give you my mobile number,’ Claire said, reluctantly. ‘Just for emergencies and of course Jonathan and I are very grateful that you’ll be keeping an eye on the house while we’re away, thank you.’
‘Um, yes, but when I’m here, you’ll know because there will be lights on, so you don’t need to worry,’ Jonathan said. He grimaced. I could imagine that was because Vic and Heather’s binoculars would be trained on the house from across the road. Not that he had anything to hide, but I had learnt through the years that humans liked privacy rather than being stared at by neighbours.
‘Of course, we just want to make sure that your house is safe when it’s empty. Imagine if you came back from your holiday and found it burgled.’
‘It’s unlikely,’ Jonathan said. We had alarms on the house, it was very safe apparently.
‘It’s more than unlikely with us on the case, you see. Now we really ought to get moving, we need to go and see Matt and Polly to give them the same reassurance.’ Vic smiled. ‘Oh but, Claire, if you could just scribble your number down?’ he added.
Once Claire had given them her number, and they left, Jonathan turned to her.
‘They’ll be calling you whenever anything, I mean anything, happens,’ he teased.
‘Well at least I know you’ll behave yourself. Being watched all the time.’ Claire giggled, I purred.
‘I hadn’t thought of that, although of course I’ll behave myself. I’m looking forward to some peace and quiet, but I will miss you all,’ he quickly added.
I knew what he meant. Our house could be chaos and sometimes Jonathan said going to work was his way of relaxing. I would miss him though, I was used to him always being there and he had very good taste in cat food and cashmere jumpers, which I would ‘accidentally’ use to sleep on.
‘Shall we warn Matt and Polly?’ Claire asked.
‘No, why let them escape the fun of the Goodwins? I think we should have a last drink and then go to bed. You’ve got a long drive tomorrow.’
‘I’m so excited to see the cottage again. It’ll be beautiful when we’ve finished.’
‘I know, darling.’ Jonathan put his arm around her. ‘It could be amazing but please, let’s just all keep our heads out of the clouds. You, Polly and Franceska are all in love with the idea of having this holiday cottage – and I do understand – but if it gets too expensive … And of course the school holiday is just under six weeks, we don’t know how much you’ll be able to get done.’
‘I know, darling, but it won’t. It’s all going to be perfect, I just know it is. Our families will have this wonderful second home and our holidays will be so good for the kids, it’s just like a dream come true.’ Claire had that faraway look in her eyes, which meant she was already at Seabreeze Cottage. ‘Great Aunt Claire would love that we’ve filled it with children and cats too.’
When Claire made up her mind, it was impossible to argue, and Jonathan seemed to agree with me as, shaking his head, he went to put the kettle on.
Car journeys are not on my list of favourite things. Being hustled into a pet carrier usually heralds destinations you certainly don’t want to visit – like the vet. But to go on holiday, it was necessary. Claire had got a carrier that was big enough for both of us, plus some snacks if we got hungry on the way. George was so excited, he wouldn’t keep still, which made the journey a little bit annoying as he kept falling into me. I was battered and bruised in no time.
‘George, just settle down,’ I chastised, not that it did me any good.
We left London in the first week of the school holidays. We were in Claire’s car with Toby and Summer, driving in convoy with Polly and her children, and Franceska and hers. All three cars were packed up with our belongings too. Jonathan had huffed and puffed a lot when Claire barked instructions at him as he squashed everything in the boot. George and I were on the front seat next to Claire but we were too low down to see anything from the carrier. I thought I would try to sleep as much as I could, it seemed a good opportunity to rest, but George had other ideas.
‘Are we nearly there yet?’ he asked for the millionth time.
‘Yes,’ I said, with no idea if that was true but I’d heard Claire saying the same to Summer and Toby, so I guessed it was an appropriate parental response.
‘Tell me about the seaside?’ George asked as he finally sat down.
‘Well I only went there once and that was a different seaside I think. But there were big birds, seagulls, which you need to watch out for as they’re not very friendly. And of course we keep away from the water at all costs.’ As I repeatedly warned George about the perils of the seaside that I knew about, I hoped there weren’t any others. But I knew I wouldn’t let George out of my sight. I had done so once and it had all gone horribly wrong, with him being catnapped, and he could be a bit of a pawful. Also, the fear of not knowing where my boy was had been unlike anything I have ever experienced.
‘I will do, Dad. But what can we do there?’ he asked. I actually didn’t know.
‘We’ll do what we do at home, look after our humans and enjoy ourselves in any way we can,’ I replied vaguely. Sea air would do us good, I knew that much. Well, that was what everyone said.
The journey seemed to go on forever, I was beginning to feel impatient. We stopped a few times so the children could eat, and when we did, we were allowed out of the cat carrier, although not out of the car, so we could move around a bit.
I had to be careful, because I had an old injury from when I was hurt in Edgar Road, saving Claire from a horrible man, which bothered me at times, and as I’d been sitting for so long, my bad leg was stiff. I was fine, although I had to be careful, but it was a stark reminder that people weren’t always good. I snuck a glance at George and hoped he would never encounter anyone like that. But then, I smiled. George was standing on his hind legs looking out of the car window, paws against it, as people stopped and took photos of him.
‘Get down, before you fall,’ I chastised him. He loved attention. By the time Claire got back to the car with Summer and Toby, he’d acquired quite a crowd.
‘Oh gosh,’ Claire said. ‘I better get them back in the pet carrier.’
‘Lovely kitten,’ someone said to her and she smiled and thanked them. She strapped Summer and Toby into their car seats and then I ushered George into our carrier and we settled down again.
‘Not far now,’ Claire said, as she started to drive off. But, of course, we had heard that before.
It felt like we had been in that pet carrier forever when we finally stopped. I couldn’t see anything at first, but then Claire lifted the carrier out of the car and put us on the ground and I saw that we were on a lawn. It was still light outside too, although the sun was dulling.
‘Can I let them out?’ I heard Aleksy’s voice.
‘Yes, but make sure they don’t run off,’ Claire warned. Aleksy opened the door. George sprang out, but Aleksy scooped him up. I walked out behind him, sniffing the air. Yes, it did smell different to that in London, and I looked around. Wow, I could already see that it was pretty lovely here.
Claire had parked her car next to Franceska’s at the edge of the lawn, where there was a kind of parking area. Then there was a fence, not too high, but with a gate which we had walked through. The lawn in front of the house was bigger than it looked in the photos, and as it was enclosed, it would be our playground. The cottage was detached and there were lush bushes surrounding the garden. The lawn