Free Cat Among the Pumpkins by Mandy Morton Page A

that really is a breakthrough. Where do we go from here?’
    Hettie thought for a moment. ‘I think we should stick to our plan of taking anything interesting away with us. I’ll have to leave the will and all her private papers here so that the relatives can sort it out when they take over. I don’t suppose they’ll be too pleased about the Peggledrip windfall, but if you make a quick note of the details in the will before I put it back in the drawer we shouldn’t need to see it again. Did you find anything in the box room?’
    ‘Suitcases full of old photos, a chest of clothes, piles of newspapers and a couple of interesting things that we might want to take away with us.’
    Hettie waited for her friend to continue, but Tilly was rubbing her head as the after-effects of her fall caught up with her.
    ‘I think we should gather up as much as we can and get you home,’ Hettie said, concerned. ‘Do we need to take those cardboard tubes with us?’
    Tilly nodded. ‘Yes, and there’s a scrapbook still up there, full of newspaper cuttings. I opened one of the tubes. It was a family history chart, so I think we need to take all of them for a closer look.’
    Hettie suddenly remembered something that Teezle Makepeace had said and started lifting the cushions on the kitchen chairs. ‘No, there’s nothing under them.I wondered if that chart she hid from Teezle was still there. Anything under your cushion?’
    ‘No, nothing,’ Tilly said, leaving chocolate paw prints everywhere. She sat nursing her headache with one paw and noting down the details of Mavis Spitforce’s will with the other, while Hettie scurried round collecting as much material as the tartan shopper would allow. She tidied the kitchen, scooping the Halloween trappings off the floor and adding them to the already over-burdened trolley. Satisfied that the house was ready for the relatives to take over, the two cats and the tartan shopper made their way out into the winter’s morning, heading home just as the town came to life.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    It was a rare thing to see Lavender Stamp delivering the mail. The queen of the High Street Post Office rarely emerged from behind her counter, running her business with an iron claw and making it clear to all who engaged with her that nonsense of any sort would not be tolerated. Her customers feared her; her few friends endured her; and the cats that worked for her lasted as long as her temper would allow. Now, Lavender looked down her bespectacled nose as Hettie and Tilly approached. Admittedly, they looked suspicious, especially at such an early hour: the tartan shopper – already overloaded with what Tilly liked to call ‘tangible evidence’, a phrasegleaned from one of her books – now bore the extra burden of Tilly herself. Her fall had left her achy and slow, so Hettie had hauled her up onto the top of the shopper, hoping to speed up their progress.
    The pavement proved tricky in some places, and there was a bit of a spill outside Hambone’s when the cardboard tubes escaped into the gutter, but now, with home in sight, even Tilly had cheered up and was experiencing a fit of the giggles when Lavender Stamp loomed into view.
    ‘Miss Bagshot,’ began the postmistress ominously, ‘my wretched girl hasn’t turned up for work this morning, and as you are … er … out and about, shall we say, would you be kind enough to take the Butters’ letters to them?’ She reached into the post bag for a bundle of letters secured with an elastic band and shoved them into Hettie’s chest. ‘Oh, and before you go I have a parcel for you.’ This was said in a rather grudging fashion, as Lavender had never really approved of Hettie and her ‘escapades’; equally, it had to be said that Hettie had never really approved of Lavender Stamp, either, and both cats cherished the mutual indifference. Tilly took charge of the parcel and Hettie forced the bundle of letters into her mac pocket as Lavender stalked off down