Alfie The Holiday Cat

Chapter Twenty

The week seemed painfully long. I felt as if I was waiting and waiting, but at last it was Saturday and the day of Andrea’s party and Liam’s arson attempt. I felt sick to my fur with the stress of it all but I was doing my best to keep calm and ensure that George didn’t sense the danger that we, or at least Seabreeze Cottage, faced.

In fact the arson attempt would affect all of us, because the children were having the summer of their lives, the cottage was being transformed into a home which had a part of each of us in it, and everyone was so happy. Jonathan had even said to Claire that she was right and they would never want to sell Seabreeze Cottage. If it hadn’t been for Andrea it would have been a happy ending. But with only just over a week left of this holiday, I worried that the outcome would be different to that which each of us expected.

Gilbert, a true member of our family now, had been keeping tabs on Liam. Honestly, he would have made an excellent stalker, not like my poor George who had spent the best part of the week mooning after Chanel. Anyway, Liam had not given anything away. He was still working at the house but he was never left alone, and so he was causing no problems. He didn’t have the chance. He did go and see Andrea a couple of times but they had talked in the house and so Gilbert couldn’t hear what was being said.

Our loose plan still stood. Gilbert would guard the house and I would veer between the party and home. If he needed me, Gilbert knew where he’d find me and vice versa. We would be a team. I still didn’t want to get George involved though, he was too little to worry about such things, and of course I was his parent so I wanted to protect him from the bad in the world. I knew I wouldn’t always be able to, I felt sad but realistic, but I wanted him to enjoy his kittenhood for as long as he could.

The good thing was that Tomasz, Matt and Jonathan all had a week off so they were going to be staying with us all week! It would make the house a bit full, but I liked that. There were going to be lots of trips to the beach, fish and chips and ice cream in our last week, I was sure.

Claire, Franceska and Polly were all wearing dresses, they did look lovely, and the children were also quite neatly dressed … for now, I knew it wouldn’t last. The men were wearing their summer casual clothes — shorts, T-shirts or, in Jonathan’s case, a short-sleeved shirt — and George and I had made an extra effort with our grooming. Especially George, he had groomed his fur so it was practically gleaming. I knew Chanel was wrong for him, too old for one, and he was too young for love, but he was going to be a heartbreaker when he was older, that was for sure.

We made a good-looking group, I thought as we set off. Instead of going through our hedge we decided to arrive with the humans, though Tommy carried George, as if he didn’t trust him not to run off — how little he knew. George wasn’t going anywhere but to see his crush. As we walked through the front gate and into Andrea’s garden, they were all there to greet us: Andrea, her daughters, and the village children, along with Amber, Kate and Vicky and their husbands, who were now friends of ours.

‘Ah, here’s our guests of honour,’ Andrea said loudly. Claire looked behind her to make sure that there weren’t any other guests she could be talking about.

‘Thank you,’ Jonathan said, giving Andrea a kiss on her cheek and holding out the bag they had brought with them, which contained wine I think. ‘Where shall I put this?’ he asked.

Of course, Andrea was holding Chanel. George managed to leap from Tommy’s arms into Jonathan’s, nearly making him drop the wine, but also bringing him close to Chanel.

‘Meow,’ he said, trying to sound flirtatious I think. She turned her nose up and looked away. He seemed happy with that.

‘George,’ Jonathan chastised, putting him on the grass.

‘Oh follow me and we can put that in the kitchen.’ Andrea smiled at Jonathan and led him into the house.

‘Why do I think he’ll never come out alive?’ Claire whispered to Polly, who laughed.

The children all immediately ran off and I told George to go and keep an eye on Toby. He was nervous and had confided in George (who had then told me) that he hadn’t wanted to come today, he was scared of the girls. George, who wanted to trail after Chanel, reluctantly agreed.

‘If Chanel sees how great you are with the children she’ll think more of you,’ I said, feeling once again that I was a terrible cat. But it wasn’t just that I was trying to deceive George, it was also that I didn’t want him spending too much time with Chanel, who would just continue to be horrible to him, and I genuinely did need him to keep an eye on Toby, especially as I would be busy waiting for Liam to strike.

‘Do you think?’

‘Absolutely.’ I didn’t of course, but it did the trick as George bounded off to look after Toby.

It was one of the hottest days we’d had so far. The children all wore hats but even they weren’t running around as much as normal and the adults were sitting around on chairs that Andrea had arranged on the lawn, sweating and chatting. I was desperate for shade but I couldn’t risk missing anything. Never mind the house, my fur felt as if it was going to catch on fire. Nevertheless, I ran back to see Gilbert, who reported that nothing had happened so far, then I ran back to the party where George was being fussed over by most of the children, though I saw him stealing glances at Chanel, who was sitting with Andrea, ignoring him still. Poor kitten. The women were all getting on but I could see that Andrea was more comfortable with the men, as she flirted with each of them.

‘Oh you do look as if you have a lovely tan,’ she told Jonathan, who looked a bit too pleased with himself. ‘Matt, would you be a darling and top up the drinks, after all you do it so well.’ And to Tomasz: ‘You must give me the recipe for that dip you brought over, it is simply the most divine thing I have ever tasted.’ Tomasz blushed and Franceska glared; she had made the dip. The other women’s husbands all got the same ‘Andrea’ treatment.

But at the same time, Claire was chatting to Fiona, Polly was talking to Kate, Vicky and Amber, so it was all fine. Or so I hoped.

I had to get some shade so I went to take a quick lie-down under a bush. Unfortunately the heat and the worry had made me tired and, without realising it, I dozed off.

‘Alfie,’ a voice hissed. I blinked my eyes open and looked at Gilbert.

I jumped up. ‘Oh no, I’m terrible, I can’t believe I fell asleep. What’s happened?’ I looked at the lawn; the party was still in full swing and I couldn’t see anything wrong.

‘Look, come with me, quickly.’

I followed Gilbert back home. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘Well, here’s the thing, Toby and George ran in the house. Toby was crying. There are no adults and I think that perhaps they don’t know that he’s gone.’

‘Liam?’ I asked.

‘No sign.’

I ran up to the boys’ room where Toby was huddled on his bed, sobbing, and George was snuggled up next to him.

‘Meow?’ I said, in order to ask George what happened. He hopped off the bed and followed me so we were out of earshot.

‘Those girls were horrible to him again, they teased him about being adopted,’ George said. ‘But no one saw him when he ran back home, he went through our gap in the hedge,’ he explained. ‘It was a bit tight but he wriggled through. I followed him because I couldn’t leave him alone.’

‘Did anyone else see this?’

‘No, they waited until he was alone, well apart from me.’

‘You did well, George, and I’ll go and get Claire and Jonathan now.’

I left Gilbert in charge as I went back to the party. I felt so sick now, not because of Andrea but because of her daughters. How did children get so mean? I remembered when I had to go and sort out a bully at Aleksy’s school a few years ago; the boy had been unhappy but that is not an excuse for being horrible to other children. I was so furious and I knew that Claire and Jonathan would be too.

When I got to the garden, I quickly found Claire, sitting next to Polly with a plate of food in her hand.

‘Meow!’ I shouted, jumping on her lap. I had learnt from past experience that subtlety didn’t get results.

‘Alfie, I’ve got food,’ she shouted, dropping it.

‘Yowl.’ I put my paw on her chest, which I knew normally got her attention.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Meow.’ Claire stood up, and looked around.

‘Where’s Toby?’ she asked. ‘Jonathan, where’s Toby?’ she shouted really loudly. All the guests fell silent.

‘I can’t find him,’ Henry said, running over.

‘Do you know where he is?’ Polly asked.

‘No, the last time I saw him he was with Serafina and Savannah, but …’ Henry looked as if he might cry. ‘I think George is with him because he’s not here either.’

‘Hey, it’s OK, Henry, can everyone search the garden,’ Jonathan said, taking control.

‘Savannah, Serafina, do you have any idea where he is?’ Andrea asked. The two girls, with their long hair and matching dresses, looked as if butter wouldn’t melt. Serafina shrugged.

‘He said he wanted to go home,’ Savannah said.

‘Why? Why did he want to go home?’ Claire asked, sounding angry.

‘Please don’t shout at my girls,’ Andrea said, smoothly.

‘My son is missing, I am a little stressed. If he has—’

‘Claire, let’s go back to the cottage, he’s probably there if that’s what he said,’ Jonathan said, calmly as he put his arm around her.

‘Oh, you mean he might be in the cottage, alone?’ Andrea said as if it had just occurred to her and the colour drained from her face.

But Claire was already out of her chair.

I knew what I had to do.

I ran as fast as I could, taking the quickest route to the house through the hedge. Gilbert came to meet me. He just looked at me and I noted the horror in his eyes.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I was just coming to find you, Liam’s there.’ I followed him through the back door and into the kitchen. I felt my heart almost stop.

Liam was stood by the kitchen table, holding a rag and a lit match. There was a funny smell. I glanced at Gilbert.

‘Is Toby still here?’ I asked.

‘Yes and George, upstairs.’

‘Oh my goodness.’ I felt sick.

‘What should we do?’ he asked. ‘Go to George?’

‘No, we need to stop Liam,’ I replied. ‘We’ll have to jump at him, it’s the only thing.’ Before Liam could notice us we both launched ourselves at him. I managed to jump up onto his chest, digging my claws in, Gilbert leapt onto his shoulder where he scratched his face, as hard as he could.

‘Ugggggh!’ Liam shouted and he dropped the lit rag onto the table as he tried to bat us both off. Gilbert clung and scratched him again.

I had to put the fire out before it took hold, so I jumped onto the kitchen table, feeling the heat from the flaming rag, which thankfully hadn’t yet spread. I went to a jug of flowers, pushed it near the rag and, with a big shove, managed to push it over. Water dripped everywhere and the fire fizzled out. The relief was immense. Gilbert finally let go of Liam and jumped down onto the floor. Liam looked shocked as he touched his face which was bleeding. Gilbert and I shared a congratulatory look, although my heart was still pounding.

We had foiled the plan. We had saved the cottage and, more importantly, George and Toby. Before I could go and upstairs to check on them, the door burst open.

‘What are you doing here?’ Claire demanded. Liam was definitely not her favourite person.

‘Um,’ Liam mumbled.

‘How did you get in?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Back door,’ Liam said.

‘We never lock it, which is why I think Toby’s probably upstairs. Speaking of which …’ Claire ran off.

Jonathan looked as if he was going to follow her but then he glared at Liam. He was still deciding what to do when a phone started ringing. It was on the kitchen table, but had escaped getting soaked by the flower water. I looked at the horror on Liam’s face and then I nudged it with my paw towards Jonathan.

‘Why is Andrea calling you?’ he asked as he picked up the ringing phone. ‘And why are there flowers and water all over the table?’

Liam, who I didn’t think could get any paler, looked as if he had no colour left in him. Jonathan looked at the phone, I wanted him to answer it but he didn’t.

‘I’m going to check on my son,’ he said. ‘You stay here. If you move an inch I will kill you.’

Liam sat down on a chair. We both decided to stay and guard our hostage.

The flower jug was lying on its side and it hid the rag that Liam had tried to start a fire with. Liam still looked horrified, but he collected up the flowers, shoved them back in the jug, then he mopped up the water with some kitchen towels and quickly hid the rag in his pocket. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air, and Liam had to clean a black mark off the table, but it looked as if he would get away with it. And I wasn’t sure what we could do about that, but the important thing was that the fire didn’t get going and hopefully now they could put a stop to Liam and Andrea once and for all.

It felt like ages before Claire and Jonathan came back downstairs. Liam had his head in his hands. Gilbert and I remained silent.

‘Meow?’ It was my way of seeing if everything was alright.

‘Toby is better, calmer, but I suggested he play in his room with George so we can sort this out. I don’t want him upset any more than he already is,’ Claire said.

Jonathan turned to Liam. ‘So, are you going to tell us what you were doing here?’

‘And what happened to your face?’ Claire asked. She looked at me, then at Gilbert.

‘Well, you see, I thought I might have left some tools here …’ Liam started. ‘I had to do some work for my mum and, well, anyway I needed a, a screwdriver, which I couldn’t find so I came here, but no one was in, so I’m sorry but I just let myself in. The cats must have thought I was up to no good so they attacked me …’ Liam trailed off. It didn’t sound feasible even to me.

‘Good cats,’ Claire said.

‘So why was Andrea calling you?’ Jonathan asked, folding his arms.

‘I don’t know, I mean I work for her sometimes.’

Yes you do, I thought.

‘Really?’ Jonathan looked doubtful.

‘Well that’s fine. I’ll just call your mum to check; after all she’s going to be looking after the cottage for us soon.’ Claire stared at Liam, until he looked as if he’d be sick.

‘No,’ he shouted a bit too loudly. ‘Please don’t.’

There was a commotion at the back door and Polly, Matt and Tomasz bundled in.

‘Thank goodness Toby is here,’ Polly said. ‘Thanks for calling and, before you ask, Franceska has all the other children in sight, so don’t worry.’

‘Is he alright?’ Matt asked.

‘No, he’s distraught. He says he hates it here, and wants to go back to London. Those girls teased him for being adopted and they called him names, anyway, I’ll go into that with Andrea, but we reassured him for now. I wish we hadn’t gone to her house.’ Claire, who seemed so in control, burst into tears. Polly wrapped her arms around her.

‘What’s he doing here?’ Tomasz said, as if he had just noticed Liam.

‘That’s what we’d like to know,’ Jonathan said. ‘He says he came to find some tools, but then when we said we’d call his mother to check out his story he told us not to.’

‘Right, buddy.’ Tomasz, who was the biggest of the men, sat down next to Liam. ‘You better tell us what you were doing here before I call the police and have you arrested.’ Liam flinched.

‘Wait.’ Andrea suddenly appeared from the back door.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Claire shouted. ‘This is all your fault. Toby is in such a state, your daughters called him terrible names and said he didn’t belong anywhere because he was adopted, what kind of children say that?’

For the first time since we’d met her, Andrea had the grace to look guilty.

‘I know, I’m sorry—’

‘What, no excuses, no ridiculous stories about how your girls wouldn’t do that.’

‘Unfortunately they did say that, I’m not going to pretend.’ Andrea sat down at the table, looking defeated. ‘And the fact that Liam’s here is my fault too.’

‘You better explain,’ Polly said, sitting down. Andrea went to sit on the other side of Liam. Tomasz moved to the other side of the table. I sat on Polly’s lap. Andrea and Liam glanced at each other as they faced Jonathan, Claire, Matt, Polly and Tomasz. Jonathan had his arms crossed, Claire was still tearful, Polly fuming and Matt and Tomasz looked ready for a fight. Gilbert had placed himself on the floor by the door, as if to stop them getting out.

‘I didn’t want it to go this far, you have to believe that,’ Andrea started.

‘What exactly?’ Jonathan asked.

‘I told you I wanted to buy Seabreeze Cottage, I didn’t tell the truth about why.’ She looked awkward. Liam squeezed her hand. ‘My husband, I said he’s away on business but actually, well, the truth is that he’s left me.’

‘Left you?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Yes, for another woman. It’s been very hard, on me, and especially on the girls. They don’t understand where he is, or why they never see him any more. I mean, he’s not even been here for ages, since he moved to London with his mistress, it’s as if the girls don’t exist for him.’ I saw actual tears in Andrea’s eyes.

‘That’s terrible,’ Matt said, running his hand through his hair.

‘Yes, but what does it have to do with Seabreeze?’ Polly asked. I wanted to know that too.

‘My husband wants to sell the house and, to cut a long story short, I desperately need to say in Lynstow, for the girls’ sake. I can’t bear to take them away from the village, not after everything they’ve been through.’

‘Oh for goodness’ sake, get on with it,’ Polly said, irritably.

‘I thought that if I got this cottage I could afford it, because of the work that needed doing, and at least keep the girls in the same village, same school, near their friends.’

‘Hold on, you were going to live here?’

‘Yes, I was going to buy this cottage, do it up — at least as much as I could afford to — but then you guys came here and started doing work.’ Andrea looked annoyed for a moment as if it was our fault her plan had gone awry. Which it was actually, well mine and Gilbert’s and Toby’s, I supposed.

‘Right, let me get this straight. You could only afford it before we started work on it yet you still persisted in trying to get your hands on it?’ Claire asked, her face ashen.

‘Yes, I thought that you wouldn’t like it here, and you’d want to get out so I could persuade you to sell it to me quickly you know cash buyer, no estate agent fees. But you wouldn’t. So, I was desperate.’

‘Which is where Liam comes in, I’m guessing,’ Tomasz said. He was still looking furious.

‘I’m sorry,’ Liam mumbled. I flicked my tail at him.

‘It wasn’t meant to get out of hand, I just needed the house. I still do.’ Andrea wiped tears away, I checked and they were real. ‘I thought if I made your lives a bit miserable you’d change your mind, decide Lynstow wasn’t the ideal holiday destination after all and sell to me. I was offering a good price.’

‘It’s not about money. So, Liam, all the mistakes?’ Polly asked.

‘Yes, they were for Andrea,’ Liam admitted. ‘But you were so cross and, well, I wasn’t the best at sabotage. Colin made sure I was watched like a hawk so I had to give it up. It was like that damn cat kept foiling me, which I don’t understand.’

‘Meow.’ Of course you don’t.

Andrea shook her head. ‘It was just meant to delay the work, cost money, annoy you all and, well, get you to pack up, but nothing seemed to work, and to be honest, I got desperate. It’s not just about money for me, there’s the girls …’

‘Please tell me you didn’t get your children involved in your plan?’

‘No, of course, I might be a total cow but I wouldn’t do that. No, what happened was that the girls overheard me talking to my lawyer saying how you guys moving into the cottage was ruining everything and I wished you weren’t around. I said if you left then everything would be fine for us again.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘I’m sorry, I really didn’t want them to be mean but when they were, well I can’t say I tried to stop them. But with Toby, I feel truly terrible about that.’

‘OK, I get it.’ Jonathan held his hand up. ‘You were in trouble, you needed the cottage, so you got this goof of a man to try to sabotage our build. It didn’t work. So what is he doing here now?’

The silence felt endless. Andrea glanced at Liam who looked as if he was going to cry. Then she took his hand. I looked at Gilbert who was staring at the box of matches. Still no one else noticed them.

‘You know, I am this close to calling the police,’ Polly said. She was often the feistiest in these situations. Matt was more laid-back although even he looked shocked. Tomasz’s eyes were flecked with anger and Claire was crying, so it was down to Polly and Jonathan really.

‘Please don’t. I know my daughters have behaved badly but they don’t deserve to lose their mum as well as their dad, and Liam, well none of this was Liam’s fault. He has a crush on me and I’m afraid I used that.’

Liam frowned. ‘But you said we’d be together, when you got the cottage.’

‘Oh dear, you’ve been played,’ Polly said.

‘Liam, I was desperate, I still am. I felt that Seabreeze Cottage was the only way to keep what’s left of my family together. I know it was wrong but you were so keen on me. And to be honest, I’m possibly almost old enough to be your mother.’

‘I’m quite sure you are more than old enough,’ Polly bit.

‘But I loved you.’ Liam looked so crestfallen I actually felt sorry for him.

‘This is a very interesting nonexistent love story, but what were you doing here now?’ Jonathan pushed.

‘He was just going to …’ Andrea looked at him and mouthed that she was sorry. ‘You know, nobble the build when no one was around. The idea was that you’d come in Monday, everything would start going wrong, and you’d all get so fed up that you would agree to sell to me.’

Liam looked relieved as Andrea finished. They weren’t going to confess about the fire and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to draw attention to it or not. On the one paw they deserved to be caught, on the other, neither were exactly master criminals. And Andrea had obviously been desperate. I didn’t condone her actions but I almost understood. She thought she was doing it for her family and I would do anything for my families. Me getting stuck on the roof was proof of that.

I jumped off the table and I went to where Liam had dropped the matches. I put my paw over them. I had a big decision to make for a cat. If I drew my humans’ attention to them they would see exactly what Andrea and Liam had planned and probably have no option but to call the police. And of course they would think about how Toby had been here, alone with George, and what could have happened and it would give us all nightmares. But on the other paw, Andrea had put a stop to it as soon as she heard that Toby was here and Liam wasn’t acting like an arsonist, so I wasn’t sure he would have gone through with it anyway. Besides, Gilbert and I had stopped him, hadn’t we? Just as we planned.

I looked at Gilbert, trying to ask what he thought. We went to the back of the room to have a chat.

‘All’s OK at the moment, isn’t it?’ he said.

‘I think it would hurt everyone if they thought that they actually would set fire to the place,’ I replied.

‘And look at him, he doesn’t look as if he’d have been capable of going through with it. And with me attached to him he couldn’t anyway.’ We both seemed in agreement and, while the adults were still arguing about what to do, I walked back and pushed the matches under the cooker with my paw so they would, for now, remain unseen.

‘You did a brilliant job, Gilbert,’ I said.

‘You too, Alfie,’ he replied.

‘I don’t see why you should get away with this,’ Polly was saying.

‘I haven’t, believe me. I haven’t got the cottage and I don’t have a husband,’ Andrea said and she started to cry again.

‘Liam, you can’t work here any more. I won’t have you in this house, not after what you’ve done,’ Polly said.

‘That’s reasonable,’ Liam said. ‘I guess you’ll tell Colin.’

‘Unless you want to?’

He shook his head.

‘And I want your girls to apologise to Toby,’ Jonathan added.

‘Of course.’ Finally, I thought, Andrea seemed defeated. ‘But if you change your mind about selling this place …’ she added as she stood up and left the house with a heartbroken Liam trailing after her.

‘She’s unbelievable,’ Polly said.

‘She’s desperate I think,’ Tomasz added.

‘It’s kind of ruined it, though, don’t you think?’ I was surprised to hear Claire say those words. ‘The cottage, the summer, the idea they wanted us out, and Toby, well it all feels like such a mess.’

With that she burst into tears again. I saw they weren’t just about this, but about Toby, her son, who was so hurt by the cruel words of two children, about her holidays as a child when she hadn’t had to deal with the complexities of adulthood. And Seabreeze, which had already undergone such a huge transformation but still had a way to go, which we’d thought was our home but suddenly, it didn’t feel like it. It had all been tainted.

Franceska burst in with the rest of the children. ‘I kept them in our garden as long as I could, but they wanted to see their parents,’ she said. ‘Is all OK?’

‘Yes, but we’ll tell you later,’ Claire said.

‘Can I just say.’ Aleksy stood forward. ‘That we did love it here, but with Toby, and those horrible girls and their horrible mum, everyone seems miserable and, well, we all just want to go home.’

The adults looked shocked.

‘But, kochanie, you were having such a good time with your new friends,’ Franceska said.

‘We were, but now we’ve seen you all arguing with that woman and then with Toby being so upset, and Savannah and Serafina being so horrible, we just don’t think it’s worth it. Not for this.’ He looked round the kitchen table at the adults. It was clear that everyone was unhappy.

‘Aleksy speaks for all of us,’ Tommy added.

‘Let’s just go home,’ Summer said, coming to sit on her mum’s lap. ‘Mummy’s sad and I don’t like that. Toby’s sad and I don’t like that.’

‘Some things just aren’t worth it,’ Aleksy said. And everyone looked shocked.

‘Out of the mouths of babes,’ Matt said, as he pulled Martha onto his lap.

‘Claire?’ Jonathan said.

‘When Toby ran off, and when for a moment I didn’t know if he was safe, I felt so sick, and if it’s being here that’s done that, then maybe the kids are right, maybe we should go home.’

I made my way over to Gilbert and we went into the sand room to have another chat.

‘Do you think they all mean it?’ he asked.

‘It’s been dramatic for them, this thing with Toby, finding out that the house was being sabotaged, it really will have shaken them up,’ I said.

‘But if they sell the house to Andrea …’

‘I know, you’ll be homeless.’

‘No, I wasn’t just thinking that, I mean I would, but that’s not the worst thing — I have been before and I will again. No, it’s that Seabreeze is a special house, a home, and you guys belong here. Your families have loved being here for the most part. I know today has been shocking and I think we were right not to draw attention to the matches as they would probably be packing right now, but we need them to remember how much they’ve loved being here.’

‘You’re right, we need to save Seabreeze, and our families and we need to save the summer.’ We had foiled Andrea and her plotting, and poor Liam, but that, it seemed, wasn’t enough. We had to make everyone fall back in love with Seabreeze Cottage.

But of course, I had no idea how.