Page 96 of The Christmas Retreat
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Max, it’s very kind of you to let me have it while I look for somewhere permanent.’
‘No problem,’ he said. ‘I can give you the keys now, so you can come back and measure up to see where things will fit and for curtains, that kind of thing,’ he said, then showed us the Calor gas containers outside, and explained where to get new ones delivered.
‘I think it’s a cute little house,’ Cariad said. ‘And I can easily walk here on my own to visit you, Ginny.’
‘You can if you check she isn’t working first,’ Rhys told her firmly.
‘As long as it isn’t first thing in the morning, I’ll always be glad to see you, Cariad,’ I said.
As we went out and Max locked the door behind us, Cariad said, ‘It’s a dear little cottage really. All it needs is a cat.’
‘I think I should wait till I’m permanently settled—’ I began.
But Max was already eagerly saying: ‘Funny you should say that, because if you want a kitten, I’ve got four I’m trying to find homes for. Our cat went out on the tiles, so goodness knows what the father is, but you could come and look at them.’
‘It’s up to you, Ginny,’ said Rhys, looking amused as I hesitated. But Cariad pleaded so much to go and see them that in the end I gave in.
Max drove us up to the castle in his Range Rover, where he and his family had one self-contained wing of the house to themselves, with an enviably large kitchen where we found the new feline mother and her kittens in a basket by the range.
Cassy was a large, fluffy, black-and-white cat, but her four offspring were like a kitten selection box, as if nature had gone out of her way to provide as much variety as possible.
There was a tabby, a ginger, a fluffy black one and an entirely white one with yellowish-green eyes, which Cariad pounced on.
‘Oh, look, isn’t this one sweet?’
But almost automatically I’d picked up the black one, the smallest but fluffiest of them all, and saw that it wasn’t completely black after all: there was a little whorl of white hair in the centre of its forehead, like a star.
It opened a minute mouth, showing a pink tongue, and snuggled under my chin.
The mother didn’t seem to mind the removal of her kittens in the least.
‘That one’s a girl,’ Max told me. ‘I think she’s taken to you,’ he added hopefully.
‘Daddy, canwehave a kitten?’ predictably demanded Cariad, who was now sitting on the floor with the white kitten in her arms.
‘I think you’d have to ask Auntie Nerys, and also Bronwen, since she’s likely to be doing the toilet training,’ he said. ‘Nor am I sure how Pompey would take to a kitten arriving on the scene.’
‘He’d probably treat it with lofty indifference,’ I said, as the black kitten cuddled up. ‘And since Snookums is used to a cat in the house, I don’t suppose he would mind.’
‘Traitor,’ said Rhys. ‘Cariad, if it’s all right with Bronwen and Nerys, you can have it, but you must ask first – and help to look after it.’
‘I will!’ she promised. ‘And Ginny, you said you would get a kitten to replace Mrs Snowboots.’
‘Notreplace,’ I said, because nothing could replace my beloved old cat. ‘But I did intend getting a kitten when I’d found a new cottage – I mean, apermanentone.’
The kitten took this moment to open its mouth and make the most pathetic little mewing noise I’d ever heard … and my fate was sealed. But then, let’s face it, I’d been lost from the moment I picked it up.
‘I think that one’s chosen you,’ said Rhys with a grin. ‘What will you call it?’
‘Snowflake,’ suggested Cariad. ‘That’s what the white mark looks like on her head.’
‘It does a bit, but it made me think of a star – so I’ll settle for that. What about yours, if you’re allowed to have it, Cariad?’
‘Snowy? It sort of goes with Snookums,’ she said.
‘Well, that’s two of them sorted, I hope,’ said Max. ‘I’ll keep those two for you. It’ll be another two or three weeks before they can leave their mother, even though Cassy already seems to have had enough of them!’
*
