That Christmas Feeling Read Online Free PDF

placed Flossie on it. Throwing back a velvet curtain that turned to dust in her hand, Claire reached for the sash. A cat that had been basking in the pale winter sunshine leaped to its feet, arching and hissing at her. With a gasp of surprise, she swatted the cat off the sill and jerked upward until the old window slid open a crack. Chill air rushed into the room as Claire headed for another window.
    “What’re you doing, girl? Trying to freeze me out of house and home?” Flossie squirmed as Rob attempted to wrap a moth-eaten afghan around her. “Hey, you’re the no-good devil who stole my shotgun! And she knocked my .22 off the porch. Thieves! Robbers! Help! Somebody help me! I’m being attacked!”
    “Hush now, Miss Ross,” Rob ordered. He spoke over her high-pitched cries into the radio on his shoulder. “Dispatcher, this is Chief West. Send Bill Gaines over here to Ross Mansion, would you? And tell him not to turn on the bells and whistles, please. Ten-four.”
    “Who’s Bill Gaines?” Claire asked, stepping around a heap of unwashed pots and pans on the floor.
    “Paramedic. He’s with the fire department. We’ll let him check Miss Ross over and see if she needs to be transported to a hospital. Meanwhile, you and I can start rounding up these cats.”
    “No sirree, you don’t!” Flossie rolled off the settee and staggered to her feet. “Nobody touches my cats! And I’mnot going to a hospital, either. Where’s my pistol? I’ll show you, Buster Brown. Just you wait and see what I can—”
    “Get back on that couch, Miss Ross,” Rob commanded, depositing her on the settee a second time. “Now, stay there, and I mean it.”
    “What’re you planning to do? Handcuff me?”
    “If I have to, I sure will.” He heaved out a deep breath as he turned to Claire. “What do you suggest we put the cats in?”
    “I borrowed a pet carrier from my neighbor.”
    “ One pet carrier?”
    “Well, I didn’t expect to have any help, you know. I thought I’d catch a cat or two and take them over to the shelter. Then I’d come back here and—”
    “Did you call the Buffalo shelter to ask how many stray cats they can manage?”
    “I didn’t…think…”
    “Clarence? You didn’t think?” He grinned for the first time that day, his blue eyes twinkling despite the smoky pall that darkened the room. “Obviously this is a situation that calls for brainpower. Leave it to me.”
    With a wink, he headed for the parlor door. As he talked into his radio again, Claire heard the fire engine pull up in front of Ross Mansion. Flossie was already back on her feet and fairly spitting nails. Blocking out the sound of her great-aunt’s verbal venom, Claire greeted the paramedic and the two volunteer firemen who stepped into the room. Looking as though they had entered a genuine haunted house, the three men paused, their eyes wide and their Adam’s apples working to control the gag reflex.
    “Uh, seems like Miss Ross has a blocked chimney over there, Bill,” one of the firemen spoke up. “How about we take a look at that?” After a glance for confirmation, the two crossed the room to inspect the smoking fire. Bill picked his way toward the tiny creature who was dancing around like an imp from the bowels of Hades.
    “All of you better get gone!” Flossie ranted, shaking her fists. “And leave my fire alone. Why, I’ll have you know it takes me a good hour to start it every morning, and I’m not—”
    “Aunt Flossie, the paramedic is here to look at your knees,” Claire cut in. “You said they were broken.”
    “Do these knees look broken?” the older woman hissed. “Why, they could carry me to Kathmandu and back! You think I’m about to let some goggle-eyed greenhorn take a gander at my legs? Is that what you think?” Rising to her full height of just under five feet, Flossie stared at Claire. “Well, you’re wrong, girl!”
    “Sit down, Aunt Flossie!” Claire shouted, taking the woman by the