stopping outside a house. There was a little car parked in front of it and she unlocked its doors. ‘You sit in the back with him, Shirley. He really ought to be in a basket of some sort, but it’s only a short drive. Look, I’ve got a little blanket there on the back seat that I use for my grandson. Let’s wrap him up in that so he can’t try to escape if he panics.’

‘No!’ I meowed, starting to wriggle frantically now as Shirley climbed awkwardly into the back of the car with me and proceeded, with Jean’s help, to wrap me up so that all my paws were completely immobilised. ‘Let me go!’

‘There,’ Jean panted. ‘Now just hold his head down so he can’t bite you. He’s getting upset, poor little thing.’

‘Of course I’m upset! You’ve taken me prisoner! I don’t want to go in the car with you! Where are you taking me?’

All my resolve to trust Jean and Shirley and to remember Oliver’s words of wisdom had flown out of the window. And as the doors were slammed shut, and Jean started the car running along, I’m ashamed to say I cowered on Shirley’s lap, growling quietly and letting out the occasional little mew of fear as if I was the kind of cat who’d never been used to humans at all.

‘It’s all right, little kitty,’ Shirley kept saying. ‘It’s all right.’

But it wasn’t. It was all wrong. I shouldn’t have trusted these humans. Why had they tied me up? What were they going to do to me? I should have listened to Big, after all, and stayed with him and the boys, where I was safe and being looked after. At the thought of Big, I mewed even more loudly. He’d been such a good friend! I’d remember him for my whole nine lives! I’d forget all about going back to Little Broomford, if only I could magic myself back with him and the boys right this minute!

Oh yes, you might very well look shocked, my friends. I can hardly believe it myself now. How appalling, how shameful that I was thinking like this, forgetting already where my real loyalties lay, forgetting how much I’d yearned for a chance to be back with my human family, to be cuddled by Caroline again and fed lovely cat food by Laura. But this is what fear does to you. It turns you from a sensible, reasonable cat – from a hero cat, in fact, one who has survived extreme danger, who has risked lives and limbs to try to protect his vulnerable and much-loved human kitten – into a snivelling wretch of a scaredy-cat.

I admit it, I was behaving like a scaredy-cat and I’m ashamed now to think about it. After everything I’d been through, you see, it seemed like just as happiness and reunion with my humans had been within my sight, I’d ended up making the wrong choice, a fatal mistake. And now I was so frightened and alone, I felt like giving up. I just lay there and cried. I cried for Big and the other boys. I cried for Julian and Laura and Caroline and even baby Jessica. I cried foryou, Oliver, andyou, my sisters and friends back in Little Broomford. But mostly, I cried for myself.

Thank goodness, though, it wasn’t very long before the car stopped again.

‘Here we are,’ Shirley said, still clutching me in my tightly wrapped bundle as Jean helped her out of the car. ‘Now, don’t start panicking, little kitty. Mr Caswell is a very kind man.’

Mr Caswell? Who the fox’s backside was Mr Caswell? I couldn’t imagine how he could be anyone kind. If these human catnappers had been genuinely on my side, they’d have been taking me straight to Julian! Anyone else could only be plotting to do me harm. Surely it couldn’t be true what Big had been screaming to me?Were they going to roast me and eat me with ketchup? Oh my ears and whiskers! I wriggled and wriggled, yowling and spitting at Shirley as she carried me up some steps into a building that smelt … it smelt like … whatwas that smell? What was the memory it was bringing back to me? It was making me shudder, would have made my fur stand on end and my muscles quiver, if only there was room for that to happen inside my tight bundle. We went through a door into an empty room with a bare floor and some hard empty chairs around the walls. The smell in here was almost overpowering. And just then, another door opened and out came a dog– -fortunately, attached to a human by one of those long straps they need to keep them under control – and immediately, it all came flooding back to me. I knew where we were! For catnip’s sake, they’d brought me to a vet!

Can you imagine how much I was wriggling and hissing and spitting now? Shirley almost dropped me twice, and Jean had to help her to hang onto me.

‘Let me go,’ I growled. And to the dog, who was sniffing around their feet, trying to jump at their legs to get a closer look at me, I shouted: ‘Bugger off, you big stupid snarling piece of rat’s poo, you!’

I know, I know, my language was pretty awful. It was the influence of the feral boys, you see, together with the terror of my situation. I couldn’t help it. But I don’t speak like that anymore, now I’m back in civilisation, obviously, so please don’t let the little kittens here copy me.

‘Down, boy!’ the dog’s human was trying to persuade him. ‘You’re frightening the poor cat. Sorry, ladies,’ he said to my captors. ‘That’s a feisty little feline you’ve got there!’

‘Oh, he’s not ours,’ Jean said. ‘We think he’s a feral, although we did wonder if he might be a stray – the one who’s been advertised in all the shops and caf?s. We’re hoping the vet can scan him, even if just to rule it out.’

‘No!’ I shrieked, trying to get my teeth into Shirley’s wrist. ‘I know what vets do – I’m not stupid! He’ll stick a needle in me! It’ll put me to sleep! I’ll never wake up!’

And just at that moment, the other door opened again and out came a tall male human in a white coat.

‘Hello,’ he said to the females. ‘Have you got an appointment?’

‘No,’ Jean said, still trying to help Shirley to hang onto me. She could hardly make herself heard above my yowling. ‘Sorry, Mr Caswell, it’s kind of an emergency.’

‘Has he been hurt or something?’ said the male, peering down at me. I spat in his face.

‘No, we’ve found him,’ Shirley said. ‘Well, he actually found us! We did wonder whether he might be the missing cat that’s in all the posters around town. I hope so, anyway, now we’ve gone to all this trouble,’ she added with a little laugh. ‘Although he’s been so feisty on the way here, I’m beginning to think he is a feral after all.’

‘Oh yes, I’ve got one of those posters up myself,’ the vet said, still staring at me. ‘His owner, a Mr Smythe, came in to tell me about him. The cat was on the BBC News, apparently – chased a seagull, or something?’

‘That’s right. Do you think it’s him, Mr Caswell?’ Jean asked.

‘I doubt it, to be honest. As you say, this cat seems half wild. Let’s have a look at him, anyway, shall we? Bring him through. I’ll get Ginny to help me hold him still. We’re going to need our gloves on, I think!’

And so, as the human with the dog went out, calling,‘Good luck. I hope it is the missing cat,’ I was carried through to the next room. In here, the smell reminded me so strongly of my previous experiences with vets that I nearly fainted. I was unwrapped onto one of those slippery, shiny tables, where I was forcibly held down by Mr Caswell on oneside, and a young female in a white coat on the other. I’d stopped yowling now. I was so sick with fear, I’d kind of retreated inside myself and just lay panting, waiting for the end of my lives.

‘He’s certainly quite a young cat,’ the vet said, having prised open my mouth and looked at my teeth. ‘A neutered male, probably only about a year old. Very malnourished.’ He was poking me around the ribs. ‘Covered in fleas. Coat dull and matted. One back leg injured – he seems to have had a bite down to the bone that hasn’t healed properly and it’s left him with an abscess.’ I flinched as he touched my sore leg. ‘Sorry, boy. Scabs on his head, one ear bitten, and a very badly infected right eye. Lucky not to have lost his sight. Been in a few fights, by the look of him.Well, ladies, I’d be surprised if this is our missing Charlie. I’d say he’s more likely to be a long-term stray who’s turned feral. But I’ll certainly scan him for you to make sure. If it’s not him, we’ll keep him here, treat his wounds, de-flea him and get him nursed back to health, and send him to Cats’ Protection. Hopefully someone will adopt him.’

I wasn’t listening anymore. His Human words were all running into each other, making no sense to me. I’d switched off. I was waiting for that needle, and just hoping the end would be quick.

‘Pass me the scanner,’ he said to the nurse, and the next thing I knew, something cold was being run over the back of my neck.Here comes the needle, I thought.Oh well, this is it. Goodbye, cruel world. Goodbye, Caroline. Goodbye, Laura, Julian… but before I’d even finished my litany of farewells, the vet was speaking again. I tried to concentrate this time, to tune in and hear what he was saying. It might be the last thing I ever heard, after all.

‘Would you ladies mind holding him on this side, while I check the computer?’

Jean and Shirley grabbed hold of me together. There was silence, apart from some tapping noises as Mr Caswell did something on his computer. And then:

‘Well I never! Thatis a surprise. You’re quite right, ladies. Well done – you have found our missing hero!’

Hero? Was he talking about me? Was he not going to kill me, then? I tried to lift my head to look at him. He was smiling.

‘Poor Charlie, eh! He must have really been through it these past few weeks to end up in this condition. Well, it’s good news. I’m going to give Mr Smythe a call right now. I think he’s still staying in one of the hotels down at the seafront. He told me he’s taken a week off work and was going to search the town day and night until he found this little chap. His daughter is inconsolable, apparently, breaking her heart over him.’

‘Oh, I’m so pleased we found him!’ Jean said, clapping her paws together.

‘Me too.’ Shirley looked like she was about to start mewing.

‘You’re in line for a hefty reward,’ the vet said to the two females as he picked up his phone, but they were both shaking their heads.

‘Oh, we don’t want any money, do we, Shirl?’ Jean exclaimed. ‘We just want Charlie taken back where he belongs.’

‘That’s right,’ Shirley agreed, as the vet started talking on his phone. ‘That poor little girl will be so happy!’

Poor little girl? Were they talking about Caroline? I tried to sit up, but they were still holding me firmly. Were they saying Iwasn’t going to be killed? No injection? No roasting and eating with ketchup? Could it really be true?

‘Am I going home?’ I meowed loudly. ‘Are you not going to hurt me?’

They all laughed.‘It’s as if he knows he’s going to be all right now,’ said Jean. ‘Look, he’s completely settled down. I think he trusts us now.’

‘I’ve spoken to Mr Smythe,’ the vet said. ‘He’s on his way.’ Mr Caswell came over to the table and started tickling me under the chin. ‘Yes, you’re a nice boy really, aren’t you, Charlie?’ he said very gently. ‘Not a wild cat at all, just a poor little tabby who got lost.’

To my surprise, I found myself purring. I’d misjudged him. He liked me! And the two females weren’t catnappers after all – they were my rescuers! I rubbed my head against their hands and purred at them too, and they all laughed again, sounding as happy as I was, now beginning to feel myself.

The young nurse lifted me down to the floor and put a bowl of lovely milk in front of me. I fell on it and lapped it all up.

‘That’s it, Charlie, now let’s get you some food too,’ she said, sounding like she was almost mewing too. ‘You’ve had a rotten time, by the look of you, and you must be starving. But it’s all over now. Your master’s coming to get you. You’re going home, Charlie. You’re going home to your little girl!’

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I was asleep in a kind of cage thing in a back room of the vet’s when I heard Julian’s voice. I wasn’t very happy about being put in the cage, just when I’d made up my mind to trust Mr Caswell and Ginny the nurse, and thought they liked me. But I’d been well fed, and after all the trauma I’d been through, I was exhausted, so I gave in, let them shut the cage door and settled down on the mat inside the cage. I was just in the middle of a very satisfying dream where I was playing with a fat frog at the edge of the big pond at home, when I heard Julian calling me.

‘OK,’ I meowed in my dream, ‘I’ll just make this frog jump one more time, then I’ll come in …’, and then I woke up with a start, looked around me, and remembered where I was. Julian was smiling at me through the door of the cage.

I jumped up, purring at the top of my lungs. I’d never been so happy to see anyone! I put my front paws up to the cage door, trying to get out, trying to lick him through the bars, meowing and purring for all I was worth.

‘Hello, boy. What a welcome!’ Julian said. His voice sounded wobbly.

Ginny reached around him to unlock the cage and he took hold of me, hugging me close.

‘Look at the state of you,’ he murmured. ‘You poor little fellow.’

‘Mr Caswell says he must have been living rough, and he’s definitely got into a fight or two,’ Ginny said. ‘He was half wild with fear when the two ladies brought him in.’

‘Where are they?’ Julian looked around him as he carried me through to the vet’s room. ‘I wanted to thank them. I offered a reward.’

‘They said they wouldn’t accept anything,’ Mr Caswell said, turning round from wiping down the table. ‘They were just thrilled to bits to have found Charlie and that he would be going home safely.’

‘But Imust thank them, at least! And if they won’t accept the reward, I’ll send the money to a cat charity.’

‘Well, I’m sure Jean and Shirley would really appreciate that. They’re both cat lovers.’

‘Oh, you know them? They live locally?’

‘Yes. They both have pets registered here, and bring them in for their regular check-ups and so on.’

‘Would you be able to give me their phone numbers, then, or is that against your data protection?’

Mr Caswell was smiling.‘It’s fine, Mr Smythe. They actually asked me to give you their contact details. They asked if you’d be kind enough to update them on Charlie’s recovery.’

‘Of course I will,’ Julian said, taking a piece of paper from the vet and putting it in his wallet. ‘Now, what do I owe you?’

‘Nothingyet, because I haven’t actually started Charlie on any treatment. I was waiting to consult you about it. I’m sure you’re keen to take him straight home, but he’s going to need that abscess on his leg lanced as soon as possible. I could do it right now, but he’ll need to wear an Elizabethan collar afterwards to stop him licking and chewing at the wound.’

‘One of those big protective collars? Animals hate wearing them, don’t they?’

‘At first, yes, until they get used to them. But as you’ve got such a long journey it might not be a good idea to upset him any further today. What I’d suggest is, I’ll give Charlie a quick shot of intravenous antibiotic now, and after you get him home, see your own vet about getting the abscess treated. I’ll give you some antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drops for that poor eye, too. And he also needs a flea treatment. Would you like me to do that now?’

And so I was put back on the shiny table and subjected to a needle after all, as well as a dose of flea stuff on the back of my neck. Then I had something dripped into my sore eye, which made me shake my head and twitch my ears madly. But this time I wasn’t screaming or quaking with fear, because my own human was holding me, whispering words of comfort in my ear and stroking me all the while it was happening.

‘He’s going to need some feeding up, poor little chap,’ Mr Caswell commented, feeling my ribs again. ‘And his coat’s going to need some attention.’

‘We’ll see to that ourselves,’ Julian said firmly.

‘Yes, I think that’s best. With a bit of grooming he’ll be back to his old self, and it’ll help him settle back at home and bond with the family again. Although,’ he added, watching as I climbed up Julian’s chest and tried to bury myself inside his shirt, ‘from what I can see, I suspect that’s not going to be a problem.’

Julian laughed, but Mr Caswell lowered his voice and added,‘Just a word of warning. Keep a close eye on him. There’s just a chance he might have picked up something more serious, if he was involved in any fights with feral cats. They can carry disease in their saliva, which can be transferred in a bite. I’m sure your own vet will advise you. He mightwant to check him over from time to time while he recovers.’

‘Thank you for the warning. We’ll take great care of him.’

‘I’m sure you will.’ He smiled at me. ‘He’s missed you, that’s obvious!’

‘And we’ve missed him. I know one little girl who’s going to be very happy tonight.’

Caroline. I purred with joy at the thought of seeing her. But there was still another ordeal to face yet: the long car journey back to Little Broomford.

In some ways the journey wasn’t quite as bad as the previous one, at the start of the holiday, because at least we didn’t have Jessica in the car mewing her head off, keeping me awake. It seemed so long now since that day, and strange to think that back then I’d still had no idea really what to expect from a holiday. Remembering that now, I realised again how much I’d grown up over the course of this summer. For one thing, up till then I’d never been away from my home village before, whereas now I was a well-travelled little cat with a wealth of experience. I’d seen the sea, and had eventually got quite used to it during my time with the feral gang. I’d had my first proper fight, lived to tell the tale and had got some sore places to prove it, and hoped I’d never have to fight like that again. I’d made new friends, learning to get along with cats who were quite frankly not the type we normally fraternise with. Most importantly, I’d learnt to survive. And after all that, the most important thing I’d learnt was that I loved my life with my human family and never wanted to leave them again.

Julian called out to me occasionally as he drove the car home.Are you all right, there, Charlie? AndNot too far now, boy. But most of the time, we were nice and quiet, apart from the music he’d got playing very gently to take my mind off the car’s growling and rumbling noises. I was actually asleep again when the car finally stopped outside our house. I woke up at the sound of the car door being pulled open and the voice I loved most in the whole world squealing:

‘Charlie! Oh, Charlie, you’re home!’

I was so excited to see Caroline’s face looking back at me, I jumped up and hit my head on the lid of the silly carrying basket. I meowed so loudly I couldn’t even hear what else she was saying, but as she carried my basket into the house, I realised she was crying.

‘Don’t cry, darling!’ Julian said as he followed us in. ‘We’ve got him back now!’

‘I know!’ she sobbed. ‘I’m crying because I’m so happy!’

That was a new one on me. Humans are very odd sometimes! But I didn’t care, Caroline could be as odd as she liked, just as long as I could jump into her arms, which I did as soon as she let me out of the basket. We sat on the sofa and I snuggled into her for a lovely long cuddle, purring fit to burst. It was probably the happiest moment of my life.

‘He’s so thin!’ she was saying to her father. ‘And what’s happened to his eye?’

‘He’s been in a fight or two, we think,’ Julian explained, as Laura came and sat next to Caroline, stroking me and inspecting me carefully. ‘He’s had a bad bite to his leg there, too – see? It hasn’t healed properly so it’s left a nasty sore. We’ve got to take him to our vet tomorrow or the next day, when he’s settled down. And the vet in Mudditon thinks he got clawed in his eye – that’s what caused the problem there, but we’ve got drops for him. He’s lucky he didn’t lose the sight in it.’

‘He’s got scabby places on his head, too,’ Laura said. ‘And his poor coat! It’s all dull and matted.’

Caroline started to cry again.‘Poor Charlie! It’s all my fault!’

‘We’ll soon nurse him back to health, Caroline,’ Laura said gently, putting an arm around her. ‘He’s young – he’ll mend. Just as you will,’ she added quietly, looking like she might cry herself.

I looked up at Laura in surprise. What did she mean by that? Was Caroline still not mended? Hadn’t they been able to fix her head at the hospital? All my worries about her while we’d been apart immediately came flooding back.

‘If Grace and I hadn’t been so stupid …’ she was saying, wiping her eyes.

‘What’s done is done,’ Julian said. ‘We’ve talked about this, haven’t we? Losing Charlie was more than enough punishment for you, to say nothing of you getting hurt yourself. I know Grace’s parents grounded her for the rest of the holiday, just as we did with you, but you’ve both learned your lessons, haven’t you?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Charlie, I’m so sorry you got lost! I didn’t mean for you to run out of the house. It was dark … we didn’t see you … we were being so stupid.’

‘It’s all right,’ I meowed. ‘I’m home now, with you. That’s all that matters.’

Actually it wasn’t. What mattered even more was for me to find out whether she was feeling better. There wasn’t any blood dripping from her head anymore, and her finger wasn’t looking sore, but what about that horrible illness? Had it come back? Was that what Laura meant? I meowed to myself anxiously, but Caroline just carried on stroking me.

‘I’m still absolutely sure it was him, watching me being put into that ambulance, you know,’ she said to Laura.

‘Well, there must be lots of other little tabby cats just like him. We’ll never know for sure.’

‘Itwas me!’ I told them in Cat, but of course, none of them understood. ‘I ran to get help for Caroline! I got the woman from the beach caf? to come to her rescue!’

‘I bet he would’ve helped us, if he could,’ Caroline said. ‘I bet that was why he ran out after us – to try to look after us.’

‘Yes!’ I squeaked. ‘Why else would I have done it?’

‘Nice idea,’ Julian said, smiling at her. ‘And if he could, I’m sure he would have done, darling. He loves you very much, that’s obvious. But at the end of the day, he’s just a little kitten, isn’t he. Dogs have certainly been known to look after people, but I’ve never heard of catsdoing it.’

‘But hedid help a human, Daddy! He helped that old lady with the ice cream, when he jumped up at the seagull, didn’t he? That’s what got into the paper and onto the TV News, wasn’t it, and how those ladies came to think it might be him. Everyone in Mudditon thought he was a hero!’

And she cuddled me closer again, wiping her eyes.

‘My little hero, Charlie!’ she said.

I saw Julian and Laura looking at each other.

‘Well,’ Julian said. ‘Yes, wethink it was Charlie. And the publicity certainly helped to get him found and brought back, so that’s all good. But we can’t ever be completely sure. As Laura says, there are lots of little tabby cats around, and—’

‘But itwas him, Daddy. I knew it as soon as we saw him on the TV.’

They didn’t argue with her. Nor did I. I just purred in her ear, happy to be called her hero! But despite my worries about Caroline, I must say I was quite interested to hear this conversation. Because although I still didn’t understand it at all, it did at least prove I wasn’t dreaming when I saw myself in the newspaper and inside the television!

That first day I was home, I didn’t even see baby Jessica – she’d already gone to bed. Because of our long journey back from Mudditon, dinner was late and it was getting dark by the time they’d finished eating. Caroline was sent off to bed too then, as she had school the next day, but not before she’d given me another long hug and told me again how much she’d missed me and how much she loved me. I was hoping they were all going to keep up this extra love and attention, and not stop making a fuss of me once they’d got used to me being home again. I followed her upstairs to her room and, to my surprise, before she got ready for bed she picked up a phone from her bedside table.

‘Yes, it’s mine, Charlie,’ she said, waving it at me. ‘Daddy and Laura changed their minds! Cool, isn’t it!’

It was surprising, that’s what it was. I’d heard them with my very own ears, several times, saying she was too young and didn’t need one. Perhaps I’d been away so long, she was now old enough. That was a scary thought. But I sat on her bed and listened as she started speaking into it.

‘Hi Grace! Guess what – we’ve got Charlie back!’

I could hear Grace’s voice coming out of the phone, squealing with excitement. I have no idea how she got inside it.

‘Yes, Daddy brought him home today. We don’t know where he’s been all this time, but he’s been in a fight, and he’s skinny and he’s got a sore leg and a sore eye, but Laura says we can feed him back to health.’

It was lovely to hear Caroline chatting to her friend, sounding giggly and happy, making me think perhaps there wasn’t anything wrong with her anymore after all. But towards the end of her conversation, Grace must have asked her something about how she was feeling, because she sighed and said, ‘Oh, you know. The same. Just … tired, still, really, all the time.’ She looked at me, smiled and added, ‘But it’s cheered me up so much, having Charlie back.’ And then Laura called up to her to remind her to get herself to bed, and I scampered back downstairs to get some cuddles in with Julian and Laura before it was night-time. But even with all the extra attention, it was hard to forget my worries.

In the morning, I woke up to a strange sound. It was a kind of laughing noise, but a gurgling and bubbling laugh, like a kitten might make, if only we could. I padded into the lounge, and there on the rug was baby Jessica, lying on her back with all her paws waving in the air, while Caroline, dressed in a very smart dark blue outfit with her hair neatly tied up, was tickling her tummy and making her… yes! She was making her laugh! I stopped in the doorway and stared in amazement. Up till then, I’d thought little human kittens like Jessica were only capable of one sound: that awful constant mewing. But there she was, grinning all over her face and bubbling with laughter, and Caroline was smiling at her as if she loved heralmost as much as she loved me.

‘Look, Jessica!’ she said, catching sight of me standing there. ‘Charlie’s back! Charlie’s come to say hello to you!’

I trotted a bit closer, wondering whether at any moment Laura would come rushing in to shoo me away from the baby. But Caroline picked me up and sat me on her lap so that Jessica could see me.

‘Here he is!’ she said. ‘Look, Jessica! Pussy cat!’

And she took hold of Jessica’s tiny paw and stroked me with it. At first the baby blinked with surprise, but then she started to smile and make the gurgling noise again.

‘Ah, she loves you, Charlie,’ Caroline said, hugging me. ‘Not as much as I do, of course, but nobody ever could.’

‘And nobody could loveyou like I do, either,’ I meowed to her, rubbing my head against her arm. ‘But I’m worried about you. Are you ill again? Why did you say you’re so tired? What happened at the hospital?’

‘I’ve got to go to school now, Charlie,’ she said, instead of answering me. ‘Please promise me you won’t ever go wandering off again. I couldn’t bear it.’

‘I won’t ifyou won’t,’ I said.

And I spent the rest of the day– in between sleeping in my comfortable bed, and eating my delicious food – pondering on the fact that this was what I’d longed for and dreamed of, all the time I was lost. I was home now, I was safe, I was back with my lovely family and I’d never leave them again. But I still couldn’t feel completely happy until I found out whether Caroline was all right. And nobody seemed to be telling me.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Things definitely seemed to have changed at home while I’d been away, and there was still quite a lot that I didn’t understand. For instance, why was Caroline dressed in those smart blue clothes and going off to school carrying a huge bag of books? Why was everyone being so nice to each other? I was pleased about this, of course, but it was so different from the way they’d been behaving before the holiday, with all the arguments and slamming of bedroom doors. I did wonder whether it was all because of me – the excitement of having me back home – but nice though that idea was, I had a feeling there was more to it. I was frightened that Julian and Laura were being extra kind to Caroline because they’d found out she was ill again. Caroline was behaving better too – less cross and grumpy, although when she came home from school every day she looked so pale and tired I could hardly bear to think about it.

From time to time, I was also still puzzling over the incident where I saw myself in the television in that shop window. When my family turned their television on in the evening, I tried to climb up to it, or sit on the shelf above it to stare down at it, trying to work out how to get inside it, but there was no way in. It just didn’t make sense. But at least I seemed to be making Caroline laugh, even while she was lying on the sofa with that pale face and those dark circles under her eyes that frightened me so much.

Despite my worries, I can’t deny I was enjoying getting used to my home comforts again. Having had to grow up quickly, as I’ve already said, in order to survive my time of living rough, all I wanted to do now was revert to my kittenhood. Safe in the knowledge that nobody was going to throw things at me, jump on me and try to kill me, or swoop down from the sky and peck me to death, I could go back to playing outside in the sunshine. As far as my sore leg would let me, I could enjoy games like chasing leaves that fluttered down from the trees in the wind, jumping out at birds from behind bushes and leaping in the air just for the fun of it. Indoors, I was enjoying playing my old games like peek-a-boo with Caroline from inside an empty cardboard box, and chasing a wind-up toy mouse across the carpet, making both her and Jessica squeal with laughter. Then I would stretch out to rest on my favourite windowsill in the warmth of the sun, or curl up on the sofa cushions in the evening, dreaming happy dreams again.

On my second day back home, Caroline brought Grace to see me after school.

‘Oh!’ she said, her lower lip wobbling when she looked at me. ‘Poor Charlie!’

‘He’s getting better, though,’ Caroline said, picking me up and stroking me. ‘Daddy says we’ve got to keep feeding him lots of good food and milk, and brushing him so that his fur comes through nice and soft again.’

‘And will his eye get better? And his poor leg?’

‘Yes. We’re putting drops in his eye. And Laura’s taking him to the vet’s tomorrow to make his leg better.’

I flinched slightly at the mention of the vet. But my leg was still painful, so if he could make it better, I knew I had to be brave about it. As for the eye drops, it was horrible having them dripped into my eye, making me shake my head and bat my eye with my paw afterwards. But I knew Julian and Laura wouldn’t do that to me unless it was for my own good. I trusted them. It was a good feeling.

‘It’s all our fault, isn’t it, Caro,’ Grace said sadly. ‘If we hadn’t tried to run away …’

‘I know. It all seems so ridiculous now, doesn’t it? Sochildish.’

‘Especially now we know about my great aunt.’

‘Yes. Although you’d think your parents would’vetold you she’s an old battle-axe who doesn’t even like children!’

‘Well, to be fair, I suppose they couldn’t have known I’d decide it was a good idea for us to go and live with her. I feel really stupid now. Mum says she only sends us money at Christmas and birthdays to make herself feel better because she wants nothing whatsoever to do with the family. That one time she came to visit us, apparently she was supposed to be staying for a week, but she walked out after one day, because she thought Rose and I were badly behaved and made too much noise. We were only little! Mum and Dad were really cross about it. They said she was miserable and unreasonable and they felt insulted. Can you imagine what she’d have said if we’d actually turned up on her doorstep?’

‘God, it would have been awful, wouldn’t it? What planet were we both on, down in Mudditon, Grace? I mean, I know I was feeling fed up about Jessica getting all the attention, but now, looking back, I think I was just being a spoilt brat.’

‘You seem to like Jessica a lot more now!’

‘Well, yes, she’s getting more interesting now. She doesn’t cry so much, and she’s sleeping better at night so Laura isn’t so tired and ratty. I suppose it made me feel better when she started smiling at me more, and laughing and making thatga ga noise. It’s kind of cute.’

‘She’ll grow up into an annoying younger sister soon enough, just like Rose,’ Grace said with a shrug. ‘Although I suppose having a sister isn’tall bad. Rose isn’t irritatingall the time. We always used to get on together really well. I don’t know what changed.’

‘Perhaps it’s all part of this growing-up thing – finding people annoying. Now you and Rose go to different schools, and won’t be together so much, maybe you’ll get on with her better again.’

‘Yes.’ Grace smiled at Caroline. ‘High school’s not so bad, is it? The first week was pretty scary, but it would’ve been awful if we hadn’t been together. I’m so pleased your dad and Laura changed their minds about it.’

‘Me too. It was all so last-minute, we didn’t even know if they’d still get a place for me at Great Broomford. But when we heard it was OK, Laura didn’t even make a fuss about having to get me a different uniform. She said it was worth it, for me to be happy again. And I’m glad you’re getting used to it too. It was good you managed to talk to your mum and dad about how frightened you were, before we started.’

‘I had to, really, with Dad being so furious with me about the running-away thing. When he sat me down and made me spell out exactly what was wrong with me, it all came out, how they weren’t taking me seriously about how scared I was. He said afterwards that they weremortified. He said however busy they were, they’d always listen to me if I told them I was seriously worried about anything.’

‘Yeah. Dad and Laura have said the same kind of thing. You know, about me being frightened about the leukaemia coming back.’ I pricked up my ears, my heart racing, waiting to hear more. Had it come back or not? But she just shrugged and went on: ‘Dad said it’s always best to talk about yourfears openly rather than bottling them up and just getting cross and moody.’

‘It’s not always easy though, is it, talking to parents?’ Grace said, laughing. ‘They’re … well, they’re soold!’

‘Still, one good thing came out of it all,’ Caroline said more cheerfully. ‘Our parents gave in about us having phones.’

‘Yes. To be fair, Mum and Dad did used to let me use that old one of Mum’s, but I never took it anywhere because it was so old-fashioned and embarrassing. Anyway, the battery always went flat after about five minutes. It was just a joke! But now we’ve both got proper ones—’

‘—like everyone else!’

‘—they’ll always be able to keep in touch with us when we’re out. I suppose it’s fair enough. We did worry the life out of them, didn’t we?’

All through this conversation, they’d been stroking me and playing with me, while I listened carefully, trying to get the gist of it all. It seemed my human kitten and her friend had done some fast growing up recently, just like me. Perhaps their smart new blue clothes were making them feel less like children, and that was why they were now talking almost like proper grown-up humans. Nobody seemed to care that they still hadn’t told me what had happened to Caroline since we’d been separated. It was frustrating, but I decided eventually that worrying about it wasn’t going to help either me or Caroline. And as it happened I did have other things to think about.

First there was the trip to the vet’s to get my leg seen to. I can’t deny that, despite my more mature outlook on life and having been proved beyond all doubt not to be a scaredy-cat, I still cowered in the travelling basket mewing in fear when we set off in the car. And the smell of the vet’s room brought back terrible memories of my experience at that other vet’s. I knew I’d behaved really badly on that occasion. Already, I was finding it hard to believe how furiously I’d fought with the humans who were trying to help me. I supposed I really must have been turning into a feral cat at that point. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. This time, although I was frightened, I did try not to bite the vet’s fingers or struggle quite so much. Although Caroline couldn’t come with us because she was at school, and Julian was at work, it was at least reassuring to have Laura there, stroking me and saying calming thingsto me, while baby Jessica sat in the corner in her car seat waving her paws at me.

‘It’s all right, Charlie,’ the vet said, holding me gently. ‘This won’t take too long.’

It felt plenty long enough to me. He kept poking around on my sore leg, making me jump and growl, and kept up a running commentary to Laura and his nurse, saying things likeJust clipping his fur back andHere we go andRight, just cleaning it up again now. I was glad when he finally announcedOK, I think that’s going to heal nicely now, Charlie boy.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Before he allowed Laura to take me home, he took hold of me and fastened something round my neck. I shook my head from side to side, trying to get rid of it, but it was stuck tight.

‘What is it?’ I meowed crossly at Laura, but to my annoyance she was laughing at me.

‘Oh, look at him!’ she said. ‘Poor Charlie, he’s not going to like that one bit!’

‘I know. But it’s important that he doesn’t lick that wound,’ the vet said. ‘We don’t want any more infection. Keep it on for a week, and keep him inside. Then bring him back to see me – I’d like to check on him anyway – then we should be able to dispense with it.’

What on earth was it? I spent the whole journey back home tossing my head from side to side, knocking the thing against the edges of the basket.

‘Suffering codfish!’ I shouted at Laura as she carried me in from the car. ‘What in the name of bloody catnip …?’

I stopped, growling to myself unhappily. I really didn’t want to revert to the kind of language I’d picked up during my homeless period. But honestly, this was unbelievable! What were they doing to me? Hadn’t I been through enough? And when I saw the cat flap being locked before Laura had even taken me out of the basket, I yowled at her crossly.Even though I’d seen it locked with my own eyes, I went straight up to it to butt it with my head in protest, but the huge thing round my neck got in the way. Even if I’d been allowed out, I wouldn’t have been able to get through my flap. It was ridiculous! How was I supposed to live like this?

‘Oh dear,’ Laura said. ‘You’ll get used to it, Charlie. It’s only for a little while.’

Huh. I went to lie down in my bed and have a sulk, but have you ever tried lying down with a gigantic collar around your neck? And there was worse to come. Later on when Laura put my dinner down on the floor, I had to lean right over the dish, so that the collar was touching the floor all the way round it. I felt like I was cut off from the rest of the world while I was eating. Caroline came home from school just as I finished my meal, and she gasped with surprise when she saw me.

‘Oh! What’s Charlie got that thing on for?’

‘It’s to stop him trying to lick his wound. And he’s not allowed outside till I take him back to the vet’s next week.’

‘Ah, he won’t like that, will he?’

‘No. So we’re back to being careful about open doors, Caroline.’ Laura gave her a look, which I understood only too well.

‘OK. I’ll be careful, I promise,’ Caroline said. They both stood for a while, watching me as I tried unsuccessfully to wash myself after my meal.

‘I can’t even have a wash!’ I meowed crossly, shaking my head so that the stupid thing knocked against the kitchen units. ‘Do you want me to get even muckier than I was when I was living rough?’

‘And we’ll need to groom him,’ Laura told Caroline. ‘He can’t do it for himself while he’s in the collar. And the vet said that it’s best not to take it off, at all. He’ll get used to it more quickly if he wears it all the time.’

Well, that was just great, wasn’t it? I charged around the house angrily for a bit, trying to shake the thing off, but of course all I succeeded in doing was knocking everything over and falling over twice myself.

‘Charlie, calm down, you’re not helping matters!’ Caroline said, giggling. She bent down to pick me up. ‘You do look funny.’

I couldn’t believe it! I’d have thought I could rely on Caroline, at least, to be sympathetic, but it seemed I’d just become a figure of fun. But she was right, of course. By the next day I’d adapted to the collar and eventually even gave in with a good grace to the fact that I was locked indoors. And who did I have to thank for my acceptance of the situation? Well, the same sensible older cat who’d given me the benefit of his advice and experience all my life. Yes, my friend Oliver, of course.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I’ll tell everyone what happened, shall I, Ollie? Unless you want to take over? No? Oh, you think I’m doing a good job of telling my story, for a little kitten who’s never done any public meowing before? Well, that’s very kind, thank you. I learned from the best! Although I keep remindingyou, I’m not a little kitten anymore. Look at me. I’m fully grown, and you must admit now you’re hearing my story, I’ve got even more experience of life now than you have. But I suppose, to you, I’ll always belittle kitten, won’t I?

Well, everyone, as you know, Oliver has always taken a special interest in me and looked after me. I know I have a real father, but tell me– where is he, eh? Where’s old Tabby when I’m telling my story to the rest of the village cats? Exactly! He’s never around. He’s probably off somewhere chasing some young female. I don’t mind; that’s just the way he is, and it was nice that Oliver took on the role of mentoring me, andmy sisters here, instead. I’ve always looked up to him as an example of how to be a good cat. So when I disappeared, naturally Ollie was worried. Apparently he kept on coming to the Big House, looking for me, meowing around the outside of the house, but at first, of course, nobody was there because we were all at our holiday home in Mudditon. And then, apparently, one day he turned up at the house and found that the rest of the family were back home, but not me. He was more worried than ever then. One day Caroline heard him meowing outside, and let him in. As you know, my family love Oliver– almost, but not quite, as much as they love me. He’s told me that Caroline was crying as she stroked him, saying I’d got lost and it was all her fault. Ollie was very upset to hear this, and apparently he went back to the Big House several times after that, to see whether I’d returned.

That day, after my first uncomfortable night’s sleep wearing the horrible collar, I was eating my breakfast and having a moan to myself at the same time about the awkwardness of eating with that thing on, when I heard a familiar meow outside the kitchen door. I left my food for a minute and trotted over to look through the cat flap, and I nearly fell over with excitement. Ollie was outside, calling to me through the flap. I can’t tell you how pleased I was to see him, and I think he was even more excited to see me because he proceeded to shout at the top of his voice and paw at the locked flap.

‘What on earth’s going on?’ Laura said, coming into the kitchen, because I was now making almost as much noise as Ollie was, and pawing at the cat flap from inside too. ‘Oh!’ she said. ‘Hello, Oliver! I suppose you want to come in and play with your friend now he’s back. Hang on a minute and I’ll let you in.’

With which she picked me up and held on to me while she unlocked the flap. As Ollie jumped through, she put me back down and I was so excited, I ran around the room madly, knocking into two chairs and the side of the fridge with the stupid collar.

‘You’re back,’ he meowed at me. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’

‘I know, I’ve been lost, and living rough, and – oh my tail and whiskers, it’s so good to see you! I’ve got so much to tell you about.’

‘So it seems.’ He stared at me. ‘I’d like to rub faces with you, but what you’re wearing makes that a tad difficult. And I have to say, you’re not looking too good. You’ve lost weight, haven’t you? And what’s happened to your eye?’

‘It’s a long story. But first, can you tell me how I can get this dratted thing off? It’s driving me mad. I keep bashing into things, and they won’t let me go outside. Maybe if you could chew the edge, there, or get your claw in between the collar and my neck …?’

Oliver looked at me seriously for a moment.

‘Did the vet put it on you? Have you had some kind of operation done?’

‘Well, yes, he did something to my bad leg, see? It’s still a bit sore but I think it’s getting better now.’

‘Exactly, Charlie. It’s getting better because of whatever the vet did, and they only make us wear those collars to help us get better. So you need to keep it on.’

‘Whose side are you on?’ I said sulkily. ‘I thought I could rely on you to help me.’

‘No. You can rely on me to tell you what you need to know. Don’t you trust your humans anymore? Was it their fault you got lost, or what?’

‘No. It was … well, it was partly Caroline’s fault, I suppose, but I don’t blame her, she’s still only a kitten really and she made a bad mistake. I suppose Idid forget how to trust humans, for a while, but now I’m back home, of course I do trust my family.’

‘So stop fighting against them, Charlie! They’re only making you wear the collar, and keeping you indoors, until you get better. And looking at you, quite frankly you do need a period of convalescence. I hate to think what you’ve been through.’

‘Just you wait till I tell you all about it,’ I said. Then I sighed. ‘But I suppose you’re right, I’ll just have to give in and put up with this till they say it can come off.’

‘That’s my boy. Be sensible. Now, finish your breakfast and then I’ll give your face a wash, shall I, as it doesn’t look as if you can do it yourself.’

‘Thanks, Ollie. It’s so good to be back with you. Afterwards we can lie in that sunny corner of the lounge together while I tell you my story.’

‘Charlie, I’d love to, but if it’s a long story it’s going to have to wait till another day. I’ve got to go and visit Nicky today.’

‘Nicky?’ I lifted my head from my food bowl to look at him as well as I could round the edge of the collar.

‘Yes. I’m really worried about her. Not quite as worried as I was about you, of course, but now that I know you’re back, and safe, I want to try and help her. If only I could work out how.’

It was so typical of Oliver. He’s spent half his life helping the humans in the village. No wonder they all think he’s a special kind of cat.

‘What’s happened to her?’ I asked him. As you know, I’m very fond of Nicky myself, so I didn’t like to think of her being in some kind of trouble.

‘She’s just so unhappy these days. And it’s all her stupid male’s fault.’

‘Daniel? Why? What’s he done?’ I had a sudden memory of Nicky and Laura chatting on the sofa of our holiday home. ‘Oh, is it something to do with him going to the pub? Nicky mentioned that when she came to Mudditon. I suppose as you live at the pub, you must see him in there?’

‘Yes, I see him every single night! And he doesn’t just have one quick drink of beer and then go home. He’s there for ages. I pop in to see Nicky most days, and quite often she’s crying, Charlie, because he’s leaving her on her own all the time with their human kitten and she’s told me she thinks he doesn’t want to be with her anymore. It’d be different if she were a cat, wouldn’t it. Our females expect to be left with the kittens while their males go off hunting and … um, well …’

‘… and philandering. I know all about it, Ollie. You don’t need to be coy with me. I’m grown up now, I keep telling you, and I might be neutered, like you, but I’ve been living with some guys who spent most of their lives talking about either stealing food or mating with females.’

‘Really?’ He looked a bit shocked.

‘Yes. Let me tell you—’

‘I do want to hear all about it, Charlie, but at the minute I can’t think straight for worrying about Nicky. I seem to be the only one who can cheer her up.’

‘Oh, all right then.’ I felt a bit let down. What about cheering me up? I had a bad leg and a bad eye and wasn’t allowed out, after all. ‘Go off and cheer her up. Don’t worry about me.’

‘Don’t be like that. I’ll come back, all right? I promise. Meanwhileyou promiseme you’ll be a sensible kitt … sorry,cat… and stop complaining about wearing that collar and staying indoors. I want you to get better.’

So we both kept our promises. I settled down, accepted that my life was going to be severely restricted until the vet allowed me back my freedom, and tried to be patient. And Oliver duly came back to see me again the next day.

‘So what’s the news with Nicky?’ I asked, but he just shook his head sadly and said there was no change.

‘I keep hanging around Daniel every evening in the pub, meowing at him, trying to persuade him he ought to go home, but he’s so stupid when he starts drinking beer, he just thinks I’m being friendly. I’m going to have a word with Tabby. He’s helped me in the past when I’ve wanted some support with a difficult human. He sometimes needs a bit of persuasion, though!’

‘Good luck with that, then,’ I said, knowing what my father’s like. And as I expected, the next couple of times Oliver came back to see me, it was to report that he’d had no luck finding him.

‘Probably taken himself off somewhere for a few days,’ I said. ‘He’ll be back eventually.’

‘I know. I’m not worried about him – Tabby can look after himself. I was just hoping he could help me think of a way to do something about Daniel.’

I sat up, suddenly excited. So excited, I forgot about my collar for a minute and nearly knocked Ollie over with it.

‘Never mind about him,’ I meowed, ‘I’ll help you.’

‘You?’ Oliver looked startled. ‘But you’re only—’

‘Don’t you dare say I’m only a little kitten. If you’d only let me tell you what I’ve been through recently …’

‘I’m sorry, Charlie. I realise you’re dying to tell me your story, and I haven’t been very good company, have I? You know how I worry about my favourite humans.’

‘Yes, I do. But I’m trying to tell you, I’ve become a very brave and very resourceful cat since I went away. And, well, you’ve done such a lot to helpme, when I was growing up, I think it’s time you let me help you, for once, instead of trying to rely on my unreliable father.’

Oliver purred at me thoughtfully.

‘That’s all very well, and I appreciate the offer. But for one thing you’re not allowed out. And even if you were, you wouldn’t be much use in a crisis while you’ve got that thing stuck on your neck.’

‘So wait a few more days, can’t you, for mewing out loud? What’s the rush? If he’s in the pub every single evening …?’

‘I suppose you’re right.’ He got up and flicked his tail anxiously. ‘I just hate seeing Nicky so upset.’ Then he glanced back at me and added, ‘And to be honest, I’m having a hard job thinking of you as a grown-up cat. You’re still not looking all that well, either. Are you sure you’d be up for whatever it is we have to do?’

For the love of catnip! Over the course of the summer, I’d been lost in a strange town, rescued two human kittens from an accident on the beach, been violently attacked by feral cats, persuaded their leader not only to submit to me but to adopt me into their gang, learned to survive by scavenging and sleeping rough, and saved an old lady from vicious seagulls. And Oliver was asking if I thought I could manage a little bit of persuasion of a friendly human?

‘I think I can cope,’ I said, trying to toss my head at him but once again getting unbalanced by the stupid collar.

‘Well, I guess I need to start accepting that you’re not such a little kitten anymore,’ he said. ‘OK. I don’t suppose it’ll be long now till they take you back to the vet, so let’s say that as soon as they let you outside again, you come and meow for me at the pub after dark. Daniel’s bound to be there. You’ll have to follow me and do what I tell you.’

‘Fine,’ I said, feeling a bit patronised, as you can imagine. ‘But when you hear what I’ve been up to—’

‘Yes, I know, I know – I’ll hear all about it, Charlie, don’t worry, just as soon as we’ve sorted out this problem, all right?’

And with that, he meowed for Laura to let him out again, and with a wave of his tail, he was gone.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER NINETEEN

When the day finally came for the vet to take the collar off me, I nearly jumped off his table with joy. I felt light and free and frisky as a … well, frisky as a little kitten, I suppose.

‘He certainly seems to have cheered up a lot since last week,’ the vet said, and Laura laughed.

‘He hasn’t been very happy about being kept indoors. It’s just lucky his friend Oliver has been visiting, to keep him company.’

‘Oliver, the pub cat? He’s a very unusual cat, that one, isn’t he? Seems to understand humans, somehow – and befriending another cat, too? That’s unusual in itself.’

‘No it isn’t!’ I meowed at him. ‘You humans justthink it’s unusual becauseyou don’t understandus. We often make friends with other cats actually.’

But, of course, even vets don’t bother to learn Cat, do they, although you’d have thought it should be part of the job. So he completely ignored me, and busied himself instead with checking my leg and my eye, and putting a nasty, cold hard object into a very personal part of my body to take my temperature.

‘Well, I’m pleased to say that he’s on the mend,’ he said eventually. ‘The leg’s healed well, his eye has cleared up, and he seems to be putting some weight back on. He should be fine to go outside again now and get back to normal. Just bring him back in if you’re at all worried, won’t you.’

‘Of course. Thank you.’

‘I’m just glad it’s been a happy ending for the little fellow,’ he said, giving me a stroke. ‘Hard to imagine how he survived while he was missing, but I reckon he lost a few of his nine lives in the process.’

‘No, I didn’t!’ I protested. I’m pretty sure I would have known about it if I had!

‘Come on then, Charlie,’ said Laura, picking me up and putting me in the horrible basket to drive me home. ‘You can go off and play with Oliver now, to your heart’s content.’

Play? We had business to attend to! But of course, in the meantime, I was certainly looking forward to a run around outside. I’d noticed from the kitchen window that there was quite a layer of fallen leaves now on my lawn, and I was itching to get out there and dance around in them. I really wanted Caroline to come outside and play with me, but as usual, after school she was too tired to do much apart from lying on the sofa. I hadn’t told Ollie yet of my worries about her, but I knew he loved her too. At the moment he was far too concerned about Nicky to think of anything else, but I decided that as soon as I’d helped him with that situation, I’d ask his advice about Caroline.

After my dinner that evening, I trotted off down the lane into the village, as arranged, to meet Oliver at the pub where he lives. I jumped up onto the windowsill, pleased to find my injured leg was working so much better now, and meowed through the glass until he saw me.

‘Is Daniel in there?’ I asked when Oliver appeared from his cat flap in the back yard.

‘Yes, as usual. Thanks for coming. You look more normal now.’

‘I should hope so, without that thing round my neck. So what are we going to do? Leap on his lap and yowl in his ear till he goes home?’

He stared at me.‘That’s a bit aggressive, isn’t it?’

I blinked. Was it?

‘Not where I’ve come from,’ I said, thinking back to some of the tactics the feral boys used.

‘Charlie, wherever you’ve been recently, please remember you’re back in polite cat society now,’ he admonished me. ‘We don’t go in for jumping on humans and yowling at them, around here – not unless they’ve hurt us, of course.’

‘No, all right, fair enough,’ I said, duly chastised. ‘So, what do you say we should do? Sing to him? Blink him kisses?’

‘No need for sarcasm, either. I thought perhaps we should bring Nicky to the pub and let him see how upset she is.’

‘How’s that going to work? She’ll be looking after her human kitten, Benjamin.’

‘I know. She can bring him with her. When he sees her with the baby he’ll remember his responsibilities and feel ashamed of himself.’

I didn’t want to argue with Oliver, but it sounded pretty unlikely to me. For a start, I wasn’t convinced we’d be able to persuade Nicky to bring the baby out to the pub at night, and even if she did, I suspected Daniel wouldn’t be impressed.

‘What’s wrong?’ Oliver said, as I hadn’t replied. ‘Are you not up for it after all?’

‘Of course I am. Come on then, let’s give it a go,’ I said.

I followed him down the road to Nicky and Daniel’s house, and once again I showed off the strength of my newly healed leg by jumping up onto the nearest windowsill. Oliver jumped up beside me and we put our noses up against the cold glass.

‘She’s there, sitting on the sofa,’ Oliver said. ‘Come on, let’s make a noise and get her to let us in.’

‘Hang on, who’s that?’ I said. A tall, thin male with lots of facial fur was sitting next to Nicky on the sofa. ‘Is it her father?’

‘No, I don’t think so. I think it’s the male who lives next door. Put your ear against the glass, Charlie,’ Oliver said, doing the same himself. ‘Let’s try to hear what they’re saying.’

In fact I could only hear the male’s voice at first. Nicky didn’t seem to be saying a lot.

‘I prefer Thai food myself,’ he was saying. He had a peculiar kind of smile on his face, and he seemed to be leaning too close to Nicky. She didn’t look very comfortable and was edging further along the sofa. ‘I know a nice little Thai restaurant in town. The food is delicious, and it’s areally nice atmosphere in there. Do you like Thai? I think you’d enjoy it. Maybe I could take you there one of these evenings when you’re all on your own.’

Nicky gave a funny little laugh that didn’t sound quite right. ‘I’ve got Benjamin asleep upstairs, remember.’

‘Can’t you get a babysitter? We wouldn’t have to be out late. I’d drive you.’

‘No, Kevin, I can’t. It wouldn’t be right.’

‘So is it right that he spends every evening at the pub? You’ve already told me you’re fed up with being left on your own.’

‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘You wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t mean it. I’m glad you felt you could confide in me, Nicky. Glad to be here for you, as a friend, you know, someone you can talk to. You obviously need that, and God knows you deserve it. You work so hard, looking after Benjamin all on your own, as well as minding other people’s children.’

‘It’s my job. It’s what I do. Dan works hard too.’

‘Yes, but he’s not being fair to you, is he? You deserve to have a bit of fun in your life too. You need someone to take you out, treat you a bit special and show you some attention. Everyone needs that, don’t they?’

He reached out a paw to take hold of one of hers, but she moved it away, staring straight ahead of her, going a bit red in the face.

‘Don’t, Kevin,’ she said. ‘I … look, I’ll go and make us both a cup of tea, shall I?’

She got up, but as she did he reached out for her paw again, giving it a little stroke.

‘I’m not here to upset you in any way, Nicky. I’m just trying to be a friend to you.’

‘I know, and I appreciate it.’ She shifted from one back paw to the other, still looking uncomfortable. ‘So: tea or coffee?’

‘I’ve heard enough,’ Oliver said, jumping down from the windowsill. ‘It’s bad, Charlie, very bad. Worse than I thought. They’re on the verge of mating, I’m afraid. It’s the same as what happens with unneutered cats when they’re getting randy.’

‘Really?’ It was nothing whatever like the kind of mating I’d witnessed among my feral cat friends. There was no long drawn-out meowing and paw brushing involved in that, unfortunately, although I think their females might have liked it a bit better if there had been.

‘Yes. I can’t expect a little kitt—cat … like you to understand such things, but I can assure you we need to move fast.’

‘What are we going to do, then? Rush in and jump him? Go for his throat?’

He gasped.‘Charlie, what in the name of all that’s warm and cosy has come over you since you went missing? We don’tgo for the throat of a human, even if we don’t like what they’re doing.’

‘Sorry. I keep forgetting myself.’

‘Yes, well, the sooner you remember yourself the better. No, what we’re going to do is go back to the pub and persuade Daniel to come straight home, right this minute, before it’s too late.’

‘How are we going to do that? Jump on …?’ I stopped quickly, seeing the look he was giving me. ‘Whisper in his ear?’ I tried instead.

‘We have to walk backwards and forwards to and from the pub door,’ Oliver said, as we started to run back down the road. ‘Watch me, and do what I do, OK? I taught Daniel to understand a bit of Cat body language when there were some important issues last year. It’ll soon come back to him. Aslong as he hasn’t had too many of those drinks of beer. It seems to make humans extremely forgetful.’

In no time at all, we were jumping through the cat flap into the back room of the pub.

‘Follow me,’ Oliver said, striding ahead of me into the main room where everyone seemed to be talking very loudly or laughing and lifting their glasses of drink to their mouths. ‘There he is, by the window. Now remember, watch me and do what I do.’

‘OK.’ I followed him to where Daniel was sitting with a couple of other males. They had drinks on the table in front of them and were deep in conversation.

‘I still say West Ham should’ve been allowed that goal,’ one of the other males said.

‘Don’t talk rubbish, man,’ Daniel said, laughing. Then he glanced down and said, ‘Oh, there you are, Ollie. And who’s this you’ve brought home with you? It’s little Charlie Kitten, isn’t it?’

‘I’mnot a little kitten now!’ I meowed crossly, but Oliver gave me a look and hissed:

‘Stay focused on the job, Charlie!’

‘We heard he’d been found. He looks a bit skinny, doesn’t he?’ one of Daniel’s friends said, bending down to stroke me.

I could sense that Oliver was getting frustrated.

‘Never mind about all that!’ he meowed. ‘Daniel needs to come with us.’ And he proceeded to stalk across to the main door of the pub, his tail waving in the air. ‘Come on!’

I copied him, meowing as I went, waving my tail.

‘What’s up with them?’ the other friend asked. ‘Do they want to go out? George!’ he called across to Ollie’s owner, who ran the pub. ‘What’s up with your cat? Has he been fed?’

‘Oh, for mewing out loud!’ Oliver said to me. ‘They’re so slow to catch on. Come on, do it again.’

We turned round, ran back to Daniel’s table, meowing loudly, and once again walked towards the door, looking back at him. Suddenly, he put down his glass, staring at us.

‘I think they want me to go with them,’ he said.

‘What? Are you serious? Did they talk to you, or what?’ one of the others laughed.

‘In a way, yes. Oliver’s done it before. He has … some kind of strange powers.’ Ignoring the sniggers from his friends, he pushed back his chair and got up. ‘It might be an emergency,’ he said, suddenly looking a bit frightened. He threw some money down on the table. ‘Sorry, lads – got to go.’

‘See?’ Oliver meowed to me as he opened the pub door and we all ran out into the night. ‘I told you we could do it.’

‘Yes. Well done.’ We started to run, ahead of Daniel, leading him back along the road to his own house.

‘What is it, boys?’ he panted, running after us. ‘It’s not … not Nicky, is it? Oh my God, please don’t let it be something wrong with Benjamin? God, no, please, don’t let anything have happened to them, while I was …’ He broke off, and when I looked round I saw him wiping his facewith his paw. In the light of the street lamps he looked white and scared. ‘What the hell have I been doing?’ he muttered. ‘I’ll never forgive myself if …’

But he didn’t get any further, because by now we were at his front door and he’d already got his key in his paw. He opened the door and was just about to charge in, when we all heard the sound of voices coming from the lounge. I glanced at Oliver. Kevin with the furry face was obviously still here. Danielfroze where he was on the doorstep, listening.

‘But why not?’ Kevin was saying in a soft, wheedling kind of voice. ‘We’re getting along so well together, aren’t we? And let’s face it, your marriage is … well, it’s pretty much on the rocks, isn’t it? You can’t deny …’

I heard Daniel gasp. He took a couple of steps into the hallway, but stopped dead again as we heard Nicky interrupting Kevin. This time her voice was a lot louder than before, and a lot crosser.

‘That’s enough, Kevin! I think you’d better go.’

‘Oh, come on, Nicky! You know you want to …’

‘No, I don’t! I don’t know how I’ve given you the impression that I was interested in you in that way, but if I have, I’m very sorry. Idid think we got on well, as neighbours, as friends perhaps, and I’ve enjoyed your company in the evenings. It’s true Daniel’s been neglecting me recently—’

Daniel gasped again, and put his paw to his head. He looked like he was going to fall over.

‘—and yes, it has made me sad, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped loving him. And it doesn’t mean I’m going to jump into the arms of another man, just because you’ve told me about your divorce, and let me confide in you. I shouldn’t have done that. Daniel and I will sort out our problems. I don’t want you to come round anymore.’

‘Oh, surely there’s no need to be like that,’ he said. ‘I think—’

But we never found out what he thought. Because at that point Daniel suddenly seemed to burst into life again and, throwing his keys on the hall table, he raced into the lounge and skidded to a halt within nose-touching distance of furry-faced Kevin, who staggered backwards away from Nicky with a look of surprise.

‘You heard my wife,’ Daniel said in a growly voice like an angry dog. ‘Go.’

‘No need for that, mate,’ Kevin protested, waving his paws in front of him as if he was smoothing something down. ‘Nicky and I have just been having a nice friendly chat over a cup of tea. While you wereneglecting her. As she said.’

‘Dan, I didn’t say … well, I didn’t mean …’ Nicky was saying. ‘Don’t! Dan, leave him alone. Don’t hit him! It was my fault, I must have given him the wrong impression.’

I felt my fur standing on end. Daniel had got hold of Kevin by his jumper and had his paw screwed up into a fist, like a weapon. Kevin’s eyes were wide with fear, and he was making a stuttering noise that sounded like ‘Uh … uh … uh …’

‘Dan!’ Nicky squealed more loudly. ‘Don’t! It won’t help! Please don’t do something you’ll regret.’

‘Sparrows alive!’ I meowed.

I wasn’t going to wait to see what happened. Nicky was one of my favourite humans, and Daniel was making her upset, even more upset than she’d been with Kevin. I wasn’t going to stand for it. I wasn’t a timid little kitten anymore, I was a fighter, a rescuer, a cat who sorted things out and got things done. Just as Daniel was raising his paw to hit Kevin right in his furry face, I leapt up onto the sofa, threw myself at Daniel and clung to his jacket by my claws, yowling in his ear.

‘Stop it, for the love of catnip!’ I shouted. ‘No fighting! Nicky doesn’t like it.’

‘Ouch! Bloody hell, Charlie, what the hell are you doing? Get off me, you crazy kitten. For God’s sake!’ he cried, struggling to loosen my claws from the cloth of his jacket. The fight seemed to have gone out of him, because even though I’d shocked him, he was being gentle with me now. ‘There you go. Get down,’ he said, putting me back on the floor. ‘Stay there! What’s the matter, woman?’ he added, turning to Nicky, who seemed to be trying not to laugh.

‘Sorry.’ She reached out and put both paws round his waist. ‘He didn’t hurt you, did he? I’m sorry, Dan, but that was so funny. It was … as if he knew someone had to stop you. Are you all right?’

‘Yes.’ Daniel stared back at her. ‘I’m OK. I’m sorry. I lost my temper, and you’re right, it would only have made things worse.’

‘Yes. He’s not worth it. He was just trying his luck. I shouldn’t have let him get so close to me. It was stupid of me.’

‘No. Stupid ofme, leaving you on your own every night, without giving a thought to how you felt. I’m such an idiot, such a selfish idiot! God, Nicky, if you ever left me I don’t know what I’d do.’

‘I’m not going to leave you, you fool. I knew we’d sort things out eventually. And I know you’re working so hard, I can understand you want a drink with your mates sometimes, but …’

‘But not every night. It’s not fair, and I shouldn’t have been doing it. I should be coming home to you and Benjamin. Can you forgive me?’

‘Of course. Don’t be daft.’

‘And you won’t see Kevin anymore?’ He turned to look around the room. ‘Where is he?’

‘He sneaked out quickly when Charlie threw himself at you,’ Oliver meowed. Oliver was looking at me in a very strange way. ‘I think … I have to say … I think you saved the day just then, Charlie boy.’

‘I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of Kevin now,’ Nicky said, laughing again. ‘You and Charlie have both scared the life out of him.’

‘Good. What a creep! I suppose I should feel sorry for him. He’s probably lonely, and wishes he had a lovely wife like you to come home to.’

‘Yes, well, he’ll have to find one of his own.’ She cuddled up to him and they started to kiss each other.

‘I think we should make ourselves scarce now,’ I meowed at Oliver.

‘Let those two cats out, will you?’ Daniel muttered at the same time.

‘Did you bring them home with you?’ Nicky asked him as she went to open the door for us.

‘Um, well, actually they broughtme home,’ he said. ‘I know you think I’m mad, but I’m telling you, Ollie here has some kind of strange powers. He told me there was an emergency.’

‘Right.’ She giggled. ‘Well, if that’s the case, I reckon little Charlie has the same powers too. He saved you from your own temper just now.’

‘Yeah.’ He was watching us both as we trotted to the front door. ‘In fact they might well have saved our marriage. Amazing.’

‘Job done!’ I said to Oliver, and we started to walk home together.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER TWENTY

It must have been late at night by the time we said goodbye outside Oliver’s pub. People were coming out of the door, calling out goodnight to each other.

‘Closing time,’ Ollie said knowledgeably. ‘Will you be all right walking home by yourself, Charlie?’

‘Of course I will,’ I meowed. I was beginning to feel impatient with his fussing over me. ‘I’ve been used to going out at night scavenging for food.’

For a minute he didn’t reply, but just looked at me, his head on one side.

‘You reallyhave got a story to relate, haven’t you?’ he said eventually.

‘Yes! I keep telling you I have.’

‘And now we’ve got Nicky and Daniel sorted out, I’m looking forward to hearing it.’

‘Good. I’m looking forward to telling you, too. Come to my place tomorrow?’

‘Definitely.’ He stared at me again. ‘You’ve certainly changed, Charlie. Youare more grown up, and more confident, somehow. I couldn’t believe the way you stopped Daniel from hitting that Kevin, back there.’

‘I’m sorry if it wasn’t very … polite behaviour.’

‘Nonsense. You’re quite right, sometimes a situation calls for quick thinking and bold action rather than politeness. What you did back there saved the day. And you heard Daniel, we’ve probably saved their marriage too. Well done, Charlie, my little prot?g?! I’m proud of you.’

He rubbed his face against mine.

‘Thanks, Ollie. But you taught me all I know,’ I said.

‘That used to be true, but it’s not anymore. You’ve learned a lot more since you’ve been away. Things I could never have taught you.’

Yes. I knew I’d learned a lot from the feral cats, and I’d never forget them, or the time I spent with them. But I hoped my dear, kind friend Oliver would never need to learn about any of those things. In a funny kind of way, I almost felt more grown up than him now, even though it was me who was always going to belittle kitten.

The next morning I woke up early, looking forward to finally being able to tell Ollie the whole story of my time in Mudditon. But first I needed to talk to him about Caroline.

‘So have they actually said her illness has come back?’ he asked, when I brought the subject up as soon as he arrived through the cat flap.

‘Not exactly. But when I first came home I heard Laura saying to Caroline that I’d get betterjust as she would. And then Caroline told Grace that the reason she was moody and cross before was that she’d been frightened about being ill again. But apart from that, nobody’s saying anything.’

‘And is she not being moody and cross anymore?’

‘No – well, not most of the time, anyway. But she’s really, really tired and her face looks white, and when she comes home from her new school she just lies on the sofa.’

Ollie meowed in distress when he heard this, and walked round and round on the spot for a minute, obviously thinking it over.

‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ he admitted. ‘That’s how she looked when she was ill before. And has her fur come off her head?’

‘No. Well, not yet, anyway. If anything, it’s grown longer. She ties it up so it looks like a horse’s tail.’

‘And she hasn’t had to go off to the hospital place?’

‘Not as far as I know. Not since we were in Mudditon, anyway – the holiday town. She was in hospital there because … well, that’s another story. But nobody’s told me what happened while she was there.’

‘I don’t know what to think, then, Charlie. Perhaps it’s the new school that’s making her tired? I was outside Grace’s house the other day when she came home carrying such a big bag of books, she was almost bent double. I don’t know why humans make their kittens carry so many books. Surely they can only look at one at a time?’

‘I know, it’s weird, isn’t it? But what can I do, Ollie – you’re the clever one – how can I find out what’s wrong with her?’

‘I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep listening to their conversations. Or you could show Caroline how worried you are about her by jumping on her lap and mewing a lot.’

‘I keep trying that. I get lots of cuddles, but no answers.’

‘Oh dear.’ Poor Oliver looked as worried now as I was. ‘Well, the only other thing I can suggest is, I’ll make lots of extra visits to Grace and her family, as well as to Nicky and Daniel, and listen carefully to alltheir conversations. If Caroline is ill again, they must be really worried too, and they’re bound to talk to each other about it. I’ll report back to you as soon as I find anything out, all right?’

With which he turned round and headed back to the cat flap.

‘Aren’t you staying to hear my story?’ I called after him, disappointed.

‘No, Charlie, sorry,’ he meowed at me. ‘Not now you’ve told me this about Caroline – I won’t be able to concentrate until we’ve found out what’s wrong.’

‘No, of course not,’ I said, feeling guilty now for even suggesting it. How could the story of my time in Mudditon possibly compare in importance with Caroline’s health? ‘You’re quite right. Thanks for your help, Ollie.’

When Caroline came home that afternoon, I spent ages sitting on her lap mewing sadly in her ear. But in the end I had to stop because she called out to Laura that she was worriedI was ill because I kept crying.

‘I’m fine,’ I purred at her. ‘It’s you I’m worried about.’

But she still didn’t tell me anything.

The next day must have been a Saturday, as nobody was going to school or work, and I could tell straight away that something was going on with my family. They were all talking at once, excitedly, like there was going to be something different happening. I listened carefully, hoping it wasn’t going to be another holiday!

‘How did they find out he was back home?’ Caroline was saying.

‘Well, it was a series of things, really,’ Julian said. ‘You know I wrote to the two ladies in Mudditon who found him and took him to the vet there?’

They were talking about me! I sat up, listening even more carefully.

‘Yes, I know, you said you were letting them know how well he was recovering, and that you’d given their reward money to Cats’ Protection because the ladies didn’t want to accept it.’

‘That’s right. Well, coincidentally, it seems it was the niece of one of those two ladies who had put that original video on YouTube—’

‘The one of Charlie that was on TV?’

‘Yes.’ He hesitated. ‘Presuming itwas Charlie, of course.’

‘Dad, it definitely was!’

‘Yes, it was, Julian,’ Laura agreed. ‘I was convinced, the moment you brought him back home. He had the same injuries as the cat in the video!’

‘Yes, that’s true. Well, as you know, when these things are popular on YouTube, they escalate—’

‘It’s calledgoing viral, Dad,’ Caroline said. She seemed to know a lot more these days. It must have been because of her new school.

‘Right.’ Julian and Laura exchanged a smile over the top of Caroline’s head. ‘Yes, it went viral. Well, it seems people in Mudditon were still interested in what happened to Charlie, because of the bit on TV, and because everyone was saying on social media that he was the same cat who was in the “Missing” posters I put up around the town. When our two ladies got my letter, the niece updated her Facebook and Twitter accounts, telling people Charlie had been brought back home and was making a good recovery. Apparently loads of people were following the story, and commenting on it.’

‘Ah. That’s nice,’ Laura said.

I was pleased, too, to hear people in Mudditon were interested in me, but I just wished my feral cat friends could know I was safe and well. They probably had even less idea than me what Facebook or Twitter were, though. Twitter sounded like something to do with sparrows so I couldn’t quite see the relevance.

‘Well, because of it all goingviral again,’ Julian went on, ‘it got picked up once more by the local paper in Mudditon. They ran a cute story about how the little cat who saved the old lady from the seagull was found and returned safely home.’

‘And that’s how the BBC’s got hold of it again,’ Laura finished.

‘Yes.’ Julian paused. ‘Although there’s a bit more to it than that, apparently. Something new has come up. The guy who called me said he’ll explain when they get here.’

‘They’re coming here?’ Caroline squealed. ‘Really?’

‘Yes! They’re on their way. They’ve asked if they can talk to us, and take some footage of Charlie at home.’

‘We’d better lock the cat flap again!’ Laura said, jumping up. ‘In case he runs outside and isn’t here when they come!’

‘Good thinking,’ Julian said, although needless to say I didn’t agree. Wasn’t it bad enough that I’d been locked inside all that time I was wearing the collar? And did they really think I wouldn’t come back indoors as soon as these people came – whoever they were – to see me? If I was supposed to be the centre of attention, I was going to want to be here, after all!

‘Wow, this is so cool!’ Caroline said. ‘We’re going to be on TV. Can Grace come round?’

‘Yes.’ Laura smiled at her. ‘Of course.’

Caroline rushed off to talk to Grace on her new phone.

‘So what do you think the new development is?’ Laura asked Julian.

‘I really can’t imagine.’

‘But you’re sure this is a good idea – the TV thing? For Caroline?’

‘I don’t think it’ll hurt, do you? They’ll want to talk to her, but I’ve warned the guy on the phone that I don’t want her upset. We’re not going into the fact that the girls were trying to run away.’

‘Good. And I suppose it might be quite educational for her and Grace to see how the filming’s done. And a bit of excitement for them too.’

So, you see, Oliver, that was why my cat flap was locked again when you came round to see me. We meowed to each other from either side of the flap, but when Laura saw you, she said,‘Oh dear, sorry, Oliver, I don’t think we’d better have you in here today, not with the television people coming round, with their cameras and everything. An extra cat will just add to the confusion.’

And eventually, of course, you gave up and went off, probably wondering if they were keeping me indoors because I was ill again. I wasn’t. I was excited, although I wasn’t quite sure what I was excited about yet. Grace turned up, and she and Caroline sat in the kitchen with me, talking and giggling together and looking at their watches all the time and wondering how much longer it would be beforethey got here.

‘Who?’ I meowed. ‘Whoare these people who need me to be shut in the house till they get here?’

The doorbell rang, and everyone seemed to jump. Julian marched to the front door with Caroline and Grace running behind him, and Laura took off her apron and picked Jessica up from the carpet. I scampered after everyone and Julian called to Caroline to hold me and stop me running out when he opened the door.

‘Oh, hello!’ He held the door open and Nicky walked in as we all stared at her as if she was a stranger. ‘It’s just Nicky,’ he called back to Laura.

‘Who were you expecting, then?’ she said, laughing. ‘The queen?’

‘Not quite!’ he said. ‘Come in. Laura’s in the lounge.’

‘We’re waiting for the TV people,’ Caroline told her. ‘They’ve come to make a film about Charlie.’

‘It’ll just be a little piece for the News, Caroline,’ Julian warned her. ‘Don’t get too carried away.’

‘Really? How exciting!’ Nicky said. She smiled at Laura and Jessica as we all walked through to the lounge. ‘It’s actually Charlie I’ve come to tell you about,’ she added as Caroline put me down on the sofa. ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night.’

‘What?’ Laura looked alarmed. ‘He didn’t get into a fight or anything, did he? He’s only just been allowed out again. I didn’t think he’d start going out at night so soon.’

‘Nothing like that. He was out visiting Oliver at the pub, apparently – Dan saw them in there. And … well, this is going to sound really weird, but he says they made him come home.’

‘Made him…?’ Julian glanced at Laura, who glanced at me, frowned, and looked back at Nicky.

‘How do you mean?’ she said.

‘I don’t know. I think it must be Oliver. Daniel always did say he thought that cat had some special power to make him do things. But the thing is …’ She sat down next to Laura, went a bit pink, and went on quietly, ‘Well, the thing is, my next door neighbour had come in for a chat.’

‘Not Kevin the Creep?’ Laura said, laughing.

‘Yes. Only it wasn’t quite so funny anymore.’ Nicky looked at Caroline and Grace now, then looked back at Laura, raising her eyebrows like it was some kind of code. ‘He was being a bit too friendly. If you get my meaning.’ The eyebrows again. It must have been human body language.

‘What, was he coming on to you, Nicky?’ Caroline said, nudging Grace, and they both started giggling.

Nicky went even pinker, and looked down at her lap.

‘Oh my God,’ Laura said. ‘And Daniel came home just in the nick of time?’

‘Yes, with the two cats! And as you can probably imagine, he was pretty upset.’

‘Not with you, though, Nicky?’ Julian said.

‘No. He told me afterwards he’d overheard me telling Kevin to back off, that I wasn’t interested. But Kevin started to argue the toss, and … well, Dan got hold of him and nearly hit him.’

‘Oh my God!’ Laura said again, putting her hand to her mouth. Even Caroline and Grace had their mouths open wide with surprise, while Julian was trying to look serious.

‘But he didn’t, I hope?’ he said.

‘No.’ Nicky glanced down at me again. ‘But only becausethis little chap stopped him. It was unbelievable, honestly, you should have seen him. He threw himself at Dan and clung to his jacket by his claws, yowling at him. It brought Dan up short, and by the time he’d lifted Charlie off himself, he’d calmed down.’

‘Oh my …’ Laura just stopped herself from calling the God person yet again. She shook her head, and everyone in the room stared at me. I felt a bit self-conscious.

‘Sorry!’ I meowed. ‘It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Ollie was proud of me.’

But it seemed like Ollie wasn’t the only one.

‘That’s amazing,’ Laura said, reaching for me and giving me a hug.

‘Clever little Charlie,’ Caroline said, coming over to stroke me. ‘Isaid he was a hero, Daddy, didn’t I?’

‘Oh, come on! It was probably just a coincidence,’ Julian said, shaking his head. ‘He might have simply jumped up at Daniel to get a cuddle from him, and clung on with his claws to stop himself from falling.’

‘You weren’t there, Julian, with all due respect,’ Nicky said quietly. ‘You didn’t see him.’

‘And we should all know by now, catsdo look after humans and try to help them,’ Laura said. ‘After all the things Oliver did last year to help our village. And particularly our family, Julian.’

They all went quiet for a minute, looking at each other. I knew what they were thinking about, of course, because I’d heard all about it from Oliver himself – how he’d visited Caroline, before I was born, when she was poorly and lonely because she had no friends. And also how he made Christmas better for everyone in the village.

‘Yes. OK, Oliver did … somehow … seem to turn things around for us, didn’t he,’ he admitted. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps there’s more goes on in a cat’s mind than we can ever understand. But look at Charlie. He’s only a little kitten, who ran away and got lost! I just can’tquite believe …’

‘I amnot a little kitten anymore,’ I said crossly. ‘Even Ollie admits that now.’

‘Well, as far as I’m concerned,’ Nicky said, ‘Charlie and Oliver have saved my marriage. Daniel needed a sharp shock like that, to make him realise he was neglecting me and Benjamin. He got up early this morning to make Benny’s breakfast, and as soon as he got back from doing a bit of work this morning, he’s taken him out to the park in his buggy. He says he’s going to advertise for another mechanic to work for him, and in the meantime he’ll let the apprentice help a bit more where he can, so he’s not so exhausted. He’s been so focused on making the business a success, taking on all the work he could, and getting so tired, he admits he couldn’t face coming home and helping with his own son. He just fell into the pub every night and then couldn’t summon up the energy to come home. He knows he needs to make some changes and try to get some balance.’

‘Good for him,’ Laura said gently. ‘I’m so glad you’re going to work it out together.’

‘Thanks to Charlie and Oliver,’ Nicky insisted.

And before there could be any further discussion on the matter, at that moment the doorbell rang again– and this time, yes, it was the television people. And so we come to another chapter in my story!

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

It’s getting a bit late. Is anyone too tired to hear the rest of my story now? No? Good, because we’re almost up to date. We’re nearly at the point where I found out all the answers. Not all the answers to everything in the world, of course, as I suppose that even for someone who isn’t a little kitten anymore, there will always be things in the world that I don’t understand. But after the television people came, I understoodsome things, at least. And later on, I understood a lot more.

I was shut in the lounge while they came into the house, in case I was daft enough to try to run off before I’d even been allowed to star in my own story. I listened from behind the closed door as the voices greeted each other, and finally the door was flung open and someone gasped:

‘And is this our little hero?’

‘If you say so!’ I meowed, trotting up to the strangers to have a good sniff around their legs and see if they smelt friendly. A couple of them bent down to stroke me, and Caroline was being very jumpy with excitement, answering questions like was she pleased to have me back home, and how much did she miss me while I was gone? Then Julian took over, suggesting everyone sat down so they could talk properly, and Laura went to make tea and coffee.

‘Charlie’s story has really caught people’s imaginations,’ said a man called Andy who seemed to be in charge. ‘They loved the fact that a little cat like Charlie was brave enough to chase away a seagull and save an elderly lady from possible harm.’

‘So everyone agrees it was definitely Charlie in that video?’ Julian said.

‘I think we can assume it,’ Andy said. ‘There were lots of witnesses, don’t forget. And the two ladies … um …’ He glanced at a piece of paper in a folder that was open on his lap, ‘Jean Francis and Shirley Benson, who found him, have said they’re quite sure it was him. The cat in the video Shirley’s niece made had the same bad eye and the same sore place on his leg and everything. Well, as you might know, there’s been considerable nuisance in the Mudditon area recently from some particularly aggressive seagulls, and since Charlie’s story broke, there’s been a lot more discussion in the local press there, and on social media, about how to combat the problem to prevent their tourist industry suffering. It seems it’s made local people, and holidaymakers, more aware of the need to dispose of food rubbish properly and not to feed the gulls with food meant for humans.’

‘Let’s hope it works, then,’ Julian said. ‘We were all very sorry to hear about tourism suffering in Mudditon.’

‘Well, that’ll be mentioned in this little follow-up film,’ Andy said. ‘It’s been pointed out, too, that the local feral cats help the situation by keeping down the food waste themselves. And some of the witnesses to Charlie’s little episode say there were feral cats hanging around behind him at the time.’

‘Probably waiting to attack him, poor Charlie!’ said Laura, who’d come back in now with the tray of coffee.

‘No, we were working as a team!’ I meowed, but as usual nobody was listening to me, even though I was supposed to be the hero.

‘I don’t know about that, of course,’ Andy said. ‘But according to our interviews with local people, gangs of feral cats had been seen chasing seagulls on several occasions around that time. It’s quite unusual behaviour! But it seems there’s been a change of attitude towards the cats inthe town. They’re being tolerated more, on the whole, and a couple of local fishermen even went on record saying they’d taken to throwing them the occasional fish.’

I was delighted to hear this. I purred happily to myself at the thought of Big and the others getting free fish at the harbour and not being shooed away so often by the humans.

‘So what we’d like to do today,’ Andy went on, ‘is have a little chat with you all about Charlie – the background of how he went missing and how he was found. And of course we’ll film some footage of him being happy back at home here with the family, so that everyone – all his fans! – can see how much better he’s looking and how well he’s settled back down with you. We’ll add our own commentary with a recap of the seagull incident, reminding everyone about how he came to be so famous in the Mudditon area. And we’ll include the interview with the woman and boy from the beach caf?, of course.’

There was a silence.

‘What woman and boy?’ Julian said.

‘Which beach caf??’ Laura asked at the same time.

‘Um …’ Andy rummaged through his papers again. ‘Stella Parkin, who runs the Seashells beach caf? at Salty Cove, just outside Mudditon – and her nephew Robbie who helps her … did we not tell you about this?’

‘No.’ Julian shook his head. ‘Was this thenew development you mentioned on the phone? You said you’d fill us in today about it.’

‘Sorry, yes, so I did.’ He smiled around at us all, pausing as he looked at Grace, who I’d noticed had gone a bit pink in the face and was nudging Caroline and whispering to her.

‘Is she the lady who helped us when Caroline got hurt?’ Grace asked quietly. And when Andy nodded, she said, turning back to Caroline, ‘You remember, Caro. She got the boy to call an ambulance, and persuaded us that you needed to go to hospital. She was really kind.’

‘I don’t really remember that,’ Caroline said. ‘It’s all a bit of a blur.’

‘Of course it is,’ Laura soothed her. ‘So what have these people got to do with Charlie’s story, Andy?’

‘She’s convinced it was Charlie who alerted her to the accident,’ he said.

‘What?’ Julian said, looking surprised. ‘I can’t see how. Charlie was found in the harbour area at Mudditon, not at Salty Cove. Sorry, but it could’ve been any little tabby cat, couldn’t it?’

‘But, Daddy, I told you I thought I saw him, didn’t I?’ Caroline yelled, so loudly that baby Jessica, sitting in her little bouncy seat next to the sofa, jumped and started to cry. ‘Iknew it was him. It’s the only clear memory I’ve got, of that day, until I got to the hospital.’

‘Yes, darling, but honestly, it isn’t very likely, is it?’

As you can imagine, by now I was meowing for all I was worth, trying to tell them it was true, it was me, I’d been there, I’d tried to help!

‘Actually, Mr Smythe, there are photos,’ Andy said. ‘Would you like to see them?’

‘Well, yes, of course, but how …?’ Julian was saying, looking confused, as Andy rummaged through his folder again.

‘Robbie from the caf? took some pictures of the cat on his phone. His aunt apparently took the cat in to give him some food and milk, after the girls were taken to hospital,’ Andy explained. He chuckled. ‘Stella said in our interview that he’s never off the phone, using Twitter and WhatsApp and so on while he’s supposed to be working. Well, he shared these photos on his social media accounts as usual. Apparently he told Stella he was doing it to try to find the cat’s owner. But instead he made a joke of it, saying his aunt thought this cat had told her about an accident on the beach. He thought it was funny, said he thought she was barmy. But a couple of weeks later, when the networks started buzzing with pictures of the incident in Mudditon with the seagull, he looked at them and thought it could actually be the same cat. He showed his aunt, and she was convinced it was. After we ran our first news story, she contacted us to tell us abouther experience.’ He held out a couple of pictures to Julian. ‘Printouts of the nephew’s shots,’ he said. ‘What do you think?’

Well, everyone in the room now nearly fell over each other to get to the pictures. I tried to get a look myself, but they were all in my way.

‘I remember the boy holding his phone up at me,’ I meowed. I knew this made pictures appear. Were these the pictures? Were they pictures of me?

‘Let me see!’ Caroline was squealing.

‘Is it him?’ Laura said, looking excited.

‘Oh my God, Caro,’ Grace said. ‘Maybe it really was Charlie!’

Julian was the only one staying quiet. He held the pictures, staring at them, one after the other, with Caroline leaning on the back of the sofa, looking over his shoulder.

‘It’s him, Daddy, I know it is,’ she said. She sounded like she was about to start mewing. ‘Charlie came to my rescue! He saw me getting hurt, and went to get the lady from the caf?.’

‘Itcould be him,’ Julian said, sounding a bit less doubtful now. ‘What do you think, Laura?’ He passed her the pictures, and she looked at them with Nicky.

‘I think it is him,’ Laura said. ‘It’s how he looked before, Julian – before he got into the fight, or got attacked, or whatever, and got the injuries. Before he lost weight and everything.’

‘But why would he have been at Salty Cove?’ Nicky said.

‘He must have followed us,’ Grace said.

‘Yes, he must have done,’ Caroline agreed. ‘If he ran out of the house when we opened the door, then he must have trailed us all the way we walked that night, Grace, without us seeing him.’

‘Yes, and … oh my God, he must’ve seen us go in the beach hut, and … waited around outside all night,’ Grace said. ‘And then he saw what happened on the beach in the morning.’

‘Yes!’ I meowed. I jumped off Caroline’s lap and scampered around the room, doing a few little jumps of excitement so that they all laughed at me. ‘That’s what happened. But what Idon’t know is what happened after you went off in the ambulance. Nobody’s told me.’

And it looked like nobody was going to, either. They were much too busy discussing the mystery (to them) of how I ended up back at Mudditon. Hello? I walked! It wasn’t very far, along the coast. Shouldn’t they have known that, if they were so clever? And then they were listening to Andy telling them how the film was going to be put together, with the caf? lady’s story, and Jean and Shirley’s story, as well as my family talking about me and their relief about having me back home.

When they were all ready, Andy held up a thing called a microphone and started talking to Caroline and Grace, while his friend Sandeep was filming them on his huge camera. By then, I’d finally begun to understand how I got inside the television that first time, because Sandeep had spent a while showing the girls the camera, playing back a bit of film to them. Because I was sitting on Caroline’s lap at the time, I could see that it did the same thing as their phones did when they filmed each other. And Sandeep explained that these moving pictures would eventually appear on people’s television screens. I can’t say it makes sense to me, any more than lots of the weird things humans do. But now I see there is some kind of connection between cameras or phones, and televisions, so maybe it isn’t actually magic.

It was nice being cuddled on Caroline’s lap while Andy talked to her about what happened in Mudditon. Because Julian had already warned him that the girls had been punished enough for running away, and he didn’t want it brought up again, Andy just referred to it as theirlittle adventure that went wrong.

‘Charlie must have come with us, and followed us,’ Caroline said into the microphone. ‘We didn’t realise.’

‘But it seems it was a good thing he did,’ Andy said. ‘And when you and Grace got lost, he seems to have stood guard over you all night.’

‘Well, to be quite honest I fell asleep under a bench,’ I meowed. But Caroline stroked me and said yes, I must have been protecting them, which made me feel a bit guilty.

‘So can you tell us what happened the next morning?’ Andy asked, and Grace explained how the seagull swooped on their sandwiches and bit Caroline’s finger.

‘I tried to run off, and I must have tripped on the rocks,’ Caroline said. ‘I don’t really remember it very well.’

‘She hit her head, cut it open, and knocked herself out,’ Grace said.

‘That must have been very frightening,’ Andy said. ‘And it seems that’s when Charlie managed to get the attention of Stella at the caf?.’

‘Yes, that lady was very kind, and she said the boy had called an ambulance,’ Grace said.

‘And what a good job you were taken to hospital, Caroline,’ Julian said, sounding very serious.

I looked around the room. Everyone was much more serious now. Caroline was looking down at the floor and Laura reached out to put a paw on her arm.

‘Perhaps your dad would like to explain what happened, Caroline,’ Andy said, and the camera turned towards Julian.

‘Well, we’d been frantic with worry, of course,’ he said, ‘so when we got a call to say the girls were at the hospital, we – and Grace’s parents – rushed straight there. And Caroline—’

He broke off, swallowing hard. I looked up at him. Caroline what?

‘She looked dreadful,’ he said very quietly, ‘and there were doctors all round her. We … well, as you can probably imagine, we didn’t know what to think.’

‘We feared the worst,’ Laura said. ‘She’d been very ill, you see, and we were still waiting for results of a biopsy, to see whether there was a recurrence of her illness. So we were very, very worried at that point.’

‘They told us she’d had an accident, and at first all we could see was a wound on her finger,’ Julian said. ‘But she was so pale, and she kept complaining of a headache and feeling sick and dizzy.’

‘And she seemed quite confused,’ Laura added. ‘She wasn’t too sure where she was, or what had happened.’

‘And then, of course, the doctor showed us where she’d hit the back of her head when she fell, and that Grace had told them she’d been unconscious, so they were treating it as concussion,’ Julian said. ‘But when we told them about the leukaemia, and the fact that we’d been worried abouther health recently, they obviously took that very seriously. And, well, to cut a long story short, if she hadn’t been taken straight to hospital, the concussion could have been missed, which could have had really serious consequences in itself. We might have thought her symptoms were linked to the … other health worries, you see.’ He shook his head. ‘It really doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘So it seems your little cat actually saved the day!’ Andy said, beaming at me.

‘If it really was Charlie who alerted someone to call an ambulance, then I’d say …’ Julian was looking at me too now, with a strange expression on his face, ‘to be honest, he could have actually saved her life.’

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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Finally, they believed me. I’d rescued the girls! And not only that, I’d saved Caroline’s life. This called for a celebration. With a little meow of happiness, I hopped up onto Andy’s lap, knocked the pen out of his paw (I do like a nice pen to play with), and jumped back down after it, batting it along the floor withmy paws and leaping around, pretending it was a mouse. For a minute, everyone stayed quiet, watching me – and then they all burst out laughing at once, with the man called Andy going into a real frenzy of excitement.

‘Did you get that?’ he demanded of Sandeep, who’d now turned off the camera for a moment. ‘And the looks on all their faces? Great! This is fantastic. What a story! It’s even better than I thought it was going to be. It’s going to go national. The human interest factor – the kitten who saved a life! I mean, it’s like, wow!’ He waved his paws about, grinning all over his face. I stared at him. He was talking in that funny way Caroline did when she was with her friends!

But then, all of a sudden, he stopped, went very quiet, and said:

‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. How very inappropriate of me. I mean, in view of Caroline’s condition …’ He glanced at Caroline and lowered his voice even more. ‘The leukaemia?’

‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ I meowed. I mean – were theyever going to tell me whether she was all right?

‘Oh sorry,’ Laura said. ‘We didn’t finish explaining.’ She paused for a moment, as if she was thinking about what to say, then went on, ‘You see, when we told the doctor at the Mudditon hospital that we were still waiting for biopsy results from London, he got straight on the phone to them, and then came back saying it was negative. No abnormal cells found. It seems there’s no recurrence of the leukaemia.’

‘Phew,’ Andy said. ‘I’m very glad to hear that.’

Me too! At last, I’d found out what I needed to know. Caroline wasn’t ill after all. Everything was all right with the world! I’d got back on her lap by now, bored with the pen, so I gave her face a good licking, making her giggle.

But then I thought again about how tired and pale she looked, how worried Julian and Laura still looked when they kept asking her if she was OK. Something didn’t seem right. What were they still not telling me? Or were they justpretending to Andy that she was OK? I mewed to myself a bit, feeling anxious all over again.

I looked at Julian and Laura now, and felt even more anxious when I saw they were frowning at each other, and Julian was shaking his head like he didn’t want her to say any more. As usual, humans, with their rubbish body language, made it impossible to understand what they were thinking. Surely, I told myself, Laura wouldn’t have said Caroline didn’t have the illness, if she did? Surely, if she did have it, she’d be going back to the hospital, instead of going to school? I just had to believe what Laura said, didn’t I?

By now Andy and Sandeep had turned off the camera and the microphone things, and all the adults were just carrying on chatting, so it seemed I wasn’t needed anymore. Perhaps it would be best to try to take my mind off my worries. I jumped down from Caroline’s lap again and went over to have a sniff around some of their equipment.

‘We’ll pack up and get away now, then. Thanks for everything,’ Andy said after they’d chatted for a while longer. It was a bit embarrassing, because I’d somehow got myself tangled up in some leads for the camera. At first I thought it was good fun, playing with their stuff while they weren’t looking, but when they wanted to start packing things away I couldn’t get myself out of the mess I’d made, and they had to unravel me. Andy wasn’t cross though.

‘He’s such a cute little cat,’ he laughed. I couldn’t help thinking about how I used to get told off if I got tangled up in Laura’s washing. Although that was before I went missing. She didn’t seem to get so stern with me these days.

‘This is going to be such a great little story,’ Andy said again as they finally headed for the door.

‘Good. And if the publicity helps the campaign in Mudditon – getting people to alter their behaviour with regard to the seagulls – it’ll be worth it,’ Julian said.

‘Yes. Nothing wrong with seagulls in their place, is there, but their place isn’t being fed human food and attacking people to get it,’ Andy agreed. ‘Well, Charlie, you’re already a hero to the people in Mudditon, and now you’re a hero to your family as well,’ he said, giving me a stroke. ‘They must be so proud of you, little kitten.’

‘Not a little kitten!’ I meowed crossly at him. ‘For mewing out loud, look at me, I’m a grown-up cat now.’

Although, to be fair, I suppose if I’d been so very grown up I might not have got tangled in the wires.

Nicky stayed for a while longer after the television people left. Caroline and Grace went off to play in her bedroom.

‘It was good to see Caroline looking happy and excited,’ Laura said after the three of them had sat in silence for a while.

‘You’re still worried about her, aren’t you?’ Nicky said. ‘I must admit, she does still look pale.’

‘Oh, Nicky, we just don’t know what to think!’ Laura sounded like she was almost mewing, and Julian, who was holding her paw now, was staring at the carpet. I’d been washing myself in a corner of the room, but as you can imagine, I sat up and listened again. ‘We keep telling ourselves it’s just tiredness, you know, because of the new school,’ she went on.

‘Or even the after-effects of the concussion,’ Julian put in. ‘They did warn us at the hospital that she might still suffer from headaches, dizziness and difficulty in concentrating – for as long as three months after the accident.’

‘And are those the sort of symptoms she’s complaining about?’ Nicky asked quietly.

‘Well, she’s not really complaining much at all, bless her,’ Laura said. ‘Not since Charlie came home, anyway – she’s so thrilled to have him back. But she does admit she’s really tired all the time. And you’ve seen how she’s looking, Nicky. You can understand why we’re finding it so difficult not to be worried still.’

‘Perhaps it’s only natural that you’ll always worry about her? After what she went through before,’ Nicky said.

‘Maybe. But … well, I’m thinking we should take her back to our own doctor. Just to make sure,’ Julian said, glancing at Laura as he said it.

‘It can’t hurt, can it? Just for your own peace of mind?’ Nicky said.

‘Julian’s worried they might have got the biopsy result wrong,’ Laura said, in such a soft little voice I almost missed it. She had her paw over her mouth, as if she didn’t really want the words to come out. ‘I keep telling him how unlikely that is, but …’

‘But we need to be sure,’ Julian said in a much louder, firmer voice. ‘I can’t go on like this, Laura, on edge all the time, wondering. If there’s been a mistake, we need to know.’

‘I’m sure there hasn’t,’ Nicky said, a little wobble in her voice. ‘But I agree, if you’re that worried, you should get her checked out again.’ She got up and gave them both a hug. ‘Please let me know, won’t you? Dan and I are worried too – about all of you.’

By now I was pacing the floor back and forth, mewing to myself, with all the excitement of the day forgotten. It was all very well being told I’d saved Caroline’s life – but if it still turned out that she was seriously ill, then perhaps I hadn’t done enough life-saving, after all.

*

I didn’t sleep very well that night, and when Oliver came to see me the next morning, to tell me that he’d actually managed to get some news about Caroline, at first I couldn’t quite take in what he was saying.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, still thinking about what I’d heard the previous day. ‘You’re not a human doctor, all of a sudden, are you?’

‘Human doctor?’ He stared at me. ‘What are you talking about, and why are you being so tetchy? I promised you I’d listen in on Nicky and Daniel’s conversations, didn’t I?’

‘Oh. Yes, sorry. What have you heard?’

‘Well, please don’t get too upset. But I heard Nicky telling Daniel that your owners are going to take Caroline back to the doctors because they’re still worried she might be ill again.’

‘Oh, yes, I know that.’

‘You do?’

‘Yes, it came up yesterday when Nicky was here.’ I rubbed my face against his. ‘I’m sorry, Ollie, I’m so worried about Caroline myself now, I can’t think straight.’

‘I know. I was pretty worried when I heard the news. Is there anything I can do? Shall I stay and play with you for a while to cheer you up?’

‘If you don’t mind, I think I’d rather be on my own with the family.’

‘Of course.’ He looked so sad, it made me feel guilty, but it was no good – I just couldn’t get myself back out of the black mood that had come over me. It wasn’t until he’d gone that I realised I hadn’t even told him about the TV people, and about being called a hero and a life-saver. It just didn’t seem so important or clever anymore.

Julian told Caroline that evening about going back to the doctor’s in the morning. I was lying on the rug next to baby Jessica, tickling her with my tail and my whiskers to make her giggle. Even the fact that Laura wasn’t telling me off anymore about the possibility of germs, was making me sad, because she looked so anxious and distracted, it felt like I could have sat right on Jessica’s head and she still wouldn’t have reacted. Not that I was going to do it, of course. I really loved little Jessica these days.

‘Oh,’ was all Caroline said about the doctor’s. We all waited for her to start protesting and complaining about it, but she didn’t, and in a way that was worse.

‘It’s just a precaution, Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘We’re sure there’s nothing to worry about, but you must admit, you’ve been so tired all the time.’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘It’s probably the after-effects of the concussion,’ Julian said.

‘Or even just the new school,’ Laura joined in. I got the impression they were both trying to sound cheerful. ‘You know, the longer day, the extra work, carrying all those books …’

‘Yes.’

‘So that’s probably what the doctor will say,’ Laura went on.

‘But we just thought we’d make sure,’ said Julian.

There was a long silence, during which Caroline came and lay down on the floor next to me, and started playing with me and Jessica.

‘OK,’ she said eventually. ‘Can you make the appointment for after school? Otherwise I’ll have to have a note.’

I worried all the next day. I almost couldn’t eat my lunch. When Laura finally came home after the doctor’s appointment I was so relieved that Caroline was with her, and hadn’t been taken straight to the hospital, I purred all round her legs for ages while she sat at the table having milk and biscuits. But it wasn’t until Julian came home from work that I found anything out.

‘Dr Pearson says the bone marrow biopsy looks conclusive,’ she said. ‘He’s sure there’s no mistake. I asked him whether he thought we ought to repeat it just in case.’ She glanced at Caroline. Again, I was expecting her to howl in protest, but she just sat there, listening, playing withthe thing that turns the TV on and off.

‘And?’ Julian asked anxiously.

‘Well, he said he’d like to get a couple more ordinary blood tests done first, to check for other possible reasons, before we go down that road.’

‘What sort of other reasons? Did he agree that it might be because of the concussion?’

‘He did seem to consider it. But he said there could be any number of reasons – it was like he didn’t want to commit himself until we’ve got the results of the blood tests. So I’m taking Caroline to the health clinic in Great Broomford for those, first thing in the morning. Dr Pearson will have the results by Wednesday.’

Those next two days seemed twice as long as normal. I almost couldn’t eat my breakfast, lunchor dinner. I tried to keep myself busy by amusing Jessica, by chasing birds in the garden and playing in the fallen leaves, but nothing seemed to work. When Oliver called round I was almost too anxious to meow with him at all, let alone start telling him the story of my time in Mudditon. When Caroline came home from school on Wednesday afternoon, Laura was waiting for her with Jessica already in her car seat, to take her straight back to the doctor’s. They went off without even saying goodbye to me. I meowed at them from the window as Laura drove away, but I knew it was because, like me, they couldn’t think of anything apart from the test results. They were gone for so long, Julian got home from work before they returned.

‘Why are they taking so long, eh, Charlie?’ he asked, bending down to stroke my head.

‘I wish I knew,’ I meowed.

‘I’ll try calling Laura’s phone,’ he said, and I sat up straight in my bed, watching him as he held the phone to his ear. Laura must have answered quickly, because the next thing he said was: ‘Where? The supermarket? Why the hell… Laura, I’m sitting here worrying myself sick, waiting for you to come home. At least tell me what the doctor said.’

Then he frowned, said‘OK. Yes. See you in a bit, then.’ And, turning to me, he added, ‘She can’t even talk to me right now, because she’s at the checkout. Honestly, Charlie – women! What a time to choose to go shopping.’

I agreed. I mean, I realised it was obviously necessary to stock up on my cat food, but I’d have thought it could have waited till the morning. Julian made himself a cup of coffee and we both settled down to wait. And I tried not to wonder whether Laura had taken Caroline shopping to cheer her up – because they’d had bad news.

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

It was only a little while before we heard Laura’s car pull up outside. Julian got up and went to the front door. He was so agitated, he was doing a little dance from one foot to the other on the doorstep, and I walked round and round his feet, feeling exactly the same.

‘Hello!’ Laura called out cheerfully as she carried Jessica out of the car.

She didn’t sound at all upset. Or was she just pretending to be cheerful for Caroline’s sake? But then Caroline came bounding up to the door behind her, smiling and saying she was hungry. That was a good sign, surely? I never looked forward to the arguments and sulks at dinnertime, or Laura’s sighs and downturned mouth when Caroline left half her dinner on the plate. Perhaps if she was saying she was hungry, she might eat it all up and everyone would be happy. Just as long as she wasn’t ill.

‘What took you so long?’ Julian asked as we all went through to the kitchen. ‘I’ve been on edge here for ages, waiting to hear what the doctor said.’

‘Sorry. We needed a few bits of shopping,’ Laura said, putting a bulging carrier bag on the kitchen table. ‘Have you got the other bag, Caroline?’

‘Yes, here you go.’ She deposited another bulging carrier bag next to the first one, and they smiled at each other.

‘What’s going on?’ Julian said, looking bewildered, and I didn’t blame him. It was beginning to look like the shopping was more important than the visit to the doctor.

‘We’ll explain in a minute. Just put the kettle on first, would you? I’m gasping for a cup of tea. And Jessica’s nappy needs changing. I’ll do that while you make the tea.’

She carried Jessica off upstairs, and Julian, shaking his head, turned to put the kettle on and get out mugs and tea bags, while Caroline rummaged in the cupboard for a biscuit.

‘You know Laura’s rules,’ Julian warned her. ‘No snacks just before dinner. You leave half your meals, as it is.’

‘I won’t tonight, though,’ she said, grinning.

Julian sat down opposite her at the table, staring at her.

‘Is there some kind of secret going on that I’m not being allowed to share?’ he asked her, a bit crossly. ‘All I want to know is what the doctor said about the blood tests, and whether you’re OK.’

‘Sorry, Dad.’ Caroline reached across the table and touched his paw. ‘I know you’ve been worried. So have I. But it’s OK. I don’t need another bone marrow biopsy. It’s nothing serious.’

‘So whatis it?’

‘Anaemia,’ Laura said, suddenly reappearing in the kitchen doorway. ‘That’s what’s been wrong with her, Julian, and it’s all my fault.’

‘No it’s not,’ Caroline said. ‘It’s my fault, Laura. If I didn’t want to eat meat, I should have researched it myself, shouldn’t I, to find out what I should eat, instead of just having tantrums about it like a baby.’

‘It’s because she hasn’t been eating meat?’ Julian said, looking from Caroline to Laura and back again, his eyebrows right up to the top of his head. ‘That’s why she’s been so tired and unwell?’

‘No. Not exactly.’ Laura sighed and sat down at the table next to him. ‘It’s not the lack of meat in itself – Dr Pearson says a vegetarian diet can be very healthy if it’s done properly. No, it’s the lack of anything sensible in her dietinstead of meat. And thatis my fault. I’ve been too busy trying to get Caroline to eat whatI wanted her to eat, to think about what nutrients she might be missing. And I’m a nurse! I feel so stupid.’

‘Laura, you’ve been really busy since Jessica was born,’ Caroline said quietly. ‘And I know I was being difficult about it. The thing is, I just really hate the whole idea of eating dead animals! I’d been feeling like this about it for a long time, ever since I was ill I suppose, but I didn’t reallywant to be awkward and difficult. I did keep trying to eat some meat, but then it started making me feel really sick.’ She shrugged. ‘Perhaps you’re right, Laura – it might just be a phase, maybe I’ll get over it.’

‘It doesn’t matter anymore, Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘I’m just glad we’ve found out what’s wrong.’

‘So what does Dr Pearson suggest? Iron tablets?’ Julian asked.

‘Not unless we can’t correct it ourselves with diet.’

‘What sort of diet?’

‘Look in the bags, Dad!’ Caroline said, sounding quite excited as she started to unpack the two carriers, describing each item as she put it on the table ‘Lots of green veg. Dried apricots. Lentils. Soya beans. Tofu. Oatmeal. Cashew nuts. Sunflower seeds—’

‘And lots of oranges, strawberries, blackcurrants and so on, for vitamin C,’ Laura put in.

‘Because, did you know? We need vitamin C in order to absorb iron,’ Caroline said, sounding quite excited about it.

‘And plenty of cheese of course, and yoghurts and eggs. For protein.’

All this sounded awful to me, but Laura and Caroline were grinning away to each other happily.

‘Caroline has really taken it on board,’ Laura said. ‘She wanted us to go straight to the supermarket and stock up on all the right food, so that we can start today.’

‘Are you sure you’re up for this?’ Julian said, sounding worried again now. ‘It sounds like a lot of work, Laura – two different meals every night? I mean, you know I’d help, but I normally get home a bit late …’

Laura laughed.‘Don’t worry, I’m not expecting you to learn vegetarian cooking, Julian.’

‘ButI’m going to,’ Caroline said, sitting up a bit straighter. ‘That’s only fair, if I want to eat differently from you, isn’t it? And anyway I think it’s really interesting. I can cook stir fries with lots of nuts, and make lentil bakes, and …’

‘We picked up a recipe book in the supermarket too,’ Laura told Julian.

‘And I’m going to start on tonight’s dinner as soon as I’ve changed out of my school uniform,’ Caroline said, running off towards the stairs.

‘I do realise the novelty of cooking for herself will probably wear off after a while,’ Laura said, smiling at Julian. ‘And I’ll supervise anyway. But it won’t do her any harm. We can both learn, together. I don’t think it’s going to be as difficult as it sounds. We might even decide to join her, a couple of days a week. Too much meat is bad for you, you know,’ she added.

Really? I found that hard to believe. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could survive without eating meat. Even when I was living in such reduced circumstances with the feral cats, it was the scraps of horrible burgers and sausages from the bins, together with the occasional treat of fresh fish of course, that kept us alive. But to be honest I was just so very, very happy to hear that Caroline wasn’t really ill after all, I didn’t care what strange things she wanted to eat, as long as they made her feel better.

‘Dr Pearson also reminded me that she’s approaching puberty,’ Laura added quietly, ‘which, as well as the anaemia, would account for her having been so tired and emotional.’ She paused for a moment, and then smiled and said, ‘And moody, and bad-tempered!’

I was glad poor Caroline wasn’t in the room to hear that.

‘Really? She’s at that stage already? She’s only eleven!’

‘Coming up for twelve,’ Laura said. ‘It’s not at all out of the ordinary, Julian. I should have realised that myself, but I kind of expected that she’d have a slightly delayed adolescence, if anything, after going through her illness and the chemotherapy. But the doctor said that doesn’t necessarily happen.’

‘The trouble is, we’ve both been seeing all the signs, but thinking they meant something else. Something much worse. So we couldn’t see the wood for the trees.’

‘Yes, you’re right. Well – thank God, she’s going to be fine now.’ Laura reached out and touched Julian’s paw. ‘It’s such a relief, isn’t it?’

A relief to me too, of course. In fact I felt quite weak with it. I was going to have to have a lie down. But first, I needed to wind myself around Caroline’s legs until she picked me up, so that I could give her face a really good licking to show how happy I was.

Later that night, after Jessica had gone to bed and Caroline had gone back upstairs to do her homework, Nicky came round. Apparently she’d been desperate to hear how the doctor’s appointment went, too.

‘I’m so glad it’s nothing serious,’ she said after Laura had told her all about it. ‘So it’s nothing to do with the new school, either? I was a bit worried she was finding it too much.’

‘No, she absolutely loves the school,’ Julian said. ‘And we’re both completely certain now that we’ve done the right thing, aren’t we, darling?’

Laura nodded.‘She’s so happy at Great Broomford High, going off on the bus with all her friends, and being in the same class as Grace. And it is a good school, so I’m sure she’ll do well there. Thank goodness there was still a place available for her there when we changed our minds.’

‘Yes,’ said Julian. ‘If only we’d sat down and talked to her about it properly, instead of just insisting we knew what was best for her. The private school might have a wonderful reputation, but what’s the point, if she was going to be miserable and resentful? Now she’s got her circle of friends here, after all that time of being lonely, it’s quite understandable that the most important thing for her is to be with them. No wonder she felt so cross and upset with us.’

‘But she’s happy now, and she’s going to be fine, that’s what matters,’ Nicky said gently. ‘What about the concussion, though? Did the doctor say that wasn’t causing her any of her symptoms?’

‘Oh, he did say it might be adding to the problem, yes,’ Laura said, ‘although the anaemia is the real issue. But I must say, he agreed with what they told us at Mudditon Hospital – if Caroline hadn’t been taken to hospital, it could have been a different picture altogether. Can you imagine what might have happened if she and Grace had carried on wandering off on their own like that – while she was suffering from concussion, not to mention the bleeding from her wounds? It could have been … well, a catastrophe,’ she finished in a very quiet voice.

‘Thank God she went to hospital. So it looks like Charlie reallydid save her life,’ Nicky said.

‘Yes.’ Laura looked at me and smiled. ‘He did.’

‘It feels like we’ve got our Caroline back now, in more ways than one,’ Julian said, and I thought I could hear a funny wobble in his voice. Laura must have heard it too, because she put her paws round him and hugged him. He smiled at her and added, ‘Andyou’re so much happier too, darling, aren’t you? Now the baby’s started to settle down.’

‘Poor Laura was tired out, Julian,’ Nicky said. ‘What on earth did you expect?’

‘You were worried I might have had postnatal depression, weren’t you?’ Laura said, turning to Julian. ‘But Nicky’s right, I was just completely exhausted.’

‘Men just don’t get it,’ Nicky said, shaking her head. ‘Dan was absolutely useless too, after I had Benjamin.’

‘I know, I know,’ Julian said, smiling. ‘Well, we don’t like to admit we’re worried, you see …’

‘Excuses, excuses.’ Nicky laughed. ‘You’re all the same. If you don’t like us being tired and ratty, you should be looking at how you can help us. And honestly, Julian – I’m glad we’re close enough friends that I can say this to you now – it really wasn’t the most wonderful ideain the world, taking the family to Mudditon for a whole month and leaving them there to get on with it.’

Oh, at last, somebody was saying what we’d all been thinking right from the start! I rubbed my head against Nicky’s legs and purred.

‘I know,’ Julian said. ‘I think I realised I’d messed up, even before we got there, but I was trying to convince myself it was going to somehow make everything better. Instead, I’ll admit it, it was just a bloody disaster!’

‘Oh, come on, there were some good things about the holiday,’ Laura said, nudging Nicky and doing that thing with her eyes that humans call winking. ‘It was quite fun really apart from the girls running away, Charlie going missing, Caroline getting herself concussed and carted off to hospital, and … oh, well, none of us being able to relax on the beach because of the seagulls. But that pales into insignificance compared with the rest!’

‘Next year,’ Julian said, when they’d all stopped laughing, ‘you choose the holiday, right? That’s a promise.’

‘And Charlie can stay with us,’ Nicky said firmly. ‘Wherever you go, you’re not going to risk taking him with you again and letting him get lost.’

‘You’re on,’ Laura said. ‘Thank you. The cattery is supposed to be very good, though.’

‘No!’ I meowed. ‘I want to stay with Nicky. I’ll be really, really good! I won’t mess up her washing or get inside Benjamin’s cot or anything.’

‘I think he’s saying he’d rather stay with us,’ Nicky said, stroking me. Perhaps she actually did understand a bit of Cat!

‘Well, next summer’s a long way off,’ Julian said, ‘but we might take you up on it if Laura wants us to jet off somewhere exotic and expensive.’

‘Good idea!’ Laura said, and she did the winking thing to Nicky again. ‘Although to be honest, I can’t imagine exotic holidays being quite so easy with a baby in tow. And it’s funny, but despite everything, I’ve developed a kind of affection for Mudditon-on-Sea.’

‘You’re joking!’ Julian said.

‘No, I’m not. But we’re only going back if they’ve got a grip on the seagull problem. And as long as it’s only for a week or two,and you stay with us.’

‘Perhaps we could stay in a hotel next time instead of self-catering,’ Julian said. ‘And we’ll see if Grace can come along for Caroline.’

Nicky was laughing at them both as she got to her feet.‘Well, I’d better get back or Dan’s going to start complaining thatI leavehim on his own too much with Benjamin! I’ll leave the pair of you to mull over your plans for next year, then – although I can hardly believe you’re already talking about going back to Mudditon again.’

And neither could I. After everything that happened, here they were already discussing going on another holiday! What on earth is wrong with humans? Why can’t they just enjoy playing in their own safe territories all the time, like we do? Although I must admit, just for a tiny moment, I allowed myself to imagine going back to Mudditon and somehow being able to catch up with my friends, the feral cats, again. But sadly, I knew it wasn’t really going to happen. I’ll never forget those boys, but they’re not part of my real life, my life here in Little Broomford with my family and friends. I’m a home-loving domestic cat at heart, and always will be.

After Nicky left, I took myself off to my bed in the kitchen to settle down for the night, but I couldn’t sleep for thinking about all the things I’d overheard. Suddenly there was a rattle of the cat flap and there was Oliver looking through it. I jumped up at once and dived outside to join him.

‘What have you been doing?’ he complained. ‘I’ve been meowing outside for you for ages, but you’ve obviously been too busy to hear me.’

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘It’s been a very worrying day. Caroline went back to the doctor to find out whether she’s ill again.’

‘Oh yes! What happened?’

‘She’s OK.’ I felt almost too tired to explain. ‘But she has to eat strange things like nuts and eggs and oranges.’

‘Yuck. Poor Caroline.’

‘I know, but we’re all really happy because she’s going to be fine.’

‘Of course. I’m happy about it too.’ He rubbed his face against mine. ‘It’s really good news. Thank goodness she’s not ill. So – now we know that, if I come back tomorrow perhaps you’ll finally tell me your story?’

‘Yes. And I didn’t tell you the other day about the television people coming—’

‘What?’

‘They want to put me into everyone’s televisions again. They’re calling me a hero.’

He gave me a funny look.‘Really? Don’t start getting big ideas about yourself, Charlie. You’re still just a little kitten to me, you know.’

And although it usually annoys me now, there was something quite comforting then about Ollie calling me a little kitten‘Don’t worry. I won’t get big-headed. But it turns out they’re saying I saved Caroline’s life.’

‘Wow. Really?’

‘Yes, and in Mudditon where we went on holiday, the humans think I was a hero because I saved an old female from being attacked by seagulls.’

‘I can’t wait to hear about all this. And of course, Charlie, we’re both heroes for saving Nicky and Daniel’s marriage as well.’

‘Yes. I’m getting a bit tired actually, doing all this heroism and saving. I was just about to go to sleep before you turned up.’

‘Oh, well, if you’re too tired to talk to me …’

‘Of course I’m not. Anyway, I couldn’t get off to sleep. I was too excited about Caroline not being ill. And too busy puzzling about things my family have just been saying, as well.’

‘Tell me about it!’ he meowed. ‘Humans puzzle me all the time. They’re just not like us, you know.’

‘I realise that. But whatever possesses them to want to go away on holidays? It’s crazy. Once you start wandering away from home, trust me, Ollie, I’ve discovered life is fraught with dangers and difficulties. Personally, nothing will ever tempt me to do it again. Oh, unless, of course, I should ever be needed for another rescue of Caroline.’

‘I can understand that. Adult humans should be able to look after themselves, but human kittens are pretty vulnerable. Especially when they’re very small, like your Jessica, for instance.’

‘Oh my claws and whiskers, that’s a point! You’re right, Jessica’s areally tiny human kitten. So far, she can hardly move at all on her own. Everyone got all amazed and excited the other day just because she rolled over on the carpet, can you believe? She certainly won’t be going anywhere far like that! But if she starts wandering when she’s big enough, I’ll have to start looking out for her, too, for sure. My work as a life-saving hero is obviously going to be an ongoing occupation. I feel exhausted just thinking about it.’

‘Well, you’d better get your rest while you can, you poor exhausted life-saving hero!’ he said. He sounded just a little bit sarcastic, I have to say, although not in a nasty way. Ollie would never be nasty to me. He just keeps me in my place, and I suppose that’s fair enough.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay and hear some of my story now?’

‘No. Tomorrow will be better. Quite frankly you look worn out. And anyway, I’ve been thinking. Some of the other cats in the village keep asking me if I know what happened to you while you were missing. Why don’t you tell us all, together? I’ll spread the word tonight, and we can meet by the dustbins round the back of the shop early in the morning.’

‘You really think they’ll be interested?’

‘Oh yes, definitely.’ He gave me a friendly rub with his face. ‘I’m absolutely certain they’ll all be agog to hear about the exploits of our local life-saving hero!’

And perhaps he was being a bit sarcastic again. But judging by the way you’ve all hung around to hear this story right to the very end, you know what? I think he might have been right. What’s that, Tabitha? You don’t want the story to end? Well, I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure it must be nearly dinnertime again. And even heroes like me need to eat, you know. We all need to keep our strength up, just in case.

Just in case what? Well, who knows? Who knows when you might be called upon to save someone’s life, just for instance? If it can happen to an ordinary little kitten like I recently used to be, well, it could happen to any cat, anywhere. Be warned. Be prepared. Humans need us! Even if they don’t realise it, they do, because let’s face it, we’re the superior race by far.

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Нортон Шейла Oliver The Cat Who Saved Christmas. Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life