Chapter Twenty-Six

Back at the farm, I’m greeted by Rolf. I’ve barely stepped out of the car when he flaps from a nearby fencepost and lands at my feet.

‘Hello, Rolf.’ I bend down to pat his glossy orange neck feathers. ‘Did you miss me?’

‘Bok!’ Rolf plucks the blue ribbon from the end of one of my braids and runs.

‘Thief!’ I cry, and chase after him.

Rolf runs around the side of the house and into the barn, the blue ribbon and his green tail feathers blazing out behind him. I catch up and chase him around a haystack. Round and round and round we go.

Vera and Brigitte lean over the loft railing and laugh.

‘Run back the other way!’ Vera yells down at me.

I do, and Rolf is so astonished when he meets me face to face that he drops the ribbon.

‘Fooled you!’ I cheer, but before I can pick it up, a ball of black fluff dashes from one of the stalls, seizes the ribbon and scoots back into hiding.

‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ crows Rolf.

‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ I agree.

I creep over to the stall and peer in. There, tumbling, rolling, chewing at my ribbon, are three fluffy kittens, one pure black, one black with a white bib and socks, and one tabby. Nearby, a mother cat, a fat glossy tabby, lies in the straw, licking her paws.

I drop to my knees and scoop the cheeky black kitten into my lap. It pats at my fingers with its soft little paws. Play with me! Play with me!

‘You’re lovely,’ I whisper.

‘You can keep one, if you like.’ It’s Mutti, standing at the entrance to the stall. ‘The mother cat is Missy. She’s a brilliant mouser – and these little ones will grow up to be hunters, too. But you can choose one to be your very own. All girls should have a pet.’

A kitten. Of my own!

‘Unless you’d rather a puppy?’ adds Mutti.

A kitten or a puppy. Make a choice!

‘A kitten!’ I cry. ‘I mean, thank you!’

The black kitten leaps at the end of my braid, and bats at it with his paws.

I laugh. ‘This kitten. Sooty.’

That evening, after supper, Vati lifts me into his arms and gives me a bear hug. ‘Now, be a good princess and make sure you look after Mutti while I’m gone.’

I nod and kiss him on the cheek.

Mutti leans in and kisses Vati’s other cheek and I feel a flutter of happiness.

Later, when Mutti tucks me into bed, she says, ‘We’ll have lots of fun here, just the two of us.’

‘Just the three of us,’ I say, holding Sooty up to her face for a fluff-snuggle.

Sooty purrs and half-closes his eyes with happiness. The moment I put him down on the bed, though, he circles about mewling.

‘Perhaps he needs to go to the toilet,’ suggests Mutti.

‘But we’ve only just brought him in!’ I cry.

‘He’s a baby,’ she says. ‘They tiddle all the time when they’re little.’

I carry him downstairs and out through the kitchen door. I sit him on the ground, but instead of tiddling, he dashes away, across the farmyard and into the barn. Mutti grabs a torch and we search for him, calling out his name. At last, we find him, snuggled up in the straw with Missy and the other two kittens.

‘Aw,’ I sigh. ‘He misses his mother.’

Mutti scoops Sooty up and hands him back to me. ‘Don’t worry. He’ll get used to living in the house with you. In no time at all, he’ll love you just as much as he loves his real mother. Maybe even more. You’ll see.’

I know she’s right. I already love Sooty with all my heart. I’m so very glad to have him as my own little darling and I’m sure he’s going to have a safe and happy life with me.

But, for some reason, as I carry him away from his mother and his sisters and his home in the barn, tears start to roll down my cheeks.