The Umbrella Mouse by Anna Fargher

Author:Anna Fargher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NOAH’S ARK

Nerves fluttered Pip’s whiskers as every animal in Noah’s Ark turned and tittered with enthusiasm, staring at her and Hans, their noses trembling with curiosity.

‘How do you think they’ll do?’ a squirrel whispered.

‘He looks tough,’ another said, looking at Hans’s lean, scarred body. ‘I’m not so sure about her – she looks a little scrawny.’

Pip frowned and stood as tall as she could.

‘Don’t listen to them,’ Hans said. ‘Only fools judge by appearances.’

‘He’s right,’ cawed Léon, the eagle, and Henri, the stag, nodded. Regretting what they had said, the squirrels’ ears flattened against their heads and they scuttled away. Limping forward, the eagle offered the end of his speckled wing to Pip and Hans.

‘Please forgive my behaviour before,’ Léon said, glancing at Madame Fourcade with respect. ‘I was captured and the enemy left me with scars so I would never forget it.’ He gestured to his leg, gnawed and deformed with an unnatural, jagged lump at the knee. ‘Every day I feel the pain they caused,’ he said, ruffling his feathers with the memory. ‘It makes trust very difficult for me, I’m sorry.’

‘We share the same scars, friend,’ Hans said, taking Léon’s wing in both paws and earnestly shaking it. Pip did the same, recoiling shyly from the eagle’s fierce, golden stare. ‘And not all Germans are Nazis – some of us are resisters too,’ the rat continued solemnly. ‘Their Fatherland is not my Fatherland. Germany is trapped inside Hitler’s snare and I will fight for its freedom until my dying breath.’ He looked down into Pip’s face, who was staring up at him with a furrowed brow, and a tender smile flickered across his scarred face. ‘If necessary.’

‘Isn’t she a little young to be in Churchill’s Secret Animal Army?’ the white pigeon cooed to GI Joe, looking up from where she nestled on his shoulder and staring at Pip with an inquisitive flutter of her pretty blue eyes. ‘War isn’t a place for kittens.’

‘I’m old enough to have made it here, aren’t I?’ Pip scowled, feeling patronized by the bird. She wasn’t that much older than her.

Several animals giggled, amused by the little mouse’s spirit.

‘You’ve got heart, liddle lady,’ GI Joe chuckled. ‘The pair of you will get along just fine.’

‘I’m Lucia,’ the white pigeon said with a smile.

‘Pip.’

‘Like you,’ GI Joe said to Hans, ‘Luey escaped Axis capture.’ The pigeon gave the rat a friendly nudge. ‘But they let her keep her good looks.’

‘I was lucky,’ Lucia cooed. ‘I thought I was done for when they caught me, but then they sent me back with a message to my troops: Herewith we return a pigeon to you. We have enough to eat.’

‘Never underestimate luck, guts and guile,’ the hedgehog said firmly, approaching the group and placing a paw around Pip’s shoulder as if she was her own kitten. ‘When the worst happens you must use every last drop of them to survive.’

‘Then Madame Fourcade has the most luck, courage and brains of us all,’ GI Joe said.

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