‘Someone must have put them up to it. My girls are so sweet, they would never say anything like that. Don’t worry, I will have a word and find out who put them up to it, and of course all the children can play together. I am hoping,’ she looked directly at Jonathan, then reached out to lightly touch his arm,’ that we shall all be the best of friends. I am so happy to have you as neighbours.’
‘Right, well that’s great, and we’ll see you soon?’ Jonathan was flustered, Tomasz uncertain and Matt confused.
‘I look forward to it.’ Andrea smiled again, before she closed the door.
I darted back to Seabreeze Cottage to await the men’s return. This was going to be interesting.
‘Well?’ Claire demanded as Jonathan, Tomasz and Matt trooped in. Franceska was cooking and Polly and Claire were setting the table.
‘She’s nice,’ Jonathan said.
‘Very nice,’ Matt added.
‘Her shoes were nice,’ Tomasz said, turning as red as a tomato.
‘What do you mean? She’s horrible,’ Polly snapped.
‘No, not to us, she said she was so happy to have us as neighbours and that someone must have put her girls up to being nasty, they would never say anything like that apparently,’ Jonathan explained. ‘And anyway, she’ll sort it out.’
‘That’s not the case: Aleksy, Tommy, Henry and Toby all corroborated the same story.’
‘She didn’t say they didn’t say it, she said someone must be behind it because they are sweet girls. Anyway, she’s going to have a word so it’ll all be sorted. And she didn’t mention buying the house, just how nice it was to have us living here, so perhaps you got the wrong end of the stick,’ Matt added.
Claire, Franceska and Polly exchanged a glance.
‘God, why are all men so gullible,’ Polly said.
‘What do you mean?’ Matt asked.
‘She’s clearly flirting with you and now you think your own wives are liars,’ Claire stormed. I actually agreed with her.
‘No, of course not, but we’re just thinking that you might have got off on the wrong foot, but now it’s all going to be fine,’ Tomasz said.
‘Dazzled by her beauty no doubt,’ Franceska added.
‘I didn’t notice she was—’
‘I can’t even remember what she looked like—’
‘No, not at all—’ all the men started objecting at once but Claire silenced them. The damage was done. They had been blinded by Andrea the way George had by Chanel, it was clear for us all to see.
With all the excitement I’d nearly forgotten about Gilbert, but as everyone retired for the evening, and there was no sign of him, I ignored my rumbling tummy and the leftover food that had been so enticingly tipped into my bowl and left it for him. I was too tired to stay up and see if he came back, but I hoped he would, and that he’d eat what I left for him, because I hated to think of any cat being hungry. I had been that cat once and it wasn’t nice. I would have left a note for him, but being a cat I couldn’t, so leaving him some lovely food would hopefully convey my message: that he was welcome here andI would like to get to know him. The way to a cat’s heart is through its stomach after all. You can never have too many friends; the horrible experience with Chanel, Andrea and her daughters proved the truth of that.
Chapter Eight
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The absence of the men was felt keenly on Monday morning. I was secretly excited though, because Gilbert had emptied my bowl, and therefore it was obvious he understood my message. I still hadn’t seen him but I thought if I got enough rest today, if George let me, then I would stay up late tonight to have a chat with him. I felt as if it would be great to have a new friend here, and also an ally wouldn’t go amiss either.
We had had an uneventful Sunday with no other children sighted, no Andrea, or Chanel, despite George’s desperation. The poor kitten was devastated and had insisted on camping out in the hedge watching her house for hours, but to no avail. I had to persuade him back in with the promise of ice cream, and then I had no idea how to get any. Thankfully Summer had a cone which she thought was hilarious to feed him. Jonathan wasn’t impressed though, but it was cute and Claire videoed the whole thing. Little George, all eager with his head in an ice-cream cone, pink ice cream all over his fur when he emerged. It took an age to get him properly clean but at least it took his mind off Chanel for a few minutes.
Anyway, when in the afternoon Franceska had driven the men back to the train station we had all been sad to see them go. It was lovely here but it was definitely better when they were all with us. Everyone seemed to agree. We all missed them.
‘I thought we might go across the estuary on the ferry today, cheer us up,’ Claire suggested.
‘Fab idea. I can leave the builders, they are doing a great job with the attic,’ Polly agreed. ‘And they don’t need me at all.’
‘It’ll be nice to see another new place,’ Franceska thirded. ‘Right, children, get dressed and we can go out.’
George and I went to the boys’ room as they got ready.
‘I want to go on a ferry,’ George hissed to me. Honestly this kitten was always in need of entertainment.
‘We can’t and, anyway, the estuary is water, we don’t do water,’ I said. That was the end of that.
That wasn’t the end of that. George was being all cute with Tommy and I knew exactly what his game was. He was rubbing his legs, purring, lying on his back asking to be tickled; he was trying to give Tommy a message.
‘Hey, Aleksy, what if we take the cats with us? We can smuggle them in our backpacks, like we used to with Alfie when we were little.’ Actually, Aleksy did that only once, but obviously they had never forgotten.
‘But, Tommy, we could get into so much trouble if we’re caught.’ Thankfully Aleksy was sensible. ‘But it would be kind of fun to have Alfie and George with us.’ I could see Aleksy, who was a clever boy, weighing it up. I really liked adventures but when they involved water, no thank you. ‘It would be funny though, like the cats were stowaways. If we get caught we have to say we didn’t know the cats were there.’ Not that clever then. Who would believe that I would voluntarily go anywhere near water? No one, that’s who.
‘Yes!’ Tomasz high-fived Aleksy. Operation cats on a ferry was a go, whether I liked it or not.
George was so excited as we stayed in the boys’ room like we’d been ordered to. The plan was that just as they were ready to go they would say they needed their backpacks, come upstairs and get us. No one would ever find out. I raised my whiskers. I loved a good plan, don’t get me wrong, it was what I did, but I didn’t have a great feeling about this one.
I tried to quash my misgivings as I peered out of the gap in Aleksy’s backpack. This wasn’t a bad way to travel, I thought, as the sun shone and we got to see more of the village. We walked past the beach — busy with families — then along to a big wall. There were steps leading down to the water and a boat, which didn’t look very big, or safe for that matter, was waiting. I tried to be brave but my fur was quivering. I couldn’t see George, who was tucked up in Tommy’s backpack, but I hoped he was alright. It felt a bit jerky as they went down the steps.
‘God, it’s a bit steep,’ Claire said.
‘Just be careful, children,’ Franceska said.
Yes, I thought, please be careful. As the backpack was put on the floor with a gentle thud, I looked around through the small gap. All I could see were legs. There were all of us, plus some other people on the boat. Luckily I couldn’t see any water, so I could pretend it wasn’t there. I just hoped we didn’t sink. When I first met Claire she was sad and watched this film calledTitanic a lot, so I knew just how precarious boats could be.
I couldn’t see George still but I knew he would be excited by this. He didn’t share my fears, and actually in some ways that was a good thing. I didn’t want him to be scared of everything, but I did want him to sense danger. It was another parenting lesson I was trying hard to get right. The boat ride itself was quite smooth, there were a couple of rocky patches but nothing too bad, I thought as I almost held my breath.