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Lucy and Sara giggled as William raced ahead, flinging open the door of the baker’s. When they caught up with him, he was already telling Emma behind the counter that he wanted a marshmallow ice cream.

“You know the black-and-white kitten, the one that was living in your yard?” Lucy said shyly to Emma, after they’d chosen their cakes. “She came into our garden and we’re going to keep her!”

Emma smiled delightedly.“Oh, that’s such good news! I looked for her, after you two told me she was there, but I never saw her. I did wonder if you’d imagined her.”

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“No, she’s just a bit shy.” Lucy smiled to herself, remembering Catkin chasing madly round the kitchen after a ping-pong ball that morning and then collapsing in her lap, exhausted, with her paws in the air. She wasn’t shy with them, not any more.

“I’ve got news for you, too,” Emma went on, as she put their chocolate doughnuts into a bag. “I called the cat shelter about the kittens’ mum, to ask them what the best thing was to do. They’re going to catch her and spay her so she doesn’t have more kittens. They said she probably won’t ever be tame enough to be a house cat, but if she’s not trying to feed kittens all the time she’ll be a lot less thin and worried, poor thing. So they’ll bring her back and she can live in the yard. We’ll put scraps out for her.”

“Thank you!” Lucy forgot to be shy and gave Emma a hug. “You’re amazing. I never even thought of doing that!”

“Maybe Catkin can come back and visit her,” William suggested, reaching into his bag and picking the hundreds and thousands off his marshmallow ice cream.

“Maybe.” Lucy smiled, imagining the two cats nose to nose, sniffing hello. All of a sudden she couldn’t wait to get home and see Catkin and show her off to Sara, too.

Her own kitten, not-so-secret any more…

32. SAMMY THE SHY KITTEN

“See you later, Mum!” Emma waved as her mum drove off down the bumpy lane that led to Ivy Bank Stables. She was looking forward to seeing her best friend Keira, but she would see most of her riding-class friends at school on Monday. Really she wanted to say hello to the ponies, and the cats that lived at the stables, too.

Emma didn’t always see the cats – they were all very shy, almost wild. She wasn’t even sure how many of them there were, no one was. Liz, who owned the riding school, said she thought there were five. But Emma was almost certain there were six, and that the skinny ginger cat was actually two skinny ginger cats. Once she thought she’d seen him strolling along the roof of the feed store only seconds after he’d been sunbathing out by the paddock.

Liz put down food and water for the cats, but only once a day. Mostly they lived by hunting. They earned their keep by getting rid of the mice and rats that sniffed around the stables after the horses’ feed.

“Hello, Sparky,” Emma murmured, going to pat the nose of the grey she usually rode in her class. The pony snorted and put his nose over the half-door of his stall. He nudged happily at her hand, searching for an apple or a carrot. He knew Emma always brought him treats. Emma giggled and broughtout a piece of carrot. “And I’ve got Polos for afterwards, if you’re good,” she whispered. “But don’t tell the others. I’ll just go and let Liz know I’m here, then I’ll be back to tack you up.”

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Emma looked around hopefully for the cats as she went over to find Liz, but none of them seemed to be around. She crouched down and peeped behind the tulips in the little flowerbed in front of the office. The ginger cat (one of the ginger cats, anyway) practically lived in the flowerbed, and sometimes he’d let her stroke him. Sure enough, there he was, curled up tightly into a stripy ball. He opened one yellow-green eye and glared at her. He obviously didn’t want to be petted.

Emma sighed and put her head round the office door.

“Hi, Liz. Mum dropped me off a bit early so I could say hello to the ponies. I wanted to see if I could stroke Tiggy, too, but I can’t find her.”

Tiggy was Emma’s favourite of the stable cats – she was black and had longer fur than the others, with a thick bushy tail. She spent a lot of time lying in the sun and grooming, cleaning bits of hay out of her pretty fur.

Liz had looked up, smiling, when she first spotted Emma, but now her smile faded.“I haven’t actually seen her for a couple of days. I’m starting to get a bit worried. I know the cats aren’t really pets and they wander around all over the place, but usually Tiggy’s the friendliest of them all. She doesn’t disappear like Susie and Ginger, and she’s almost always in the yard.”

Emma nodded, frowning.“I don’t think I’ve ever been to the stables and not seen her.”

“She’s been so hungry lately, but she hasn’t come to the food bowls,” Liz sighed. “I’m sure I’d have noticed her.”