‘I hope to goodness they aren’t going for miles and miles,’ said John to himself.
He was relieved to hear Dossy’s father say, ‘Nearly home. You’ll be pretty late for tea, Doss. I thought you were expecting someone?’
‘Good heavens, I’d clean forgotten! But I dare say it doesn’t matter,’ said his wife comfortably.
‘It’s only Milly,’ said Dossy in a bored voice. ‘I expect she’ll come in that awful old blue cotton frock again.’
‘I think it’s the only best one she has. You musn’t give yourself airs, darling, because you are a lucky little girl with lots of pretty things!’ said her mother.
‘She seems a nice kid to me. Plenty of go in her,’ said Dossy’s father. ‘I can’t think why you don’t like her.’
‘She always wants to play such silly games,’ said Dossy. ‘Wanting to pretend something or other all the time.’
John decided at once that he, too, would like Milly.
‘Well, don’t forget she’s your guest, darling,’ said Dossy’s mother. ‘You must play her games, too. I sometimes wonder if you don’t have a teeny, weeny bit too much of your own way. Look, there is Milly!’
‘She’s sitting on our gate!’ said Dossy. ‘And she is wearing that old blue thing.’
As the car drew up, Milly jumped down and opened the gate for them. She was a plump person with short red hair, and a great many freckles.
‘I got tired of waiting inside,’ she explained. ‘I was pretending I was a cowboy.’
Dossy sniffed, but her father chuckled. ‘Hop in the back, Milly, and we’ll give you a ride up the drive.’
John had barely time to squeeze himself into a corner before she got in.
‘You haven’t noticed our new car!’ said Dossy in a huffy voice. But Milly might not have heard. She had eyes for nothing but Calidor. ‘What a darling kitten! What’s his name? Where did he come from?’
‘He’s mine… because… because I was good at the dentist’s.’ Dossy had the grace to go rather red as she said this. ‘I don’t like him very much,’ she went on. ‘He scratched me twice, and he hasn’t purred once.’
‘Perhaps he hasn’t anything to purr about. Can we go to the kitchen and get him some milk?’
‘Mrs Parkin doesn’t like children bothering around in the kitchen,’ said Dossy’s mother firmly. ‘He shall have some at tea time. Here we are. Now run along in and wash your hands.’
John was determined not to let Calidor out of his sight. He followed the two girls into the house, narrowly missing getting himself slammed in the door of the car by the unsuspecting Milly. Dossy carried Calidor. They took him with them into the bathroom, which was panelled with black marble and pink trimmings. John followed. His hands were so dirty that he tried to wash them, too, but Dossy pulled the plug out before he had finished. The dirty marks on the pink towel were blamed on Milly. Next he followed them to Dossy’s bedroom, so that Milly could be shown her new party dress. It was all rather embarrassing, because he felt he was eavesdropping, so he was relieved when a gong interrupted and they went downstairs to tea. Calidor came down on Milly’s shoulder, wobbling uncomfortably as she bounced from step to step. His ears were flattened crossly.
‘I’ve got legs of my own, haven’t I? Why can’t they put me down?’ he muttered to John following closely behind.
‘Well, at least you’ll get your saucer of milk,’ whispered John. ‘I shan’t get anything at all!’
This time it was almost more than John could bear. There were a great many little sandwiches and delicious cakes. They sat on low chairs, and Milly found it difficult to manage a very small plate on her knee, a lace-edged napkin, a cream horn and a special fork to eat it with. Luckily for John, half the cream horn slid on to the floor. Although he would have hesitated to take a cake from the table, which would be like stealing, he felt that half a cream horn on the floor was different, and he picked it up and ate it thankfully. Milly was equally thankful to find it was not there when she looked furtively down, though she was rather puzzled.
Calidor lapped milk politely from a china saucer in a way that would have warmed the heart of Woppit. He even remembered ‘to purr his grace’.
After tea the two girls were sent into the garden to play. They scooped up the indignant Calidor from the cushion on which he had settled down to sleep, and Dossy’s mother called after them, ‘Milly’s games this time, darling!’
22
The Queen of Sheba
It was a beautiful garden. Leaving the flower beds behind, the two girls, with John close behind them, ran down the lawn which sloped toward a small lake. It lay cool and still in the evening light. The reflections of the trees which grew on the farther side were only broken by the fish that occasionally rose with a little ‘plop’. John could not quite catch what they said as they leaped from the shining surface. A blackbird perched on a willow tree sang a song to the praise of summer evenings, and this evening in particular.
The girls made their way to a little paved terrace with stone steps which led down into the water where a punt lay moored invitingly. The name Swallow was painted on her side.
‘Let’s go in it!’ said Milly.
‘I’m not allowed to, not without a grown-up, until I can swim. It’s my turn to carry the kitten!’ said Dossy, and she took him clumsily from Milly’s shoulder.
‘Why can’t they leave me alone?’ grumbled Calidor. His whiskers were at sixes and sevens and his fur was ruffled.
There was a clump of foxgloves growing by the boathouse. Milly picked up two fallen flowers and perched one on each of the kitten’s ears. He looked so funny that they both laughed. Calidor twitched the flowers off angrily.
‘Funny, am I?’ he growled furiously. ‘Well, I’ve got claws I have, and if you don’t –’
‘Steady on, Calidor!’ said John. ‘Stick it out until we can get away. We’ve got to wait our chance.’
‘Let’s play something,’ said Milly. ‘Let’s pretend –’
‘Oh, no!’ broke in Dossy. ‘Well, I suppose we must if you want to,’ she went on. ‘Mother said I had to play your games this time.’
‘Don’t you ever pretend anything?’ asked Milly curiously.
There was a pause, then Dossy said, ‘Only one thing, sometimes.’ She flushed. ‘Promise you won’t laugh if I tell you?’
‘Promise!’
‘Well, sometimes I pretend I’m the best-dressed girl in Broomhurst.’
‘Gosh, how ghastly!’ said Milly frankly. ‘I’m not laughing, honestly I’m not,’ she went on hurriedly. ‘I say, I know a gorgeous game we could play. Let’s pretend you’re the Queen of Sheba! She was the best-dressed woman in the Bible, at least I think she was, and she was very beautiful, and she came sailing down the Nile – that could be the lake – to see King Solomon because of his wisdom – that would be me – and brought him rare gifts.’
‘But I don’t –’ began Dossy.
‘You go and dress up. I’m sure you can find some queenly things somewhere, old ones of your mother’s. There are some striped towels in the boathouse which will do beautifully for me!’ Milly said.
Dossy pushed the kitten into Milly’s arms and then she ran, quite quickly, back to the house. John watched Milly rather enviously. Humming between her teeth, she investigated the bathing things in the boathouse. This was just the sort of game he would have enjoyed playing himself. In fact, he was so interested that he forgot to seize the opportunity to pick up Calidor and make off. Instead he watched Milly. First she put the kitten in the punt to keep him safe. He put his paws on the gunwale and peered over the side. ‘Water!’ he said with disgust, and dropped back hastily on to the cushions.
Next, Milly put on a magnificently patterned bathing wrap belonging to Dossy’s father. It was much too large for her – he was a big man – so she tied a cushion on underneath to fill it out. ‘More dignified if I look fatter, too,’ she said to herself. Then she took a bathing towel and twisted it around her head into a turban.