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Tiger had started edging back along the branch. It was going to work! His soft fur brushed against her arm as he climbed into the carrier, sniffing at the bag. Ava shut the door so quickly she almost caught his tail and then she turned the catch.

“He’s in!”

“Brilliant! Pass him down to me then. Take it slow, Ava. The carrier’s going to be heavy now.”

Ava nodded, lifting the carrier and reaching down to pass it to Dave. She heard a worried little mew as the carrier moved.“It’s OK, Tiger. We’re going home,” she whispered to him.

“Back down now, Ava. Nice and slow.”

Ava wasn’t sure how she ever got back down the ladder. She didn’t even remember doing it. She was just there at the bottom, with Mum hugging her and saying she’d been so scared and she should never have let Ava go up there, and Bel telling her she was the best big sister ever, and Lucy moaning because no one was listening and she’d dropped her toy cat.

Ava crouched down in front of the basket and peered in at the little stripey face looking out at her.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” she whispered to Tiger. “Thank you so much for rescuing him,” she told Jess’s dad.

He grinned at her.“I didn’t, Ava! It was all you! I think you’d better take him home and make a big fuss of him.”

Ava nodded, picking up the carrier– she didn’t even hold it by the handle, she wrapped her arms round it, like she never wanted to let Tiger go. She could feel the kitten padding about inside as she carried him down the path and round the corner to her house. She called goodbye to Jess – she couldn’t wave, she was holding on too tight to Tiger in his carrier.

Lucy and Bel followed Ava into the house and crouched down next to her as she put the carrier down on the hall floor. Tiger peered out at them all, his ears twitching.

“It’s all right,” Ava whispered. “You’re home now.”

Tiger stepped slowly out of the carrier and then scrambled up on to Ava’s knees, purring at last. She had come and rescued him. He’d known she would.

39. THE RESCUED KITTEN

“This week seems to have gone on for ages. I’m so glad it’s the weekend.” Edie rolled her shoulders under the straps of her school bag and gave a huge sigh.

Layla nodded.“I know. Sometimes I think Mr Bennett makes Fridays hard on purpose. He knows we all just want to get home. We did too much writing today, way too much.” She shuddered.

Edie giggled.“And too much thinking. Are you doing anything this weekend? Want to come over to mine tomorrow?”

Layla nodded.“Sounds great. I’ve got swimming tonight but nothing else.”

The two girls lived almost next door to each other, in a group of houses that had once been old farm buildings. Each house had its own little garden at the back, but there was a shared courtyard in the middle of the houses, which meant there was usually a group of children around.

Up until this year, one of their mums or dads had always walked them to school, but luckily for Edie and Layla, a footpath led from their houses along the edge of some fields to the main village, where their school was. Now they were in Year Five, they were allowed to walk there and back by themselves.

The girls weren’t far from home, following the footpath past a wheat field. They were keeping to the side, in the shelter of the hedge, out of the spitting rain. It was close to the end of the summer term but it had been a damp sort of day, not very summery at all.

“Is that a bird?” Edie asked, stopping suddenly.

“Where?” Layla stopped, too, peering up the track. They quite often saw pheasants stalking across the path, or rabbits. But she couldn’t see anything now.

“I’m sure I can hear a noise.” Edie turned round slowly, trying to work out where it was coming from. Maybe it was a bird that had fallen out of its nest. It was a bit late in the year for nesting birds, but she knew some birds laid more eggs after their first chicks had flown. So it could bea fledgling stuck on the ground. “A squeaking sound. Can’t you hear it?” She crouched down. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere to the side of the path.

“Oh… Yeah, I think so…” Layla crouched, too, frowning a little.

“I think it was coming from the hedge. But it’s stopped now…” Edie could feel her heart starting to thump harder. When she’d first heard the noise, it had just been something she’d wanted to investigate, but now she was worried. The squeaking had sounded thin and weak and now it had stopped, as though whoever was making it had given up – like they didn’t even have the strength to ask for help any more.

“I’m pretty sure it was over here,” Edie murmured, leaning in and parting the long damp grass. There was a hedge of straggly hawthorn bushes growing beyond the grass and wild flowers.

“Mind the wire,” Layla said, looking over Edie’s shoulder. “There’s barbed wire under those bushes, I can see it. Don’t get scratched.”

Edie nodded.“I’ll be careful. Oh! Did you hear that?”

Another tiny, breath-like squeak rang out. There definitely was something in the hedge, something that sounded little and lost.