She had tried ringing Pat on her way home. Somebody had to talk some sense into him, even though there was a baby on the way. He needed to start treating Georgia fairly at least. But each time she called, the call was cut off. It didn’t even go to voicemail. It was as if he was intentionally cancelling the call when he saw her name.
A distracted Ellie pulled into the drive and was surprised to see the lights still on in the twins’ bedroom - well, technically Ruby’s bedroom. When they had moved here they had given the twins a room each, but they hadn’t liked that idea at all and had insisted on being in the same room. Jake didn’t appear to have a problem with the pink girly wallpaper, so they had decided to let them get on with it. But they should have been asleep by now. She hoped neither of them was ill.
She pulled the car over to one side of the drive, grabbed her bag, and raced through the front door, shouting for Max. He appeared at the top of the stairs, looking slightly harassed, but still smiling. It couldn’t be a catastrophe then.
‘What’s up? Why aren’t the twins asleep?’ Ellie asked, half running towards the stairs.
‘Calm down, Ellie. It’s something and nothing. Everybody’s alive and well, and Leo’s even cooking the dinner,’ Max said, with a mock grimace.
‘Oh Christ. That should be interesting,’ Ellie answered. ‘So what’s going on?’
‘It’s Ruby. She’s lost Muffin, and she says she can’t go to sleep without him. I’ve tried her with Madge and Holly Dolly, but she wants Muffin. We’ve turned this house upside down, but that scruffy little dog cannot be found. I even checked to see if you’d chucked him in the washing machine in disgust, but no. So he’s around somewhere, and just as dirty and smelly as ever.’
‘Did you take him out with you today? Has she dropped him somewhere?’ Ellie asked, knowing that Ruby was going to be difficult, and they would have to find this floppy animal.
‘No. We never take him out.’
Max was right. Ruby wouldn’t let him out of the house. Each morning she put Muffin to ‘sleep’ in her own bed, so that he would be waiting for her at bedtime.
‘Jake, before you ask, is adamant that he hasn’t hidden Muffin, and I believe him,’ Max said
Jake was far too sensitive to be able to sit through the wailing and bawling that was going on.
‘Do you want to see if you can help, Ellie? I’ll go and bail Leo out. I’d rather cook than try to deal with Ruby when she’s like this, so that gives you an idea of how bad it is!’
Dumping her bag on the hall chair, Ellie made for the stairs passing Max half way up. He leaned towards her and gave her a quick hug.
‘Good to have you home, sweetheart. We all missed you today.’
Ellie paused, but said nothing and carried on towards Ruby’s room.
* * *
‘Hey, sweet pea, Daddy says we can’t find Muffin,’ Ellie said quietly, sitting down on the edge of Ruby’s bed and stroking her daughter’s damp curls off her forehead. Her little face was red with tears, and she was huddled in a tight ball with one fist pressed into her mouth.
‘Where’s he gone, Mummy?’ Ruby cried. ‘I left him in bed this morning, so that he could get some sleep. He needs to be awake at night so he can watch over us. I always let him sleep in the daytime.’
Ellie could remember when they had devised this story for Ruby. She was about three, and was going through a phase of believing there was a dragon living in the wardrobe. So they had made Muffin into a guard dog. Ever since then, she hadn’t been able to sleep without him. Ellie knew that Max would have hunted everywhere for him, and it made no sense that he was missing. But she was going to have to calm her daughter down somehow. She looked around the room, and stood up.
‘I tell you what, Rubes, why don’t we put Spiffy in charge tonight? He’s a tiger, and tigers are much, much more scary than dogs.’
‘Spiffy’s not scary - he’s a gentle tiger.’
‘Well, we might know that, but nobody else would. Shall I put him at the end of the bed, or standing over near the door?’
On her daughter’s precise instructions, she placed Spiffy in the