The Last Noel Read Online Free PDF

teased.
    â€œPub,” David said.
    â€œBeer fumes,” Jamie put in.
    David groaned exaggeratedly. “All right, enough with the pub and the beer. Brenda, you are entirely welcome here. Please sit down.”
    â€œPlease,” Skyler echoed. “Jamie likes to say that I have adult attention deficiency disorder. Personally, I think it comes from my children,” she explained, staring firmly from one of her sons to the other. “Let’s all sit and enjoy our dinner.”
    Suddenly the doorbell rang.
    Skyler looked at her husband, who looked back at her, his eyebrows arching questioningly. “You have more company coming?” he asked. His tone, at least, was light. “Someone’s long-lost relative? Stray friend?”
    She glared at him fiercely. “No.”
    â€œWhy would anyone be traveling in this weather?” Brenda mused.
    So she did speak without being spoken to, Skyler thought, then wanted to kick herself for the unkind thought. But the girl was so quiet most of the time. Probably, her family didn’t fight all the time, and she just felt uncomfortable, intimidated.
    â€œSomeone might have had an accident, Dad,” Frazier suggested.
    â€œIf someone is hurt or stranded, of course they can come in,” Skyler said quickly.
    â€œWhat idiot would be out in this weather?” David asked.
    The bell sounded again.
    â€œWe could just answer the blasted thing and find out what’s going on,” Paddy said.
    â€œI’ll get it,” Jamie said.
    â€œNo. I’ll get it,” David said firmly. “You all just sit.”
    But no one sat.
    David led, Skyler close behind him, everyone else behind her. The swinging door that separated the kitchen from the dining room, which sat to the one side of the entry, thumped as one person after another pushed it on the way through.
    The bell rang again.
    â€œHurry, someone might be freezing out there,” Skyler said.
    And yet, even as she spoke, she felt a strange sense of unease.
    Somehow Norman Rockwell seemed to be slipping away.
    And she—who took in any stray puppy, who always helped the down and out, animal or human—didn’t want David to open the door.

TWO
    T he chair in the den lost a leg the minute Kat picked it up. She let out a groan of frustration and tried to put it back on.
    It would go back on, but it wouldn’t stay, because a crucial screw seemed to be missing. She looked around, getting down on hands and knees to see if it had rolled into a corner somewhere. No luck.
    No problem. There was a chair at the desk up in her room, and she knew it was fine, because she had been sitting in it earlier while she was online.
    She was upstairs when she heard the doorbell ring. Curious, she walked to the window and looked out. She saw a car stuck nose-first in a snowdrift, barely off the road, down where the slope of their yard began.
    The bell rang again, and two men backed out from beneath the porch roof and stared up at the house. Strangers. She could barely see them; the wind was really blowing the snow around, and they were bundled up in coats, scarves and hats, but something about their movement made her think that they were in their thirties—late twenties to forty, tops, at any rate.
    She frowned, watching as they moved back out of sight and the bell rang for a third time.
    Not at all sure why, she didn’t grab the chair and run down the stairs. Instead, she found herself walking quietly out to the landing, where she stood in the shadows, looking and listening.
    â€œWe know it’s Christmas Eve,” one man was saying.
    â€œAnd we’re so sorry,” said the second.
    â€œBut we ran off the road and we need help,” said the first.
    â€œA dog shouldn’t be out on a night like this,” said the second.
    â€œWe were just about to sit down to dinner.” Her father’s voice, and he sounded suspicious. Good.
    â€œDinner,” the first man