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“Charlie’s very bad about keeping his collar on,” she explained to Rose. “Do you think we could give you a spare collar, in case he comes over to you and he hasn’t got one on?”

“Oh, of course!” The old lady nodded delightedly. “I’ll make sure to check.” She leaned over to look at Charlie on Darcy’s lap. “He really is a little beauty, isn’t he?” she murmured admiringly.

Darcy nodded.“The most beautiful cat ever.” She wasn’t sure if Charlie heard her but he made a littleprrp noise in his sleep and turned over on her lap, so he was lying on his back with his perfectly pink paws in the air. His tummy was all white fluff, with just a few patches of tabby spots around the edge.

“Oh, the angel,” Rose said, laughing, and Darcy smiled down at Charlie, heavy and saggy and warm in her lap. Charlie was their cat – but she didn’t mind sharing him, just a little.

44. THE MYSTERY KITTEN

It was a very strange way to start Christmas, Elsa thought. School had finished the day before and she felt like they should be making cards or doing Christmassy cooking. Instead she was dashing about trying to remember which box she’d put her purple cardigan in and where her tiny china cats were.

The whole house felt empty– just boxes and boxes waiting to go in the removal van later that morning. Her bed was still in the room she shared with her sister Sara, but she’d slept in a sleeping bag last night because all the sheets and duvets and pillows were packed.

It was exciting, but scary too. The new house was a long way away– two hours’ drive. Dad was starting a new job after Christmas and Elsa and Sara would be going to new schools.

Everything was new.

“Elsa, how are you doing? All packed?” Dad put his head round the bedroom door. He looked so happy, Elsa thought. Though maybe a bit stressed too. The last few days had been really busy.

“I think so.” Elsa turned round slowly, inspecting the odd, bare bedroom.

“Are you looking forward to having your own room at the new house?” Dad grinned. “No more moaning about Sara’s clothes being everywhere.”

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Elsa nodded. She’d wanted her own room for ages. But now it was finally happening, she didn’t know how it would feel to sleep on her own every night. When Sara went to sleepovers it was always really weird without her.

“Come on downstairs, sweetheart,” Dad told her. “You need to have some breakfast. It’s going to be a long day.”

Elsa followed him, but as Dad headed down the stairs she stopped for a moment in the doorway of her room, looking back.“It will be good,” she told herself, crossing her fingers. “It will…”

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The kitten stumbled over the dusty floorboards mewing crossly. He was hungry and he didn’t know where everyone had gone. He’d fallen asleep half wrapped in an old dust sheet in the far corner of the attic. He liked it there – his four brothers and sisters squirmed and stomped and wriggled so much that sometimes it was good to sleep a little further away.

Usually his mother came and shooed him back to the nest she’d made for them in a box of old clothes, but this morning he’d woken up on his own. The attic was freezing and the kitten shivered miserably as he wandered around looking for his family. He stumbled and sniffed and mewed, but there were no kittens hiding behind the boxes, or waiting to leap from under the battered old armchair.

Everyone had gone.

The kitten stood gazing at their old nest– he could smell his mother and the other kittens. He could even see the dips and hollows where they’d snuggled down the night before. He scrambled unhappily over the torn edge of the box and squirmed into a ragged jumper, trying to warm himself up.

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One of his brothers or sisters had dropped a bit of cooked chicken that their mother had carried upstairs for them, and he could smell it. He nosed it out eagerly and gobbled it down. Then he lay curled up in the jumper and waited for his mother to come back to him. He knew she would come back soon. He was sure.

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Elsa sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, looking around her new room. It was so big! When they’d come to view the house, the room had been full of furniture. It had been hard to imagine what it would be like with her things in. Dad had promised she could help him paint the walls, but there was a lot of other stuff that needed doing first.

“I think your room might be bigger than mine.” Sara put her head round Elsa’s door and squinted, obviously trying to measure it in her head.

“I’m not swapping,” Elsa said swiftly. She loved her room already and she wasn’t letting Sara have it. She had plans for it. Purple paint instead of the faded old wallpaper, and maybe some fairy lights. She could have those now if Dad gave her an advance on her pocket money.

“It’s OK.” Sara grinned. “I like mine. It’s got loads of shelves and an old fireplace. It’s cool.”

“Have you done any unpacking?” Elsa asked, looking at the pile of boxes in front of the window. She’d put some of her clothes away, but that was all.