by Tina Nolan
“No reasons and no apology?” Mark checked. He’d come home early to lend a hand with the preparations. “I’m really surprised. I had Jake Adams down as a decent sort of guy.”
“Me too,” Karl said gloomily.
“So now we have no celebrity.” Heidi sighed. “And it’s too late either to find someone else or to let people know.”
Eva sat without saying a word. Mrs Brooks was on the warpath, it was going to rain, and now Jake couldn’t come. Their big day lay in ruins.
“Maybe we should cancel the whole thing,” Karl muttered.
“No, no, we have to go ahead,” his dad argued. “Bear in mind that our main aim is to find new homes for our animals. It’s a huge shame Jake’s not coming, but people will still be able to look round the place and we can still match up pets with new owners just the same.”
“But it won’t be the same!” Karl insisted. “Everyone will be disappointed. What am I going to tell George when he shows up expecting to get Jake’s autograph?”
“Dad’s right,” Heidi cut in. “We have to go ahead. Mark, do you want to go next door to calm Linda down, or shall I?”
Eva’s dad got up from the table and headed for the door. “I’ll do it.”
Eva turned to Karl, who was still moping. “I want to look at Jake’s email. Can I use the computer in your room?”
“Feel free.” He followed Eva upstairs and quickly went online.
Eva frowned as she read the message.
From: Jake Adams
To: Animal Magic
Subject: Open Day
Message: Can’t come tomorrow.
Have to go away. Jake.
She pressed the reply button and wrote, ‘Can Marietta still make it?’ Then she pressed send. The message stayed in the outbox then came back unsent.
“See!” Karl sighed. “Anyway, what’s the point?”
“Marietta would be better than no one,” Eva replied. “She gets in all the celebrity magazines. She’s always going to parties with famous people.”
Karl nodded. “But if we can’t send an email, we’re stuck.”
Eva frowned. She wasn’t giving up that easily. She headed downstairs and into the yard. “No we’re not!”
“What are you doing? Where are you going?” Karl watched her grab her bike.
“I’m doing what people did before they had email. I’m going to cycle out to Okeham Hall and speak to Marietta!”
Karl’s mouth dropped open. “Hey, wait! No, hang on!” He ran for his own bike and followed Eva on to Main Street.
“I’m coming too!” Karl called after her. “Eva, wait for me!”
Chapter Five
“O-o-oh, wow!” Karl stopped beside Eva at the gates of Okeham Hall. Karl had never seen the house before, even though he knew, like all the rest of the world, that Jake Adams and his girlfriend had recently moved in.
The soccer star’s home was fairytale stuff – a massive old house with a long, tree-lined drive. It had square towers and big stone pillars. “Where’s the swimming pool?” he asked.
“Round the back,” Eva told him. “Marietta gave Dad and me a quick tour when we came to drop Charlie off.”
Karl got off his bike and propped it against the wall. He inspected the fancy iron gates. “These gates are electronic and they’re locked. What do we do now?”
“Press that button and speak into the microphone thingy?” Eva suggested.
Karl pressed, but nothing happened. “Looks like there’s no one in. Come on, let’s go.”
“We’re not going to give up that easily!” Starting to pedal again, Eva made her way cautiously along the road until she came to a narrow side lane. “Come on!” she called.
The lane was rough and overgrown, but, as Eva expected, it led down the side of Okeham Hall. A little way down she spotted what she’d been looking for.
“Look, there’s a gate into the garden.” Leaving her bike in some long grass, Eva went ahead and tested the handle. “And this one’s open!”
She pushed the gate and stepped on to the soccer idol’s smooth green lawn.
“Whoa, we could be in trouble here!” Karl pointed out. “This is trespassing.”
Eva tutted. “I’ve been here before, remember. Marietta and Jake know me!”
Swallowing hard, Karl followed his sister across the wide lawn, and then past a bright blue open-air pool.
Eva led the way towards a door at the back of the old manor house and rang the bell. Once again there was no answer.
“Look, they’ve both gone away,” Karl insisted, turning to go. “We’re wasting our time. Come on.”
“They can’t have both gone,” Eva protested. “What about Charlie?”
Karl shrugged. “What about Charlie?”
Eva peered through the glass panels of the door. “He only just came here. They wouldn’t leave him home alone.”
“Maybe a neighbour is looking after him. Come on, Eva, let’s go!”
As Eva carried on peering into the house, Karl turned to see a small ginger shape peep out from behind one of the large flowerpots beside the door.
“Uh-oh!” he said, watching the fluffy kitten emerge from his hiding place. Charlie had a cute little face and two white paws. “You shouldn’t be outside by yourself!”
Eva spun round and spotted him. “So much for him being looked after by a neighbour!” she muttered.
Scared and alone, the kitten began to run. He darted between more plant pots, charging helter-skelter towards the swimming pool.
“Oh no!” Eva saw the danger and began to run after Charlie. She tried to cut him off, but he scooted between her feet, under a poolside chair and … splash, straight into the deep end of the pool!
Eva cried out as she watched poor little Charlie sink beneath the surface.
A split second later Karl was racing towards the pool. He plunged after the kitten fully clothed.
Eva squeezed her eyes tight shut, hardly daring to watch. When she opened them again Karl had already caught hold of Charlie, pulling him back to the surface and holding him clear of the water.
“Here!” he yelled at Eva. “Grab him!”
She knelt and leaned out over the water to take the dripping kitten. “Are you OK?” she asked Karl.
“Yes, don’t worry about me. How’s Charlie?”
The kitten miaowed and shivered in her arms. Eva took off her jacket and quickly wrapped him in it. “He’ll be fine.”
As Karl hauled himself out of the pool, Eva rubbed the kitten dry. She felt his rough little tongue lick her hand and saw his bright green eyes peer out from the folds of her jacket. “Don’t worry,” she murmured. “You’re safe now.”
“And I’m dripping wet!” Karl groaned, taking off a trainer and emptying the water from it. “Honestly, Eva, I wish we’d never come!”
“Hush!” she told Charlie as he miaowed and licked. “Of course it’s a good job we came.”
“Yeah, so we could scare the poor little thing and make him jump into the pool! Like, that was a really good thing!”
Eva sighed. “Look, there’s no cat flap. If we hadn’t come, Charlie would have been locked out and left all by himself. He could have fallen into the pool at any time, and there would have been no one around to rescue him!”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” Karl grunted, putting his shoes back on.
“How could Jake and Marietta leave him?” Eva said. “What were they thinking?” She made up her mind what they had to do and began to head back the way they’d come. “We can’t leave Charlie here. We’ll have to take him back to Animal Magic!”
Shaking his head like a dog drying itself, Karl ran after her. “Hang on! Let’s just think this through.”
But Eva didn’t hesitate. “I’m not leaving Charlie home alone!” she insisted. “I don’t care who Jake Adams is, or what he says, Charlie is coming back with us!”
Chapter Six
“So now we have the mystery of the vanishing soccer star a
nd the home-alone kitten on our hands.” Heidi had taken Rosie’s temperature and checked her pulse. Both were back to normal and the pony stood comfortably in her stall.
“How could we get it so wrong in the first place?” Eva wondered. She stood with Charlie snuggled inside her jacket, fast asleep.
She and Karl had carried Charlie back from Okeham Hall and told their mum what had happened. Heidi had sent Karl inside the house to get changed into dry clothes.
“We followed our Animal Magic rules and we all thought Jake and Marietta were the perfect owners for the perfect pet!” Eva pointed out.
“We can’t be right one hundred per cent of the time,” her mum said. “Hello again, little cutie,” she murmured, tickling Charlie’s chin. “I hear you’ve just used up one of your nine lives!”
“But Mum, you said Jake seemed to love cats,” Eva reminded her. “Marietta, too – you said she wanted to take the whole lot home!”
Taking Charlie from Eva, Heidi led the way out of the stables towards the cattery. “But people sometimes promise things, then don’t act on their promises. They mean well at the time, I suppose.”
Heidi popped Charlie into the kitten unit that housed Treacle, Snap and Wilma. “Say hello to your brother!” she said with a smile.
The boldest of the kittens was Treacle, and he came forward to greet Charlie by sniffing and raising his front paw.
Charlie miaowed and backed away, straight into Snap, who rolled on to his back, paws in the air. Then Wilma pounced on Charlie and began to play-fight.
“Wilma loves you really!” Eva laughed, as Charlie entered into the rough and tumble.
“The question is, are we going to let Charlie go back to Okeham Hall?”
“No way!”
Heidi gave Eva a serious look. “Not even if there’s a good explanation?”
“Nope.” As far as Eva was concerned, Jake and Marietta could never come up with a good enough reason to explain why they’d abandoned Charlie.
Before Heidi could reply they heard Mark calling for her from the yard.
“In the cattery!” Heidi called back.
Eva’s dad joined them. “I just got back from the Brookses’ place,” he muttered, a dazed look on his face.
“That was a long visit,” Eva pointed out.
Mark scratched his head. “Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I went to explain about our Open Day and before I knew it Linda Brooks was offering me coffee and Jason was going through all his old football scrapbooks with me.”
“How come?” Eva asked.
“Does this mean peace has broken out?” Heidi said at the same time.
“Linda has found out about Jake Adams being our star guest tomorrow,” Mark explained. “Don’t ask me how – she just heard on the grapevine. Anyway, she told Jason, and it turns out Jason is a massive fan.”
“But—” Eva tried to interrupt.
Her dad cut her off. “I know, but listen. As soon as Jason heard that he could get to meet his idol, he convinced Linda that our Open Day was a good thing because it would mean lots of our pets would find new homes, and so this place would be a lot less crowded and noisy. Which means it’ll be quieter for them in the near future.”
“But—” Eva tried again.
“I know, can you believe it?” He sighed and spread his hands, palms upwards. “They said they might even drop by tomorrow to see Jake.”
“But Jake isn’t coming!” Eva pointed out at last.
Her dad frowned. “I know. But I couldn’t get a word in edgeways, and in the end I just didn’t have the heart to tell them!”
Chapter Seven
“So what’s going to happen to you?” Eva asked Charlie when she went to visit him later that evening.
Charlie was snuggled up next to Treacle, curled into a soft ball with his white front paws tucked under his chin. The tip of his ginger tail twitched as Eva leaned in to stroke him.
“It’s OK, I won’t disturb you,” she murmured. “I’m just wondering what’ll happen now. I hope Mum doesn’t let you go back to Jake’s place. I hope she lets us find you someone new.”
Charlie let his top lids sink down over his bright green eyes and he fell into a snooze.
“But if they do send you back, you have to promise not to go for another swim!” Eva went on. “Remember, water and cats don’t mix!”
Next to Charlie, Treacle opened his mouth and yawned. Over in the corner of the unit, Wilma and Snap were already fast asleep.
“Water – nasty, cold, wet stuff!” Eva insisted. “Brrr!”
Charlie opened one eye, and then closed it again.
“OK, I’ll let you get some sleep.” Eva smiled, giving him one last stroke. There were so many problems to solve and questions hanging over the kitten’s future, but now it was late and everyone was tired. “Goodnight, Treacle,” she said. “Goodnight, Charlie. Sleep well!”
“Sleep well, Eva,” her dad said as he’d turned off the light.
Eva lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She wasn’t sleepy at all – her head was too busy worrying about Charlie and wondering why his new owners had let him down.
I don’t get it! she thought over and over. Why would anyone adopt a kitten and then leave him home alone?
She remembered poor little Charlie hiding among the big plant pots at Okeham Hall.
He must have been hungry! she thought. And lonely and scared!
When she finally drifted off, her sleep was full of dreams about dark, glittering swimming pools and empty houses which had long, creepy corridors with creaking doors and spooky, whispering voices.
“Oh!” Eva woke up from her nightmare. She pulled her duvet tightly around her shoulders, gradually realizing that daylight was already filtering through her curtains. “Phew!” She breathed a sigh of relief.
Throwing back her bedclothes, she went to open the curtains. “Rain!” she groaned, peering out. The yard was covered in puddles, the slate roof of the surgery was shiny and water trickled along the gutters. “What a rotten start to our Open Day!”
Eva got dressed and went downstairs. She was halfway through her bowl of cereal before she looked at the clock and saw that it was only ten to six. No wonder no one else was up.
OK, so what do I do now? she wondered. Go back to bed? No, I know – I could send one last email to Jake! Surely it’s worth a try.
She flung on her wellies and waterproof jacket and trotted across the yard to the surgery, where Joel Allerton was just finishing his night shift.
“What are you doing up so early?” Joel asked Eva. He yawned and ran his hand through his hair, checking off medicines on the shelf against a list of stock on the computer screen.
“Couldn’t sleep,” she said, logging on to the computer next to Joel’s. “Just wanted to send an email!”
Click click – Eva brought up yesterday’s message from Jake and the one that she and Karl had tried and failed to send.
‘Can Marietta still make it?’ She tried again. Once more the mail server sent it back.
“No good,” Eva muttered. She was over her disappointment and starting to get cross. “How come people you trust let you down?” she asked Joel.
“Which people?” Joel glanced at the screen. “Oh, you mean our local soccer legend? I guess something important came up for him.”
“This is important!” Eva insisted, pointing at one of the Open Day leaflets. “And so is adopting a kitten!”
“Ah, you mean Charlie.” Joel had been keeping an eye on the ginger kitten all night to make sure he’d settled back in with his brothers and sister. “I’m with you on that one!”
Eva nodded. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“We know what’s going on,” Joel pointed out. “Some big-shot sports star makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to adopt a cute kitten for his girlfriend. But a few days later she’s bored with kitty and they get invited to a friend’s Spanish villa or whatever. Then it’s bye-bye, Charlie, hello sunbathing!”
Eva frowned. “It’s so not fair!” she muttered, feeling even more cross. She jumped up from the computer, making her own on-the-spot decision. “If you see Mum and Dad, tell them I won’t be long.”
Joel glanced up from his monitor. “Why, where are you going?”
“Out!” Eva announced. “Back to Okeham Hall, to find out why Jake and Marietta abandoned Charlie!”
Eva cycled through the rain. Drops fell from her helmet on to her cold cheeks. Her jeans were soon soaked through.
No traffic, she thought with relief, splashing through puddles. She noticed the wet, black-and-white cows in the fields, and a sad-looking horse poking its head over one of the hedges as she sped along the country road leading to the Hall.
But as she approached the wide gates, the morning silence was broken by the loud revving of a car’s engine.
Eva braked and pulled into the grass verge. The sound of the engine grew louder and a small blue car shot out from Okeham Hall drive and headed her way with a roar and squeal of tyres.
“Hey!” Eva cried, catching sight of a dark-haired woman at the wheel.
The woman sped past without seeming to notice her.
“Charming!” Eva muttered, her heart in her mouth. “And she didn’t even bother to press the button and close the gates!”
As the sports car disappeared down the road, Eva seized her chance and rode down the drive towards the big hall.
In the early morning rain the old house looked dark and spooky, just like the haunted house of her dream. Eva could easily picture ghosts floating down corridors and appearing on the flat roof, gazing down from the battlements.
Get a grip! she told herself as she approached the wide front door. And who was that woman in the blue car? It wasn’t Marietta. And the car wasn’t here when Karl and I came yesterday. What on earth is going on?