Accept my warm, respectful purr,
Clean, my paws, and trim, my fur.
But when their mother walked through the open door they got no further than ‘Accept my warm…’ before they scrambled off the bed and ran helter-skelter to her. They rubbed themselves against her snow-white sides, mingling their shrill, quick purrs with her deeper, steadier hum.
‘My children! My little children!’ said Blandamour as she licked their upturned faces. Both Calidor and Pergamond were telling their adventures at the same time, in shrill, excited voices. ‘Hush! hush, my dears. Later,’ said their mother and turned to John and Rosemary.
‘I have no words with which to thank you for all you have done!’ she began.
‘That’s all right, Your Majesty,’ said John awkwardly. ‘Don’t bother. Besides, we haven’t really got time. The attack will be in two days. We’ve just heard!’
While he told her what he knew, Blandamour leapt on to the bed, closely followed by her Councillor. The kittens scrambled up the bedspread and began jostling for the place nearest their mother, until she silenced them with a scoop of her paw. There was a scuffle as Tudge tried to leap up, too. Woppit’s voice could be heard coming from under the bed, making such remarks as ‘Like your impudence!’ and ‘The likes of us.’ At last they all listened to John in silence. He told them of the activity among the Broomhurst cats that he had seen from the back of the lorry, and the conversation he and Rosemary had overheard near Adelaide Row. At last Merbeck spoke.
‘Some of this we knew already. What we did not know was when the last little gap in the wall would be finished and the Cat Causeway completed. That is the news we have been waiting for. Now, we can act!’
‘Two days doesn’t seem very long to get ready when the others have been stirring up their followers for weeks!’ said Rosemary anxiously.
‘Do not worry. We have not been idle,’ said Blandamour. ‘Contented, well-governed cats do not need to be brought to heel with bribery and fiery speeches.’
‘We have two advantages,’ said Merbeck. ‘First, Grisana does not know that we are warned and well-prepared; secondly, they will have only one road of approach, the newly finished garden walls of Broomhurst Road.’
‘But how do you know that they won’t come pouring across the fields on either side?’ said Rosemary.
Merbeck turned his grizzled face toward her. ‘Because if cats begin fighting on human ground, then humans will join in, and when that happens, in their blundering way they set about every cat in sight, with brooms and buckets of water and even hose pipes. I’ve seen it happen. How are they to know which cats are which?’
Tudge’s voice from under the bed was heard to mutter, ‘Daft creatures, humans!’ to be hastily shushed by Woppit.
‘Cat troubles must be decided in cat country, and beyond a scuffle or two the humans will know nothing about it,’ went on Merbeck. ‘Now, as I see it, the enemy, not knowing that we shall be alert and watching every movement, at a given signal will pour into Fallowhithe.’
‘And you will fall silently on them as they arrive along the causeway and finish ’em off!’ said John bouncing up and down in bed. ‘Easy!’
‘Not so easy!’ went on Merbeck. ‘Already many enemy cats have slipped into the town – lawless, insolent creatures, urged on by their wicked Queen. Provided that they still think themselves unnoticed, it seems to us that there will be some prearranged meeting place where they will plan to meet the newcomers. The main body of animals, who will come pouring along the Causeway, must at all costs be stopped from joining the others at this meeting place. Where that will be it is for us to find out.’
The hair on the ridge of the old cat’s back was bristling, and his tail was lashing fiercely from side to side.
‘Will you have enough cats to turn them back?’ asked Rosemary anxiously.
‘We are a highly organized society, my dear young lady!’ said Merbeck. ‘Every road, square and terrace has its cat guardian. They have had their instructions for some days. Every ten houses has at least six able-bodied animals who would fight to the last claw, cat and kitten, for their Queen, and their families. “The choice of the best hearthrugs for Broomhurst animals” indeed!’
‘But what about Mrs Cantrip and Miss Dibdin?’ asked Rosemary. ‘Aren’t you forgetting them?’
‘I don’t think we need bother about Miss Dibdin,’ said John. ‘She wasn’t much good anyway, but without her book of spells she can’t even try to do anything. As for Mrs Cantrip, you said yourself, Rosie, that she had practically nothing left in her magic cupboard.’
‘There were only two things left, a little bit of Flying Philtre in a tine, but Miss Dibdin said she had finished that on the broom, and a pinch of brownish powder in a pickle jar, but I can’t remember what it said on the label, M-i-n… something.’
‘Well, whatever it was, I shouldn’t think she could do much damage with a few grains.’
Rosemary frowned. ‘I wonder what she meant when she said she’d still got a shot in her locker then? She kept her word to Grisana about the kittens, and she may still try to “kidnap” Queen Blandamour.’
‘You talk as though I am as feeble as a kitten with its eyes closed!’ said Blandamour. ‘I can defend myself!’ she added proudly.
‘I hope that will not be necessary,’ said Merbeck. ‘From now on you shall be guarded night and day!’
‘Don’t you think –’ began Rosemary uneasily.
‘I think you’re fussing!’ said John.
‘I will be careful,’ said Blandamour, ‘I promise you that.’
‘And speaking of the royal kittens!’ went on Merbeck thoughtfully, ‘it seems to me that while they are here they may still be in danger. Would it not be better to hide them?’
‘But where?’
Promptly from under the bed came the voice of Tudge. ‘At Turley’s Farm for sure! Oh, leave me be, Woppit, you old busybody!’ he added in a hoarse whisper.
‘Come here, my faithful Tudge!’ said Blandamour.
Tudge heaved his ungainly form on to the bed, ducked awkwardly but respectfully at the white cat and said, ‘If you’ll pardon the liberty, not never before having even passed the time of day with royalty, but willing to serve you, ma’am, and them royal kits to the last whisker.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Now I was thinking, at Turley’s cats and kittens is as common as pebbles on a gravel path, and if so be I was to say my sister Woppit was come from the town with her two kitlings for a holiday, nobody wouldn’t think twice about it, if so be Your Majesty wouldn’t take it as a liberty…’ his voice trailed off.
‘My good Tudge, it is an excellent idea. With you and Woppit to guard them, I am sure they will come to no harm.’
‘But I want to defend Father’s kingdom, too!’ complained Calidor. ‘I’d give it ’em!’ He pounced violently on John’s toes which John had moved unwarily under the bedclothes. Pergamond did not seem pleased at this arrangement either.
‘Nasty, common, country cats!’ she complained with a toss of her tortoise-shell head.
Blandamour for once looked really angry and she gave her a cuff that sent her rolling. But the farm cat did not seem offended.
‘Common and country maybe, little royal ma’am, but nasty, no! Now come along with old Tudge, and perhaps he’ll tell you about some of the adventures he had when he were at sea aboard the Mary Jane.’
Calidor struggled down the trailing bedspread on to the floor. ‘Were you at sea?’ he said.
‘Ship’s cat, I were,’ said Tudge. ‘Together with my mate Wyb. High old times we had, what with the flying fish.’
‘Flying fish?’ said Pergamond, and scrambled down, too.
‘Ah, my pretty, like sardines with wings, but not so tasty. Now, there was one night when a storm blew up…’