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5. Disobedience can be amusing


"But I do not understand why--" Tonino began, panting a little in Cat's wake as he was towed along by his sleeve.

"Because," Cat cut him off, "we've very little left of the afternoon, and we've somewhere else to go."

"But--"

"Do hurry," Cat said urgently. Then he glanced behind them, and bit his lip: The gardeners were even closer than he'd thought. "Down!" When Tonino didn't immediately follow the suggestion, Cat helpfully shoved him into the nearest bush among the ruins, then dived into it himself.

Tonino flailed a bit in the leaves. He brushed his fair hair from his eyes, and stared at Cat, eyes round in surprise.

Cat held a finger to his lips and hissed. "Don't move."

On discovering Tonino's fondness for felines, Cat had had no compunctions about using them to lure him out into the gardens. He'd taken Tonino to the stables and had let him frolic a bit. That, in Cat's opinion, had been enough to comply to the letter of his promise.

Cats were fine -- in moderation. Tonino had been paying far too much attention to them. In fact, he'd been talking to the cats. He'd acted as though he were chairing a conclave. He'd been wallowing in cats.

Perhaps it might be a psychological thingummy. Cat decided that Tonino needed to be rescued from it.

Besides, Cat had been bored. He already had other plans for their afternoon. From their vantage point in the bush, they could see the gardener's feet clearly enough.

"Could have sworn I saw someone over here," a deep, masculine voice remarked, somewhere above the muddy boots planted several inches before their noses.

"Dreamin' on the job, Nate?" came the shouted reply. "Or just did you just drink your lunch at the pub?"

Gardener Nate's response to that was both lengthy and sufficiently detailed to leave both boys delighted. Nor would it go to waste, as Cat could see Tonino mouthing several of the phrases to himself, with a look of deep fascination.

After the path was free again, Cat allowed himself to sag in relief. "Too close," he muttered, "this isn't as easy to do in the middle of the week."

"What are we doing?" Tonino asked plaintively.

"Today," Cat told him, "we're going to Chrestomanci's garden."

"Er," Tonino said, "perhaps I did not understand. Isn't it forbidden?"

"Yes," Cat agreed.

"And does not 'forbidden' mean, ah ... forbidden?"

"'Course," Cat stated with a grand wave of his hand. "That's why we're going."

Cat waited as Tonino thought about that.

"I see," Tonino said at last. "It is a secret mission."

"Precisely," Cat said. He hadn't himself considered it in quite that light, but it served well enough. Cat was always surprised how Tonino so easily fell in with his wishes.

Millie had declared Tonino a 'blessedly well-behaved boy.' In fact, Miss Bessemer and Michael Saunders and Euphemia and Mary and Nancy-the-cook and even the old lady in mittens all had said the same thing.

It had not escaped Cat's notice that the twins had begun to exchange Significant Looks with each iteration of the theme.

And thus, as part of his own programme of dedicated good, Cat believed it his duty to introduce Tonino to a less well-behaved life before the twins were issued their clean bills of health. Sneaking into the garden would be an excellent start. He'd always wanted to see it again himself, this time without an impatient baby dragon. Also, Cat wanted snow.

Janet had proven difficult to convince, but Tonino was quite tractable really.

"Let's go." Cat signalled him. "The stairs begin just at the end of the path. Just stay with me, and you'll be fine," Cat told him.



"Snow!" Cat crowed. "I knew it!"

"Snow," Tonino repeated wonderingly, squinting against the blinding sun on white. "In the middle of summer."

"I never got the chance to walk this far in the garden," Cat said. "But I always thought this must be beyond autumn."

Cat thought Tonino had taken marvellously to the entire idea of a garden that toured all four seasons; in fact, Cat hadn†t had to explain it at all. Tonino had guessed the idea even faster than Janet had, and had had a great deal more enthusiasm for exploring farther into the cooler parts.

Cat celebrated their discovery by dumping an armful of snow over Tonino†s head while he was mooning over his steaming breath and the frosty landscape. A small scale war followed in short order.

Later, damp and panting, Cat gloated. "This is so perfect. He'll never see it coming."

"He?" Tonino asked, dusting off his hair.

"Roger," Cat said, with dour emphasis. "D'you remember two weeks ago, he ate the last crumpets at tea, when neither of us had gotten more than one apiece?"

Tonino nodded. "Janet and Julia also had two."

"They're girls," Cat said with a dismissive wave. "I did vow to pay Roger back for that, but then he got sick before I could think of something to do."

"They'll be allowed out tomorrow," Tonino mused.

"Yes, and he probably expects I've forgotten, which is why this is even better," Cat explained. "Snowballs, next he sets foot outdoors."

"Ah," Tonino breathed. "An unsuspected revenge."

"Well, they do say it's best served cold," Cat said, happily weighing frosty vengeance in hand. "And, in the midst of summer, he couldn't possibly retaliate in kind."

"But will they not melt before then?"

"No," Cat said simply. "I'll tell them that they don't melt, so they won't."

"Tell them?"

"Like on the stairs," Cat reminded him. No one had noticed them climbing it. But then Cat realised that Tonino might not have heard him telling the estate at large not to look their direction, for he'd been singing to himself the entire time. Cat had assumed it was to give himself courage; Tonino had said he wasn't afraid of heights, but Cat thought the dilapidated, overgrown stone and the sheer drop off the side would be enough to give anyone pause.

"But what shall we carry them in?" Tonino was wondering aloud.

"Carry?" Cat repeated stupidly. "Oh. Er. I hadn't thought of that." He frowned, considering the matter. He didn't think they could manage the stairs again with arms loaded with snowballs. His jacket only had two small pockets. He sighed, kicking the snow. "I don't know," he admitted at last.

Che peccato, Tonino murmured. A few moments later he shrugged, slipped out of his jacket, and held it out to Cat. "Could you not tie them together in this?" he said diffidently. "Like a,a. . ." He made a motion over his shoulder.

"Oh." Cat stared. "Oh! Of course, a sling! But I can use mine for that," he insisted. "You needn't--"

"It is fine," Tonino insisted stoutly. "Because you need to make them. But, I think, I will need to go where it is warmer."

He was already shivering, Cat saw. He felt pangs of guilt. "Do you mind awfully?"

"Not at all. This is a good cause, is it not?" Tonino said, grinning. "I can wait for you in summer."

Cat could find no argument with that. "It shouldn't take long," he promised.