Calidor started, and to keep his balance stuck his claws into Dossy’s shoulder. Dossy shrieked.
‘For goodness’ sake!’ said her father irritably. He did not care for sudden squeals when he was driving through busy traffic.
‘He scratched me, Mother!’ said Dossy tearfully, and lifting the kitten on to her knee gave him a slap. It was not a hard slap, but it upset his balance again so that once more he had to dig in his claws to prevent himself from falling off.
Once more Dossy shrieked.
‘For mercy’s sake put that cat in the back where it can’t scratch you!’ said her father crossly.
‘It’s a horrible kitten!’ complained Dossy, dropping Calidor into the back of the car. ‘It scratched me twice! I wish I’d chosen the ginger one!’
‘I wish you’d chosen a goldfish. At least that couldn’t scratch,’ growled her father.
‘Now, Charlie!’ said Dossy’s mother. ‘The poor child must have something to amuse her while the television is out of order.’
John ignored the argument that seemed to be starting in the front seat, and putting Calidor on the rug which lay folded beside him, whispered, ‘It’s all right, Calidor, I’ll get you out of here somehow. You needn’t be afraid.’
‘I’m not afraid… exactly,’ said Calidor stoutly. ‘But it does make it easier to be brave, now you’re here.’
He snuggled up against John’s invisible grey flannel shorts, and after giving a few halfhearted licks to his shirt front to show how self-possessed he was, under John’s stroking fingers he fell asleep. The powerful car had slipped with surprising speed out of the town and into the kind of suburb which has big houses built in large gardens.
‘I hope to goodness they aren’t going for miles and miles,’ said John to himself.
He was relieved to hear Dossy’s father say, ‘Nearly home. You’ll be pretty late for tea, Doss. I thought you were expecting someone?’
‘Good heavens, I’d clean forgotten! But I dare say it doesn’t matter,’ said his wife comfortably.
‘It’s only Milly,’ said Dossy in a bored voice. ‘I expect she’ll come in that awful old blue cotton frock again.’
‘I think it’s the only best one she has. You musn’t give yourself airs, darling, because you are a lucky little girl with lots of pretty things!’ said her mother.
‘She seems a nice kid to me. Plenty of go in her,’ said Dossy’s father. ‘I can’t think why you don’t like her.’
‘She always wants to play such silly games,’ said Dossy. ‘Wanting to pretend something or other all the time.’
John decided at once that he, too, would like Milly.
‘Well, don’t forget she’s your guest, darling,’ said Dossy’s mother. ‘You must play her games, too. I sometimes wonder if you don’t have a teeny, weeny bit too much of your own way. Look, there is Milly!’
‘She’s sitting on our gate!’ said Dossy. ‘And she is wearing that old blue thing.’
As the car drew up, Milly jumped down and opened the gate for them. She was a plump person with short red hair, and a great many freckles.
‘I got tired of waiting inside,’ she explained. ‘I was pretending I was a cowboy.’
Dossy sniffed, but her father chuckled. ‘Hop in the back, Milly, and we’ll give you a ride up the drive.’
John had barely time to squeeze himself into a corner before she got in.
‘You haven’t noticed our new car!’ said Dossy in a huffy voice. But Milly might not have heard. She had eyes for nothing but Calidor. ‘What a darling kitten! What’s his name? Where did he come from?’
‘He’s mine… because… because I was good at the dentist’s.’ Dossy had the grace to go rather red as she said this. ‘I don’t like him very much,’ she went on. ‘He scratched me twice, and he hasn’t purred once.’
‘Perhaps he hasn’t anything to purr about. Can we go to the kitchen and get him some milk?’
‘Mrs Parkin doesn’t like children bothering around in the kitchen,’ said Dossy’s mother firmly. ‘He shall have some at tea time. Here we are. Now run along in and wash your hands.’
John was determined not to let Calidor out of his sight. He followed the two girls into the house, narrowly missing getting himself slammed in the door of the car by the unsuspecting Milly. Dossy carried Calidor. They took him with them into the bathroom, which was panelled with black marble and pink trimmings. John followed. His hands were so dirty that he tried to wash them, too, but Dossy pulled the plug out before he had finished. The dirty marks on the pink towel were blamed on Milly. Next he followed them to Dossy’s bedroom, so that Milly could be shown her new party dress. It was all rather embarrassing, because he felt he was eavesdropping, so he was relieved when a gong interrupted and they went downstairs to tea. Calidor came down on Milly’s shoulder, wobbling uncomfortably as she bounced from step to step. His ears were flattened crossly.
‘I’ve got legs of my own, haven’t I? Why can’t they put me down?’ he muttered to John following closely behind.
‘Well, at least you’ll get your saucer of milk,’ whispered John. ‘I shan’t get anything at all!’
This time it was almost more than John could bear. There were a great many little sandwiches and delicious cakes. They sat on low chairs, and Milly found it difficult to manage a very small plate on her knee, a lace-edged napkin, a cream horn and a special fork to eat it with. Luckily for John, half the cream horn slid on to the floor. Although he would have hesitated to take a cake from the table, which would be like stealing, he felt that half a cream horn on the floor was different, and he picked it up and ate it thankfully. Milly was equally thankful to find it was not there when she looked furtively down, though she was rather puzzled.
Calidor lapped milk politely from a china saucer in a way that would have warmed the heart of Woppit. He even remembered ‘to purr his grace’.
After tea the two girls were sent into the garden to play. They scooped up the indignant Calidor from the cushion on which he had settled down to sleep, and Dossy’s mother called after them, ‘Milly’s games this time, darling!’
22
The Queen of Sheba
It was a beautiful garden. Leaving the flower beds behind, the two girls, with John close behind them, ran down the lawn which sloped toward a small lake. It lay cool and still in the evening light. The reflections of the trees which grew on the farther side were only broken by the fish that occasionally rose with a little ‘plop’. John could not quite catch what they said as they leaped from the shining surface. A blackbird perched on a willow tree sang a song to the praise of summer evenings, and this evening in particular.
The girls made their way to a little paved terrace with stone steps which led down into the water where a punt lay moored invitingly. The name Swallow was painted on her side.
‘Let’s go in it!’ said Milly.
‘I’m not allowed to, not without a grown-up, until I can swim. It’s my turn to carry the kitten!’ said Dossy, and she took him clumsily from Milly’s shoulder.
‘Why can’t they leave me alone?’ grumbled Calidor. His whiskers were at sixes and sevens and his fur was ruffled.
There was a clump of foxgloves growing by the boathouse. Milly picked up two fallen flowers and perched one on each of the kitten’s ears. He looked so funny that they both laughed. Calidor twitched the flowers off angrily.
‘Funny, am I?’ he growled furiously. ‘Well, I’ve got claws I have, and if you don’t –’
‘Steady on, Calidor!’ said John. ‘Stick it out until we can get away. We’ve got to wait our chance.’
‘Let’s play something,’ said Milly. ‘Let’s pretend –’
‘Oh, no!’ broke in Dossy. ‘Well, I suppose we must if you want to,’ she went on. ‘Mother said I had to play your games this time.’
‘Don’t you ever pretend anything?’ asked Milly curiously.
There was a pause, then Dossy said, ‘Only one thing, sometimes.’ She flus
hed. ‘Promise you won’t laugh if I tell you?’
‘Promise!’
‘Well, sometimes I pretend I’m the best-dressed girl in Broomhurst.’
‘Gosh, how ghastly!’ said Milly frankly. ‘I’m not laughing, honestly I’m not,’ she went on hurriedly. ‘I say, I know a gorgeous game we could play. Let’s pretend you’re the Queen of Sheba! She was the best-dressed woman in the Bible, at least I think she was, and she was very beautiful, and she came sailing down the Nile – that could be the lake – to see King Solomon because of his wisdom – that would be me – and brought him rare gifts.’
‘But I don’t –’ began Dossy.
‘You go and dress up. I’m sure you can find some queenly things somewhere, old ones of your mother’s. There are some striped towels in the boathouse which will do beautifully for me!’ Milly said.
Dossy pushed the kitten into Milly’s arms and then she ran, quite quickly, back to the house. John watched Milly rather enviously. Humming between her teeth, she investigated the bathing things in the boathouse. This was just the sort of game he would have enjoyed playing himself. In fact, he was so interested that he forgot to seize the opportunity to pick up Calidor and make off. Instead he watched Milly. First she put the kitten in the punt to keep him safe. He put his paws on the gunwale and peered over the side. ‘Water!’ he said with disgust, and dropped back hastily on to the cushions.
Next, Milly put on a magnificently patterned bathing wrap belonging to Dossy’s father. It was much too large for her – he was a big man – so she tied a cushion on underneath to fill it out. ‘More dignified if I look fatter, too,’ she said to herself. Then she took a bathing towel and twisted it around her head into a turban.
When she had done this, she took out a folding deckchair, and with some difficulty, because of her trailing robe and the tied-on cushion, set it on the flat nose of the punt. Then she draped another towel over the chair and filled the seat with cushions. The remaining cushions she piled in the punt. Calidor, recovered from his sulks, happily chased the trailing cord of King Solomon’s robe. John could not resist tweaking a towel here, and a cushion there, to help arrange things. It really did look rather oriental, he thought. They were all so busy that they did not hear Dossy’s return.
‘Will I do?’ she said suddenly behind them.
They turned around.
Instead of putting on some old dress of her mother’s as Milly expected, she was wearing her new party frock. From its high waist the skirts, scattered with shining beads, fell in a blue cascade to her silver slippers. Her pale gold hair, loosened from its ponytail, fell on to her shoulders, and was held in place on the top of her head by a sparkling necklace of her mother’s, which she wore as a shimmering crown. A wide silver scarf pinned to her shoulders billowed behind her as she walked. Her pale cheeks were flushed.
‘Dossy! You are beautiful!’ said Milly in an awed voice.
Even John said to himself, ‘She doesn’t look half bad.’
Milly stood up and bowed as low as she could over the cushions.
‘Welcome, O Queen of Sheba!’ she said. ‘Your royal barge awaits you! Behold your throne!’
She waved, with dignity, toward the garden chair on the end of the punt.
The Queen of Sheba stepped carefully down, narrowly missing John as she landed.
Milly went on, ‘Now, you say, “O Solomon, live forever!”’
‘O Solomon, live forever!’ repeated Dossy obediently.
Solomon took the hand of the Queen of Sheba and, stumbling a little over her trailing robe, led her to the ‘throne’ on the end of the punt.
The Queen of Sheba sat down gingerly.
‘Now you say, “O King, I bring you precious gifts!”’ She paused. ‘Go on, say it!’
‘But I don’t. I haven’t brought anything to give you,’ said Dossy.
‘Well, give me the kitten then. You can pretend it isn’t an ordinary cat but some strange, rare animal.’
She bundled Calidor on to Dossy’s lap. His ruffled head appeared with a protesting ‘mew!’ among the blue folds of the party dress.
‘An ordinary cat indeed! Me, a kitten of the royal blood! I dare say –’ began Calidor. But John heard no more, for the Queen of Sheba bundled the ‘rare animal’ back again to King Solomon. In her anxiety lest he should catch his claws in the blue dress, she had not noticed that she was holding him upside down.
King Solomon turned to the imaginary oarsmen of the royal barge and waved imperiously, ‘To your oars, men, and row us to the Palace of a Thousand Jewels!’
Milly really did it very well, thought John, and quite carried away he pulled the painter free and gave a vigorous shove off. The punt shot out into the lake.
‘Whatever have you done?’ gasped Dossy.
Milly looked puzzled.
‘I didn’t do anything – I was only pretending. I didn’t really mean the barge to move. It must have been a current or something. But there’s no need to panic. We can punt ourselves back again.’
She looked for the pole.
‘I told you I wasn’t allowed to use the punt, and I shall get into frightful trouble for putting on my party frock as well!’ wailed Dossy. ‘And if Mother’s silver scarf gets splashed she’ll be simply furious. Perhaps if we get home quickly I can put the things back without anyone knowing!’
Milly looked up and her face was worried.
‘I’m awfully sorry. The punt pole isn’t here, or the paddles either!’ she said. ‘I don’t see how we can get back.’
Dossy burst into tears. ‘I think this is a beastly game. It’s all this silly pretending,’ she wailed.
‘It was rather queer, the barge sailing off when I told it to,’ said Milly uneasily.
John felt thoroughly uncomfortable. He would have liked to explain that it was all his fault and nothing to do with Milly’s pretending, but of course that was not possible.
The punt slowed down at last until it ceased to move. The little slapping waves beneath their bows grew fainter and fainter until they died away altogether.
‘It’s not really so bad,’ said Milly. ‘They’ll be sure to come and look for us soon. Let’s fill in time by playing something else. Oh, look, fish! Did you see that one leap right out, over there! Let’s pretend it’s an enchanted lake and that there is a sea serpent living in its fathomless depths!’
‘Oh, let’s not!’ sniffed Dossy, looking round nervously. She was still sitting huddled in the throne on the end of the punt. The shadows of the trees were lengthening over the lake. Suddenly a fish leaped from the water so near that Dossy, who was thinking uneasily of sea serpents, gave a startled gasp and jumped to her feet, pushing the chair back as she did so. Milly made a grab to stop it falling overboard, but catching her foot in her trailing robe, she lurched and fell heavily against Dossy, who gave a piercing shriek. For a moment they tottered on the edge together, then with a tremendous splash the two girls, and the chair, fell into the water. The punt lurched dangerously.
‘Out of the way!’ said John to Calidor, who was peering over with great interest. ‘Dossy can’t swim – I’m going in after her!’
There was a splash which showered the watching kitten, and a sudden cleft in the water which showed where John must have dived. Calidor could see the Queen of Sheba’s throne bobbing up and down half out of the water, accompanied by three sodden cushions. Then Milly’s spluttering head appeared above the surface.
‘It’s all right, Dossy, it’s not deep!’ she gasped, looking anxiously around. She was relieved to see Dossy’s head appear, but only long enough to let out another shriek before it disappeared again.
Milly paddled frantically toward the widening circle of ripples which showed where Dossy had surfaced; and then a curious sight made her draw up and tread water. Dossy’s head had come to the surface again, and apparently with nothing to account for it, a series of small splashes, followed by what looked like a miniature tidal wave bore down upon her. Milly, of course, ha
d no idea that it was caused by the swimming of the invisible John. She was only aware that the steadily screaming Dossy rose half out of the water, made her way back to the punt without showing any signs of swimming and, as though pushed up by some submarine volcano, rose in a surge of foam and tumbled on to the floor of the Swallow.
Milly had no time to wonder. She was hanging on to the edge of the punt by now. She had managed to rid herself of the hampering folds of the bathing gown, but with the waterlogged cushion still tied to her waist, she had not the strength to pull herself up.
‘Help!’ she called forlornly, and as though in response something seemed to give her a great heave from below, and she fell thankfully beside Dossy in the bottom of the punt. For a minute she lay there panting, then slowly she sat up. Dossy lay sobbing in a pool of water. The party frock was ruined, its sodden folds streaked with water weed. The shining crown was gone and the silver scarf lay torn and muddy beside her.
‘It’s all your fault, Milly!’ she sobbed. ‘First you pretended the boat was going to move, and it did. Then you pretended the lake was enchanted, and it was. It must be. I felt someone lift me up and push me into the punt, and there wasn’t anyone there at all. Well, you’d better pretend somebody to push us back to the steps or we shall both die from double pneumonia!’ Dossy lay down and cried again.
Milly swallowed hard. She had to admit it had been rather odd, and there was the mysterious heave that something had given her when she found she could not climb back into the punt.
‘I suppose it might have been the sea serpent I imagined,’ she said to herself, looking nervously over the side.
She pushed a strand of dripping hair out of her eyes and said, ‘Let’s pretend the punt will take us back to the landing stage of its own accord.’
The Kingdom of Carbonel Page 13
