Later came, at last! Megan and Freya raced to their secret place in the treehouse and couldn’t get up the ladder quickly enough. This time, as a special treat, Megan took her cuddly bunny, Flopsy, and dressed her in her best pink scarf.

‘She’s lovely,’ Freya said when she saw her. ‘And I’ve got some things to show you too.’

She opened her bag and pulled out two small bottles of orange juice and a container with two chocolate buns inside.

‘Ooh, yummy!’ said Megan.

‘Granny made them,’ Freya explained. ‘Granny makes the best chocolate buns ever. She used to run the baker’s shop and she made all their cakes.’

‘Did she?’ said Megan.

Freya nodded. ‘Mum runs it now, but Granny still makes lots of the cakes. Dad works on a ship, you know.’

Megan had never known anyone who worked on a ship before.

‘He’s a radio operator,’ said Freya.

‘What does one of those do?’ asked Megan.

‘Operates radios,’ said Freya laughing, and setting Megan off. ‘He’s gone to Australia. He’ll be back in a few weeks though.’

Megan tried to picture Australia as she munched her bun . . . Mmmmmm! It was the best chocolate bun she had ever tasted.

Then Megan told Freya about the very strange happening with the mouse, and how she was almost certain that the mouse had been telling her to go to her mum.

Freya nodded knowingly. ‘Granny says that’s just the kind of thing they do. Once, when she was little, her rabbit, Smoky, hurt his leg and Whiskers came and told her. Then once, she left a tap running in the bathroom and Whiskers told her about that too.’

‘But how do they know?’ asked Megan.

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Freya. ‘I think they’re magic mice with magic whiskers.’

The girls laughed.

Megan wondered whether to mention the mouse spinning around three times. She was afraid Freya might think she was silly, but her curiosity got the better of her.

‘Do you know if Whiskers . . . you know . . . ever kind of . . . spun around?’

Megan was relieved to see Freya nodding frantically.

‘Oh yes, the spinning,’ said Freya. ‘Granny says when it’s something really important, then they spin around three times.’

‘Really?’ said Megan.

Freya nodded again. ‘And sometimes, when more mice are needed, then a few Whiskerses come to help.’

‘Honestly?’ said Megan.

‘Yes, honestly,’ said Freya. ‘They helped Granny loads of times when she was little.’

Freya then told Megan how, when Granny and her brother Jonathon were little, Jonathon had tried to climb the big tree in the garden and slipped.

‘One of the mice came to tell Granny,’ said Freya. ‘But she wouldn’t go so all the mice came out and spun around. Then she heard Jonathon shouting and realised that something was really wrong. They’re all very helpful,’ Freya said, as if she was talking about teachers or shop assistants and not about a lot of spinning, long-whiskered mice!

But Megan was puzzled by something. ‘How come your granny used to live in my house when she was little and now she lives next door with you?’

‘Because she grew up and married Grandpa and had Mum and Uncle David. They lived somewhere else then,’ said Freya. ‘When Grandpa died, Granny moved in next door and we moved in with her.’

Then Megan suddenly thought of something else. ‘Why did you say earlier that you wondered why the mice had come back now, and about Dorothy coming back?’ she asked.

‘Well, Granny used to see the mice and Dorothy when she was little. Dorothy used to live here, years and years ago. Then the mice and Dorothy just disappeared,’ replied Freya.

Megan giggled. ‘But that would make Dorothy really old.’

‘She is really old,’ Freya said. ‘Granny is seventy and she has known Dorothy since she was tiny.’

Megan’s eyes widened with disbelief.

‘It’s true,’ said Freya.

‘But then Dorothy must be nearly seventy as well!’ said Megan in amazement.

‘Exactly,’ said Freya.

Megan shook her head disbelievingly. ‘She can’t be that old,’ she said. Megan didn’t know a lot about cats, but she knew that they didn’t live for that long.

‘Oh, you should hear about Buttercup,’ said Freya. ‘He’s really old too.’

‘Who’s Buttercup?’ asked Megan.

‘Well, remember I said there was something else I wanted to tell you? Buttercup is the something else. He’s a big golden retriever dog. I’ve never seen him, of course,’ Freya added. ‘But Granny says he’s lovely.’

‘He?’ said Megan. ‘Buttercup doesn’t sound like a boy dog’s name.’

‘It’s because of the buttercups and Buttercup House,’ said Freya. ‘I don’t know his real name. Granny can tell you all about him, if you like.’

Megan really wanted to know more about Buttercup, so they made a plan for Megan to go for tea and meet Granny the following afternoon.

That night in bed, Megan snuggled up to Flopsy. She wondered what Emily and Beth would make of all this. She could just imagine their faces and Emily shaking her head and saying, ‘A cat who’s nearly seventy? No way!’ She was sure they wouldn’t believe her. Then, the more she thought about meeting Freya’s granny, the more excited she got, so that in the end she had to count to at least two hundred and fifty before she finally fell asleep. When she did fall asleep she dreamed only about magic mice and fluffy old cats and a dog called Buttercup!