Skilley sat and licked a paw a token of his indifference As an added touch he stroked behind his ear I wasn’t aware you had a home Pinch Aye but I do And that there’s it He nodded toward the inn Hmmm odd that said Skilley A cozy tavern for a home and yet here you sit on the icy cobblestones pass ing the day with the likes of me Well it will be my ome soon you watch and see The place is ate up with mice and the master’s witless for want of a mousekiller The Cheese is looking for a mouser A not-unpleasant chill danced up Skilley’s spine Yes and I’m it Cross me and s’elp me I’ll rip out your But Skilley had dropped the thread 4
of the conversation A mouser eh A plan began to nibble at his mind a plan of such elegant simplicity he was amazed he hadn’t thought of it before Stretching lazily he rose and with a last twitch of his crooked tail said You are a cat among cats Pinch and I thank you For what the ginger cat snarled after him What’d I do Skilley didn’t answer He was already engrossed in the audacity of a scheme so bold so cunning it would surely set him up for the rest of his nine lives 5
Cat C H A P T E R T WO Cat Cat Cat Cat Cat What do you hear Pip Tell us what they’re say Shhhh Pip raised a single digit on his tiny paw and pressed it to his lips His fellow mice fell begrudgingly silent Pip closed his eyes and pressed a fuzzy delicate ear to the thin wall between himself and the chop room of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese To his dismay the wall was not thin enough He could catch only a word or two which made it difficult even for him to understand the language of the humans Human language was a talent he had mastered while living in the pocket of Nell the innkeeper’s daughter
As Pip strained to listen his thoughts returned to that blackest of days when his entire family including five brothers and sisters had been cruelly murdered by some unknown hand Croomes the cook Pip harbored no doubt there Her bloody cleaver was found nearby was it not Pip alone had been left alive unseen no doubt due to his unusually small size Nell had heard his squeaks and rescued him from the bloody carnage Her anger and distress was such that her breath came in gasps as she carried him away up up up the twisting winding impossible stairs of the inn She’d stopped only when she reached the safety of the attic Holding the frightened little thing in one cupped hand she’d used the other to search and find the bag of lamb’s wool She’d torn away a small cloud of it pressed it deep into her apron pocket and then with much tenderness she’d nestled Pip safely inside When she heard his hiccuped sobs Nell’s anger melted away replaced with a welling up of grief that was as much for herself as for the mouse Nell’s mother had not experienced a violent death Quite the opposite Her passing had followed a short and 7
