Alfie The Holiday Cat

Chapter Ten

OK, so it wasn’t much of a plan but I decided to follow Liam. I watched him as much as I could and to say he was acting shifty was an understatement. He was working, but if none of the other builders were looking he was behaving in a suspicious fashion; I was worried he was searching for the next thing to sabotage. Of course I was keeping out of his way — after scratching him the other day he wasn’t my biggest fan.

Today, George was pining by his hedge, with a promise not to leave the garden, so I was happy when Liam was charged with fixing the tiles on the roof. They had scaffolding fitted to the back of the house, because windows — they called them skylights — had been fitted into the roof already that week. I was managing to keep an eye on both of them; George and Liam. When the tiles were fixed — it turned out he’d only dislodged two — he came back down to the ground.

‘Right, mate, now Colin wants us to finish plastering the opening in the utility room.’ Mark had also been keeping an eye on Liam, in case he fell or ruined something else, I presumed.

‘Alright,’ Liam mumbled. They were standing at the back of the house. ‘Is this the pipe for the outdoor shower?’ he asked, pointing at a copper pipe which ran up the side of the house.

‘Yeah, the shower’s being fitted later. The plumber’s due back this arfto.’ They both looked at the pipes. ‘Then we have to put down a wooden tray, it’s going to be pretty cool,’ Mark explained.

‘Right, the plastering, I’ll just clear up out here and see you in there,’ Liam said. I watched from my safe place as he looked around him. Then he took a tool and started hitting the pipe until he had broken it. I could barely believe it. I was right. This was sabotage, blatant sabotage. I wanted to run out and confront him but then he might hurt me, after all I’m a cat not a burly builder. But I needed to figure out how to either put a stop to him or get the others to catch him. But how? I needed to think this one through before Liam destroyed the house.

He whistled as he went inside and I walked to the hedge.

‘I saw her!’ George said excitedly.

‘Where?’ I asked.

‘Andrea put her in a little bag and took her and the two children out,’ he said. ‘But I spotted her as she walked past and I am pretty sure she smiled at me.’

Scowled, more likely, I thought, but I let it go.

‘Do you fancy going to sunbathe on the car bonnets again?’ I asked.

‘Yes, I love that.’ My kitten bounded over to the car, where we climbed on the bonnet of Claire’s — it had the best sun — and we lay down and let our fur luxuriate in the sun’s rays. I tried to relax but in fact I was thinking about Liam and why he was trying to destroy our house. And I knew it had something to do with Andrea.

‘George,’ I said, thinking aloud. ‘If when you’re, um, waiting for Chanel, you see any of our builders with Andrea, you will tell me, won’t you?’

‘Why?’ George asked.

‘I’m not sure but I think they are causing trouble at the house.’

‘But why would they do that?’

‘Well Andrea’s made no secret of the fact that she wants the house for herself.’

‘But if she does that then we can’t come here any more?’

‘No, and you know what that means, don’t you?’ I was thinking of the kids, of Claire, Polly and Franceska, of the men who seemed so much more relaxed outside of London.

‘Yes,’ George replied sounding distraught. ‘It means I’ll never see Chanel again.’ OK, well that would have to do.

I did feel bad using my kitten’s unrequited love for, quite frankly, a horrible cat to help with my plan, but I was on limited resources. And I knew that George wouldn’t just snap out of his crush on Chanel; no matter what I did, it had to run its course. I would be there to mop up his sadness when it did so, anyway. With a rough idea of what to do next, I decided to have a cat nap.

‘Alfie, George, you’ll have to move.’ Claire’s voice interrupted my dreams.

‘Meow?’ I stretched my paws out.

‘I’m going to get Jon and Matt. Tomasz can’t come this weekend, he’s got staff problems at one of the restaurants apparently, but anyway, you’ll be pleased to see Jon and Matt.’

I would, although I would miss seeing Tomasz, and I hoped Franceska wasn’t too disappointed. She and her husband had had a bit of a rough patch not long ago, because he’d been working too much. It got so bad that she took the boys back to Poland for the whole of the last summer holidays and we were all terribly worried that they wouldn’t come back. However, finally Tomasz came to his senses — I helped of course — and went over there to bring his family back and I thought they had sorted that out. Tomasz had been more attentive to his family and the restaurants were more and more successful but Tomasz was getting much better at delegating. I just hoped that this was still the case.

After all, I didn’t need any other problems to add to my growing list. I jumped down from the car and watched as George did the same. I saw the children were in the garden, so I ran to them, George on my heels.

‘Alfie, George,’ Aleksy said. ‘We are going to set up a sports day. It’s for the younger ones really,’ he said as an aside. I knew that Aleksy still loved playing games but at times had to act like he was grown up. It happened to us all, I thought, looking at George. At times when he played with leaves or chased butterflies I had to act as if I was too grown up for such frivolities but in reality you never are!

The children set up their sports day games. There was to be running, an egg and spoon race, and an obstacle course which was set up with anything they could find. It didn’t look very safe but apparently the adults had approved it so who was I to argue.

Three of the children from the village, Ben, Jess and Millie, turned up.

‘Ah, I found a whistle,’ Tommy said, blowing it. ‘Let the games begin.’

We had such fun. I sat back a little as George joined in with Summer and Martha’s races. Then Toby and Henry had a go, they laughed so much as they kept dropping their eggs, but although George ran hopefully to lick them up, they were hard boiled and it hurt when one dropped on his head. The bigger children took part in running races, and they finished with what they called a relay, where a stick was passed between the runners. But they were having so much fun they weren’t being competitive about it at all! I was in my element to see how happily the children were playing together, and I wished that the adults could all get along the same.

But as Savannah and Serafina marched into our garden, I realised I’d spoken too soon.

‘What do you think you are doing?’ Savannah demanded.

‘Who invited you into our garden?’ Aleksy responded. He crossed his arms, as did his brother.

‘It won’t be your garden for long,’ Serafina said.

‘What do you mean?’ Toby looked terrified.

‘This house will be ours soon, Mummy said so. So don’t get too comfortable,’ Savannah said, spitefully. ‘And as for you, Millie, Jess and Ben, why are you playing with them? I said you couldn’t.’

‘We like playing with them,’ Ben mumbled, looking at the grass as he said it.

‘Yeah, it’s not like you can tell them what to do,’ Tommy added.

‘Fine, play your stupid games, see if we care. But mark my words, you won’t be around for much longer and we won’t be sorry to see you go.’ They turned and left.

‘Wow,’ Jess said.

‘I don’t like that they are so horrible.’ Toby looked as if he was going to cry and my heart went to him. The poor kid was so sensitive and hated any kind of arguing, probably because of his past. Aleksy put his arm round him.

‘Toby, you’re not to worry about them, you’ve got us now,’ he said, and Toby smiled.

‘And we are going to play with you, no matter what they say,’ Millie added. ‘My mum said it was about time we stood up to those two anyway. They’ve been so mean lately.’ Her voice wobbled uncertainly, but I was glad.

‘Yeah, when we play with you guys you don’t tell us what to do or tell us we’re rubbish like they do,’ Ben added.

‘Those girls need teaching a lesson,’ Aleksy said. ‘And the best lesson is for us to have so much fun they will want to join in and play with us.’

‘Yeah!’ All the children high-fived.

George put his paw up to join in, and they all laughed.

‘Your cats are so cool,’ Jess said, stroking George.

‘Meow,’ I agreed.

By the time Claire returned with Jonathan and Matt, the children were lying on the grass with ice lollies that Polly and Franceska had given them. Polly was making daisy chains and Franceska was reading her book. They turned and waved as the car pulled into the car port. Jonathan came up and grabbed both Toby and Summer, hugging them at the same time.

‘I’ve missed you guys,’ he said. Then he fussed George and I.

Matt kissed Polly, then Martha, but when he tried to hug Henry he squirmed away.

‘Too big for a hug from your old dad?’ Matt asked and Henry laughed, then launched himself at him.

‘So how’s the house going?’ Matt asked.

‘Come with me and I’ll show you,’ Polly replied. ‘Are you OK to watch the kids?’ she asked.

‘Sure,’ Claire said. ‘You two go and see the builders, Jon can see everything later.’

‘I wish Dad was here,’ Aleksy said.

‘Me too, kochanie, but he has to work. But the good news is that he’ll be here soon.’

‘I can’t wait.’ Tommy gave an air punch and I was happy. They weren’t in trouble at all, and of course sometimes you had to work. After all, it was their hard work that meant we could all keep Seabreeze Cottage.

Knowing George was being showered with attention, I followed Matt and Polly. But before they could get very far I heard voices coming from the courtyard.

‘I don’t understand,’ a man I knew only as the plumber was saying.

‘It doesn’t make sense.’ Colin was scratching his head, which he seemed to do a lot.

‘What’s wrong?’ Polly asked. ‘Colin, you remember Matt?’

‘Hi, Matt. Polly, Adrian put in all the pipe work for the outside shower as you know, and today he’s come to finish off but the pipe’s broken and to be honest we have no idea how it happened.’

‘What do you mean?’ Matt examined what I had seen Liam do earlier.

‘It looks like it was bashed with something, but why?’ Adrian said. ‘I’ll have to get another piece of pipe. It’s not difficult but I’ll have to cut it to size, so it means I won’t be able to finish until Monday.’

‘How could this have happened?’ Polly asked.

‘I wish I knew, Polly, honestly it makes no sense.’ Poor Colin sounded upset.

‘OK, well delays happen … Anyway, Colin, can we go and see upstairs? Adrian’s putting the bathroom in next week so next time you come the children should be in, right?’ Polly said, cheerfully. I was glad she wasn’t letting the broken pipe get to her.

‘Yup, the lads are preparing to paint the bedrooms now, the carpets are going in soon and then that just leaves the bathroom.’

‘It’s all going well then,’ Matt said. ‘Come on, let’s see the children’s floor.’

Our inspection was highly successful. The children were going to love their new rooms. Martha and Summer had the smaller room, but it was going to be painted pink and Polly said she was going to make it like the inside of a palace. The boys’ room, which was bigger as it was for four of them, was to be a nice green colour, and they would move the bunk beds up for them to sleep in. The sloping room wasn’t that high, but high enough, and the skylights let in the sun, though Polly said they were getting black-out blinds fitted the following week to ensure the children would be able to sleep. My conclusion, as I stepped on Liam’s foot and earned a scowl from him, was that Polly had thought of everything and the children’s floor would be a success.

‘It’s going to be great when finished.’ Matt echoed my thoughts.

‘I just still have so much to do,’ Polly said as they went downstairs. ‘And these little delays aren’t helping. First the ceiling hole, then the pipe. I mean, I know it’s not the end of the world but it is irritating when we are on such a tight time schedule.’

‘These things happen when you’re building though, you know that,’ Matt pointed out.

‘I know but it worries me. The roof was one of them being a bit careless when they were getting ready to fit the skylight, I get that, but the pipe, how could that have happened?’

‘The plumber probably fitted a faulty piece and didn’t want to say. Anyway, how about we take the kids for a run on the beach before tea.’ Matt grinned. ‘You know, I might have been a bit reluctant at first when you came up with this hare-brained plan but it is quite magical here. The beach across the road, the children having a lovely, free time, and the cottage, well it’s going to be beautiful. You know, my lovely wife, we were wrong, this is one of your best ideas. As long as it doesn’t bankrupt us then I’m so happy we did it.’

‘Gosh, Matt, I might need that in writing. And no, it won’t bankrupt us because we are all in this together.’

I scampered out to the garden and kept that in mind that, yes, we were all in this together.

As I took my favourite vantage point on the lawn just outside the cottage, I was still thinking that over, how much my families meant to each other, how much they all meant to me. I could see all the way down to the beach, where it looked as if everyone was paddling in the sea, which was quite high, and also I could see George’s bottom from under the hedge where he had taken up his post, Chanel-watching once again. I’d suggested he come to the beach but he refused.

It was getting a little cooler as I felt a slight breeze ripple through my fur, and the sun was beginning to fade slightly. I watched and I felt warm inside as I kept thinking about how much we all loved each other and how perfect Seabreeze Cottage was to remind us of that.

‘Dad!’ An excited George bounded up and I grinned; I was guessing he must have seen Chanel.

‘Yes, son?’

‘You told me to tell you if I saw anything.’

‘I did.’ I felt impatient but George hated being rushed when he was relaying anything so I tried not to sound it.

‘I saw Chanel, she was with Andrea, who was carrying her. You know, I don’t think Chanel likes to walk as she seems to get carried around quite a lot.’

‘Right, George, maybe you’re right.’ It was hard to humour him at times but I’d learnt the hard way not to push. He could string a story out for hours if he put his little mind to it.

‘Well, you know that builder you don’t like?’

I licked my lips; this was getting interesting. ‘Liam?’

‘Yes, I saw him.’

‘Where?’

‘With Andrea. They were round the side of her house. He said something, she said something. She put something in his back pocket. Chanel was nuzzled into her, looking beautiful.’

‘What did she put in his back pocket?’ I asked, intrigued.

‘I don’t know, I couldn’t see and it was hard to tear myself away from staring at Chanel.’

‘Right, was there anything else?’ I asked.

‘No, not really.’

That evening, I was still mulling over what George had seen. I had seen Liam with Andrea, and as I knew he was the saboteur it was obvious he was doing it for Andrea. If he was in thrall to her the way George was to Chanel, then that would explain how she was getting him to do all this for her and perhaps she was giving him money too, which would explain the pocket thing. It seemed that Andrea was hoping that, with Liam making things go wrong, it would annoy my families. However, to annoy them enough to get them to give up Seabreeze Cottage, they would have to do something a bit worse than making a hole in a roof or a pipe. But then, what if he was going to do just that? What if the ideas were going to get bigger? My thoughts were that Liam, surly as he was, was young and not exactly clever. What I needed to do was to keep an eye on him, but more than that, I had to somehow get him and Andrea caught. Just how, was something I had no clue about, yet anyway.

‘Why don’t you guys go for a drink?’ Franceska said. ‘I can stay with the children.’

‘Oh, Frankie, we can’t leave you here, alone,’ Claire said.

‘Please do. Look, if all the children are in bed, Aleksy and Tommy look after themselves. I am going to settle down in the small living room with my book. Go out, all of you. It’s a good opportunity.’ She smiled.

‘You’ve twisted my arm,’ Jonathan laughed. ‘And so I shall go and organise baths and bed, while you enjoy a glass of wine, in that case.’

It was good really; because the women had the children all week, the men liked to do bath and bedtimes at the weekend.

‘Well, you won’t hear an argument from me,’ Claire said.

‘Come on, Jon, let’s round them up.’ Matt went with him.

‘It will be nice to go out for a drink, are you sure that you don’t mind?’ Polly said when the women were sitting in the big living room with glasses of wine.

‘Of course not. You know the downside to this is that we can’t go out, we don’t have babysitters here yet, so make the most of it. I have a good book, I’m happy for some peace and quiet, no offence,’ Franceska laughed.

‘None taken. But you’re right, I’m going to find a local babysitter so maybe next week, when it’s just us again, we can have an evening out. It would be nice to go to the local for something to eat at least,’ Claire suggested.

‘Good idea. I can always ask Colin,’ Polly said.

‘What, to babysit?’ Franceska asked.

‘No, silly, if he knows anyone. He’s from the village so he’ll probably know everyone.’

‘It’ll have to be someone who is OK to look after six children,’ Claire pointed out.

‘Oh come on, the younger ones will be in bed, and Aleksy is so grown up now he’ll probably end up looking after the babysitter,’ Franceska said. ‘It’s an easy job.’

‘Let’s drink to freedom. And maybe we can meet some more local women who aren’t the horrible Andrea, or one of her cronies.’ Polly raised her glass.

‘Amber was nice the other day.’

‘Yes but did you see how terrified she was of being seen here. She came in disguise for goodness sake!’

‘OK, yes, but anyway, it’ll make a change of scene for us, so let’s do it.’

‘Right, well I’m going to put some make-up on. If Andrea is in the pub we go to tonight, I don’t want to look like a fright next to her,’ Claire said, standing up.

‘Good point, I’m going to at least brush my hair,’ Polly laughed.

‘Ah, another reason I am happy to stay in.’ Franceska smiled. ‘It’s been nice not worrying about hair and make-up for a bit.’

‘Yes, but, Frankie, we don’t want to let ourselves go. After all we are glamorous Londoners,’ Polly joked.

‘In that case, I better put some lipstick on to read my book.’

I was happy to put my worrying aside for the night. I curled up with Franceska on the old fashioned armchair and snoozed as she read. The younger kids, including George, were in bed and I felt content. It wasn’t often that Franceska and I had some alone time any more and it was incredibly nice. With those thoughts I dozed off, thoughts of home and Tiger in my mind.

I woke to hear the door opening and Aleksy and Tommy ran in holding their computer tablet.

‘Mum, Dad is on Skype,’ they said. I stretched and yawned. As the boys were still up it can’t have been too late.

‘Thank you, right, you two, get ready for bed, and I’ll be up as soon as I’ve talked to Dad,’ she said. The boys left and shut the door. I peered at the screen as Franceska sat down and saw Tomasz’s face appear.

‘Hello,’ he said. He smiled but he looked serious.

‘Thank you for calling the boys, I know you must be busy. Is it alright?’ she said quietly, her eyes dancing with concern.

‘It’s OK, we’ve had to close the restaurant for now, we are going to lose so much money too.’

‘You poor thing, it must be stressful.’

What was going on? I looked at Tomasz and my eyes were full of concern now too.

‘There is a big mess. Lots of food ruined. Who knew a kitchen flood could cause so much damage.’ He looked serious.

‘But the insurance is sorting it out, aren’t they?’

‘They are being difficult. The plumber said three pipes bursting aren’t that uncommon but because we need to replace the floor in the kitchen, then everything else I am paying the men to get it fixed quickly. The insurance people sent someone to look but said they would take a while to file a report. We can’t wait because we need to get the place open as soon as possible, you know how fickle customers can be. It’s not proving very easy. Ugh, it was all going so well, but, Frankie, I’m not sure how long this will take to sort out.’

‘And it’s so popular, you’ll lose so many bookings.’ Franceska sounded panicked.

‘I know, and the insurance people, well they say they won’t be able to get back to us for at least a couple of weeks. I know we have some money in the business but, once we cover the wages and the building works, it’s going to be tricky until the insurance pays out. Especially with no money coming into that restaurant, which could take about a month to reopen.’

‘Oh, Tomasz, I am sorry. But I know, because we have looked at our policies, that we have good insurance, they have to pay out.’

‘Yes, they do but when is the question, and in the meantime we are losing money and also as you know we put all the profits that we don’t live on back into the business so there’s not a lot …’ Tomasz sighed.

‘I guess the fact we’ve put our savings into this cottage isn’t the best timing.’ Franceska stroked me and then I understood. There was a problem with the restaurant and it was costing money and they didn’t have much because it was in Seabreeze. This did not sound good.

‘No, not good timing but, kochanie, don’t worry, I will think of something.’

‘Make sure you are on the case with the insurance. They always try to make it difficult when they have to give us money but they are quick to take ours. By the way, I haven’t told them, none of them, why you are not here, I didn’t want the boys to worry.’

‘I think it’s best we keep it quiet from them. Hopefully by next weekend I’ll have more of an idea, and I can have a nice weekend with my family.’

I hoped so too. Paws crossed.

‘Ah, look, Frankie and Alfie are both asleep,’ Matt laughed. I woke up and yawned. How long had I dropped off for? Franceska opened her eyes. Her book was resting on me, I noticed as I started to stretch out.

‘I must have fallen asleep.’ She shook her head. ‘Did you have a nice evening?’ I saw that Claire and Jonathan were also in the room. Claire was leaning on him and Jonathan had a big smile on his face.

‘We did.’ Claire’s voice was a bit slurry. She did get like that on occasion.

‘Guess what, we met Amber and her husband, Dan, in the pub and well, let’s just say they were very enlightening about Andrea.’ Polly sounded gleeful.

‘Really?’ Franceska sat up and I pricked my ears.

‘Maybe she charmed us after all,’ Jonathan said.

‘But she was nice though,’ Matt offered.

‘Yes but it is clear that she wants Seabreeze Cottage, although still no one is sure why. But they said that she is going round the village bad-mouthing us, and saying that we’re up to all sorts here. Honestly, she made it sound as if we are criminals or something.’

‘Does anyone believe it?’ Franceska asked.

‘I get the impression that Andrea has been acting up a bit lately,’ Jonathan said. ‘So, no, I don’t think so but they are suspicious of us, being out-of-towners, so we do need to get more involved.’

‘How?’ Franceska asked.

‘Well, Jonathan — after a few pints I might add — told them that we would go to church on Sunday,’ Matt said.

‘Church?’ Franceska looked horrified. ‘But we never go to church.’

‘Apparently this village is still very much a church-going village. Anyway it seemed like a good idea. And the best thing is that Andrea goes, so imagine her face when we all turn up!’ Jonathan clapped his hands gleefully.

‘I don’t mind, I like going to church,’ Claire said. ‘Especially a charming village church. But I’m not sure about the kids.’

‘Yes forget Andrea, imagine the look on their faces when they are told they have to go,’ Franceska agreed. ‘Jonathan, you may end up paying for this one,’ she finished.