Princess Phoebe (8 page)

‘She can't stay with me for ever though,' she says, ‘just for a little while.'

‘She'll keep the foxes away from your chickens,' I say.

‘And scare the chickens herself! That's not much of an argument Ellie,' Mrs Henderson says, ‘but I'll have her while you think of a proper plan. Tell your parents, and ask them to help you.'

Tell my parents
? So after everything I've said, I've obviously failed completely to make Mrs Henderson understand what my parents are like. I'll just have to keep trying. While she gets the car out I try to explain things to Princess. Anyone who's hugged a greyhound knows that they have big deep chests that you have to get your arms right round and then very gently give a cuddle. They aren't rough and tumble animals, and their ears are the softest things in the world. Princess's look is full of trust and I feel terrible leaving her again.

‘Mrs Henderson's really kind though,' I tell her, ‘and I'll be back soon.' How I hope that's true.

On the way home I talk my head off. I don't know why. Mrs Henderson seems really interested so I find myself telling her all sorts of stuff, about Mum and Dad and my twin brothers and Nick, and how I don't fit in anywhere as everyone's either older than me, or younger, or a twin. She doesn't say much, just lets me rattle on. I'm sure Mum would have told me to shut up after five minutes, but Mrs Henderson actually seems to want to hear. I even explain about my friend Jan and her gran, and say I wish I'd got a gran too, because they seem like people who have time for you. The only thing she asks about is Margaret's allotment. She asks me what Margaret grows there. I can't think why
she wants to know that, and I realise I don't have a clue. I tell her I think it's mainly beans.

The journey passes quickly and soon we come to the parkways and roundabouts of home. Somehow I manage to persuade Mrs Henderson, since it's still not 10 o'clock, to take me to Jan's in the hope that I haven't been missed.

‘I should really take you to your house,' she keeps saying.

But I say, ‘
No! Please
. They all think I'm at Jan's. If I turn up in your car they'll make me tell everything and then they'll find out where Princess is, and then Frank will get her.'

‘All right,' Mrs Henderson sighs in resignation. ‘But I want to see this Jan, and know that you're with her before I agree to leave.'

I write my mobile number down for her, explaining that there isn't a phone in our house because we couldn't pay the bill and they cut us off. She writes down her address and number, and gives me a stern look.

‘No more getting in the backs of vans,' she says.

‘I won't,' I say, and thank her for everything.

Jan comes to the door and as I wave goodbye to Mrs Henderson I'm dragged into the house by my t-shirt and Jan goes nuts.

‘Where have you been? I've been completely freaked! Look at the state of you! I didn't know what to tell them. Who was that woman in the car? I thought you'd been murdered! Why didn't you phone? Call yourself a friend. How d'you think I've been feeling?'

‘I'm all right,' I say, as soon as I can get a word in. ‘Have they missed me?'

‘Not yet,' she says, ‘but they could have.'

‘I left my mobile in Nick's van,' I say, ‘so I couldn't get in touch with you. I'm really sorry.'

‘Wait while I phone Gran,' says Jan. ‘She'll be getting worried too. I'm supposed to be up there by 10 o'clock.' Little Jade comes rushing over to sniff me. She can probably smell Princess on my clothes. I feel a stab of longing for my dog, but tell Jade that Princess will be lying in the sun with an old sheepdog, and is safe.

‘We'll go and sit in the garden,' says Jan crossly, ‘and you can tell me what's been going on.' She gets some cans of cream soda from the enormous fridge in her kitchen and we go out into the sun. For the second time that day I have to explain the happenings of the night before.

Jan's furious.

‘
Stupid or what
?' is all she keeps saying.

‘But I went to see Princess,' I point out. ‘What else was I supposed to do?'

‘
Not
that!' Jan fumes. ‘What if Frank had found you in his van? He'd have murdered you and I'd have had to explain. Did you think about me
at all
?'

No, I hadn't. ‘Sorry,' I say.

About an hour later I go home. I hope they'll all be out so I can get cleaned up without being seen, and I feel nervous that Nick might have found my mobile in his van. With my luck it has probably jumped out at him already, when he shifted the blankets or something. I can't face him being angry too.

‘Ellie?' calls Nick, as soon I open the back door, ‘is that you?'

He's in then, and worse, he has my mobile in his hand.

‘What was this doing in the back of my van? And this water and stuff?'

I look at him blankly, but he goes on without waiting for an answer.

‘What are you up to? If you thought you could come with me last night it's a good thing you didn't. Was that what you planned to do?'

‘Err, yes, I suppose so,' I mutter.

‘Well, you could have ended up in jail.' he says. ‘So it's a good thing you didn't. The cops were waiting for us. They chased us halfway round the countryside. I just hope Frank got away.'

‘Why?' I ask. ‘
Why
would you want Frank to get away?'

‘Because if Frank gets caught there'll be consequences,' says Nick.

I don't understand.

‘They
should
put him in jail,' I say, ‘for stealing my dog!'

‘Ellie,' Nick says gently, ‘it was wrong and mean of Frank to take Princess, but he has got a bit of a case. Queenie was his dog and so her puppies were his too.'

I start to argue, but what's the point? ‘Sorry,' I say instead, then turn and drag myself upstairs where I lock myself in the bathroom. As I go I hear Nick give a big sigh. I wash and find some less mucky clothes to put on, then lie down on my bed. I think Nick must have gone out again, but I'm wrong, because just as I'm about to drop off to sleep I hear Dad and Tag come in and, soon afterwards, raised voices downstairs..

‘You can't just do nothing, Dad!' Nick's saying, ‘it's going to be in a fortnight!'

‘Surely they won't do anything when it comes to it?' Dad asks. ‘Something will turn up. Why can't you leave it to me?'

‘I have left it to you and look what's happened – nothing! You haven't even told Pearl! Well, this is my last word. If you haven't told her by tonight then I'm going to. You should have talked to her weeks ago, instead of going out all dressed up in a suit and telling her you were going for a job interview.'

‘I was going for a job,' says Dad, ‘it just happened that the interview was on the same day as the court case.'

‘And what happened about that?' I hear Nick ask.

I can't hear properly what Dad says but it sounds like, ‘Nothing, same as usual.'

I get up and quietly open my bedroom door. Nick must have forgotten I'm upstairs. It's not often he gets angry and it worries me that he's shouting like that at Dad.
What are they on about
? I wonder. With the door open a crack I can hear better.

Dad says, ‘I just need to borrow a couple of thousand. I wondered if Frank might help.'

Nick shouts really loudly then, and I close the door as quickly as I opened it. He sounds absolutely crazy and I'm scared.

‘
No
! It's borrowing that's caused the trouble. Can't you see? And as for Frank! You'd have to be completely insane to have anything more to do with him.'

Nick slams out of the back door and a minute later his van engine starts up. There's a loud skid from his tyres as he sets off up the road.

It's money again for sure, because it always is. This time it sounds worse than usual though, and normally it's just Mum and Dad going on about it, not Nick as well. Poor Dad. Everyone seems to have a go at him. I want to run downstairs and sit on his knee and tell him not to worry but I know he'll be cross that I've heard the argument. So I stay where I am, lying on my bed in a miserable heap, wishing things weren't so complicated. I hear him boiling the kettle, then the sound of his chair creaking as he slumps down in to it, and then silence.

My thoughts turn to Princess.
How to get her back
? I imagine her in Mrs Henderson's kitchen, lying in the sun as she had that morning, and maybe with one ear stuck up, listening for me coming for her. And I wouldn't come.
But what can I do
? It is clear from the row between Dad and Nick that, as usual, everyone else's troubles in this family are getting more attention than mine. It's days since anyone other than Nick has even mentioned Princess's name. Why do they all care so much about money and boring things like rent, when there are so many more important things in life, like my greyhound?

I lie there making a list of my problems, until I drift off for a while. The next thing I hear is Jack and Patrick both crying at once downstairs and Mum banging plates and saucepans around the place.

I go down, remembering what's been said between Dad and Nick and wondering what it is that Dad has to tell Mum before Nick does.

‘Ah, Ellie, there you are,' says Mum, ‘just hold the baby will you, while I get his bottle and make Patrick's toast?' She looks her usual freaked-out self. She doesn't ask how I got on at Jan's so I suppose she's forgotten.

‘Where are David and Sam?' I ask.

‘They've gone to get chips for lunch,' says Mum.

‘Cool,' I say. I'm starving. It's hours since Mrs Henderson's toast. I pick up Jack and jiggle him around till he stops crying and gives me one of his toothless grins.

‘I'll want you to help me next week Ellie,' Mum says, as she hands me the salt and vinegar to put on the table. ‘I'm going down to the council to tell them they've got to find us a bigger place. I'm going crazy here with all of us and no space. I'll want you to look after Jack and Patrick while I'm talking to the Man.'

Oh great
, I think. Hours of pushing the pram up and down a smelly council office and trying to stop Patrick running off, while Mum queues up to speak to a man who'll put her in an even worse mood than usual. But before I can say anything, Dad interrupts. He's been so quiet in his chair I'd forgotten he was there.

‘I'll go Pearl,' he says.

‘You?' says Mum. ‘You don't usually go down there. Are you sure? D'you promise?'

‘Yes,' says Dad. He seems about to go on and say something else when there's a loud banging on the door.

‘Frank,' says Dad.

I try my best to sink through the floor, but in reality I can only sit in the corner of one of the chairs and concentrate on feeding Jack. I try to breathe normally in case Frank can hear my heart hammering. He comes lumbering in and without saying hello, he lowers himself down into his usual place on the sofa. I can feel him looking at me, hard.

‘I'm missing a dog Charlie,' he says. ‘I had her last night in my van, and when I got to my brother Alex's place she'd turned into thin air.'

‘I heard you had a spot of bother last night,' says Dad.

‘You could say that,' says Frank. ‘But it's this dog I'm thinking of. I just want to know if your Nick, or even your little girl here,' and he looks at me again, ‘might have some information for me. The dog I lost looked a lot like the one she had for a while.'

‘How could Ellie have anything for you,' says Dad, ‘she's eleven!'

‘Eleven she might be,' says Frank, ‘but that doesn't stop her being a thief.'

‘Don't be ridiculous,' says Dad, but then Mum comes round to the sofa and stands in front of Frank. She raises her voice.

‘Don't you go calling my girl a thief,' she says, ‘it's bad enough that you took Ellie's dog from her, but to come here accusing her of stealing it back is going too far! Does she look like she's got a dog?'

Frank seems surprised. It must be a shock, Mum standing up to him.

‘Where's your Nick?' he asks instead.

‘At work,' says Mum, ‘and he hasn't got any dogs either!'

‘All right, all right,' says Frank. ‘Calm down Pearl. Don't get in a sweat.' Frank's voice goes quiet and he stares straight at Mum. ‘The dog disappeared somewhere between Lennie putting her in my van, and me looking to get her out again when we reached my brother's place. Lennie swears he shut the door when he got out to be sick, and I know I only threw one dog out in the woods when we stopped the second time. So how d'you explain that Pearl? That's my question.'

‘How would I know? And what were you throwing a dog out into the woods for?' asks Mum, her voice still indignant.

‘Past its best,' says Frank leaning back on the sofa, as if that explained everything. ‘There's a rescue just down the road from there and they usually pick them up.'

‘If they don't get run over first,' Mum says.

‘That too, Pearl. It's a tough life,' he says, as he gets to his feet again and looks in my direction. ‘Only I can't just leave it, that's the problem. No one gets one over on Frank Skally and I think that might be what's happening here. So I'll be making further enquiries.'

Then as he goes to leave he turns to Dad and says, ‘By the way Charlie, I drove past your dad's place on the way to my brother's last night. We took a bit of a trip to get out of the way of the cops. I saw a ‘Sold' sign on the big house. Does your dad still work on the farm?'

‘He's retired,' replies Dad.

I can tell Dad doesn't like speaking to Frank, especially after Mum's had a go, but perhaps he wants to keep in with him in case he needs to borrow money. It's always like this. Nick's told me that people who hate Frank still speak to him, in case they get on the wrong side of him. But I long for Dad to tell Frank to get lost, and I'd like it if he smacked him one too. Yet the two of them carry on talking as if they're friends.