The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof Read Free Page A

clean. Then she half closed her eyes.
    She’s falling asleep, Tibble thought.
    But she didn’t go to sleep. She sat there staring sweetly into space. And now Tibble heard a soft rumbling noise. Minou was purring.
    “I asked you something,” Tibble said.
    “Oh, yes,” she said. “Well… it’s just something I heard.”
    Tibble sighed. Then he noticed that she was shivering. No wonder, with all those wet clothes.
    “Don’t you have anything dry to put on?”
    “Yes,” she said. “In my case.”
    Only now did Tibble notice that she still had her case with her. It was on the floor under the window.
    “You should have a hot shower,” he said. “And change into something dry. Otherwise you’ll catch your death. The bathroom’s just there.”
    “Thanks very much,” she said. She stepped across the room to pick up her case and when she passed him on the way back she pushed her head up against his arm for a moment, wriggling her shoulders slightly at the same time.
    Tibble jumped back as if a crocodile was trying to bite him. She’s rubbing up against me! he thought.
    Once she’d closed the bathroom door behind her, Tibble sat down in the living room. “This is mad,” he said to himself. “A strange woman comes in through the attic window. Half starved. Then purrs and rubs up against you!”
    Suddenly something terrible occurred to him. Surely she doesn’t… she won’t want to stay with him, will she? She was looking for a job, she’d said. But she was obviously looking for somewhere to live. Like a cat looking for a new home.
    “I don’t want her here,” Tibble said. “I’ve already got a cat. I’m way too happy living alone and doing my own thing. And anyway, I’ve only got one bed. I should never have let her use the shower!”
    Here she was again… coming back into the room.
    See! Tibble said to himself. Just as I thought. She was standing there in her pyjamas with a dressing gown on over the top and slippers on her feet.
    She gestured at the wet two-piece suit she was holding draped over one arm. “Is it all right if I dry this in front of the fire?”
    “Um… yes, go ahead,” Tibble said. “But I want to say straight away that you, um…”
    “What?”
    “Look, Miss Minou, it’s fine for you to sit down for an hour or so until your clothes dry. But you can’t stay here.”
    “No?”
    “No. I’m sorry. That’s absolutely out of the question.”
    “Oh,” she said. “Not even for just one night?”
    “No,” Tibble said. “I don’t have a bed for you.”
    “I don’t need a bed. Back there in the junk room there’s a big box. A cardboard box that used to have tinned soup in it.”
    “A box?” Tibble said. “You want to sleep in a box?”
    “Absolutely. If you put some fresh newspaper in it first.”
    Tibble shook his head stubbornly. “I’ll give you some money for a hotel,” he said. “There’s one just around the corner.”
    He reached for his wallet, but she refused point blank. “Oh, no,” she said. “There’s no need. If it’s really not possible, I’ll just be off. I’ll put my wet clothes back on and leave at once.”
    She stood there looking pitiful. And with such a frightened look on her face. And outside you could hear the wind and the rain. You couldn’t possibly send a poor cat out onto the roof in weather like this.
    “All right, fine, but just one night,” Tibble said.
    “Can I sleep in the box?”
    “If you like. But under one condition. You have to tell me how you knew all those things about me. Who I am and where I work and what kind of article I was trying to write.”
    They heard a small flopping sound in the kitchen. It was Fluff, finally back from his roof walk and coming in with wet, grey fur.
    “He told me,” Minou said, pointing at Fluff. “He told me all about you. And actually I’ve spoken to lots of cats who live around here. They all said you were the nicest.”
    Tibble blushed. He felt strangely flattered. “You… you