The mousethief winked at Urthclaw and kissed Goody cheekily. “Ha, that place, follow me, matey. I’ll have you there in two shakes of a cat’s whisker.”

Goody shuddered. “I wish you wouldn’t say things like that, you little rogue.”

But Gonff was not listening, he was skipping ahead with the little ones, who thought it was all a huge adventure.

“Is it a nice place, Mr. Gonff?”

“Oh, passable. Better than the last place you were in.”

“What’s that under your jerkin, Mr. Gonff?”

“Never you mind now, young Spike. It’s a secret.”

“Is it very far, Mr. Gonff? I’m tired.”

“Not far now, Posy me little dear. I’d carry you if it weren’t for your spikes.”

Goody Stickle shook her head and smiled. She had always had a special soft spot for Gonff.

The Corim hut was well hidden, deep enough into the forest to avoid immediate discovery. Urthclaw said his goodbyes and trundled off to find his own kind. Ben watched him go as Gonff lit the fire. He nodded fondly. “Good old Urthclaw, he only stayed at the settlement because of us, I’m sure of it.”

When the fire was burning red, Goody sat around it with Gonff and Ben. The four baby hedgehogs poked their snouts from under the blankets to one side of the hearth.

“Have you been stealing from Kotir again, Gonff? What did you pinch this time?”

The mousethief laughed at Goody’s shocked expression. He threw a wedge of cheese over to the little ones. “It’s not pinching or stealing if it comes out of Kotir, mateys. It’s called liberating. Here, get your whiskers around that lot and get some sleep, the four of you.”

Ben Stickle sucked on an empty pipe and stirred the burning logs with a branch. “Gonff, I do wish you’d be careful. We can live on what we have until spring arrives, Goody and I would never forgive ourselves if you got caught taking cheese and wine inside that cat’s castle.”

Goodwife Stickle wiped her eyes on her flowery pinafore. “No more we wouldn’t, you young scallawag. Oh my spikes, I dread to think what’d ’appen if those varmin catchered you, Gonff.”

Gonff patted her very carefully. “There, there, Goody. What’s a bite of food and a warm drink between mateys? The young uns need their nourishment. Besides, how could I ever forget the way that you and Ben brought me up and cared for me when I was only a little woodland orphan?”

Ben took a sip of the wine and shook his head. “You be careful, all the same, and remember what the Corim rule is; bide your time and don’t let ’em catch you. One day we’ll win old Mossflower back.”

Goody sighed as she went about making porridge for the next morning’s breakfast. “Fine words, but we’re peaceable creatures. How we’re ever goin’ to win our land back against all those trained soldiers is beyond me.”

Gonff topped up Ben Stickle’s beaker with elderberry wine and gazed into the flickering flames, his normally cheerful face grim. “I’ll tell you this, mateys: the day will come when something will happen to change all this, you wait and see. Some creature who isn’t afraid of anything will arrive in Mossflower, and when that day arrives we’ll be ready. We’ll pay that filthy gang of vermin and their wildcat masters back so hard that they’ll think the sky has fallen on them.”