‘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 do a 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, is Curiosity 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 doors and 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, you are 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 wish I 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 had the 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.’