Free The Secret Kitten by Holly Webb Page B

Perhaps she would go and see what was happening.
    But then the little boy shrieked with laughter, as kitten whiskers tickled his fingers. The kitten ran back and buried herself among the rags again. At last she heard their footsteps echoing back down the alleyway and she relaxed a bit. Then a tabby-striped face pushed in through the gap between the boxes and she darted forward to nuzzle happily at her mother. The thin tabby cat had been hiding out of the way until the little boy and his mum had gone. She had always been a stray and she wasn’t very fond of people. People meant food, but sometimes they threw things and shouted at her for scrabbling around in bins. She avoided them as much as she could.
    The tabby kittens piled in after her and tore at the ham sandwich she’d found for them, scrapping and hissing over the delicious pieces of ham. The kittens were eight weeks old and they were all still drinking her milk as well as eating food, but they were always hungry.
    The black-and-white kitten finished her piece of sandwich and snuggled luxuriously up against her mother. She was warm and safe and full of food. Her brother and sister flopped down on top of her in a softly purring pile of fur and all four of them curled up to sleep.

     
     

    “So, what was it like?” Gran asked, smiling at Lucy, as they walked home from school on Monday. She didn’t need to ask how school had been for William. He was bouncing around the pavement in front of them with his new best friend, Harry, doing ninja kicks.
    “It was all right,” Lucy said, not very enthusiastically. It was true. No one had been mean and she’d understood the work they were doing. Emma, the girl who’d been told to look after her, had been nice and had made sure she knew where everything was.
    But she’d stayed on the sidelines of all the games. And everyone knew secret jokes about the teachers that shedidn’t and there was no one who knew all the fun things about her, the things her friends back home knew. She was just a rather boring new girl.
    Gran put an arm round her shoulders. “It’ll get better, Lucy, I promise. In a month’s time, it won’t feel like a new school any more.”
    Lucy blinked. She hadn’t expected Gran to notice that she wasn’t really happy. “I suppose so,” she murmured and smiled gratefully at Gran.
    “Why don’t we stop in at the baker’s and get a treat? To celebrate school being just about all right?” Gran suggested.
    William turned round mid-air and came racing back to them, saying goodbye to Harry. “Cakes? Can we?Can I have a marshmallow ice cream?”
    Gran made a face. “I suppose so. I don’t know how you can eat those things, though.”
    “It’s really easy,” William told her solemnly and Lucy giggled, feeling the nervous lump inside her melt away for the first time that day.

     
     

    It was as they were coming out of the baker’s shop, each clutching a rustling paper bag, that Lucy first saw the kittens. She wondered afterwards if they’d heard the bags crinkling, and were hoping that she and William might drop some food.
    She’d seen a flash out of the corner of her eye, a darting movement in the alleyway. Lucy almost didn’t stop to look at first – she’d thought that it was probably just pigeons, hopping about after crumbs – but then something had made her turn back and look properly.
    The soft grey shadows peering out behind the bins had been cats! No, kittens . Tiny kittens, two of them, their green eyes round and huge in little striped faces.
    Lucy reached out her hand to grab at William, who was explaining very seriously to Gran that it was important to eat a marshmallow cone from the bottom up, as then you got to save the marshmallow for last.
    “Ow! What?”
    “Look…” Lucy whispered, pulling him closer so that he’d see. “But shh!”
    “What am I looking at and you didn’t have to grab me, Lucy, Dad says— Oh!”
    Gran peered over their heads. “Please tell me