She couldn’t wait to tell Alice. Then she remembered their quarrel and her excitement died. She should have waited and told Alice, so that she could go rook-hunting too. Now she felt guilty. Perhaps she should keep quiet. But it was too late. Ollie crashed into the kitchen.
“Guess what we’ve been doing!” he yelled triumphantly.
Chapter 6
Alice in a Huff
The grown-ups in the kitchen seemed to be delighted with the pile of rooks, even though it meant a lot of plucking and a great mess of feathers. They were working fast through their food stocks. Predictably, Angelica failed to appear, but Oliver came down from George’s room to say that his father would be happy to pluck rooks in his room, and he would keep the feathers to make his bed softer. He headed upstairs with a large armful.
Emily decided she could put it off no longer, and went to look for Alice. Tom had already rushed into the kitchen to hear the news. Lily and Georgie were tail-swiping marbles and scampering after them at the other end of the room, but Alice was sitting on her aunt’s splendid couch with her arms and wings folded, and a scowl on her face. Emily sighed. “I’m sorry we went without you,” she said. “It all happened so fast. The Dads said we had to hurry before the rooks flew away. There was no time to come and look for you....” Her voice trailed away.
“You left me out on purpose!” said Alice, coldly. “You went off with Ollie...” her voice was full of scorn, but before Emily could think of an answer that wouldn’t make the quarrel worse, Ellen appeared in the doorway.
“I don’t want to know what this is all about,” she said, “but Oliver and Duncan have an idea. They want you in the kitchen; BOTH of you – now!” She vanished again, and a relieved Emily rushed after her. Alice hesitated, then followed more slowly. Annoyed though she was, she did not want to be left out again!
She found everyone gathered in the kitchen listening to Oliver. “....need to make the most of this mist. It’s not lifting at all – getting thicker, if anything. We don’t reckon it would be too risky for a lot of us to go out foraging. There’s the field where the pigeons gather for a start. Maybe pheasants - Duncan and I saw quite a few wandering about yesterday morning. They’re never around at night, when Des and I go out. Pheasant would make a nice change!”
“There’s the tattie field too. And snails might be coming out,” Duncan added. “We’ll be lucky to find any berries, but no harm keeping an eye out.”
“Do you want to take the children?” Gwen asked.
“I think you should ALL go,” said Maggie. “Do you good. You’re not used to being cooped up inside. I can see to these rooks if George gives me a hand, and the wee ones seem happy enough. I’ll feed them when they get hungry, and you can take some food with you. Harold’s out the back breaking firewood. He said he’d leave some sticks for Tom to jump in the cellar.”
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