Princess Phoebe (9 page)

‘I heard the farmer's selling up to come over this way and start a shooting business. Did you hear that?' Frank asks.

‘No,' says Dad. But I know he has because I remember him telling Mum about it. He'd been hoping to get a job with the farmer, Granddad's old boss, but nothing had come of it.

‘Just thought I'd mention it,' says Frank. . ‘Well, tell your Nick I'll be seeing him.' And with a final stare at me, he leaves.

Mum and Dad both turn in my direction. I shrug and mutter something about the twins possibly wanting bread and butter with their chips.

‘Since when have you buttered bread for your brothers, Ellie, without being asked?' Mum points out. ‘I hope I was right telling Frank you know nothing about Princess. Tell me you haven't gone and done anything stupid? I could really do without that.'

I'm grateful to her for sticking up for me against Frank, so I have to give some sort of an answer: ‘Frank's horrible, Mum. I'm glad if Princess has got away.'

Maybe it's because Mum doesn't want to know but, for whatever reason, she drops the subject. I can tell she has other things on her mind, and soon after Frank's gone I see Dad signal to her and they go out into the yard. On her way out Mum calls to me to finish laying the table and to make sure Patrick eats his toast. I can see them talking together over by the shed and then Mum starts to cry. This is seriously unusual. I guess Dad must have told her whatever it is that he and Nick were shouting about. It's something to do with money and rent and that kind of stuff, but exactly what, I don't know. I wish David and Sam would get home soon, chips or not.

I see Dad pat Mum's shoulder and then they talk some more. After a while, they come back inside. I hang around trying to pick up some clues, but they don't say anything else.

‘Ellie,' says Dad, ‘can I borrow your mobile?'

Things are getting worse by the minute. ‘Where's yours?' I ask.

‘I took it to be mended.'

I don't believe him.
Are we so poor now that Dad hasn't even got a phone
? But I hand mine over anyway and he goes out. He's gone ages, and meanwhile Mum changes Jack's nappy and takes him up to his cot.

When the chips finally arrive there's just me and the twins eating, and afterwards I play hide and seek with Patrick under the ironing board, but none of it feels right. I'm not sure if it's me being tired after the night before, or if things really are so bad. After what must be twenty minutes, Dad comes back in and hands me my phone. The battery's nearly all gone, but he cuts short my complaint.

‘Where's Mum?' he asks.

I point upstairs.

‘When does school start back, Ellie?'

‘Tuesday next week,' I say.

There's something about the evening that never comes right. I know Mum and Dad are worried, but that usually means an argument, and this time there isn't one. Mum has a kind of closed down look that I'm not used to. She doesn't even smoke much, but sits staring at the telly without
watching it. Dad looks through piles of papers, but apart from the occasional swearword he says nothing. I know better than to ask questions; Mum will only say she can do without me going on. So when the twins go off upstairs I say I'm going to bed too.

I wake up next morning with a great big headache, cold and sore throat. The ditch, I suppose. Jan comes round to see me and brings Jade, which is good, but my legs ache and I'm too wonky to want to do anything. She sits on the end of my bed and tries to perk me up. We send Mrs Henderson a text from Jan's phone but I guess Mrs Henderson's useless at texting because she never replies. We don't dare ring her in case we're overheard or she rings back when Jan's with her dad or something. In the end, I fall sleep and when I wake again Jan has gone. To me it feels like the whole house is waiting for something, it's so quiet. Kind of tense, but with nobody fighting.

It's Sunday morning before I feel even half all right. We've only got two days of holiday left, so I go early to call for Jan. She gets some drinks and crisps and we set off to see Margaret at the allotment.

‘I've been trying to phone Mrs Henderson since I left the house,' I tell Jan, ‘but she keeps on being engaged. Something's the matter, I can feel it.'

I try a few more times. We sit down on a low wall outside the little row of shops we have to go past on the way, but I keep expecting Frank to appear among the old men coughing along to the newsagents for ciggies and Sunday papers. It would just be my luck. So I get up again almost at once and say, ‘Let's go.'

We kick our way through last night's empty chip wrappers and bottles while I keep pressing re-dial.

‘I don't see why you're worrying,' says Jan, ‘she's probably on the phone to someone else. Her family or something.'

I hadn't thought of Mrs Henderson having a family, but while I'm trying to imagine what they'd be like if she had, her phone finally rings through and she answers.

Though all she says is that she'll phone me back, she sounds funny.

‘Now I
know
something's wrong,' I tell Jan. ‘It'll be Princess. I bet she's run off to look for me, and Mrs Henderson doesn't know how to tell me.'

‘Oh, for heaven's sake,' says Jan. ‘It's not all about you, you know. Maybe one of her family's broken their leg.'

‘Oh I hope so,' I say, ‘if it means that Princess is all right.'

I catch Jan's look as my phone rings.

‘I'm sorry,' Mrs Henderson says on the other end, ‘I've just had a bit of a fright.'

‘Is Princess OK?' I ask. That's all I can think about.

‘Yes, Ellie, she's fine, but I'm not sure she's going to be safe here for much longer. Yesterday afternoon I was out in the garden with her when I noticed a white van going past, quite slowly. There was a big man driving, and I'm afraid he looked awfully like your description of Frank. He didn't stop, and I didn't think he'd seen Princess. I went to the gate to look when he'd gone past, but he was already out of sight round the corner.'

‘It must have been him,' I say. I can feel my heart going down into my trainers.

Mrs Henderson goes on, ‘I tried to ring you but your phone was off.'

‘I've been a bit ill,' I tell her, ‘and my dad left my battery flat.'

‘Anyway,' Mrs Henderson says, ‘in case he came back and challenged me I put Phoebe's collar on Princess and decided to insist that she was my dog however much she might resemble the one he'd lost.'

‘Has he been back?'

‘Yes, Ellie. His van pulled up just as you rang me this morning. He was quite polite. Asked me how long I'd had my dog and said he'd lost one practically identical. I said her name was Phoebe and that I'd had her a long time. I'm not good at telling lies and he stared at me as if he knew that's what I was doing. Luckily, my Phoebe was asleep in the kitchen as usual so he never caught sight of her. I told him I'd got to get on and called ‘Phoebe!' to Princess to come indoors. She was hiding behind me – I'm sure she knew him – and I think she'd have come no matter what name I'd called. But I'm sure he'll be back, Ellie, and I can't keep the dogs in the whole time.'

‘Oh Mrs Henderson, you'll
have
to keep her in,' I say.

‘No dear,' she says firmly. ‘I'll do my best for a day or two but then you'll have to tell your parents and come and get her. I'm frightened he might try and break into my house. I'm even wondering whether I should call the police now but you can't really do that unless you can show there's a threat. And, as I say, he was perfectly polite. But I have to be able to go out you know. Monday is Gardening Club and I wouldn't want to miss that. But the question is, how did he know to look here?'

‘Because your house is near where he last saw her,' I say, ‘and he knows that area because it's not far from Granddad's place and Frank came from the same village. His brother still lives near there. He must have been driving around looking when he saw her in your garden.'

I can almost feel Mrs Henderson shudder.

‘Please keep her a bit longer,' I beg, ‘I promise I'll think of something.' Though I can't imagine how.

I'm just about to ring off when Mrs Henderson goes on to say, ‘Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. They did find a greyhound in Batts Wood, a black one. He was wandering around in a terrible state, frightened and hungry, but he's safe now and they'll find him a new home as soon as they can. So that's one bit of good news.'

She rings off.

It occurs to me that Princess might have been safer in the rescue centre too, but then I realise that Frank would have gone there to claim her as his. Jan thinks the same when I tell her what Mrs Henderson said.

We've reached the allotment by this time and Margaret tells us to sit down while she gives us a massive pile of old beans to shell, so she can plant them again or something. Queenie gives me a big lick and I stroke her ears. I feel guilty that by keeping Princess I seem to have caused such trouble.

‘Somehow I will make Princess safe,' I tell Queenie, ‘and perhaps one day you'll see your beautiful daughter again.' I'm not sure that greyhounds understand words like ‘daughter', but I reckon Queenie at least knows that I'm trying to tell her something important, and she gives me another lick.

Then Jan says, ‘I think you should talk to Nick.'

I suppose I've been thinking the same thing. I need my big brother and, of course, I need his van. If he could take me over to Mrs Henderson's we could pick up Princess and maybe think of somewhere else to hide her.

‘OK,' I agree with Jan, trying to sound braver than I feel.

‘You could take Ellie,' I hear Mum say as I come in to the house later. She's talking to Nick.

‘Take Ellie where?' I ask, while I look in the cupboard for a glass. I'm desperate for a drink of water but nothing's clean and the sink's piled up with dishes. I wash up a mug.

‘I'm going over to see Granddad,' says Nick.

‘What?' I ask. ‘Why? I thought we'd quarrelled.'

‘Well,' says Nick, ‘Dad's been talking to Granddad again lately, and things have been looking hopeful for an end to it all. Then last night it seemed as if they might start arguing again. Pearl's suggesting I could go over and talk to the old man, since Dad won't listen to either of us.'

‘Cool,' I say, ‘but how come I'm allowed to go with you?' I'm pleased to think they want me to go, but it sounds suspicious as well. Normally I'm left out of grown-up stuff.

Mum takes a deep breath. ‘You were always Granddad's favourite,' she says, ‘and I reckon that if he sees you again and remembers how fond he was of you, he might be persuaded to relent a bit so far as your father's concerned. Only we won't tell Dad about the visit till afterwards, so keep quiet about it Ellie. It's important that you don't tell, or he'll try and stop Nick going. He's such a proud man and he doesn't want his father to have to give him a dig-out. He'd rather see us all on the streets first.'

‘And don't tell anyone else, either,' adds Nick. ‘Not Jan, or even the twins, in case they drop something out in front of Dad. It's Top Secret, just for now.'

I skip upstairs and give myself a big smile in the cracked mirror above my bed. So I don't even have to ask Nick to take me to Mrs Henderson's – we'll be going practically past her door anyway!

Mum calls me down again to help, and in between singing Humpty Dumpty for Jack and Patrick, I wash up that huge pile of dishes, and smile at her too. This will be my big chance. I'll have time on my own in the van with Nick to tell him about Princess, and I hope he'll be OK about it, and take me to see her on the way to Granddad's. So tomorrow I'll be with my lovely dog! I don't think much further than that. Seeing Granddad again after all this time will be just great too.

I text Jan to say that I'm going on a secret mission and will meet her at the bus stop for school on Tuesday. That'll get her wondering. Then I ring Mrs Henderson with the wonderful news that I'll see her and Princess tomorrow.

‘But it's my Gardening Club day Ellie,' she says, ‘and I really don't want to miss it because we've got someone coming to talk about asparagus, and I've always had trouble growing that.'

Asparagus
? I want to shout.
Who cares about asparagus
?

But then she says, ‘Unless you can get here before 10.30. That would be all right as the talk isn't till lunchtime.'

‘I'll ask my brother,' I say, feeling hopeful again.

I check that I've got my bit of paper with her address on, find a clean t-shirt for the morning and have a shower and hair wash so I'll look my best for my day out with my brother. This is the first night that I go to bed feeling happy since Princess was taken from me.