by Megan Rix
But when they got there they found that George and the rest of the dogs were missing. No turnspits in the kitchen meant that the meat was burning on the spit.
‘Grab him!’ Master Vogel shouted, pointing at Woofer. He needed a dog in the wheel.
But Woofer didn’t want to be grabbed and he certainly didn’t want to go in the turnspit wheel. He ran out of the kitchen and back up the stairs with Tiger Lily close behind him.
‘Don’t just stand there – bring him back!’ Master Vogel yelled, and the kitchen staff chased up the stairs after the two dogs.
As the kitchen apprentices charged after them, Tiger Lily led Woofer through the door that led from the king’s apartment to the river and the two puppies raced along the muddy grey banks of the Thames.
The king was on his barge, returning from Greenwich, where he’d been inspecting the navy, when he saw Tiger Lily running along the riverbank.
‘Tiger Lily, come back!’ he shouted.
But Tiger Lily was in such a panic because of the kitchen staff chasing her that she didn’t hear the king, and the two puppies kept on running. Woofer’s nostrils were filled with a myriad smells along the rubbish-strewn riverbank: meat, fish and rotting vegetables. Anything that wasn’t wanted was dumped in the river.
London Bridge was chaotic and noisy as always. It was crowded with buildings on top of it and boats passing through underneath.
Tiger Lily and Woofer were almost halfway across the bridge when they ran straight into the path of a black bear on a lead, being taken to Old Bartlemy’s Fair by its owner. The animal growled at them and the puppies whimpered and ran back the other way.
The next instant a nut landed on Woofer’s back and he yelped. A monkey on a pole pointed at him and made loud, angry chattering sounds. It threw a second nut, still in its hard shell. This one landed on Tiger Lily’s head and although it hurt, she was more shocked by it than anything and the puppies ran on.
‘Get out of the way!’ shouted a man on stilts, also heading to the fair, as they almost tripped him up.
The puppies didn’t stop running until they were gasping for breath and could run no more.
‘Hello, my beauties,’ said a red-headed girl sitting on the steps outside a theatre with a basket of oranges beside her. ‘Hungry?’ She laughed as she threw them a bit of the pork pie she’d been eating.
Tiger Lily and Woofer wagged their tails at the sound of a friendly voice and trotted over to her and gobbled up the greasy pork pie.
‘Come on then, come and sit on the steps with Nellie,’ the girl said, and she patted the space next to her. First Tiger Lily and then Woofer flopped down beside her.
‘You are a very pretty puppy,’ she told Tiger Lily, noting her long tail that meant she must belong to the nobility.
Woofer rolled over on to his back for a tummy rub. He was almost too wide for the step.
‘And you’re very handsome too,’ Nell laughed as she rubbed his tummy.
‘Nell, come back in and bring those oranges with you!’ a voice shouted from the theatre doorway.
‘But –’
‘Now!’
Nell gave the dogs a last look and hurried back inside.
A few moments later, hundreds of sheep came down the street, being driven towards the two puppies on the steps by three men, two women and a boy, plus four sheepdogs.
The sheepdogs were too busy making sure the sheep stayed together and didn’t stray into other streets to pay any attention to Woofer or Tiger Lily. But one of the sheep ran up the steps towards them.
Tiger Lily and Woofer quickly backed away as more sheep followed the first one. The sheepdogs climbed the steps to round up the strays, and before they knew it Tiger Lily and Woofer were being swept along the narrow streets in the middle of a giant flock of sheep.
‘Get out of the way!’ people were shouting as they tried to get past but the flock stopped for no one. And the sheepdogs kept their charges moving by nipping at their heels. Tiger Lily didn’t like being squashed by the sheep on either side. They were much bigger and heavier than she was and she yelped when one of them stepped on her paw.
Finally the sheep stopped at the livestock market and Woofer and Tiger Lily were able to break free as the sheepdogs helped to sort the animals into pens.
All around them were other creatures waiting to be sold. Cows to the right of them and pigs to the left. A baby goat managed to escape by hopping on top of another goat in its pen and there was chaos for a few moments until it was caught.
Tiger Lily stepped backwards in surprise and found herself in a pile of manure. A cow lowered its head and mooed at her and Tiger Lily let out a squeak of terror, backing even further into the manure. The stink was overpowering to a dog’s sensitive nose and even more so to Tiger Lily. The only time she’d ever got muddy was when she played along the riverbank with Woofer – and that had always been swiftly followed by a bath. She held up one paw and then the other but there was nothing that could be done and no one to clean her.
Tiger Lily whimpered.
Woofer only narrowly avoided being trodden on by a sow.
‘Here, what’re these dogs doing here?’ someone yelled.
One of the farmers noted Tiger Lily’s long tail. He was well aware that undocked dogs belonged to the nobility and there was often a reward for their return.
‘Anyone see who it’s with?’ he asked another farmer.
‘Grab hold of it, Michael.’
But as the farmer’s boy tried to grab Tiger Lily the baby goat managed to escape again and Woofer and Tiger Lily ran off as the farmers at the livestock market tried to catch it.
When George left the kitchen, Teeth and Claws ran after him.
‘Go back!’ George said, pointing to the door they’d come out of, but Teeth and Claws didn’t go back, and when George carried on walking out of the palace gates they looked at each other and then trotted along behind him.
George knew he couldn’t keep the dogs and would have to take them back but he didn’t want to. Master Vogel was a bully and he didn’t want Teeth and Claws to have to work for him. But he didn’t have a choice.
‘Come on,’ George coaxed, as he turned round and slowly headed back, followed by Teeth and Claws.
As George returned through the gates and into the palace grounds with the two dogs, he ran into James Jack who was looking very anxious.
‘Tiger Lily’s missing and so is Woofer,’ he said and explained that they had been seen running along the riverbank. ‘The king’s issued a proclamation for her return.’
George was so worried he could barely listen to it. ‘For the dog was not born nor bred in England, and would never forsake her master. A most handsome reward will be paid to whoever finds her and returns her safely to His Majesty.’
All he knew was that the puppies had run away. It wasn’t safe for Woofer and Tiger Lily to be out on the streets alone. Anything could happen to them.
George’s stomach churned with fear. He had to find them!
James Jack headed off to gather more people to help with the search as George ran to the riverbank with Teeth and Claws right behind him.
Tiger Lily wasn’t used to being pushed this way and that in the crowded streets. Or having to avoid feet and carts and animals that got in her way. Her life at the palace was nothing like life on the London streets.
‘Look out below!’ a voice shouted and a bucket of rank, stinking water came pouring out of an upstairs window and landed directly on top of Tiger Lily, soaking her through.
Tiger Lily yelped as it hit her and then whimpered as the foul-smelling liquid sank into her fur. Her head drooped. She didn’t know where she was or how to get home. Everything felt strange. She was quite, quite lost as she followed Woofer down the cobblestoned streets. Her paws were sore and her coat was smelly. All she wanted was a long drink of cool water and something tasty to eat.
Woofer sniffed the air. It was full of fishy smells that he remembered clearly. Now he knew w
here they should go. He gave a woof and Tiger Lily ran after him as he raced up Fish Street Hill to Black Raven Alley. He stopped outside George’s gran’s house and woofed again.
The raggedy cat was back and it stared down at Tiger Lily from its spot on the sloping roof, its eyes almost hypnotizing. Tiger Lily had never met a cat close up before. She tilted her head to one side and wagged her tail tentatively in greeting.
Woofer gave another friendly bark and the cat crept down and sniffed at them before hopping back on to the roof.
When Gran’s front door didn’t open Woofer scratched at it with his paw and barked once again.
The door still didn’t open but the one next to it did.
‘Go on, be off with you!’ a voice shouted at Woofer but then stopped when the speaker saw Tiger Lily – a smelly wet dog covered in manure, with a long undocked tail.
She had to be a noble dog because of her tail, even if she wasn’t actually one of the royal dogs. Gran’s neighbour Jed thought there might be a good reward for the return of the bedraggled-looking spaniel standing just out of reach and looking sorry for itself.
‘Here, missy, here,’ Jed said in a wheedling sort of voice.
Tiger Lily was tired of running through the streets after Woofer. The streets didn’t smell nice and now she didn’t smell nice either because of the slop that had landed on top of her. She took a step towards the man in the doorway.
‘That’s it,’ Jed said, bending down and stretching out a hand towards her, ready to grab the little dog as soon as she came close enough. He wondered how big a reward he would get for finding a noble dog.
Tiger Lily took another step forward and Jed’s hand was just about to close round the scruff of her neck when the raggedy cat gave a loud warning yowl and the next instant the two puppies ran off together.
‘No! Wait! Stop – come back!’ Jed shouted and went running after them, which only made the dogs run faster.
Down one alleyway, up another, through a gap in a wall and out on to the street. Jed soon lost sight of the dogs and returned home angry that he had missed out on some much-needed cash.
The foul-smelling water that had soaked her through had dried into Tiger Lily’s coat by the time Woofer smelt another aroma that he remembered – delicious, crunchy, ginger-flavoured dog biscuits!
Woofer barked and trotted on ahead while a less-than-happy Tiger Lily followed, her long peacock-feather tail drooping sadly.
CHAPTER 9
Saturday night and early Sunday morning
George started his search where Tiger Lily and Woofer had last been seen but once he came to London Bridge he had no idea which way they’d gone. Could Woofer have remembered the way to Gran’s house from the palace? She’d always been kind to the little dog when she’d been alive. Maybe, just maybe, he’d taken Tiger Lily there for safety.
It was worth a try.
‘Come on,’ he said to Teeth and Claws, and they ran after him as he raced down the streets towards Gran’s house.
George swallowed hard as he went up Fish Street Hill followed by the dogs. Claws gulped down a tasty fishtail he found lying on the ground. Teeth swallowed a discarded fish head.
‘Oysters, fresh oysters.’
‘Trout to buy, trout to buy …’
Teeth and Claws looked over at the fish sellers as they called out their wares but George barely heard their cries. All he could think about was finding Woofer and Tiger Lily.
‘This way,’ he said to the dogs as he turned into Black Raven Alley.
Teeth and Claws looked up at the raggedy cat on the roof and her tail twitched as she stared back at them.
George was now in front of Gran’s door and he steeled himself to open it and go back inside. But before he could lift the latch her neighbour’s door opened.
‘Come to see what the old lady left?’ Jed asked him.
George had met Jed a couple of times before but he’d never been very keen on the man.
Jed looked at Teeth and Claws but they didn’t go up to him for a stroke and kept close to George.
‘Have you seen two dogs in the alley?’ George asked. ‘One is a terrier and the other a spaniel.’ He didn’t trust Gran’s neighbour enough to tell him that Tiger Lily was the king’s dog.
‘What if I have?’ Jed said.
‘Have you?’ George asked, his heart lifting.
‘Depends. What’d there be in it for me?’
Now George was stumped. He didn’t have anything to give the man. All he had in his pocket was Woofer and Tiger Lily’s rope toy.
‘Nothing.’
‘Well then I’ve seen nothing.’
But George knew that he had seen something by the way he spoke. He thought quickly as Jed started to close the door.
‘You’d have the palace’s gratitude.’
Jed stopped closing the door. ‘How much gratitude?’
George didn’t know and he couldn’t keep on lying so he said, ‘The king would be very grateful.’
‘Well then – two dogs were here. One of them a spaniel, the other a lot like those two you have there. Short-legged and long-bodied. You make sure you tell the king I helped you and would like to see some gratitude in my hand.’
‘Where are they now?’ George asked.
‘Ran off,’ Jed told him, and he pointed in the direction Tiger Lily and Woofer had gone, back towards London Bridge where George had just come from.
‘Thank you,’ George said as he hurried out of the alley and back along Fish Street Hill and down Thames Street with Teeth and Claws at his heels. It was getting very late and growing dark.
Outside the theatre he asked a girl selling oranges if she’d seen two dogs, one dock-tailed and one undocked.
‘I think I did see them,’ she said, describing Woofer and Tiger Lily almost exactly. ‘It was a few hours ago now, though.’
‘And was the spaniel well?’
‘Oh, yes. Very well, judging by how she gobbled down the pork pie I threw to her and her friend.’
George smiled. Woofer and Tiger Lily both had very good appetites. And that gave him an idea of where they might have gone.
‘The king will be glad to hear of your kindness,’ he said to the girl as he hurried off towards Pudding Lane. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Nell,’ she said. ‘My name’s Nell Gwynne.’
Woofer gave a bark and a wag of his tail-stub as an exhausted Tiger Lily flopped down beside him on the cobblestones. The little dog was very pleased with himself. He’d found the place where he’d first tried the delicious biscuits. It had taken them a bit longer than it should have done because he’d been distracted by the smell of a freshly baked sweet and savoury mince pie but they had finally made it. Now all he needed to do was get someone to open the door. Woofer woofed.
Upstairs in her room above the bakery, Annie woke up. She’d been dreaming that she was making cakes for a royal banquet. Hundreds and hundreds of cakes, but however fast she worked, still more were needed. Then something had woken her and she wasn’t quite sure what it was. In the darkness she listened to the sounds of the night. A strong easterly wind rattled the shop sign on its rusty hinges and whistled through the chimney stacks but that wasn’t what had woken her.
Woofer gave another woof.
To Annie the bark sounded like it was coming from a large dog, although it didn’t seem angry or aggressive, just very insistent. As if it needed something and couldn’t wait. As if it was right outside the bakery door downstairs.
Annie rubbed at her eyes as she crept over to the window to look out. On the cobblestones below she was amazed to find that there wasn’t the giant, ferocious dog she’d expected to see, but a small cream-coated, short-legged, long-bodied, funny-faced terrier and a delicate-looking spaniel.
The terrier’s bark became even louder and more frequent when he saw her at the window.
‘Woofer!’ Annie cried, and she ran down the stairs and into the bakery. As she hurried to the door she heard the spa
niel barking too, only that bark was much higher-pitched. Then both dogs started scratching at the door.
‘All right, all right, hang on a second,’ Annie said as she pulled back the heavy bolts.
Woofer gave another of his deep woofs to hurry her along and Annie quickly opened the door.
‘Well, hello there, Woofer,’ she said. ‘Brought a friend with you, I see.’
But why wasn’t George with them? She hoped nothing bad had happened to him.
Woofer wagged his tail-stub. Tiger Lily was still feeling miserable from the unexpected smelly-water shower, so she didn’t come forward as she would normally, with a wag of her beautiful tail, but held back a little instead.
‘Shy?’ Annie asked, kneeling down and holding out a hand to the spaniel, and at last Tiger Lily padded towards her. ‘That’s it,’ Annie said as she led them inside. She reached into a sack and gave Tiger Lily a piece of broken biscuit. Tiger Lily gently took it from her and then looked up for more.
Woofer gave a bark to remind Annie not to forget him.
‘Shhh,’ Annie said as she gave him some biscuit too. The dogs were both very hungry. ‘That’s enough for now,’ she told them when they’d had five each.
Annie realized she’d have to stay down here with the dogs because Mr Farriner didn’t like them in the house. Mrs Farriner had died of the plague almost a year ago to the day and Mr Farriner still thought an infected dog might have been the cause of it. No one knew for sure but he wasn’t taking any chances.
At least it was a bit cooler downstairs. Plus she’d hear George straight away if he came looking for the dogs. It was so strange that he wasn’t with them, but finding him would have to wait until morning now. Annie yawned and laid out an empty flour sack for the dogs to lie on and another for herself.
Tiger Lily sniffed at the sacking. She was used to being fed on the finest food and sleeping on a soft cushion at the palace, but the biscuits had been delicious and sacking made a comfortable-enough bed, especially with Woofer there, and she soon fell fast asleep.
They hadn’t been asleep for long when Woofer smelt smoke and opened his eyes. Tiger Lily was awake too and she sat up.
