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This time it was Jaide who glimpsed the long, feline figure of Custer prowling through the estate’s bushes and trees. The Warden didn’t acknowledge her, and neither did the smaller feline shape following at his heels. Ari kept up with Custer only by running at full pelt. Even as Jaide watched, he fell back into a winded lope and wiped his face with a paw, giving up the chase.
‘All finished?’ asked Thomas Solomon. Jaide turned. The security buggy had been the first to arrive.
‘Far from it, I’m afraid,’ said Rodeo Dave. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow first thing.’
‘No rest for the wicked, eh?’
Rodeo Dave didn’t smile. ‘It appears not.’
‘Guess I’d better do my rounds,’ Thomas Solomon said self-importantly. ‘Can’t stand around talking here all day.’
The golf buggy whizzed off and Jaide suppressed a smile, imagining what would happen if he bumped into Custer.
Susan’s car swept to a halt in front of them.
‘Right on time,’ she said as they clambered inside. ‘How was your afternoon?’
‘Very educational, I think,’ said Rodeo Dave. ‘The children learned that a castle’s solar has nothing to do with a solarium, and that being a second-hand bookseller is more about dust and cobwebs than actual books.’
Jack got in last. An orange shape slipped in with him, almost getting tangled in his feet along the way. He bent down and skritched the fur between Ari’s ears to cover him whispering, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve been patrolling with Custer,’ the cat said. ‘He’s been restless all day, like he’s sensing something suspicious. I thought he could use my help.’
‘Your help?’
‘On Kleo’s orders.’ The cat’s eyes narrowed. ‘What are you trying to say?’
‘Nothing. I’m sure Kleo knows what she’s doing.’
Tara reached down and pulled Ari up into her lap.
‘Oh, hello there,’ she said. ‘You look hungry. I wish I had something to give you.’
‘I like this girl,’ said Ari, though all Tara heard was a purr. ‘She should come round more often. Tell her to pack lunch next time.’
‘He’s always hungry,’ said Jaide, only half concentrating on the conversation. Susan was accelerating back along the drive. Soon the castle would vanish behind them. They had to find a way back to complete the search.
‘Rodeo Dave is coming back tomorrow, Mum,’ she said. ‘The library is really enormous. He could be there for weeks and weeks.’
‘Hmm? Oh, not quite that long,’ said Rodeo Dave. He seemed distracted, as if his mind was elsewhere.
‘It doesn’t seem fair that Dave should have to do it all alone,’ said Jack, following Jaide’s lead. ‘He’s got his bookshop to run. What’s going to happen if he’s not there?’
‘I thought Rennie was helping out,’ said Susan.
‘That’s true—’ Rodeo Dave started to say.
‘Yes, but it’s not the same,’ said Jaide. ‘Can we help, Mum? It would only take a couple of days. And it’s not as if we do anything interesting at school, anyway. We’ll learn many more interesting things in a castle than Mr Carver’s classroom.’
Susan glanced at them in the rear-vision mirror.
‘You’re as persuasive as your father,’ she said. ‘Both of you. What about you, Tara? Are you trying to skip school as well?’
‘No . . .’ said Tara. ‘I don’t think my parents would let me, and anyway, that place has lots of rats and mice. I hate rats. Even Mr Carver’s nose-flute music is better than rats.’
‘So it hasn’t been all fun and games, then,’ said Susan. ‘And you certainly look like you’ve been put to good use.’
‘We have,’ said Jaide. ‘We’re exhausted.’
Susan’s gaze shifted to Rodeo Dave. ‘Have they really been helpful?’
Rodeo Dave didn’t answer for a moment, as if the question had to travel a long way to reach wherever he had gone.
‘What? Oh, yes, I’d have to say—’
‘I guess it’s okay, then. They’re all yours.’
The twins cheered. Ari put his paws over his ears, and Susan raised a hand for silence.
‘Just for tomorrow,’ she said. ‘After that, you must return to school.’
‘We will, Mum,’ said Jack.
Jaide promised, too. ‘Thanks, Mum!’
Tara looked as though she might be regretting her decision, and surprisingly Rodeo Dave didn’t look entirely relieved, either. Jaide had thought he would be glad for the help, but instead he said nothing, his posture tense and unmoving, even as Tara got carried away with a story about the ‘giant killer rat’ that had leaped out at them in an attic.
As they came into town, Susan said, ‘Now, Dave, I’ll drop you home first, then I’ll take the kids to see their grandmother.’
The twins sat up straighter, excited by the thought, and Rodeo Dave started out of his daze, too.
‘She’s well enough for visitors?’ he asked.
‘I hope so. Doctor Witworth said we should swing by on the way through, just in case.’
‘May I come with you?’
‘Family only, I’m afraid. Tara will have to stay in the waiting room. You don’t mind, do you?’ she asked Tara. ‘They won’t be long.’
‘No problemo.’ She cupped Ari’s face in her hands and gave it a smooch. ‘Ari will keep me company.’
‘Kill – me – now,’ the cat forced out.
‘I don’t think Ari will be allowed in the hospital, Tara,’ said Susan.
‘Cats and booksellers,’ said Rodeo Dave, reaching around from the front seat to save Ari. ‘We’ve got to stick together, eh? Never mind. I’ll give you a snack when we get back to the shop. Maybe Kleo will be there to keep us company.’
‘If she’s not,’ Ari said, ‘can I have her snack, too?’
Rodeo Dave, perhaps understanding without hearing the actual words, smiled and tickled him under the chin.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Sleeper
SUSAN DROPPED OFF RODEO DAVE and Ari at the Book Herd, then turned the car around and drove across town to the hospital, where she parked under a chestnut tree whose spreading arms easily covered the car, and several others besides. The hospital was an uninspiring single-storey building with none of the glamour and excitement hospitals sometimes had in movies. It seemed completely full of old people. Even the nurses were old.
Susan walked up to the nurses’ station. ‘Is she . . . ?’
‘Very restless this afternoon, Sue,’ said a stout nurse with a beard that looked far from sanitary. ‘Doctor Witworth prescribed a stronger sedative. It’s probably taking effect now, but you can go through and see how she is.’
Susan nodded and led the children deeper into the hospital until she reached a closed door with a low bench outside.
‘Wait here,’ she told them. ‘I’ll just check.’
She ducked through the door, leaving Tara and the twins standing awkwardly outside. None of them said anything. Jack and Jaide strained to hear what was going on inside the room, but could hear only mumbled voices.
Susan returned. ‘Go on,’ she told the twins. ‘She’s a bit groggy but awake.’
Jaide took a deep breath and walked through the door. Jack followed more hesitantly. He didn’t know what to expect. Would Grandma X look as she usually did, or would her head be bandaged? Would there be horrible bruises . . . or worse?
In the end, she looked unchanged, apart from the fact that she was in a hospital gown and was lying propped up in a hospital bed, with her pure white hair spread out on her pillow. She looked much smaller than usual – and that, somehow, was far worse than anything Jack had imagined. The room was dimly lit and smelled of antiseptic. It looked like a place someone went to die, not get better.
‘Come here, dear troubletwisters,’ Grandma X said, waving them closer, one on either side of the bed. She hugged them tightly, her arms just as strong as ever. ‘The doctors, blast them wi
th a thousand curses, insist on keeping me calm and relaxed, not realising that keeping me here is having the exact opposite effect. I’m sorry your studies have been interrupted. I hope there have been no’ – she glanced at the door – ‘unexpected catastrophes?’
They assured her there hadn’t been. And apart from the matter of one small bridge, that was the entire truth.
‘We’ve been out at the Rourke Estate with Rodeo Dave,’ Jaide said.
‘Really?’ Grandma X said. ‘Kleo sneaked in earlier but she didn’t say anything about that. She tells me you’ve been in the blue room, helping our feathery guest to sleep.’
