By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс

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СКАЧАТЬ need some food.’ He sat down on one of the breakfast bar stools, holding the cat gently but firmly. ‘Have you got a cardboard box we could use as a bed for it?’

      She shook her head as she slopped milk into a saucer and then began to chop some chicken up. ‘I can fetch a blanket if you like? I’ve several in the airing cupboard.’

      ‘Anything.’ The cat had calmed right down but was still shaking. He loosed one of his hands enough to begin stroking it and to his surprise it didn’t squirm or try to escape, but lay on his lap as though it was spent. Which it probably was, he thought pityingly. How long it had been fending for itself was anyone’s guess, but it hadn’t done very well by the look of it. He could imagine it had been a pet that had got pregnant and—with Christmas coming up and all the expense—had become expendable to its delightful owners.

      Melanie brought the saucer of milk over and held it in front of the cat as it lay on his lap. It took seconds to finish the lot. Her voice thick with tears, she said, ‘The poor thing, Forde. How could someone dump a pretty little cat like this?’

      So she had come to the same conclusion as him. ‘Beyond me, but I’d like five minutes alone with them,’ he said grimly. ‘Try the chicken now. I don’t want to put it down yet in case it bolts and we frighten it trying to catch it again.’

      The chicken went the same way as the milk. Opening his coat, he slipped the cat against the warmth of his cashmere jumper and half closed the edges of the coat around it, making a kind of cocoon. ‘It needs to warm up,’ he said to Melanie, ‘and holding it like this is emphasising we don’t mean it any harm. That’s more important than anything right now.’

      ‘Shall I get some more milk and chicken?’ she asked, putting out a tentative hand and gently stroking the little striped head. The cat tensed for a moment and then relaxed again. It was clearly exhausted.

      ‘No, we don’t want to give it too much too quickly and make it sick if it’s been without food for a while. Leave it for an hour or two and then we’ll try again.’

      She nodded, her hand dropping away. Then she looked him straight in the eyes and said honestly, ‘I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life. I didn’t know what to do.’

      Anyone. Not him specifically. But again, better than nothing. He grinned. ‘I left my white steed in the car park but it’s good to know I can still warm a fair maiden’s heart. Talking of which, there’s various bits and pieces in the car I need to fetch in a while.’

      ‘Bits and pieces?’

      ‘I wanted to make sure you were stocked up with provisions in view of the snow that’s coming.’ Considering how well he’d done with the moggy he thought he could push his luck. ‘And I was hoping we could perhaps share a meal?’ he added with a casualness that didn’t quite come off. ‘Before I go back?’

      Melanie’s big brown eyes surveyed him solemnly. ‘That would be lovely,’ she said simply.

      The cat chose that moment to begin purring and Forde knew exactly how it felt. To hide the surge of elation he’d felt at her words, he smiled, saying, ‘Listen to that. This is a nice cat. In spite of what’s happened to it it’s still prepared to trust us.’

      ‘I’ll make us a coffee. It’s decaf now, I’m afraid.’

      ‘Decaf’s fine.’ Mud mixed with water would have been fine right at that moment.

      He drank the coffee with the cat still nestled against him, now fast asleep. They talked of inconsequential things, both carefully feeling their way. Outside the wind grew stronger, howling like a banshee and rattling the windows.

      After a while Melanie fetched a blanket from her little airing cupboard and they made a bed for the cat in her plastic laundry basket. They fed it more milk and chicken before Forde gently extracted it from his coat and laid it in the basket, whereupon it went straight to sleep again. Melanie had placed the basket next to the radiator in the kitchen and it was as warm as toast.

      ‘It’s still a very young cat,’ said Forde as they stood looking down at the little scrap, ‘but those are definitely kittens in there and if I’m not much mistaken she’s due pretty soon.’

      ‘How soon?’ Melanie showed her alarm. She liked animals but she had never had much to do with any while growing up. As for the mechanics of a cat giving birth …

      ‘Hard to tell. Could be hours, could be days.’

      ‘But time enough to get her to a vet?’

      ‘That might freak her out.’ Forde was thinking. ‘How far is your nearest vet?’

      Melanie stared at him blankly. ‘I’ve absolutely no idea.’

      ‘OK. Look in the telephone directory while I get the stuff in from the car and find a local vet. It’s—’ he glanced at his watch ‘—getting on for five o’clock but they should still be working. I’ll give them a ring and ask if someone can come and make a house call.’

      ‘Would they do that if they don’t know us?’ Melanie asked doubtfully. ‘It’s not as if we’re clients, is it?’

      ‘We won’t know that till we ask.’

      Without thinking about it she reached up and looped her arms round his neck, kissing him hard and then stepping back a pace before he could respond.

      He stared at her, clearly taken aback. ‘What was that for?’

      ‘For caring.’

      ‘About the moggy?’

      ‘No, not just the cat,’ she said softly.

      Something told him not to push it at this stage. ‘I’ll get the food in. You find that number.’

      When he called the veterinary surgery, which was situated some fifteen miles away in the nearest small market town, the receptionist was less than helpful, although she did eventually let him speak to one of the vets after Forde wouldn’t take no for an answer. As luck would have it, the woman was young, newly qualified and enthusiastic, added to which Forde used his considerable charm along with offering to pay the call-out fee with his credit card over the telephone and any further costs with cash before she left the cottage.

      But Melanie, listening to Forde’s end of the exchange, was quite convinced it was the charm that had swung it when the vet said she would be with them within the hour.

      Once she began to unpack the bags Forde had brought in she could hardly believe the amount of food he’d bought. A whole cooked ham, a small turkey, a tray of delicious looking canapés, a mulled-cranberry-and-apple-chutney-topped pork pie, cheese of all descriptions, jars of preserves, a Santa-topped Christmas cake and a box of chocolate cup cakes, mince pies, vegetables, nuts, fruit, and still the list went on.

      ‘Forde, this would feed a family of four for a week,’ she said weakly when the last bag was empty. ‘There’s only me. Whatever possessed you?’

      ‘I must have known you’d have a visitor.’ He smiled at her over the heaped breakfast bar as she began to stuff what she could in her fridge.

      ‘A visitor?’ She glanced at him, colour in her cheeks.

      He СКАЧАТЬ