The Secret of the Ginger Mice (29 page)

His arm muscles were screaming by the time they landed on a small beach at the western edge of the port but he didn't care. He nimbly alighted, followed by Alice, Tibby Rose, and Alex.

“I never thought I'd be glad to see Shambles again,” said Alice as they hurried along the quay. “But I am.”

Alistair felt his spirits rising. He was in Shetlock! Suddenly, the rigors of the day were forgotten, and he was no longer tired. “Let's go home!”

20

A
lice and Alex led the way through Shambles, and soon they were on the road which would, eventually, lead them to Smiggins.

The sun was finally setting as they drew alongside the river Alice and Alex had followed in the dark. Half hidden behind a delicate line of mauve clouds, the sun was visible only as a golden glow tinged with orange then red, reflected sharp and bright in the rippling river. Stretching away into the distance on the other side of the road were neat rows of olive trees and almond trees, interspersed with golden fields separated by lines of tall cypresses. The sensation of the warm gentle breeze on
his fur and the familiar scent of the flowers growing wild along the verge combined to awaken in Alistair a feeling of pure happiness.

They walked through the night, past the Riverside Inn (with a sniff from Alice) and past the point where the path over Mount Sharpnest diverged from the road (no one, not even Alex, suggested they take the shortcut). They walked through the next two days and nights as well, stopping to sleep when they could walk no longer, but never for more than a few hours at a time.

When they were hungry, they looked for nuts and berries, and Tibby would hunt for mushrooms. (Tibby was the only one who could tell the difference between a field mushroom and the similar-looking but poisonous Death Cap.) If it was nighttime, they would find a sheltered spot and gather dry leaves and grass for tinder and twigs for kindling, then Tibby Rose would start a fire burning while Alistair and his brother and sister looked for heavier sticks and branches with which to feed it.

Sometime after midnight on the third day, they reached Stubbins, and detoured through the sleeping streets to show Tibby Rose the house where they had lived with their parents.

Alistair moved away from the others to lean against the small picket fence. Gazing at the stone cottage, which was barely visible in the dark, he tugged at the ends of
his scarf and remembered again his final glimpse of his mother.
Keep it safe and never lose it
, she had said as she gave him the scarf. And then, unbidden, the tune Timmy the Winns had played by the fire near Pamplemouse filled his head. Was this where he had heard it before? Was it a song of his mother's? He began to hum, and then suddenly he was remembering the words—not the words Timmy had sung, though.

“A burning tree
A rock of gold
A fracture in the mountain's fold,
In the sun's last rays when the shadows grow long
And the rustling reeds play the Winns's north song.”

He was murmuring the words to himself when Tibby appeared at his elbow.

“Are you okay, Alistair?” she asked. “You look like you're a million miles away.”

“I think I am, Tib,” he said, still trying to put the pieces together in his mind. “Or thousands anyway.” Remembering that Slippers Pink had warned them never to reveal the secret about his mother's special knowledge, he kept his voice low so his brother and sister wouldn't hear. “You remember Slippers told us about how my mother knew about the paths of Gerander? I
think my mother might have sung one of those secret songs to me.”

“Really?” Tibby sounded excited. “How do you know?”

Alistair described the song about the river that Timmy the Winns had played while she slept. “And I think I recognized the tune because my mother sang it to me the night before she went away,” he finished. “I was just standing here thinking about that night, and suddenly the words of the song came to me.” He sang them to her under his breath.

When he was finished, Tibby nodded thoughtfully. “A fracture in the mountain's fold . . . It could be a secret path, couldn't it? Though the rock of gold and burning tree sound a bit unlikely. They could be landmarks, I suppose—but how would we ever find them among all the rocks and trees in Gerander?”

Before they could puzzle any further, they were interrupted by Alice calling softly, “Alistair, Tibby Rose—we should set off soon if we want to reach Smiggins by dawn.”

They walked back to the road to join the others.

“Four more hours and we'll be home,” said Alex. “Hey, sis, remember how mad Horace was because he'd thought he'd only have to go from Smiggins to Stubbins to find us, and instead he ended up walking all the way to
Shambles?” He chuckled.

“But why would he think you were going to Stubbins?” Alistair asked.

“Hmm,” said Alex. “Good question.”

“There's something that I've never quite figured out,” Alice said. “You see, Mr. Grudge said he'd seen a pair of mice, one gray and one black, standing beneath our window with a ladder. So of course when we first saw Horace and Sophia, we presumed they were the kidnappers. But if they
were
the kidnappers, how come they didn't know where you were? It turned out that they
had
come to kidnap you, but then Mr. Grudge must have chased them away. Of course, you were already gone by then, but they couldn't have known that, since they never got to climb the ladder—except they did know. That's why they were following us to get to you. . . . But they were surprised when we didn't know where you were.”

Alice had stopped walking by this time, and was staring into the distance with a preoccupied expression. “Could it have been someone from FIG? A double agent?” She looked briefly alarmed, then murmured, “No, Uncle Ebenezer would have told FIG that we didn't know where you were. Who else then?”

“Come on, sis,” Alex urged. “We're almost home. Can't you walk and think at the same time? It's not that hard to do.”

“Oh, how would you know?” Alice snapped. “It's not like
you
ever think.”

Alistair almost laughed at Alex's wounded expression. If there was one thing that made him feel like he was nearly home, it was hearing his brother and sister argue.

“Don't worry,” he said to Tibby Rose, who was staring at his bickering siblings anxiously. “They're always like this. It's normal.”

“Oh no!” said Alice suddenly.

“What's wrong?” said Tibby Rose.

“It couldn't be.”

“What is it?” said Alistair.

“But I think it is!”

“Spit it out, sis,” demanded Alex rudely.

“Mrs. Zetland!”

“Mrs. Zetland what?” said Alistair, noticing that Alex's white fur looked ghostlike in the moonlight.

“Oh no,” said Alex.

Alistair sighed. “Would you two stop ‘Oh no'ing' and just tell me what you're going on about?”

“Okay,” said Alice. “But you're not going to like it.”

“Especially since you're Mrs. Zetland's pet,” Alex said.

“Though maybe that was all part of her act,” said Alice.

“Good point.” Alex nodded.

Alistair was starting to feel extremely frustrated with his brother and sister. “Just tell me,” he demanded through gritted teeth.

“Mrs. Zetland is a spy,” said Alice simply.

“What?” Alistair looked at his sister in amazement. “What are you talking about?”

“Who's Mrs. Zetland?” asked Tibby Rose.

“She's our downstairs neighbor,” Alex explained. “And she makes really good biscuits.”

“The morning we left to find you,” Alice said to Alistair, “we met her on the stairs and she asked us where we were going, and why you weren't with us. We didn't want to tell her the truth, so we said that we were on our way to Stubbins and you'd gone on ahead of us. She was the only person we spoke to—it must have been her who told Horace and Sophia that they should follow us there to find you. And she must be the reason why they knew so much about us.”

It was a more somber group who resumed the journey to Smiggins. Still, when he saw the first houses of his hometown in the pale light of dawn, it was all Alistair could do not to break into a run; he no longer felt his aching feet and tired legs.

But as they drew close to their apartment house, Alistair's high spirits were momentarily dampened. He'd known that Smiggins was no longer safe, that danger was
close—but he hadn't realized that danger lived in the flat downstairs. It was a timely reminder that the life he once knew had changed irrevocably, and he felt a twinge of sadness as he and Tibby Rose tiptoed behind Alex and Alice past Mrs. Zetland's door on the way up the stairs to his aunt and uncle's apartment.

Alice knocked on the door so lightly that Alistair was sure his aunt and uncle—who were still asleep, no doubt—couldn't possibly hear it. But the door was flung open almost immediately.

As Uncle Ebenezer opened his mouth to exclaim, Alistair and the others hastily made shushing noises. Ebenezer accepted the need for silence without question, and stood aside to let them rush in, then quickly but soundlessly closed the door behind them.

“Alex, Alice—and Alistair!” Ebenezer cried as he surveyed the four mice standing before him. “Dear . . . purple?. . . Alistair!” His eyes shone with tears and Alistair found that he was so overcome with emotion at the sight of his uncle that he couldn't speak. He threw his arms around Ebenezer's portly body and squeezed.

Beezer, meanwhile, had appeared from the bedroom, yawning and beaming. “Oh, my dears!” She hugged Alice and Alex in turn, kissed the part of Alistair's head that wasn't buried in Uncle Ebenezer's squashy belly, and then turned to Tibby Rose with a friendly smile. “I don't
believe we've been introduced,” she said.

Alistair pulled away from his uncle's belly and announced, “This is my friend Tibby Rose. From Templeton—in Souris.”

“Alistair fell on me,” Tibby supplied helpfully.

“Tibby Rose from Templeton, eh?” Ebenezer looked thoughtful. He took Tibby's hand and shook it vigorously. “It's a great pleasure to meet you, my dear. A very great pleasure.”

Alistair looked around the familiar room. More than once on the perilous journey home he had wondered if he would ever see this room again; he couldn't believe he was actually here.

“Have you been walking all night?” said Beezer, with a glance at the clock on the mantelpiece. “You must be exhausted. But what are you doing here, Alistair? When your uncle went to speak to his FIG contacts they told him that you'd been taken to a safe house far away.” She turned to fix Alex and Alice with a stern look. “Which you two would have found out if you'd stayed here like you were supposed to!” Despite her scolding, Alistair could tell that she was so pleased to have them all safely home that she wasn't really angry at his brother and sister.

“But Alistair didn't stay at the safe house,” Alex argued. “He and Tibby Rose traveled all the way home
from Souris. So it was lucky we went to rescue them.”

“Actually, it was lucky that
they
rescued
us
, Alex,” Alice pointed out.