67f695396320fe1a34a41489ddea0fac

‘Oh gosh, I hadn’t thought about that,’ Snowball said. ‘Alfie, you have to promise to be careful.’

I brushed their concerns away.

‘Listen, we don’t even know yet if we’ll have to do it, but if we do, Salmon and I will stay hidden, I promise.’ I shuddered. I had been in enough danger in my life, I certainly didn’t need more.

That night, Salmon and I made our way out of the hall after rehearsals. We decided the best thing to do was to wait outside, hidden in the shadows, to see if anyone came. I was hoping someone would, but also scared because what would we do if they did?

‘So what do we do, if we have to confront someone?’ Salmon asked.

‘I was thinking the same. Perhaps if we just make enough noise to scare them off?’ I suggested.

‘OK, but if they look dangerous, then we definitely leave them alone.’ Salmon sounded nervous but I was too, so I understood.

We crouched behind a wall in front of the hall, as it was the only way someone could get inside. I shivered– it really was bitterly cold – and hoped we wouldn’t be here too long.

‘So, what’s your favourite thing about Christmas?’ Salmon asked me, to pass the time.

‘Only one thing.’

‘One thing.’

‘Family and friends being together,’ I said. I would have said the food but that was shallow and I am not a shallow cat.

‘I agree, it’s a wonderful time if you have a nice family,’ Salmon said.

‘Gosh, that’s deep.’

‘I’m thinking of the shelter, the people who probably don’t have family, because if they did, they wouldn’t be homeless, would they?’

‘No,’ I agreed. ‘There would be someone to take care of them. When my first owner, Margaret, died, I had no one to take care of me, but I was lucky enough to find a new family.’

‘And your Toby, he found a new family.’

‘Yes he did, but it might not be so easy for grown-ups as it is for cats and children,’ I mused.

‘Sad, that.’

We both lapsed into our thoughts before being shaken by the sound of footsteps.

‘Quick, look,’ I said, standing up. Salmon did the same. It was dark but we saw a shadowy figure approach. I checked the feet, they were big. Whoever it was, was big, and also not Tommy, I was relieved to see.

‘Ready, let’s pounce,’ I said as the footsteps came closer.

‘God help us,’ Salmon said and we jumped out.

‘Yowl,’ I said at the top of my voice.

‘Meow!’ Salmon shouted.

‘Oh my God, you nearly gave me heart failure.’

We both became silent as we stared at Tomasz. Not the saboteur then. Or was he? No.

‘What the hell are you doing? I left my phone here – Franceska says I lose everything – and I was coming back for it.’

Ah, that explained it.

‘Were you waiting to see if the sabotage person came back?’

‘Meow,’ I admitted.

‘What clever cats you are, but you need to be careful. Whoever it was had quite big feet, Alfie.’

I shuddered. Tomasz was right and I’d already thought about the damage those feet could do.

Chapter Twenty-Three

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Iwas distracted from the show for a moment because it was Christmas tree day. Finally. It seemed that since we had started the show we had been waiting to be able to get Christmas properly started and now we were. It might be a little early but Claire said they were working so hard on the show that if we didn’t get the tree now, we might not have the time to all do it together. I think secretly she liked the idea of putting it up a bit earlier than usual. And as the show was so Christmassy, it seemed only fitting that we enveloped ourselves in all things Christmas.

Like everything in our families’ lives, Christmas tree day was crazy. Tomasz came with us because he had a van and that could fit ours, Polly and Matt’s, and their tree in. We had offered for Sylvie and Marcus to come but they said with Theo being so tiny they were going to put up an artificial tree, and Harold said he had one that he’d had since Marcus was a boy and it was good enough; he wasn’t going to waste money on a tree that only got used for a month. Jonathan agreed with him but he was outvoted by the rest of us.

The only downside to Christmas tree shopping was that us cats were banned. As was Pickles.

George, Pickles, and I could only sit at home and wait for the tree to arrive.

‘I am so excited,’ Pickles said.

‘Remember no trying to climb it this year.’ Last year had been the first year when George hadn’t climbed the Christmas tree, but he’d encouraged Pickles to do so. This year I was hoping for no tree issues for the first time in a long time.

‘No, I won’t. Can I eat it?’ he asked.

‘No, it’s prickly and could hurt you,’ George cautioned. I gave him a stare of approval.

‘No eating the decorations, or the tinsel either,’ I said.

‘So many rules.’ Pickles didn’t like to be told not to do something. None of us did, really, and Pickles generally did the opposite of what he was told, which never turned out well.

It felt like hours but finally they returned with the tree.

‘Did we have to get one this big,’ Jonathan moaned as he, Tomasz, and Matt carried it in, straining under the weight.

‘Yes,’ Claire said simply.