Lucy the Poorly Puppy

Chapter Eight

“What are we going to do?” Lauren whispered. “We can’t let him have her, we can’t! Mum didn’t say anyone was coming, he must have just turned up.”

Sam nodded. “We’ve nearly got enough money, as well. It’s just not fair.”

Lauren looked at him, frowning. “If Lucy’s not there, he can’t see if he likes her…” she suggested slowly.

“You mean we should just stay here?” Sam asked.

Lauren shook her head. “No. Because he’s seen us, and Mum knows we’ve got Lucy. We have to hide. Come on!”

“Where are we going?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know yet. Let’s just get away from here.”

“OK.” Sam zipped up his hoodie, and used it like a bag to carry Lucy, while Lauren grabbed Bella’s lead.

Lucy woke up as they ran back down the lane, as Sam was jiggling her around inside his top. She gave an indignant squeak, and tried to wriggle out.

Lauren turned back. “I’ll take her, she’ll be quieter with me. Shhh, Lucy!” Lucy snuggled gratefully into Lauren’s arms, as Sam handed her over.

As they peered round the corner of the barn, they saw the man’s car parked in the yard. The top half of the back door was open and they could see him talking to Lauren’s mum in the kitchen.

“Let’s hide in the barn,” Lauren said quickly. “If we go behind the bales of straw, we’ll still be able to see if they come out.”

They sneaked through the open doors, and settled themselves at the back of the barn.

“Shhh! I can hear my mum,” Lauren whispered.

“Lauren! Lauren!” They could just see Lauren’s mum, looking a bit embarrassed. “She’s probably in the orchard, playing with Lucy,” she said.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve called first,” the man said. “I saw the ad and thought I’d just drop in, as I was coming this way. There were two children up at the top of the lane with a beagle.”

“Oh! Well, that would be Lauren and Sam. I hope they haven’t gone along the road, Lauren knows not to. I’d better go up there and find them. You stay here and drink your tea.”

Lauren sank back behind the straw bales. “She’s going to be upset when she finds we aren’t there,” she said slowly.

“Do you want to let your mum know where we are?” Sam asked.

Lauren chewed her lip uncertainly, but then Lucy woke up again inside Sam’s hoodie and wriggled out. She gave a little yap, and looked up at Lauren with her big brown eyes. She looked so gorgeous that Lauren knew she couldn’t bear to let her go. “No,” she said firmly. “He’ll give up waiting soon, hopefully.”

Lucy climbed off Lauren’s lap and went sniffing round the floor, and nudging up against Bella, who was sensibly curled up on a pile of straw. Bella yawned and licked Lucy half-heartedly. It looked like she just wanted to sleep.

Lucy could smell delicious smells all round the barn. She pattered off round the edge of the bale to investigate, and Lauren and Sam both dived to grab her, which made Bella bark.

“Ssshhh!” Lauren hissed, putting her finger to her lips, and Bella gave her a confused look. “Sorry, Bella, sweetie. But we have to be quiet, OK?”

Sam put Lucy in his lap, and started to wave a piece of straw for her to chase. “I don’t think we can keep this little one quiet, though,” he said, as Lucy squeaked delightedly and growled at the straw.

“They might not hear from out there. Oh, there’s Mum. She looks a bit worried,” Lauren said guiltily.

Lauren’s mum went into the house, and obviously told the man she couldn’t find Lauren and Lucy, because he came out and got into his car.

“I’m so sorry,” Lauren’s mum said.

Lauren thought the man looked disappointed, but she was more worried about the anxious look on her mum’s face.

The man handed Lauren’s mum a bit of paper. “Here’s my phone number, anyway. If you could give me a ring.” Then he drove off down the lane.

Lucy growled at the straw again. Sam had stopped waving it about, and she was getting bored. She whined loudly, and tugged the hem of Lauren’s jeans with her teeth. She wanted them to play properly.

“Should we come out, now he’s gone?” Sam asked.

Lauren wanted to, especially as she could hear her mum calling for her dad, who was working in the office at the back of the house. Now they’d both be searching for her. But she shook her head. “What if they just call the man to come back?” She nibbled her nails. “I think we have to give it a bit longer.”

They could hear Lauren’s mum and dad going round the house shouting her name. Finally, Bella started whining. “I know, Bella,” Lauren whispered. “I’m hungry too.”

“I’m starving,” Sam muttered, and then he gasped as he heard a different voice. “That’s my mum!”

Sam’s mum came running into the yard carrying Molly. Molly was crying and calling, “Sam?”

Sam and Lauren exchanged a guilty glance.

“I’m sorry, I’ll have to go out. Molly looks really upset…” Sam was getting to his feet. “You stay, I’ll say I wasn’t with you.”

“It’s OK, I’m coming too,” Lauren told him. “And I promise you won’t get into trouble. I’ll say it was all my idea.” They crept over to the barn door, and peered out anxiously. Bella looked round their legs, unsure what was going on. Only Lucy was happy, and squeaked excitedly to see everyone.

“Sam!”

“Lauren!”

“Didn’t you hear us calling you? We’ve been shouting for ages!” Lauren’s mum hugged her. “We had no idea where you were!”

Molly struggled down from her mum’s arms and ran to hug Sam.

“Were you in the barn the whole time?” Dad asked, looking from Lauren to Sam and back again.

“Um, yes…” Lauren admitted.

“So you were hiding on purpose,” Dad said.

Lauren glanced worriedly at Sam, and then said, very fast, “That man had come to buy Lucy, and I didn’t want him to.”

Mum blinked. “He was very nice. He already has one beagle, and wanted another. He was really disappointed when we couldn’t find you.”

“Sam, I can’t believe you frightened us all like that,” his mum said crossly.

“I think we’d all better go inside,” Dad said firmly. “I want to understand what’s going on here.” He shooed Sam and Lauren and the two dogs into the kitchen, where Bella and Lucy went eagerly to their food bowls. “Sit down, you two. Right. Explain. What was wrong with that man that made you decide to do something so silly? He seemed like he’d be a really good owner.”

“Nothing…” Lauren began haltingly.

“It wasn’t him,” Sam put in. “We didn’t want anyone to have Lucy. Look.” He dug in his hoodie pocket and brought out the old pencil case he’d been keeping the money in.

“Eighty-four pounds,” Lauren said proudly, as he emptied it on to the table.

Dad frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“We were going to buy Lucy ourselves!” Lauren explained. “I really, really don’t want to sell her to some stranger! We thought a puppy probably costs about a hundred pounds, and we were so close to having it, and then that man came! We had to hide Lucy away in case he got her first!”

“Is this something to do with the table full of apples at the top of the lane?” Mum asked.

Lauren nodded. “We sold the apples from the orchard, and my old toys, too.”

“And it’s my birthday money.”

“And my money from Grandma.”

“There’s more apples left,” Sam added. “We should get to a hundred, easily.”

Mum smiled sadly. “That man was going to pay four hundred pounds. That’s what a pedigree puppy costs.”

“Four hundred!” Lauren whispered in horror. “We couldn’t raise that much. Oh no…” And she started to cry. She was going to have to give Lucy up after all.

Lucy looked up from her bowl. What was the matter with Lauren? She dashed across the kitchen floor, and scrabbled frantically at Lauren’s legs.

Lauren reached down and picked Lucy up, cuddling her close, while Sam stroked her head.

Lucy howled loudly, joining in with Lauren’s sobbing.

“Lauren, shhh…” her dad said gently. “And please tell Lucy to hush too, I can’t hear myself think. That’s better,” he added, as Lauren stroked Lucy and shushed her. “We didn’t realize you were that desperate to keep Lucy. Why didn’t you say?”

“I tried!” Lauren burst out. “But you kept saying we had Bella, and ever since the puppies came you’d said we couldn’t keep them. I told Sam about it, didn’t I?”

Sam nodded. “But we thought if we had enough money we could keep her. Lauren said I could share her too.”

“Oh, Sam…” his mum said sadly. “He loves dogs,” she explained to Lauren’s parents. “But his dad is allergic.”

Lauren’s mum was watching Lucy, snuggling up in Lauren’s arms, her eyes switching from person to person, as she tried to follow what was going on. “She is lovely,” Mum said slowly.

Lauren’s dad looked round at her. “It was you that said no more dogs, Annie!”

“Somehow I can’t imagine being back to just one, after all those puppies. It already seems very quiet, with only Bella and Lucy.” Mum smiled. “And she’s definitely the prettiest of the litter.”

“So can we keep her?” Lauren asked, not quite sure whether that was what her mum was saying. “Really? You mean it?”

Mum nodded, and laughed as Lauren hugged her, squidging Lucy in between them. “Don’t squash her!”

“But if Bella has puppies again, we’re not keeping any!” Dad said sternly.

Lauren shook her head. “Oh no, I promise I wouldn’t even ask!”

“You can have your birthday money back, Sam,” Lauren’s mum said, smiling.

Sam nodded, but he looked a bit sad.

“Do you still want to share Lucy, though?” Lauren asked, holding Lucy out to him.

Sam nodded eagerly, and Lucy wagged her tail so fast it almost blurred, and then licked his hand lovingly.

“We can use the apple money to buy her a really smart new collar and lead,” Lauren suggested. “Not Bella’s old ones any more. And we can put ‘This dog belongs to Lauren and Sam’ on her collar tag.”

Everyone laughed, and Lucy howled again, a real show-off howl with her ears thrown back and her tail wagging under Sam’s arm.

Sam grinned. “I think she likes that idea.