The Kingdom of Carbonel

10

Making Plans

John and Mrs Brown ate a silent, uncomfortable supper by themselves. He was a truthful boy and, being unable to think of anything better to say, repeated his story of someone having given Rosemary an unexpected lift. The unexpected part was certainly true.

‘But who could it have been?’ asked Mrs Brown anxiously for the tenth time. ‘It’s so unlike Rosemary!’ She broke off, to John’s intense relief, startled by a crash from Rosemary’s bedroom. The room was not much larger than a cupboard, and its only door led into the sitting room. John dropped his pudding spoon and rushed in.

As Rosemary said later, the rocking chair was ‘willing but not very good at landing’. When John flung the door open, the chair was lying on its side, and Rosemary, looking slightly dazed, was picking herself up from the floor. With great presence of mind, he pushed the chair behind the door, and stood so that, as far as possible, it was hidden from Mrs Brown. Then, winking violently in an effort to convey that she had better think up something quickly, he said loudly, ‘Hello, Rosie!’

For once Mrs Brown was extremely cross.

‘Rosemary! You are a very naughty girl! I can’t think why you should do something so childish as to hide in your bedroom while I have been so anxious. And what possessed you to leave Mr Featherstone and come home with someone else?’

‘I’m very sorry, Mummy,’ said Rosemary penitently. ‘I really didn’t mean you to be anxious. It was all a mistake, honestly. I promise I won’t ever do it again. Please, just this once,’ she went on earnestly, ‘will you trust me and not ask questions? It is a most particular secret!’

Mrs Brown looked at her daughter’s pleading face for an anxious moment. Then at last she said, ‘You promise the secret is not wrong?’

‘Promise faithfully!’ said Rosemary.

‘Very well, dear. I will trust you. But you must not be inconsiderate either. You have been rude to Mr Featherstone as well as making me anxious. But come and have your supper now, Rosie. It’s in the oven. You must be starving.’

‘Are the kittens all right?’ asked Rosemary, between mouthfuls of fish pie.

‘Right as rain,’ said John. ‘But I think we ought to feed them as soon as possible,’ he went on, winking violently again, hoping that Rosemary would understand that he wanted to talk to her privately.

They had to help wash up after supper, but as soon as the front door closed behind them, Rosemary told John her adventures. He listened open-mouthed.

‘I was in such a tizzy to get away from Mrs Cantrip’s garden that I forgot I wouldn’t be able to explain how I came to be in my bedroom without going through the sitting room. We shall have to think of some way to hide the chair, or Mum will want to know where it came from.’

‘Smuggle it down to the Green Cave for the moment, and cover it with leaves,’ John suggested. ‘But I’ve got something to tell you!’

When John described the conversation he had overheard when he was hiding in the half-built house, it was Rosemary’s turn to be impressed.

‘Thank goodness they didn’t catch you!’ she said. ‘Well, it’s quite clear that Mrs Cantrip and that Dibdin woman are hatching some plot with the Queen of the Broomhurst cats. Tudge said that trouble was brewing.’

‘And he thought it was against Fallowhithe!’

‘If they’re meeting tomorrow night on top of the tallest building in Broomhurst, it must be on that new ten-storey block of offices that Mr Featherstone told us about. I’d give my boots for us to be behind a chimney so that we could listen to what they’re up to.’

‘John!’ said Rosemary excitedly. ‘Why shouldn’t we go?’

‘But they’re meeting in the middle of the night. How could we get on to the roof ? The place would be locked up!’

‘Well, said Rosemary, ‘as Mrs Cantrip said, “there’s other ways than walking”!’

‘John whistled. ‘Do you mean the rocking chair? Do you think it could carry us both?’

‘We could ask it in the morning. I think it’s had enough for one day. Come on, let’s feed the kittens.’

It was growing dusk when they reached the greenhouse. When they opened the door an unexpected sight greeted them. Blandamour was sitting on an upturned flower pot, and at her feet were the two kittens, both sitting up as straight and still as their royal mother.

Woppit looked on with her head on one side and a doting expression on her brindled face. ‘Hush!’ she said to John and Rosemary. ‘The little darlings is saying their lessons!’

In small, piping voices the kittens were repeating:

‘No paw or whisker in the dish,

Whether meat or fowl or fish…’

Calidor’s voice faltered when a delicious tendril of haddock smell wafted from the plate Rosemary held and tickled his nose.

‘Calidor, pay attention!’ said Blandamour. ‘Each awkward…’

The black kitten sighed, but went on:

‘Each awkward bone be sure to gnaw

Upon the plate, not on the floor.

Lap your milk from out the platter

From the edge, and do not scatter

Drops from either bowl or mug

On quarried floor or silken rug.

Steady lapping, rhythmic, quiet,

Is correct for milky diet.

After food, wash paws and face,

And don’t forget to purr your grace.’

‘Very good, my children. Now you may eat,’ said Blandamour. ‘But remember what you have repeated. Greetings to you, John and Rosemary. My children are well, and if they are closely confined, no doubt you have your reasons!’

‘We certainly have, Your Majesty!’ said John. ‘It’s like this…’

Blandamour listened in silence. Only once did she interrupt to summon a grizzled old tabby cat with four white stockings who was sitting in the shadow of the bushes outside.

‘Merbeck, my cousin and chief councillor,’ she said. ‘He too must hear your tale.’

When the children had finished, she bowed her beautiful white head.

‘You have done well and bravely, and I am grateful. But it will need more courage still to fly to Cat Country and overhear Grisana’s schemings. It may even be dangerous. Merbeck, should we not send a pair of animals instead?’

Merbeck shook his grizzled head. ‘I think not, Your Majesty. Grisana is wily in her wickedness. Her sentry will be on the alert for foreign cats, but flying humans they will not expect.’

‘Couldn’t I go too, oh, couldn’t I?’ asked Calidor, standing with his short legs spread out and his tail waving angrily. ‘I’d show ’em!’

‘Me too!’ said Pergamond shrilly.

‘No, my son,’ said Blandamour. ‘One day when you are older you will have many chances to prove how brave you are. Until we find out Grisana’s plans, we do not know where the danger lies.’

‘Therefore, we must go warily and keep our eyes and ears open. Above all, guard the royal kittens!’ said Merbeck. ‘Tomorrow we will come again and hear what you have discovered, and may good luck go with you!’