As soon as she got home Lucie showed Professor Pike’s letter to her parents. They were both still looking terribly worried and guilty, but as they read the letter all that changed. The worry drained from their faces, the anxious lines on their foreheads vanished and by the time they had finished reading they were almost chuckling.
“Oh well, that’s all right then,” said Dad. “A wolf indeed!”
“We were crazy!” agreed Mum. “Imbeciles! I mean a wolf — in our house!”
“Professor Pike knows her onions,” said Dad. “Or wolves, I should say. If only we’d known she was a World Expert on Canines! We could have sorted this out long ago.”
“I’ll telephone the vet and cancel that appointment,” said Mum, getting up.
The next day Lucie asked her teacher if she could go and see Mr Dundas. As she knocked on his office door, she could see Marcus hanging about at the end of the corridor, near the boys’ toilets. I wonder what he’s up to, thought Lucie. Still, surely he can’t do anything now?
Mr Dundas was busy chairing an important meeting about school dinners, but he broke off to read Lucie’s letter. By the time he had finished reading he was almost smirking. “Excellent, excellent, very good indeed. This should satisfy the parents. And the governors. And the Council. Useful to have a distinguished scientist in the neighbourhood. Maybe I can get her in to talk about her work.…”
Lucie listened in astonishment. Somehow a few words on a piece of paper had brought about this great change. Fang was exactly the same animal that she had always been — only now Lucie’s parents and Mr Dundas were treating her completely differently. It was as if she had turned from a wolf into a fluffy kitten.
It felt like magic. But it was only the power of words.
However, before Lucie could congratulate herself, there was a rap on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Marcus burst in.
“What is the meaning of this?” demanded Mr Dundas.
“I know all about that letter,” Marcus began. “But there’s something you don’t know. Whether that creature is a dog or a wolf doesn’t matter. The fact is —” he paused for a moment, looking from face to face — “it TALKS!”
As he finished speaking he shot an especially malicious look at Lucie. You didn’t expect THIS, it seemed to say. She might have thought she’d wriggled out of her difficulties. But she was wrong. Her biggest secret was out!
There was a brief, charged silence.
Then, “choof-choof-choof” went Mr Dundas. He sounded like an old-fashioned steam train. For a moment Lucie thought he was choking, or having a fit. Then she realised. He was laughing.
Lucie began to chuckle too.
Marcus turned crimson. “Aren’t you going to tell the police or the zoo or somebody!”
“Marcus Mainwaring,” said Mr Dundas, when he could speak. “You’ve given me such a good laugh that I’m going to consider what you said a pure joke. Now get back to your classroom this moment! And no more nonsense!”
And that was the end of that.
It really was. Nobody said anything more about Fang being a wolf. They forgot all about it. Christmas was coming, and in all the fuss about shopping and presents and carol concerts and parties, nobody was even interested.
“Silver Paw was right,” Lucie said to Fang. “Human knowledge is what you need, Written in form that humans read. That’s what the Expert Opinion was. How did he know?”
“Oh, he’s a wise one,” said Fang, wisely.
“I wish I could ask him,” Lucie said.
One person who did not forget about Fang was Professor Pike. She invited Lucie and Fang round for mince pies, and told them all about her expeditions in the wilderness. They were pleased to learn that although the bones in the glass cases did belong to wolves, they had all died long before Professor Pike had found them.
“I’m too old for any more expeditions,” Professor Pike said wistfully. “In fact I never thought I’d see another wolf. But now one turns up on my own doorstep! Something very like a wolf, anyway. Would you mind if I took some photos? I’m thinking of writing an article for the Journal of Canine Studies.”
Lucie said she didn’t mind at all. And Fang — who was wolfing down her third mince pie — didn’t mind either. They both liked the Professor. As long as she did not say where Fang lived — and she had promised she would not — she could write what she liked.
Another good friend, delighted that Fang was safe, was Alex. Although not everything had turned out for the best in his view. For Marcus Mainwaring was now goalkeeper on the school football team. When he had asked Miss Bunting, the school coach, to try out, he had turned out to be so good that she had given him the position on the spot. “Who’d have thought it?” grumbled Alex. “He can’t run, he can’t dribble, he can’t shoot — but he can save goals! He’s so good we’ll never get rid of him!”
“Still, think of all the matches you’ll win,” said Lucie comfortingly. “And it will take his mind off Fang, and getting her into more trouble.”
It was the last day of term. It was snowing again, and Alex and Lucie had met by the gates to exchange presents. Alex had given Lucie a wonderful book about wolves, and Fang a box of Meaty Dog Chews, which she had sniffed then dropped in the snow.
“I’m sure she’ll love them,” said Lucie quickly, thinking that Fang would much prefer a haunch of venison, and wondering how she could arrange one.
Lucie gave Alex a book about football, and Fang gave him an interesting stick she had found in the woods. Alex said he would put the stick in pride of place next to his football trophies.
Then Fang and Lucie walked home together. The snow was floating down between the branches of the trees. The sky seemed vast, and the houses were dim and dark behind their hedges. Even the cars by the sides of the street looked more like snow-covered igloos.
“What’s that?” asked Lucie as an eerie howl echoed through the air. “A wolf!”
“Wolf?” exclaimed Fang. “That was a cocker spaniel!”
“Oh,” said Lucie, blushing.
As they turned into Lucie’s garden, she said, “It has been wonderful, Fang, since you came to stay. And now it’s Christmas, too. I’ve never been so happy. There’s just one thing. Do you think I’ll ever see the other wolves again? Especially Silver Paw? I do hope so!”
Fang smiled her most wolfish smile. “Oh, I think you will,” she said. “After all, you are a Wolf Cub of our Pack. Something tells me this will not be the last of our adventures!”
And wolf and girl went inside together.