I woke the next morning warm and cosy in a way I hadn’t been since I left the Walkers’ house. It took me a moment to figure out why, and by that time Candy was awake and yelping for me to get away from her.
I rolled my eyes and hopped down, stretching out my back as I landed. Apparently I was fine company in the night, when she was scared and needed a friend, but not in the daylight hours when the other dogs might see.
Well. She’d learn I am excellent company all the time, soon enough, I was sure.
Another day in the Palace, and already I thought I knew what to expect. This was a place that ran on tradition, order and routine. Even for us dogs, the days proceeded in an order set down years ago, with very little variation.
Which is why I was so disturbed when I couldn’t find Sarah after breakfast.
I checked all the usual places, all the rooms she normally took care of, racing through the halls and the galleries hunting her down. I couldn’t even catch a whiff of her scent.
I did come across some other new people, though, in one of the larger rooms, shifting furniture around and laying out new tables and chairs that hadn’t been there before. Obviously something was going on. Was Sarah caught up in it?
Eventually, I tracked my friend down by pure chance – I met her coming the other way down a corridor I’d never explored before.
‘Henry!’ Sarah sounded delighted to see me, which is always gratifying. ‘I wondered if you’d find me this morning. It’s my day off.’
A day off. When Amy had one of those, or Jim, they tended to be spent out of the house. But when the house in question was as big as Buckingham Palace, maybe Sarah didn’t feel the need to leave.
‘I thought I’d spend it catching up on a few things – like Christmas cards,’ she said, as I turned around to trot alongside her as she walked. ‘I’ve been writing them all morning. It’s funny, when you realise how many people you normally wish a Merry Christmas in person, and then try to write to them all. I ended up doing just one card for the village church, and another for the pub – otherwise I’d have been there all morning!’
From the stack of envelopes in her hand, I could see she clearly hadn’t thinned out the list that much. It reminded me of when Claire was smaller, and Amy used to have to bribe her with chocolate to write cards to all the other children in her class at school. It always seemed a little ridiculous to me – all these pieces of card sent out into the world, and just as many coming back in. Amy would attach them to ribbons and hang them from the stairs – and I got into all sorts of trouble when I tried to play with them. Then in the New Year they’d all go out in the green bin anyway. What a waste.
This year, most of the cards we’d received were still sitting in a pile on the kitchen counter – or at least, they had been when I left. And I hadn’t seen Amy writing any at all.
‘So now I’m off to the Post Office to post them,’ Sarah said, cheerfully, breaking through my memories. ‘Are you coming with me?’
I stumbled to a stop.
I wanted to, of course. Sarah was fast becoming my best friend – maybe only friend, if you discounted Candy last night – in Buckingham Palace. But Post Offices, I knew from queuing with Amy in previous years, were in shopping centres, or on the high street in the town. And while I might be allowed to roam anywhere I liked in the Palace, I’d seen no indication that I was allowed to go outside the grounds – in fact, Willow had made that quite clear. I didn’t want Sarah to get into trouble for taking me outside.
Sarah looked down at me and laughed. Then, as if she could read my mind, she said, ‘Don’t worry, silly. You don’t have to leave the Palace. There’s a Post Office right here in the building, you know!’
That, I didn’t know. Clearly Willow hadn’t thought it was important information to share.
Cheered, I hopped forward again, eager to see the Palace Post Office.
‘Apparently there’s a swimming pool and a cinema too,’ Sarah said, as we carried on walking. ‘I thought I might go for a dip later, if the pool is free. And I want to see about joining the Palace Film Club, too. I mean, if I want to make friends, I’ve got to get involved, right?’
I hoped she was right about that. I hated seeing Sarah sad because she hadn’t made any friends amongst the other housemaids or footmen. She was such a lovely person, but I knew the others made fun of her, for her accent more than anything. Personally, I liked the way Sarah spoke. It was warm and welcoming – and a lot more friendly than any of the other voices I’d heard around the Palace.
There had to be some other staff at Buckingham Palace who would appreciate all the good things about Sarah, instead of picking at the parts they thought were bad. Didn’t there? They couldn’t all be mean and nasty. Chances were, it was just like when Claire joined her new school last year and three of the girls there were horrible to her. Claire had assumed that all her classmates were awful, but actually, after a few weeks, she’d made fast friends with some of the nicer ones.
It was just a matter of finding them. And if Sarah couldn’t do that here, maybe I’d have to give her a helping hand.
I followed Sarah all the way to the Palace Post Office, where there was a queue for the counter. Apparently it wasn’t all that much different from the normal Post Offices I was used to, after all.
As we entered the Post Office, I eyed up the other staff members hanging around the counters. After a moment, I spotted a woman about Sarah’s age, with dark hair and even darker eyes, who was sticking stamps on a stack of envelopes. Hmm, how about her? She looked friendly.
Pushing past a few pairs of legs, I headed towards the woman, knowing that Sarah would follow me. Then I brushed up against the woman’s legs until she looked down.
‘Oh!’ she said, surprised. ‘Hello, you.’
‘Henry …’ Sarah made it through the crush of people to join us. ‘Sorry, he’s oddly excited about being at the Post Office, it seems!’
‘That’s okay.’ The woman smiled at us both. ‘You’re Sarah Morgan, right? The new housemaid?’
‘That’s right.’ I could feel Sarah bracing herself – probably for another joke about how she spoke, or a jibe about her family. I sat on her feet and tried to reassure her. She just had to trust me.
‘It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Harriet.’ The woman stuck out a hand for Sarah. Sarah, a surprised smile on her face, shook it. ‘I hope you’re settling in here okay – I can see you’ve already made friends with the most important residents!’
Sarah laughed. ‘I rather think that Henry has adopted me, actually!’
Harriet stuck the last stamp on her cards, then waved goodbye as she moved to post them in the tall red box in the corner.
‘Maybe there are some nice people here, after all,’ Sarah murmured, and I barked my agreement. ‘Come on, Henry. Let’s join the queue.’
I followed her to the line of people, snaking around the room. As we settled into the queue, the man in front turned around to face us, and I saw Sarah’s face break into a huge smile.
‘Oliver!’ she said.
Of course. Oliver Kinchen-Williams. He’d been nice to her, hadn’t he? And Sarah’s godfather had even told her to seek him out and introduce herself. That had to count as a personal recommendation.
Oh, I was good. This was two new friends for Sarah in one morning!
‘Hello, you two,’ he said, bending down to pat my head. ‘He really has taken a shine to you this one, hasn’t he?’
Sarah blushed prettily. ‘He seems to have. But then, I’m pretty taken with him too.’
‘Lucky boy. So, posting Christmas cards?’ Oliver asked, nodding to the stack of envelopes Sarah was clutching.
Sarah nodded. ‘It’s the first Christmas I’ve ever spent away from home,’ she admitted. ‘When I took the job … well, it doesn’t matter.’
‘Of course it does,’ Oliver said, his tone kind.
‘It’s just … I was so excited about being here for Christmas, when I first got the job. All the decorations, the celebrations … everything. But the nearer we get to the big day, the more homesick I seem to feel.’
‘It’s a strange thing, being far from home at Christmas. Trust me – I know.’
‘Are you from far away?’ Sarah asked, curiously. ‘You sound like you were born and bred in the Palace – not like me!’
Oliver laughed. ‘I like your accent. Devon?’
‘Close,’ Sarah admitted. ‘My parents own a farm in Somerset.’
‘How brilliant!’ Oliver said. ‘My parents actually emigrated to New Zealand a few years ago, to run a sheep farm in their retirement. So, while I grew up not very far from here, I still feel a long way from home, sometimes.’
‘That’s because home is more about the people than the place, I suppose,’ Sarah said. I knew what she meant. Buckingham Palace would be the most fantastic home anyone could hope for. But without my family there … I just couldn’t feel like I belonged.
‘So, which people are you missing this Christmas?’ Oliver asked. ‘Because that’s an awful lot of cards.’
‘It was almost a lot more! I figured that people would get a real kick out of seeing a card with the Palace postmark on it, so I sort of wanted to send one to everyone.’ Sarah fanned the cards out so she could read off the names. ‘There’s one for my parents, and my grandparents, of course. My best friend Rachel, and a few other old school friends who’ve moved away now. Everyone at the local church and the local pub – but only one card each for them! Some aunts and uncles, cousins, my godfather Tom, of course, and …’ she trailed off, looking at the last card in her hand.
‘Who’s Debbie?’ Oliver asked, reading the name upside down from the envelope.
‘My ex-boyfriend, David’s, Mum,’ Sarah said, quietly.
‘Ah.’
‘Yeah. I wasn’t sure whether to send it … we broke up a few months ago and, well, it wasn’t very pleasant.’ Sarah shook her head, as if shaking away the bad memories. From all the things Sarah had said about him, I had a very bad feeling about this David bloke. ‘But the thing is, I actually knew Debbie before I met David. She runs the local farm shop, you see, so we worked with her a lot, my parents and I. We were friends. Then David came home from university after he graduated, and we got to know each other and, well, the rest is ancient history. But I did feel bad about losing Debbie as a friend, when things ended between David and me.’
‘Then it’s kind of you to send a card,’ Oliver said. ‘Christmas is the time for mending bridges, after all.’
‘Yes,’ Sarah said slowly, looking up at Oliver with dawning realisation on her face. ‘Yes, it is. And maybe … maybe building new ones, too.’
‘Definitely,’ Oliver agreed.
After the Post Office, I followed Sarah around the Palace for a while as she discovered the whereabouts of the swimming pool and the cinema, carefully noting down the times for the next showing.
‘Ooh! Miracle on 34th Street! That’s my favourite,’ she exclaimed, when she saw the poster for a special Christmas cinema night the next day. ‘I wonder if they let dogs in there,’ she added, smiling at me.
I decided they probably would. After all, I was allowed everywhere else. And I’d always enjoyed film night with the Walkers. It was the one time that everyone sat down together, without anyone having to rush off to work or school or friends’ houses or to do homework. I could curl up on the sofa between them and be sure of a good hour or two of petting and fussing. Absolute bliss. Plus there were always really good snacks, and Jack and Claire were good at sharing them with me.
I felt a little homesick again just thinking about it. It was good that I had found Sarah – at least we could be homesick together. And maybe she’d meet some more friends at the cinema night – people who liked the same sort of things she did.
Films – at least the ones I’d watched – always seemed to be about bringing people together, especially if they were set at Christmas. Even the ones Jack liked, where the world was about to be blown up by aliens or whatever, usually featured a group of people who became friends through working together.
That was what Sarah needed – a friend in the Palace who wasn’t canine. As much as I liked being her best friend, I knew it wasn’t the same as having someone who could actually talk back to her. Besides, hopefully I’d be going home soon, and I didn’t like the idea of leaving Sarah all alone at Buckingham Palace when I left.
No, I needed to find Sarah a proper human friend. Maybe Harriet from this morning, or one of the other housemaids, or someone from the kitchen staff. Someone she could go swimming with, or take to the cinema to see her favourite film.
‘I wonder if Oliver likes films,’ Sarah said, her voice soft and her cheeks pink.
It was then that I realised. This wasn’t one of Jack’s disaster movies. It was one of the films that Amy and Claire tended to choose for film night – one where a man and a woman kissed under the mistletoe on Christmas Eve, or he chased her through the rain to tell her he loved her. One where everyone lived happily ever after, because they’d found that one person who could make them happier than anyone else in the world.
Sarah deserved more than just some people at the Palace who didn’t make fun of her. She deserved love. Romance. Someone to make her see how special and lovable she was.
And Oliver might just be the perfect person to do that, I thought. I had a nose for these things.
Now I just had to figure out how to make him see that.
I shook my ears out. How hard could that be? Humans in movies managed it all the time – and I was much cleverer than them.
All I needed was a plan …