Why hadn’t she stayed?
Was she coming back later?
‘I just wanted to see you.’ Alfie’s shrug was a little too casual and he clung to her more tightly than usual. ‘I thought we could hang out, you know?’
Stella focused on his face, sensing that he was close to tears. ‘That would be nice.’ She helped him pull off his boots. ‘Do you want to help me on the computer?’
‘Yeah, why not? Maybe I could email Dad.’
Hearing the wobble in his voice, Stella pulled up a chair. ‘Good idea. Let’s do that. He’ll be back very soon. How are you getting on over there?’
‘It just doesn’t feel like it should.’ Alfie typed with one finger. ‘It doesn’t feel like—like Christmas.’
‘Daniel bought you a wonderful tree yesterday.’
Alfie pressed ‘send’, staring at the screen as his email flew into cyberspace. ‘The tree’s great. It isn’t the tree. It’s everything else. I don’t know.’ He drooped slightly and Stella slid her arm round his shoulder.
‘There’s a problem?’
‘There are lots of problems. Uncle Daniel just doesn’t do it right.’
‘But he’s trying,’ Stella said softly, smoothing his hair away from his face. ‘He’s there with you, trying his best. Isn’t that what counts?’
‘I suppose.’ Alfie thought about that. ‘I thought it would be cool being able to do what we liked, but it isn’t cool. The sofa’s wet, my favourite DVD is scratched and just now he trod on my remote-control car.’
Stella hugged him. ‘All those things can be sorted out.’
‘The worst thing is that Uncle Daniel can only do one thing at a time, so I’m not going to get any lunch because he can’t take his eye off Posy. And I didn’t get breakfast because the pancakes were scrambled.’ Suddenly he looked very tired and very young. ‘Do you think Dad will be back soon? How long can a person be without food before they starve to death? And Uncle Daniel rang the newspaper last night and advertised the kittens.’ He burst into tears and Stella rocked him gently, knowing that he was just tired and disturbed by the change in his routine.
‘Shh,’ she soothed. ‘You know you can’t keep all the kittens, Alfie.’
‘I wish I could keep Gabriel, too.’ He wiped his face on her jumper. ‘Dad’s going to be so mad with me when he comes home.’
‘Why is he going to be mad with you?’
‘Because I’ve done something,’ Alfie muttered, and Stella eased him away from her and looked at him.
‘What have you done?’
‘I’m not telling you. Then you can’t be blamed. I expect Dad will blame Uncle Dan, because he was in charge.’
Stella wondered what the little boy had done and made a mental note to mention it to Daniel when she next saw him.
Then she realised that this whole situation was ridiculous. She was lonely and Daniel was struggling.
‘Come on. I’m going to spend the day with you, if Daniel doesn’t mind.’ Stella stood up decisively, took his hand and walked to the door. ‘Put your boots back on.’
‘Really? You’re going to spend the day?’ Alfie’s face lit up like the Christmas tree and Stella smiled.
‘Really.’
It was pathetic, she told herself, staying away because she couldn’t cope with seeing him. Was she five or twenty-five? ‘Come on. Let’s go and see if Daniel needs some help.’
‘Of course he needs help.’ Alfie tugged on his boots. ‘That’s why he rang that woman.’
‘What woman?’
‘The scary one with the sharp face who doesn’t like animals or kids.’