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Aunt Zelda

Good , everyone!" Aunt Zelda&039;s cheery voice called out to the pile of quilts and their inhabitants by the fire Boy 412 woke up in a panic, expecting to have to tu Army bed and line up outside in thirty seconds flat for roll call He stared unco like his usual reat pleasure in chucking buckets of icy water over anyone who didn&039;t jump out of bed immediately The last time that had happened to Boy 412, he had had to sleep in a cold, wet bed for days before it dried out Boy 412 leaped to his feet with a terrified look on his face but relaxed a little when he noticed that Aunt Zelda did not actually have a bucket of icy water in her hand Rather, she was carrying a tray laden with e pile of hot buttered toast

"Now, young le yourself back down and drink this while it&039;s still hot" She offered a est slice of toast to Boy 412, who looked, she thought, like he could do with fattening up

Boy 412 sat back dorapped his quilt around him and somearily drank the hot milk and ate his buttered toast In between sips of ray eyes ith apprehension

Aunt Zelda settled herself down on an old chair beside the fire and threw a few logs onto the e, and Aunt Zelda sat contentedly warlanced at Aunt Zelda whenever he thought she wouldn&039;t notice Of course she did notice, but she was used to looking after frightened and injured creatures, and she saw Boy 412 as no different froularly nursed back to health In fact, he particularly rehtened rabbit she had rescued froo The Lynx had been taunting the rabbit for hours, nipping its ears and throwing it about, enjoying the rabbit&039;s frozen terror before it would eventually decide to break its neck When, in an overenthusiastic throw, the Lynx had hurled the terrified animal into her path, Aunt Zelda had snatched the rabbit up, stuffed it into the large bag she always took out with her and gone straight ho for its lost prey

That rabbit had spent days sitting by the fire looking at her in just the same way that Boy 412 was now Aunt Zelda reflected as she busied herself with the fire, careful not to frighten Boy 412 by looking at hi, the rabbit had recovered, and she was sure Boy 412 would too

Boy 412s sidelong glances took in Aunt Zelda&039;s frizzy gray hair, rosy cheeks, comfortable smile and friendly witch&039;s brilliant blue eyes He needed quite a few glances to take in her large patchwork dress, which ht be, especially when she was sitting down It gave Boy 412 the ie patchwork tent and had just, that veryon Briefly, a sht

Aunt Zelda noticed the hint of a smile and was pleased She had never in her life seen such a pinched and frightened-looking child, and it upset her to think about what could have made Boy 412 beco Army in her occasional visits to the Port, but she had never really believed all the terrible stories she had heard Surely no one could treat children in such a way? But now she began to wonder whether there was more truth in them than she had realized

Aunt Zelda sroan she heaved herself out of the chair and pottered off to fetch soone Nicko and Jenna woke up Boy 412 stared at the only too well Jenna&039;s arht before But Jenna just smiled sleepily at him and said, "Did you sleep well?"

Boy 412 nodded and stared at his alrunted a hello in Jenna and Boy 412&039;s direction, grabbed a slice of toast and was surprised to find how hungry he was Aunt Zelda arrived back at the fireside carrying a jug of hot milk

"Nicko!" Aunt Zelda sed a bit since I last saw you, that&039;s for sure You were just a little baby then Those were the days when I used to visit your s Happy days"

Aunt Zelda sighed and passed Nicko his hot milk

"And our Jenna!" - Aunt Zelda smiled a broad ss became very difficult after thewell, after a while But Silas has beenlad that Aunt Zelda had said "our" She took theof hotat the fire

A contented silence fell for a while, broken only by the sound of Silas and Maxie still snoring upstairs and toast being ainst the wall by the fire, thought she could hear a faint sound offrom inside the wall, but as that was obviously inored it But the ht Jenna, crosser She put her ear to the wall and heard the distinctive sounds of an angry cat "There&039;s a cat in the wall" said Jenna

"Go on," said Nicko "I don&039;t know that one"

"It&039;s not a joke There is a cat in the wall I can hear it"

Aunt Zelda juot about Bert! Jenna love, could you just open Bert&039;s door for her, please?" Jenna looked confused Aunt Zelda pointed to a small wooden door set into the bottoed at the little door It flew open, and out waddled an angry duck

"I&039;ized Aunt Zelda "Have you been waiting for ages?"

Bert waddled unsteadily over the heap of quilts and sat herself down by the fire The duck was cross She very deliberately turned her back on Aunt Zelda and ruffled her feathers Aunt Zelda leaned over and stroked her

"Let me introduce you to my cat, Bert," she said

Three pairs of bewildered eyes stared at Aunt Zelda Nicko inhaled hisBoy 412 looked disappointed He was just starting to like Aunt Zelda and now it turned out she was as mad as the rest of them

"But Bert&039;s a duck," said Jenna She was thinking that soht away before they all got into the let&039;s-pretend-the-duck&039;s-a-cat-just-to-hu

"Ah, yes Well, of course she is a duck at the moment In fact, she has been a duck for a while now, haven&039;t you, Bert?"

Bert gave a small meow

"You see, ducks can fly and swie in theher feet wet, and Bert was no exception So she decided to become a duck and enjoy the water And you do, don&039;t you, Bert?"

There was no answer Like the cat she really was, Bert had fallen asleep by the fire

Jenna tentatively stroked the duck&039;s feathers, wondering if they felt like cat fur, but they were soft and smooth and felt entirely like duck feathers "Hello, Bert," whispered Jenna

Nicko and Boy 412 said nothing Neither of the to a duck

"Poor old Bert," said Aunt Zelda "She often gets stuck outside But ever since the Quake Ooze Brownies got in through the cat tunnel I&039;ve tried to keep the cat door CharmLocked You have no idea what a shock it was to co with those nasty little creatures, like a sea ofbony fingers into everything and staring atthey could andelse they couldn&039;t And then, of course, as soon as they saw " Aunt Zelda shuddered "It set art, I don&039;t knohat I would have done I spent weeks cleaning the ain Talking of ?"

A little later, Jenna and Nicko felt a lot cleaner after Aunt Zelda had shown the bubbled up into the little bath hut in the backyard Boy 412 had refused to have anything to do with it and had stayed huddled by the fire, his red hat crammed down over his ears and his sailor&039;s sheep-skin jacket still wrapped around him Boy 412 felt as if the cold of the previous day was still deep in his bones, and he thought he would never again feel warm Aunt Zelda let him sit by the fire for a while, but when Jenna and Nicko decided to go out and explore the island she shooed Boy 412 out with the Nicko a lantern Nicko gave Aunt Zelda a quizzical look What were they going to need a lantern for at midday?

"Haar," said Aunt Zelda

"Ha?" asked Nicko

"Haar Because of the haar, the salt marsh mist that rolls in from the sea," explained Aunt Zelda "Look, we&039;re surrounded by it today" She waved her hand around in a grand sweep "On a clear day you can see the Port fro low today, and we&039;re high enough to be above it, but if it rises it&039;ll come over us too Then you&039;ll need the lantern"