'The one who got away,' I said.

'That would suggest I caught her, even for a short while,' Lonnie said.

'True,' I said. 'But you did love her, and it sounds as if she needed a friend very much, and you were it. So I guess she loved you, too, in her way. Just because you didn't go all Lady Chatterley in the woodshed doesn't mean you didn't care about each other. And it would have been highly inappropriate if you had done, anyway. Take it for what it was you had a special relationship with this woman, and it was broken off before it had run its course. That's a tragedy.'

'I wonder where she is now,' Lonnie said, and we spoke about it no more for a while.

14.

I knew that the children would get a kick out of the rabbits for perhaps ten minutes, and that we had to plan something else to keep them amused for the other forty we would be in the woods. We had brought along a backpack with items for a treasure hunt, some bags for the kids to collect bits and pieces for a nature table I was hoping to establish in the playroom, and there was always hide-and-seek and chase if things got really bad.

The bunnies did not disappoint. Beatrix Potter would have loved the woods: a path that looked as if it had been created by rabbit workmen led to a small clearing, and as we made our way down this natural walkway I could already see a throng of rabbits playing, resting and eating in the open s.p.a.ce ahead.

Of course they scattered as soon as we arrived, but Tush, who knew the area well, told us all to sit down quietly and have our juice (I had brought some cartons), and they might come back. To my utter surprise, the group sat in complete silence and waited, sipping through their straws. Within three minutes Gus hissed, 'Over there!'

From behind a grey ash tree a little brown face was peering, its nose twitching.

'And over there!' Milandra shouted, which sent both animals scooting for cover.

'You need to be as quiet as you can,' Tush said. 'That means no shouting, okay?'

Moments later Arga said: 'Tam!' There!

Soon we were surrounded, and not just by rabbits. Two grey squirrels, which seemed to be almost tame or were much braver than Peter and his friends ran about the children's feet, looking for food, and a robin perched on a stump nearby.

'Why does none of them have jackets?' Rufus asked.

'Well, I think rabbits only really wear jackets in storybooks,' I said.

'So is that book a lie?' Gus asked.

I had not expected this line of questioning. 'Well ... it's more like using your imagination,' I said. 'If you could understand what a rabbit said, what might that be like?'

'So the Potty lady maked it up?' Mitzi said.

'She did, but all the animals she drew were based on animals she had as pets or who came to her garden. So Peter was a real rabbit.'

'Was he her friend, then?' Rufus asked, his face contorted in serious concentration he was trying hard to make sense of all this.

'Yes, he was,' I said. 'Beatrix Potter lived in the country, just like here, and she was fascinated by all the animals and plants she saw. She didn't just draw and write stories she used to write books about nature too, and scientists and teachers read them and thought they were very good. So she was a very clever lady.'

'Why'd she write them kids' books if she was so brainy?' Milandra wanted to know. 'If'n I was a real brainy woman I wouldn' write no books for no dumb kids.'

'Why not?' I asked. 'I have books at home that I've had ever since I was younger than you, and I still read them. They're some of the most precious things I have. I'd much prefer to write books like that than some boring old science paper that people read because they have to.'

'And you can learn stuff from stories,' Ross said, his eyes locked on a big rabbit that was sitting, seemingly dozing, maybe five feet from him.

'That's very true,' I said. 'What did you learn from the Peter Rabbit story, Ross?'

'If you don't do what your mammy tells you, you can get in bad trouble,' Ross said. 'And not trouble like being gev out to, but trouble like where you can get hurt.'

'Peter nearly got caught by Mr McGregor, didn't he?' Susan said. 'And we all know what would have happened then.'

'Dead,' Ross said gravely.

'Maybe Peter went into the garden because of what happened to his da,' Gus said.

We all looked at him.

'What do you mean?' I asked him.

'Well, when my daddy goes out, my gran always says to me, "Gus, you de man of de house now." See, Peter is the only boy left in his house, isn't he?'

'He is.' I nodded.

'Maybe he was goin' in that garden to get food for his mam and his sisters. Like his dad done.'

'To be the provider,' I said.

'Yeah. De man of de house,' Gus said. 'But then he got scared, and he forgot to bring any food home.'

'Do you think it would be scary to be the man of the house, Gus?' Lonnie asked.

'Well you wouldn't get to play much, I s'pose,' Gus said. 'You'd have to work and make money an' stuff.'

'Would that be fun?' Tush asked.

'It might be,' Ross said. 'If you was a soccer player or in a band.'

'Yeah!' Jeffrey said. 'Me guitar!' And he stood up and played a mean air guitar, providing some sound effects that sent every creature in the clearing scattering. None of us minded, though in that short time the children had touched on some interesting and quite difficult ideas. I watched Jeffrey and Gus rock out, and it was then that I noticed Tammy had disappeared again.

15.

It's funny how rapidly things can fall asunder, and how completely an afternoon that has been, up to a certain point, going swimmingly can transform into a nightmare.

As soon as I noticed Tammy had slipped away I proposed a treasure hunt. I didn't think she had gone far, and thought that the promise of finding some sweets might flush her out of wherever she was. While Lonnie hid the little bags of sugar-free jellies at various fairly easily spotted locations about the clearing we all sang a few verses of 'She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain'. Lonnie gave me the nod that the payload had been delivered, and I announced loudly that the hunt was on. The kids scuttled off, squealing with delight.

'Tammy's gone,' I said to Susan, discreetly, as soon as the kids were busy.

'I know,' she said. 'Don't say I didn't warn you.'

'I'm going to have a scoot around and see if I can find her,' I said. 'I won't be long.'

She nodded, and I jogged off into the trees.

I kept within a radius of around a hundred yards of the clearing. I called to her quietly, checked under hedges, even looked down what must have been the entrance to a badger's sett. I was gone for fifteen minutes, and could hear from the noise that carried in the still forest air that the group had finished the treasure hunt and had moved on to hide-and-seek.

Cursing my own stupidity I began to move back towards the group. Then the screaming started. I broke into a run.

When I got back to base camp, Lonnie and Tush were lying on the ground, trying to reach beneath a large bush that seemed to be part bramble, part laurel. Susan was organizing the rest of the kids into lines for a relay race.

'What's going on?' I asked.

'Mitzi,' Tush said.

'What has she done?' I sighed.

'Sweets were just about the worst thing we could have used for the treasure hunt,' Tush said. 'During the hunt she managed to s.n.a.t.c.h bags from Gilbert and Jeffrey. Then she took a run at Julie.'

I glanced about the group Julie was absent, too.

'Arga tried to stop her,' Lonnie said, 'so, like some monster out of a horror movie, Mitzi grabbed Julie and dragged her into this bush.'

'What?' I asked in disbelief.

'Had to be seen to be believed,' Lonnie agreed. 'But she did it.'

I was losing my temper now never wise in this line of work but everything Susan had warned me about was happening, and I felt an idiot. I was worried about Tammy and Mitzi, I decided, was a spoilt, over-indulged child who needed to be brought into line.

'Mitzi, that's quite enough nonsense. Leave Julie alone and come out right this minute,' I said sharply.

'Oh, he's such an a.r.s.ehole, such an a.r.s.ehole,' a high-pitched sing-song voice drifted out.

I could just hear Julie sobbing.

'Nice job,' Lonnie said. 'Maybe we should threaten to give her a whipping when she comes out.'

'Shut up, Lonnie,' I snapped.

'Yessir, boss, sir,' he said, effecting a salute.

Tush sn.i.g.g.e.red.

I lowered myself to the ground and peered under the bush. 'Can we get in there?' I asked Tush.

'No,' she said. 'If we had a machete or something we might be able to cut our way in, but she's managed to wedge herself into some kind of a hollow.'

'We could smoke them out,' Lonnie said. 'Shall I start gathering brushwood?'

'Shut up, Lonnie,' I reiterated.

Julie screamed again. I dreaded to think what Mitzi might be doing to her in there.

'Going to hurt the little r.e.t.a.r.ded girl, oh, yes,' Mitzi sang. 'Shouldn't have made me walk like that.'

Julie screeched. The bush shook slightly, and then the sound stopped abruptly, as if it had been choked.

'Would you call this a Mexican standoff or, to borrow a term from the wacky world of chess, a stalemate?' Lonnie asked nonchalantly, and walked off into the trees.

I ignored him and began to try to squeeze into the s.p.a.ce. If I pushed the scrub up with both hands I could just about make out a patch of darkness where the children must have crept. If I could get near it, I might get my arm in and haul them out. I figured that Mitzi might bite me or jab me with something sharp, but I could put up with that if we could get Julie out of her clutches.

The flaw in my plan was that a network of thick brambles and thorns had snaked its way across the entire distance I had to traverse, creating a kind of p.r.i.c.kly spider's web. Within moments of attempting to shove my way through I was badly scratched and inextricably entangled. Driven by sheer panic, I decided to rely on brute force, and tried to haul the tendrils out by the root. Useless. Things were not looking good.

I had all but given up, and was just lying there in the dark, listening to Mitzi humming the theme music of Hannah Montana when someone grabbed me by the ankles and hauled me out in one swift movement.

'Stand aside and let the grown-ups work,' said Lonnie (for it was he).

He was holding a long, thick stick with a branch on the top turned in, like a hook. He bent down to the s.p.a.ce he had just wrenched me out of and thrust the pole inside. He shoved it as far as he could, then took a deep breath and scooped it back out, bringing the brambles and vines with it, caught about the hook. He repeated the exercise three times, and cleared the s.p.a.ce.

'Well, I'll be ...' I said. Tush applauded.

Mitzi had become notably quiet during this exercise. Lonnie got down on his hands and knees, then lowered himself in a sort of half push-up. When he had satisfied himself that the pa.s.sageway was safe, he scooted in.

'He's quite a guy, isn't he?' Tush said.

'He is that,' I agreed, though my voice belied the jealousy I felt Lonnie was behaving confidently and a.s.suredly while I looked like a b.u.mbling fool.

The sounds of a scuffle emitted from the gap, and then Lonnie emerged, grubby, his hair flecked with leaves and bark. Julie was wrapped about his neck.

'Can I suggest we leave Mitzi in her fort for the moment?' he asked. 'I think she may come out of her own accord before too long.'

I watched as he trudged over to the rest of the group, Julie clinging to him for dear life.

'The little one will pay,' Mitzi sang in her hideout. 'They will all be sorry.'

'At least she's consistent,' I said to Tush.

We followed Lonnie. Tammy was still missing, and it was almost time to go back to Little Scamps.

16.