Me: Why are you sitting alone in the field?
Nell: I need time to think and the house is extremely noisy.
Me: Yes, it’s the lead up to Christmas and the Royal Wedding.
Nell: What Royal Wedding?
Me: Princess and Sir Roger Blubbery.
Nell: Princess is royal in name only and Poppy knighted Roger.
Me: Potato, potahto. I had the strangest dream, by the way.
Nell: Here we go.
Me: I flew to New York with a lion called Teddy.
Nell: Good grief.
Me: And I lost him in Times Square. I was devastated and I still am a bit even though I know it was only a dream.
Nell: It’s funny you should mention lions, actually, because that’s what I was thinking about.
Me: Not Lionel King again, Nell. He’s a bad lion.
Nell: When Sally and David went down to the beach they came across Lionel and he was in a sorry state.
Me: What do you mean?
Nell: Painfully thin with matted hair and tired eyes.
Me: Oh dear.
Nell: David even offered him some food as all he’s been living off is discarded garage sandwiches.
Me: The ones with stale bread and wet ham?
Nell: Exactly.
Me: Gosh.
Nell: And Henry and Horst confirmed that rumour has it that the Beefies have turned on him.
Me: Where did they hear that?
Nell: At the Winged Insect Conference.
Me: I see.
Nell: Anyway, at Morning Thoughts today David and Sally suggested we might like to consider offering Lionel the Paw of Forgiveness.
Me: Really?
Nell: It’s Christmas. The season of goodwill.
Me: True.
Nell: Everyone agreed, so we’ve invited him to stay with us for Christmas.
Me: I wasn’t at the meeting.
Nell: No, but Kev was and you two think as one, surely?
Me: Yes. Sorry.
