Mystery at Silver Spires (9 page)

“And you're definitely not the only person to worry about boarding. Everyone feels homesick at first,” added Antonia.

“My mum always says it's only fear of the unknown that makes us scared,” added Nicole.

A memory of what Katy had said at Pets' Place suddenly flashed through my mind. She'd been talking about having her rabbit, Buddy, at school.
It stopped me panicking at the thought of what lay ahead in this big unknown place.

“Do you have a pet you could bring to school, like a guinea pig or a rabbit?” I asked her.

She shook her head, but I wasn't certain she'd even taken in what I'd asked her, because of what she said next. “There could be a ghost up there that you haven't come across yet.”

I glanced at Emily and she nodded, knowing instantly how my mind was working.

“Hannah,” I said, “I'll prove to you that it's not a ghost. Come with me. There's nothing to worry about.”

Sasha smiled and Izzy said, “You're going to love this, Hannah!”

And I thought how lovely and understanding my friends were, not to mind that Hannah would be seeing Silver before they would.

“I'll come too, for identification purposes!” said Emily, smiling mysteriously, which made Hannah's eyes turn curious through her tears.

“Where are we going?” she asked as we walked along the landing.

“In here,” I said, diving into the cleaning room. “Quick! We're not exactly supposed to be here.”

“Oh…are you sure…?” But she stopped mid-sentence and I saw a glimmer of fear come into her eyes as we started to climb the narrow staircase up to the loft.

“You have to creep really softly,” Emily told her.

Hannah nodded, clinging to us like a shadow.

“I'm going to show you what was making the noise you heard,” I whispered. “No one knows about it except us six. But you can share our secret.”

I didn't think it was possible for anyone's eyes to open as wide as Hannah's did at that moment. We tiptoed across the loft and round the corner to where Silver lay contentedly on her dust sheets and Hannah gasped, then clapped a hand to her mouth as if even that gasp might have been too loud.

“Ah…she's so sweet!”

I saw a completely different Hannah then. The frightened Hannah was gone. In her place was a gentle girl who was suddenly taken up with my precious cat, bending down and stretching out her fingers as Silver blinked at her slowly.

“What's her name, Bryony?”

“Silver.”

“That's a good name. Like Silver Spires. That means she truly belongs here.”

I smiled, then felt a stab of sadness knowing that could never happen.

“How did you find her?”

“We heard noises from our dorm, just like you did, and everyone thought it might be a mouse or a bird or something. But I thought it was too soft and smooth for a mouse, and I started imagining we had a Forest Ash ghost, so I came up here to investigate one day and I couldn't believe it when I saw Silver. It's like she's chosen our loft specially. I…I haven't told Mrs. Pridham, in case she shoos her away.”

“I wouldn't have told her either,” said Hannah, nodding thoughtfully. “Except that Silver looks just like my cat did when she was pregnant.”

So then it was my turn to gasp. I turned to Emily, who hadn't said anything so far.

She bent down and examined Silver carefully. “Yes, she is. That's what I was going to say earlier, Bry – that teats only really show on cats when they're going to have kittens.”

“Kittens?” It was a stupid thing to say. Obviously she wasn't going to have puppies, but I was so surprised. “When?”

Emily shrugged. “I'm not sure. But she looks…settled. It could be soon.”

None of us spoke for at least twenty seconds while two thoughts twined around and around each other in my mind.

It would be so wonderful to have Silver and her kittens at Forest Ash.

Mrs. Pridham would go absolutely mad if she knew that a wild cat was living here in the attic; never in a million years would she allow Silver to stay.

Three loud taps that seemed to come from somewhere below nearly made me jump out of my skin. Hannah tensed up and her hand shot to her mouth. “What was that?”

Then it came again, exactly the same. And I suddenly realized it must be one of the others tapping something against the ceiling in our dorm as a warning.

“There might be someone coming,” I told Hannah. “Keep out of sight. If it's Mr. Monk he won't look round here.”

Hannah looked at her watch. “You don't think the others are just warning you about the time?”

So then I looked at my own watch. “Yes, you're right. I'd forgotten all about afternoon school!”

Back in the dorm, Emily told the others straight away about Silver being pregnant. They all seemed really excited about it to begin with.

Nicole was the first to lose her smile and turn serious. “What…will you do when the kittens are born, Bry?”

“I'm not sure,” I said, sighing inside. “Mrs. Pridham would never let us keep Silver or the kittens. That's all I know.”

“Doesn't she like cats?” asked Hannah quietly.

No one answered that question, because the truth was we didn't actually know whether Mrs. Pridham liked cats or not, and an idea started to form in my mind.

“Hannah,” I began slowly, “Mrs. P said something about a cup of tea and a chat with you, didn't she?”

“Yes, before I go home.”

“Well, I don't suppose you could somehow get the conversation round to pets. I mean, especially if you have your own cat. Maybe you can discover what Mrs. P thinks about cats in general?”

“You're a genius, Bry!” said Emily, slapping me on the back.

“Yes, she might turn out to be completely cat mad!” said Izzy, smiling.

But now I was picturing Mrs. Pridham's flat with not a cat in sight. “At least you can suss whether or not she's likely to blow a fuse when she finds out about Silver,” I said, sighing on the outside this time.

Hannah laughed lightly. “I'll check out how she feels about kittens as well, shall I?”

Looking at her bright confident smile, I couldn't believe the transformation from the girl we'd met earlier in the day who'd been so fragile with worry that it looked like the tiniest thing would make her crumple.

“We'd better get going to afternoon school!” said Izzy.

So we all piled out of the dorm and made our way downstairs.

“Before I go, I'll let you know what Mrs. Pridham says about you-know-what,” Hannah whispered, when we were in the hall.

“I don't think Mrs. P will let you interrupt us in lessons,” I said, thinking it through, “but let's exchange mobile numbers, then you can text me.”

So that's what we did.

“Thank you for…looking after me,” said Hannah, looking round us all, when we'd knocked on Mrs. Pridham's door.

“That's okay. Sorry we have to fly. See you next term!” said Sasha, giving her a quick hug, before rushing off to the library for English with Izzy and Nicole. Emily, Antonia and I aren't in the top set, like the other three, and our lessons are in the English block, which isn't quite such a trek from Forest Ash.

“Bye, Hannah!” said Antonia.

“Hurry along, girls!” interrupted Mrs. Pridham, appearing at her door. “I don't want your teachers blaming me for making you late!”

Emily and Antonia went tearing off and I was about to follow, when Hannah grabbed my hand and looked me straight in the eyes. “Thank you for sharing a little chunk of your Silver Spires life with me, Bryony,” she said. “I feel so much happier now about coming here next term.”

I felt quite choked up when she said that and found that I couldn't even reply, so I just nodded quickly and smiled. Mrs. Pridham was looking from one to the other of us with an expression on her face that I couldn't work out. She put her hand on Hannah's shoulder, and that seemed to prompt Hannah to let go of my hand. I turned and rushed after Emily, feeling my emotions swirling round inside me, all mixed up and heavy. I didn't look back, because I didn't want Hannah to see the tears in my eyes. She might not understand them. I didn't understand them myself. I'd have to try to work them out later when I was lying in bed. But for now I just blinked them away, because I never cry. Never.

We have to switch our phones off during lessons and if we're found with them turned on, they're automatically confiscated. That's the rule. And you don't get them back for two days, so there's no point in risking it, as the teachers do spot checks every so often. It's okay to switch them on between lessons though, and that's what I did when we were on the way to double ICT after English.

“Look, Ems, there's a message from Hannah already.” I read it out to her. “
Mrs. P def not animal person but v symp so shd b ok. Tx again. Luv Han
.”

“What's ‘symp'?” asked Emily.

I said the only word I could think of that started with “symp”. “Sympathetic?”

“Yes, sympathetic,” said Emily staring into the distance. “So Hannah's saying that Mrs. P doesn't particularly like animals but because she's a sympathetic kind of person, she should react okay to Silver. Is that it?”

I nodded slowly. We all knew that Mrs. Pridham was kind and sympathetic, but I was thinking she'd have to be the most sympathetic person under the sun to forgive us for keeping Silver a secret and for actually encouraging her to stay at Forest Ash.

As soon as school had finished, the six of us made our way back to Forest Ash, planning when would be the best time for the others to get to see Silver and trying not to think about how we should break the news to Mrs. Pridham.

“We'd better go in pairs,” said Emily. “We don't want to frighten her when she's so close to giving birth. She didn't seem to mind when there was just three of us, but six might be a bit much, and if she got traumatized the kittens could be stillborn.”

“Oh that's terrible!” said Nicole, and I felt my heart beating faster at the thought.

“Just think, she might have had her kittens already!” said Antonia, brightening our moods.

“How long are cats pregnant for?” asked Nicole.

Emily pursed her lips. “I think it's eight weeks. Nothing like as long as humans anyway.”

“I wonder what the father looks like,” said Sasha. “I hope he's completely different from Silver, then the kittens will come out all patchy and fab.”

I was listening to my friends chattering away, but I couldn't join in, because I kept thinking that I needed to tell Mrs. Pridham about the pregnant cat in our attic, but I was dreading her reaction. What if she made Mr. Monk get rid of Silver
and
her kittens? I was clinging like mad to what Hannah had said, and hoping that Mrs. P would at least let us keep Silver and then advertise the kittens so they would go to good homes. But I felt heavy inside, full of worry about what might happen.

“Look, isn't that Mrs. P?” Izzy suddenly said as we neared Forest Ash. “Who's that she's with?”

“It's Mr. Pridham, isn't it?” Sasha answered. “But what are they looking at?”

We hardly ever see Mr. Pridham at Forest Ash because he works such long hours and isn't anything to do with the school at all. He's a very nice man, quite quiet and gentle. If he comes across any of us he always says, “Hello there!” and breaks into a big smile, as though he knows exactly who we are, but actually we've realized he hasn't got a clue, he's just being friendly.

“And look, there's Mr. Monk walking round to join them,” said Nicole.

He was. And his head was tilted back, his hand shielding his eyes from the bright sun just like Mr. and Mrs. Pridham. My heart started pounding as I realized exactly what had grabbed their attention. “Oh no! It's the attic window!”

“What about it?” asked Sasha.

“I opened it, remember. And they've noticed.”

We all stopped in our tracks about twenty-five metres away from where the three adults were standing, still staring up at the window.

“Just walk straight in to Forest Ash as though it's nothing to do with us,” said Emily. “They probably won't even notice us from round the side there.”

So that's what we did, a stiff, silent group, walking slowly so we could eavesdrop.

“Fancy me not spotting it!” Mr. Monk was saying in a bewildered voice. “I must be going mad! I could have sworn I left it shut.”

I felt myself tensing up, and beside me Emily did an over-the-top gulping noise.

“Come on!” I hissed. “Go inside.”

“Oh, girls…” called Mrs. Pridham, spotting us. “Well done for making Hannah feel at home.” I noticed her eyes were on me, warm and kind. “You worked some real magic on her – she was such a frightened soul before she spent that time with you.”