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Upstairs, Olivia got ready for bed. But she couldn’t stop thinking about Smudge, alone in the dark kitchen. Perhaps she should just go and check on him?

Ben was lying on his bed reading, and he glanced up as Olivia went past.“Mum’ll hear if you sneak downstairs, Olivia. She always catches me.”

Olivia leaned round his bedroom door.“How did you know what I was doing?” she hissed. “I might just have been going to the loo!”

Ben shrugged.“I could tell by the way you were looking at the stairs.” He frowned. “Hey, is that Smudge making that noise?”

From downstairs came a faint but pitiful wailing, along with a scratching sound. The noise of kitten claws scrabbling at a kitchen door.

Olivia hung over the banisters, listening to the sad little howls.

Eventually Mum came out of the living room, frowning.“I hope he’s all right,” she said over her shoulder to Dad. “Oh, Olivia. Is he keeping you awake?”

“Can’t we let him come upstairs?” Olivia pleaded. “He sounds so lonely.”

Mum sighed and glanced at Dad.

Dad shrugged.“Well, he is house-trained.”

“Thank you!” Olivia smiled with delight, and ran down the stairs to open the kitchen door.

Smudge shot out, and she gathered him into her arms, cuddling him against her pyjamas.“Don’t worry, Smudge,” she whispered. “I’ll look after you.” She carried him upstairs, and put him down gently on her bed.

Smudge looked around interestedly, and padded up and down Olivia’s duvet, inspecting it carefully. Olivia tried not to laugh. He looked so serious. Then he marched over to her pillow, curled himself up in the hollow between the pillow and the duvet, and went to sleep.

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Chapter Three

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Smudge had only been there a few days, but Olivia’s house was definitely his home now. He had explored every possible hole and hiding place, and got stuck in several of them. But Olivia or Ben or their parents were always there to rescue him. Except for today. Dad was at work, Olivia and Ben had gone to school that morning, and as it was Thursday their mum had to go into school to work too. Smudge was all on his own for the first time, and he didn’t like it. He wandered around the house, his tail twitching. He’d already been into every room that was open, and he knew that no one was there, but he kept hoping that maybe if he looked again he would find somebody.

He padded back into the kitchen, and sniffed hopefully at the door. Olivia and Ben had taken him out into the garden when they got home from school yesterday. It had been his first taste of the outside world, and his ears flickered back and forth as he remembered watching the birds, and chasing after the little jingly ball that Olivia had rolled along the patio.

There it was, in the corner by the kitchen cupboards. Smudge trotted over and patted the ball with one paw. It rolled along, the little bell jingling, and he pounced on it. The ball slid along the polished tiles, and so did Smudge, rolling over on to his back, wriggling and clawing at it. But then the ball slid away from his paws and stopped against the kitchen table leg, and it wasn’t as much fun any more.

Grumpily, Smudge lay there on his back, licking his paws. He’d already had quite a long sleep in the recycling box on the kitchen counter. (Ben had emptied it that morning, and it was just the right size for Smudge to feel cosy in, much better than his basket.) Now he wanted someone to play with.

Perhaps by the time he got upstairs, Olivia would be back in her bedroom? He trotted through to the hallway and started to struggle up the stairs.

He was big enough to climb them, but it was an effort, and he had to scrabble and heave himself up each step. He sat down for a little while at the top of the stairs, his sides heaving, and then he crept along the landing and nosed his way round Olivia’s door.

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She wasn’t there. The room was empty.

Smudge crept under Olivia’s bed. He picked his way between two tottering piles of books, and pounced on the flex of Olivia’s hair-dryer. Then, yawning, he snuggled himself inside her gym bag. He liked small spaces, and climbing the stairs had worn him out. When he woke up, surely they would all be back?

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“I can’t believe it’s only lunchtime,” Olivia muttered, checking her watch for the hundredth time.

“Are you missing Smudge?” Lucie grinned at her.

Olivia nodded.“It’s the first time we’ve left him alone all day. I really hope he’s OK. He nearly climbed out of the living-room window yesterday. I caught him just as he was sticking his head out.”

“He still isn’t allowed out then? Isn’t he old enough?”