Дорин Тови - The New Boy_INSIDES.indd

They make a happy picture together, and there is no doubt that he has done her tremendous good. Without him we would probably have lost her – instead of which a few weeks back, for the first time in years, Sheba rushed skittishly up the damson tree. We had to fetch the ladder to get her down, but not on account of her age. It was midnight and, sitting up there talking to us, Sheba would have tantalised us for hours.

She could climb better than Seeley could, Couldn’t She? (I’ll say she could. She was right at the very top.) It was Difficult getting up to her, wasn’t it? (It certainly was, on a dark night with a torch.) She’d made us give her lots of Attention, hadn’t she? demanded Sheba when we finally got her down. And indoors, watching frustratedly from the window, sat Seeley.

Wanted to be up the Tree with Sheba! he bawled.

Well, that was really something, said Charles as we carried her in. Who’d ever have thought we’d see her act like that again? She was good for a good few years yet, he reckoned… Which reminded him, what about fixing up that holiday? We’d better ring the Francises and find out when they could take the cats. He bet they’d be looking forward to meeting Seeley.

158

The New Boy_INSIDES.indd 158

25/05/2006 14:24:57

Doreen Tovey

Annabel was going to our local farm, where she’d stayed when we were on holiday ever since we’d had her. That marked the passing of the years with us, too… from the time when she was so tiny they’d fenced her off from the cows and she’d crawled indignantly under the barrier and put the herd to flight. There was the year they’d put her in with the heifers… the year they’d put her in with the older cows… The previous year had marked Annabel’s supremacy, when we’d come back and found her in charge of the bull. ‘Call her from the gate, mind,’ said Mrs Pursey when we went to fetch her. ‘William’s pretty docile, but it’s always best to be sure.’

William is another character. Earlier that spring he’d been out in the field adjoining the road with his wives and, as Farmer Pursey believed in locking him in every night for safety (not that William was dan gerous but some fool might let him out), one of the features of the local scene had been Farmer Pursey calling him at about five o’clock every evening and waving a mangold, and William, who loves mangolds as dearly as Seeley loves turkey, sprinting across the field and following anticipatorily through the gate, across the road and down to his shed in the farmyard.

One Saturday afternoon, however, Farmer Pursey went to a football match and wasn’t back by five o’clock. William waited and waited and waited. After about twenty minutes the bellows of a bull urgently demanding his mangold began to rend the air. We heard the noise down in the Valley and wondered whatever it was. And finally William, refusing to wait any longer, broke through the hedge. Not, fortu nately, into the road, but into a neighbouring garden where, when Farmer Pursey returned a short while later, William was 159

The New Boy_INSIDES.indd 159

25/05/2006 14:24:57

The New Boy

still snorting and loudly demanding his mangold while the owners of the bungalow kept watch on him – not from any fear of his fierceness, but so that he shouldn’t run away.

This being William, it was no surprise to us when we went to the gate and saw him grazing meekly in the field with Annabel in full command. She was only about half as tall as he was but there she stood, queening it over him and a cow and two calves like Cleopatra in the land of Egypt.

It was a good thing we didn’t go into the field, at that. He followed her right to the gate.

What she’d get up to this year, goodness only knew. There was a new Scotch collie for her to play with, and Mrs Pursey always spoiled her. What Seeley would get up to at Halstock we didn’t know either, and we certainly weren’t looking forward to the journey. Howling all the way, said Charles, shuddering at the very thought. But he bet he’d like it when he got there… Remember the first time Solomon and Sheba went there as kittens, he said, and they’d liked the earthbox so much they’d gone to sleep in it?

I remembered. I remembered so many things. We were right in having Seeley. He has been good for Sheba. He has been good for us. The household is normal once more.

Even as I have finished this book I have seen something I never expected to see again. Seeley and Sheba sitting side by side in the kitchen, their tails affectionately crossed.

If, sometimes, I look across to where the daffo dils are and say ‘Oh, Solomon… Solomon… Solomon…’… nobody ever hears me. I whisper it to myself.

160

The New Boy_INSIDES.indd 160

25/05/2006 14:24:57

Document Outline

Cover

Copyright

Also by Doreen Tovey:

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN