‘I will. But obviously Chanel won’t agree with them, she likes me, I know she does.’
‘Um, maybe,’ I said. Here we go, I thought. There was something not very nice about all the people living next door and I wasn’t pleased about it. We were all so happy here, I couldn’t have anything or anyone spoiling it.
Just as we were all finishing our tea there was a knock on the door. Matt went to get it. He came back alone.
‘Aleksy and Tommy, there are four children saying they are here to play cricket with you?’
‘Oh yes, can we play now, in the garden?’ Aleksy said hopefully.
‘Of course, if you’ve finished eating,’ Franceska said.
‘Can I go?’ Toby asked.
‘And me?’ Henry said.
‘Of course, but, Aleksy, you are in charge of the younger ones and keep the front door open. We’ll pop out as soon as we’ve cleaned up,’ Claire said.
I noticed Summer and Martha didn’t want to go with them.
‘Not wanting to play cricket?’ Jonathan asked his daughter.
‘No, it’s a silly game,’ she said, folding her arms.
‘We had a bit of a disaster when they played on the beach,’ Claire whispered in Jonathan’s ear. ‘Summer couldn’t hit the ball and she had a bit of a tantrum.’
‘Right, girls, who would like to watch a Disney film as a treat?’ Polly trilled, and they jumped up. It seemed much easier to keep everyone happy by the sea.
‘Do I watch a film with the girls or play cricket with the boys?’ George asked.
‘Cricket might be fun, come on, let’s go outside.’
I ran out with George on my heels. The game was in full swing. There were two boys, roughly the same ages as Aleksy and Tommy, who were called Simon and Ben, and there were two girls, Millie and Jess. They seemed like nice children. Toby and Henry had to stand around to do what they called‘fielding’, which meant they were expected to fetch the ball wherever it landed. I think they got the short straw but didn’t seem to notice, and were happy to do so. George said he would help them and he ran after the ball alongside the other boys. It was cute to watch. At one point, Claire and Franceska brought out drinks and then left them — as Jonathan said, it made the kids feel grown up to be allowed to play without adult supervision for once and Claire said they played out like this and on the beach when she was a child without any of her parents or her aunt worrying. So I movedbetween all my humans, keeping my eye on all of them, which was my favourite thing to do.
I had just reached outside when the gate opened and the two girls from next door appeared.
‘Hey,’ Aleksy said, waving the cricket bat, ‘do you want to join in?’
The local children suddenly went very quiet and looked at their feet.
‘No, we don’t. And I’m surprised at you.’ Savannah, the oldest girl, glared at Simon, Ben, Millie and Jess. ‘What do you think you are doing?’
‘Uh, we’re playing cricket,’ Tommy said. Toby, Henry and George were staring at the girls.
‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ Savannah said, nastily. ‘You guys,’ she pointed at the local children, ‘are not allowed to play with them. They don’t belong here.’
‘No they don’t,’ Serafina, the younger girl, colluded.
‘What on earth?’ Aleksy looked appalled. ‘We live here, well we do in the holidays, so what is your problem?’
Aleksy used to be quite shy but with my help and the fact he was such a popular boy at his school, he had gained confidence and come out of his shell.
‘Um, the thing is that we all go to the same school.’ Simon looked awkward.
‘And, well, we are all friends,’ Ben added, looking unhappy.
‘So, we can all play then,’ Tommy said a bit aggressively. He was almost as big as Aleksy, despite being a couple of years younger, and he wasn’t scared of anyone.
‘No, you can’t.’ Savannah poked him in the chest.
‘Oy,’ Tommy said. But he backed off. He was a gentleman and wouldn’t hit a girl.
‘Our friends won’t be playing with you again. Come on, right now!’ Savannah shouted and the children all mumbled apologies before following her out of the garden.
‘We should go home now, anyway,’ Jess said, looking embarrassed.
‘Shut up, Jess,’ Savannah shouted.
‘Wow, that wasn’t nice,’ Henry said. Toby looked devastated.
‘Hey, Henry, Toby, don’t worry, we can still play. And now they’ve gone, you can take a turn with the bat.’ Aleksy put his arm around the younger boy.
‘Finally!’ Toby said.
‘Well now we know where Chanel gets it from,’ I said to George when we were out of earshot.
‘What, you mean her beauty? Yes, I see it,’ he replied and I raised my whiskers in despair.
Aleksy told Franceska what happened with the children and she was visibly upset. When the children were in bed, or settled in front of the TV, she told the others.
‘Like mother, like daughters,’ Polly said.
‘Oh God, I’m not having them start on the children though,’ Claire said.
‘Don’t worry, you know what kids are like,’ Jonathan started. ‘I know, we’ll go and see this Andrea woman and have a word.’ He looked pleased with himself.
‘What, me and you?’ Claire didn’t look so pleased.
‘No, us men will go. We’ll use our charm to tell her that not only can she not buy the cottage but also that the children should all play happily together.’
‘Really? All of us?’ Tomasz looked unsure.
‘Won’t we seem intimidating?’ Matt asked.
As Polly, Claire and Franceska laughed, I felt a bit sorry for the men. They were about as intimidating as George.
‘What?’ Matt said again.
‘You guys are about as intimidating as a teabag,’ Polly finished, wiping tears from her eyes. Everyone was laughing apart from the poor men.
They all headed out before they changed their minds and I couldn’t resist, I had to go with them and see this for myself. Thankfully George had already gone upstairs with Toby so I didn’t have to worry about him mooning over Chanel as I headed out. The men went through the gate to Andrea’s house while I darted under the hedge, waiting by the front door, hidden just out of sight, until I saw them appear. They rang the brass doorbell and waited, as did I. I decided to stay out of sight in case Chanel was there. I didn’t feel like antagonising her or having her be rude to me this evening.
Andrea opened the door wearing a low-cut dress, which had a slit up her leg, high heels, full make-up and her long blonde hair shone very brightly. It was almost blinding. I wondered what her secret was; I’d like my fur to gleam like that.
‘Hello,’ she said, smiling widely. She actually appeared to be friendly.
‘So sorry to interrupt you,’ Jonathan said. Tomasz didn’t seem to know where to look, and Matt was also a bit frozen. Jonathan glared at them. ‘I’m Jonathan, this is Matt and Tomasz from Seabreeze Cottage.’
‘Oh how lovely to meet you. Of course I’ve already met your lovely wives, and now you. How are you finding it?’ She was so warm and friendly I felt wrong-pawed.
‘Well, it’s very nice so far,’ Matt said. ‘And the kids are having such a fun time, just being away from London is so healthy for them.’ He was gushing a bit, I thought.
‘Oh it is and Lynstow is one of the best places in the world, I am always saying to my husband. Of course that’s why we moved here.’
‘Is he here?’ Tomasz finally found his voice. I think he was more comfortable dealing with men.
‘No, I’m afraid he’s away on business at the moment. Just little me and the girls, oh and of course Chanel.’ Chanel appeared from behind her legs.
‘Right, well.’ Jonathan was looking awkward again. ‘It’s just that we wanted to introduce ourselves and also, it’s probably nothing, but there was … an incident with the children earlier.’
‘An incident?’ The smile hadn’t moved from Andrea’s face.
‘Yes, some local children were playing in our garden and your girls told them to leave and that they weren’t allowed to play with our kids,’ Matt explained.