blocks of wood, while Holly sat on top of the boat.
“We didn’t expect to find a ship in the shed,” said Tom.
“Actually, this is not a ship. It’s a twelve-foot sailing dinghy with a clinker-built wooden hull,” said Grumps. “It’s fine to call it a boat, though,” he added.
Tiger and Tom stared at Grumps with their mouths open.
“How do you know all that?” asked Tom.
“I sailed as a boy,” Grumps beamed. “And this is not a shed – it’s a boathouse.” He opened the big double doors at the other end and beckoned them over. Behind the boathouse, a concrete slope, called a slipway, led down to a wide river. As the garden was overgrown, with many parts still unexplored, the children hadn’t even known there was a river there. The water glinted in the sunlight. But, of all the things they could have discovered, water was one of Tiger’s least favourite. Despite her promise to herself, she began to worry.
Once, Tiger had been in a blow-up rowing boat with her dad at the seaside. She remembered how wobbly she’d felt bumping over the waves, and how she had panicked when the boat tipped up and she fell in. Even though she was wearing armbands and could swim and the water wasn’t very deep, it wasn’t a nice memory at all.
Tom had already found blue lifejackets in a box.
Grumps found Spinaway’s mast and the sail, which was rolled up in a bag. A little sewing would fix the tear.
“I would be happy to restore Spinaway to former glory, as she needs a little bit of work before she would be fit for us to sail in,” Grumps said.
“I can’t wait to be on the water,” said Tom, while Tiger tried very hard not to feel anxious about what might lie ahead this holiday.
May Days seemed very happy to let Grumps take care of the boat. “I have some clearing to be getting on with up at the house,” she said. “Looks like there’s some cleaning up to do here too!”
“Holly has already started dusting,” said Tiger. The cat was nosing in a corner and had cobwebs on her whiskers. “I think I’ll help her. I want to have a look around and think about what sort of den we can make,” she said, hoping this would mean she wouldn’t have to go out in the boat.
Now there was daylight coming into the boathouse, they could see there was a lot more to it than just a place to store Spinaway. There were wooden ladder-steps beside the back double doors, and Tiger clambered up to the loft-gallery where she could just about stand up under the sloping roof. She climbed over piles of boxes, ignoring the wooden oars, an anchor and coils of rope. Behind all the sailing things she wasn’t interested in Tiger found a triangular window looking out over the river. She rubbed the dust from the glass with her sleeve to see out.
Drooping across the river on the other bank were willow trees, much smaller than the one at the end of Willowgate’s drive. At the side of the slope, hidden behind lots of reeds, was a jetty – a small wooden pier you could walk on, out over the water to where a boat could float. On the post at the end of the jetty was a duck. It looked exactly like the one Tiger had seen on the road.
It flapped and flew off, landing smoothly in the river. Tiger decided what she wanted the den to be for, and bounded down the steps to find Tom.
Before Tiger could say anything, Tom said, “I’ve got a brilliant idea. We could make the boathouse into a pirate den!”
Tiger wasn’t expecting Tom to say that. Tom was excited about being a pirate, bravely roaming the river in the boat, and Tiger felt too embarrassed now to tell him that she was scared. She smiled at Tom and tried to look happy about being a pirate.
“That sounds great, but my idea is that we make it a nature spotter’s den and learn about wildlife,” she said, hoping she could persuade Tom to change his mind.
“But this is a perfect place to make a pirate den,” said Tom, who had his own strong idea. “We can walk the plank on the jetty and fly a skull and crossbones flag from the boat!”
“We could,” said Tiger, “but we could also have a table and chairs and sit upstairs with binoculars and draw all the animals and wildlife we find.”
Tom frowned a little. “We can pretend the river is the sea and go sailing to look for treasure,” he said. “Grumps could teach us how to sail and I really, really want to learn!”
“But May Days could teach us about all the river animals,” said Tiger, although it made her feel uncomfortable to think she would be spoiling things for Tom.
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