I needed troops, that much was obvious. And Gilbert was my only option. I needed to up my charm offensive with him, so I recruited George.
That night, we waited for him together and when George met Gilbert he was immediately impressed.
‘You have a great coat,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’ Gilbert raised his tail. I could tell he was already taken by George, as most cats and people alike tended to be — not counting Chanel and Andrea. ‘Right, let’s go to the beach. This is going to be fun.’
Gilbert took us across the road, and over the wall which separated the pavement from the beach. He then told us to follow him as he ran up and down the sand dunes.
‘Weeeeee,’ George said as he flew down.
‘Be careful,’ I warned.
‘It’s fine, Alfie, sand is soft, you can’t get hurt,’ Gilbert pointed out. We had a game of hide and seek where I, loath to leave George, hid with him and Gilbert found us. As the tide was out we sniffed around some boats that were sitting on the wet sand waiting for the water. As the moon shone down on us I realised that this was what we should be doing on our holiday. Not worrying about bad people, but having fun. And Gilbert was right, thiswas fun.
‘I love the beach now,’ George said as we sat on the wall, in a line, and looked at the large, bright moon.
After the ordeal and the growing unease I was feeling about what was going on, it was a lovely end to the day. I had George, I had a new growing friendship with Gilbert and I was safe. I hadn’t fallen off the roof. As I looked at the moon I remembered to count my blessings.
‘You’re lucky it’s summer, the rest of the year they let dogs on here,’ Gilbert explained. ‘Besides, I love it best at night, when it’s pretty empty.’ There were some young people lurking around but not many. ‘It feels like it belongs to us,’ Gilbert said. We sat in silence. Yes, it did feel it belonged to us.
‘There are three things I love about this holiday,’ George said as we headed home to bed.
‘What’s that?’ I asked.
‘The beach, ice cream and Chanel.’
Chapter Thirteen
[Ęŕđňčíęŕ: i_016.jpg]
Thank goodness for our evening trips to the beach, because on Friday, just before the end of the week after the children had moved up to the attic, and Polly was congratulating the builders on how quickly they were working, another disaster struck.
I had been watching George in the garden. He’d been trying to catch a glimpse of Chanel, yet again. I heard Claire scream from inside the house so I ran back in. I made my way upstairs and saw Claire and Polly with a red-faced Mark.
‘You’ve knocked down the wrong wall,’ Claire shrieked.
‘Didn’t you wonder why there were clothes and everything out which would be covered in dust?’ Polly shouted.
Mark’s face was ashen. Was Mark now in on the sabotage? I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to watch both him and Liam.
‘But Liam said it was definitely this wall. I asked him if he was sure.’
Ah, Liam had struck again, but this time he was trying to pin the blame on Mark.
Colin shouted for Liam, who appeared, looking shiftily at his boots. I hadn’t thought he would risk doing anything wrong so soon after paint-and roof-gate, but I guess this time he’d been hoping Mark would get the blame. I looked at the big, dusty hole in the wall between where Claire and Polly were sleeping and I knew that this was his fault. To give Liam his due, he had been shouted at so much lately that he must really like Andrea to put himself through this.
‘Blimey.’ Colin scratched his head, which he was doing a lot lately. ‘What have you done?’
‘I thought you meant this wall,’ Liam mumbled, turning red. He mumbled a lot. ‘I told Mark, but Mark could have checked with you.’
Thankfully the children were in the garden with Franceska, so they didn’t hear the language that Colin used. Let’s just say it was colourful.
‘But, I checked with you and you said you were sure,’ Mark protested.
‘I said the wall between the bedrooms on the left-hand side of the stairs. This is clearly right. Oh God, I am so sorry,’ poor Colin said. He looked as if he was going to cry himself.
‘Everything is covered in dust and this hole is where you were going to start the plumbing for the en suite bathroom. This is going to cause yet another delay,’ Polly stormed. ‘And Claire will have to move into one of the other rooms until you get this sorted.’ Polly looked angry, Liam looked at his feet, Mark was being so apologetic although it wasn’t really his fault, and Colin looked tired. I went over to Liam and jumped as hard as I could onto his foot.
‘Ow,’ he shouted, scowling at me. I gave him a small swipe with my paw just for good measure. His face turned even redder, if that was possible.
‘Don’t think the cat likes you,’ Colin pointed out.
‘Alfie is a very good judge of character.’ Claire narrowed her eyes at Liam.
‘Right, OK, well, lads, firstly help Claire move everything that’s covered in dust, Polly, Liam and Mark will rebuild the wall today as a matter of urgency. If they have to stay late, yet again, then they will so don’t worry.’ Colin held a hand out as Polly looked like she was going to object. ‘I’ll stop back to supervise. And the plumber is going to be working on the finishing touches for the kids’ bathroom and the outside shower today so he can start work here tomorrow. I promise, it looks bad but we’ll have this wall built good as new.’
I left them to it. It seemed to me that whatever Liam was doing, for Andrea, was costing him, rather than us, although it was of course delaying things, which was irritating because we had limited time. I was learning a lot about house renovations this summer it seemed.
Downstairs there was a big picnic going on on the front lawn and the village children were there. Their parents must be used to letting them go out on their own, I supposed; it was so different from life in London. Franceska was supervising everyone, and I saw the girls from next door looking at them from the beach, but with Franceska there, they didn’t dare come over and cause trouble.
‘Don’t you mind that those girls are staring at you all?’ Tommy asked the village children, as if he was reading my mind.
‘Nah, we’re having fun with you guys. They don’t like it but we already decided to stand up to them more, so that’s what we’re doing,’ Ben said.
‘And then maybe they’ll remember how to be nice again,’ Millie added.
I admired their bravery, and their optimism, so I decided it was time for me to follow their lead. Liam needed to be stopped and I was going to have to be the cat to do it. Gilbert was returning tonight and so I was determined to ensure I got him to help me. I needed a proper commitment from him. I still didn’t know how we would foil them but I knew we would. It was going to happen, if it was the last thing I did on this holiday.
As I went to get George so we could find some butterflies to chase, I knew I would have to come up with something, and fast. Those children, that woman, the cat and Liam, it was making my very restful holiday really rather stressful, but then that was what always seemed to happen when you were a cat like me.
After we’d exhausted ourselves chasing butterflies, I went to join the children while George took a nap. Aleksy and Tomasz had been given permission to go to the beach with the other children, and Toby and Henry weren’t pleased about being left behind.
‘Please can we go?’ Henry had asked Polly.
‘The thing is, you guys are younger than them, and so you should only go with an adult,’ Polly had explained gently.
The boys were now sitting on the grass and sulking. Well, Henry was sulking and Toby was copying him. Which was cute, but then, as they watched Aleksy and Tomasz and the others running up and down the dunes, I saw that they really did feel they were missing out.
‘Will they notice if we just go for a minute?’ Henry asked.