Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie The Holiday Cat

‘And this from the man who first wanted to sell the cottage,’ Polly teased.

‘It’s a good idea, mate. But who is going to call Andrea?’ Matt asked.

Everyone, including me, stared at Polly.

Gilbert and I had spent a bit more time together; he was now a fully paid-up part of the family. That was the terrible thing: Seabreeze Cottage felt like our family home, the first place I had managed to have all the humans I loved under one roof, and not only could I not bear to think I wouldn’t come back, we were both worried about him losing his home. However, he was a tougher cat than I, so he was bearing it well.

George was upset because everyone was upset and when he heard the children talking about wanting to go home, he was distraught.

‘But if we go home, then what about Chanel?’ he had asked.

‘George, I’m sorry but you’re a big boy now so I have to be honest with you. If we go home, then you won’t see Chanel again.’

I had realised my mistake immediately, as George looked so incredibly upset. Since then he had taken to spending more time in the bush looking for Chanel, but the whole family had been lying low so there had been no sign of her.

‘Of course I’ll miss paddleboarding and the beach,’ Aleksy said. He had taken to holding meetings in his bedroom with all the children. I wasn’t sure that Summer and Martha really understood but they liked to be involved, even if they did spend most of the time playing with their dolls rather than listening.

‘I will too, but I won’t miss those horrible girls,’ Tommy said.

‘Or me,’ Toby added.

‘No, but there are more of us than there are of them,’ Henry pointed out. ‘So, if they are ever horrible to us again we can stand up to them.’ Henry was perhaps turning out a bit like Polly.

‘Yes, but then their mother upsets our mothers. I know it’s been going on all summer and when Toby ran away …’

‘I didn’t mean to run away, I just wanted to come home,’ Toby said, sadly.

‘Did you hear what he just said?’ Henry asked. ‘He said he wanted to come home, this is our home, our other home, maybe we need to remember that.’

‘Meow.’ I nuzzled Henry, he was clever.

‘Yes, but we need everyone to be happy here,’ Aleksy said. ‘And I’m just not sure that’s possible.’

I felt as if both the adults and children were going round in circles and I could only hope the big apology would do the trick for all of them. It was a lot to pin my hope on but it was all I had.

The grown-ups felt that it would be easier to have all the children in the garden for the apology. Andrea, who had been largely avoiding us, had agreed to anything they asked, she was just relieved not to be in more trouble. And I hoped she felt guilty about Liam too. George had decided that Chanel, on hearing about the girls’ apology, would probably use the opportunity to apologise to him for not falling in love with him — no, no idea how that kitten’s mind worked either — so he had groomed himself and was waiting eagerly for the appointed time.

Gilbert, who went out most days, said he would stay around, ‘just in case’. He really was coming round to my way of thinking as regards humans. As I told him, we didn’t necessarily need them to take care of us but they needed us to take care of them.

So, it was clearly going to be a bit intimidating for the girls and the adults weren’t going to make it any easier as everyone waited on the lawn for them to come over. They did, right on time. The girls were dressed more casually than normal in shorts and T-shirts, and although Andrea looked immaculate she wasn’t quite as dressed up as normal either.

‘Love how she’s trying to look poor for us,’ Polly hissed to her husband.

‘They don’t look remotely poor,’ Matt shot back.

‘Exactly,’ Polly said.

‘Hello.’ Andrea approached us. We did look a bit like a big gang, all gathered on the lawn. Claire was holding onto Toby, because of course he was nervous about seeing the girls, and Jonathan was carrying Summer. Everyone else was standing as if we were in a group photo, the kind they take at weddings.

‘Hi,’ Jonathan said, sounding stiff.

‘Look, before the girls say anything, I would like to say a few words—’

‘Meow!’ George had gone up to Andrea, because Chanel was nowhere to be seen.

‘Oh hello, cat.’ Andrea patted his head awkwardly. ‘I didn’t bring Chanel because I didn’t want to upset your cats.’ She looked at all of us. ‘What kind of cats are they anyway?’

George had lain down, sulking, and put his head in his paws.

‘Um, really? You wanted to say a few words about our cats?’ Polly snapped.

‘Sorry, no sorry. I wanted to say that I appreciate your understanding the other day and I am so sorry for how I behaved. I’m not proud of myself, I know I’ve been terrible and unwelcoming as well as unneighbourly. So, I hope that we can start again.’

I wasn’t sure if I trusted her but she did sound as if she meant what she said.

‘And can I just say, we do appreciate your honesty,’ Matt said.

‘But no more,’ Franceska added. ‘No more games.’ She snuggled into Tomasz, who put a protective arm around her.

‘No, of course not and, with that, the girls have something to say.’

For the first time the girls looked like children. Serafina hung her head and Savannah looked as if she had been crying.

‘We are sorry we were so horrible,’ Savannah said. ‘We didn’t mean it but we thought that if you stayed in the cottage we would have to leave our school and also how would our daddy know where we were? We might never see him again.’

She burst into sobs. As Andrea rushed to comfort her, I felt very sad for her, she must be missing her dad, they both must. I couldn’t condone their behaviour but I did understand a bit now.

We all stood around slightly awkwardly, but then a surprising thing happened. Toby ran towards Savannah and took her hand.

‘I would miss my daddy if I didn’t see him. That’s my daddy.’ He pointed at Jonathan, who looked choked. ‘So I ’cept your apology, but please don’t be horrible again, it’s not our fault.’

Serafina gave him a big hug. ‘Thanks, and I promise we won’t be horrible. We want to be your friends, after all you do have the best games, don’t they, Savvy?’ she said.

‘Yes.’ Savannah was still crying but the gulps were subsiding slightly.

Claire came over to Toby. ‘Well done, Tobe, that was very nice of you,’ she said.

‘It was, you are all very good people.’ Andrea was looking ashamed again. ‘And honestly, girls, it’s not their fault that Daddy isn’t here, I was just cross when I said that, but we need to be nice to everyone.’

‘But, Mummy, you always say nice people never win,’ Serafina chirped up. We stared at Andrea, who had the grace to appear embarrassed.

‘I shouldn’t have said that, and I was wrong, because all these families who live at Seabreeze are nice and look, girls, they are winners.’ Andrea hugged both the girls. ‘From now on we’ll all be nice, even me.’

‘That I can’t wait to see,’ Polly said, then she clamped her hand over her mouth. ‘Sorry, I meant to say that we should all draw a line under this, forgive and forget. Girls, pretend you’ve met our children for the first time and start over, and we should do the same with you, Andrea.’

‘I am so grateful for that.’

The girls chatted to the children, and Summer and Martha begged them to make daisy chains, which they did. The boys, who were less interested in flowers, set up a football game and I felt my heart swell again as they all played beautifully on the lawn of Seabreeze Cottage.