Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (5 page)

“Oh, yes, it is dirty,” Mandie agreed, remembering the bed of twigs she had slept on and the many miles she had walked through briars, dusty roads and river water.

“Later,” Liza said. “Now you just follow me. I’ll
show you where the food be.”

They went back down the long, carpeted hall, down the elaborate staircase and through another long hall into the most beautiful room Mandie had ever seen. A huge crystal chandelier hung over an enormous dining table covered with a crocheted tablecloth and set with one place at the end for her. Silver candelabra stood at intervals along the table. A whole wall was covered by a tapestry of peacocks and flowers. The opposite side of the room had long French doors opening onto a terrace. Mandie stopped to gaze about the room.

“Here, missy, down to this end,” Liza beckoned to her as she pulled out a chair with a velvet seat. “You set right here and I bring on the food.”

Mandie, still speechless, walked to the chair and sat down. Then she turned quickly as the girl turned to leave the room. “What do you have to eat?”

“Anything you want, missy. Ham, chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans, turnip salat, corn-pone, biscuits, honey, preserves, anything you want. Now what must I bring you?” Liza waited.

“You mean you have all those things already cooked? All for one meal?”

“Well, missy, all us servants have to eat too, and there’s two more ’sides me and Lou. There’s Jenny, the cook, and there’s Abraham, the yard man, what lives in the house in the backyard. Lou, she’s the boss,” Liza went on. “So we just cook everything at one time. That’s the way Mr. Shaw tells
us to do. Want me to bring you some of everything?” Liza grinned.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly eat so much. Just a small piece of ham, a spoonful of green beans, a huge sweet potato, a big piece of cornbread, and milk,” Mandie told her. “My uncle must be an awfully rich man if he has all that for one meal.”

“Oh, he is, missy. Richest man this side of Richmond, they say. So much money he’ll never spend it all. And no one to leave it to—except—”

Aunt Lou came through the door at that moment.

“Liza, git a move on here. Take that cat there and feed it and git this child something to eat. And no more of that gossip, you hear?”

Without a word, Liza took Snowball and quickly left the room.

“And how is my child feeling after her nap?” Aunt Lou put her arm around Mandie’s shoulders.

“Fine, Aunt Lou. Liza says my uncle is unusually rich; it that so?”

“I don’t knows about it being unusual, but he shore is rich. Liza ain’t got no business meddling in his affairs like that, though.”

“She wasn’t meddling, Aunt Lou. I asked her. You see, my daddy was never rich.”

“Many’s a good man that don’t git rich.”

“You see, you can tell by my clothes that I am not rich. I don’t have any pretty, fancy dresses and bonnets.” Mandie smoothed her dark gray frock.

“Well, that’s one thing we’s can fix, my child.
We’s got a sewing room here that’s just plumb spang full of pritty cloth. We’ll just make you up some new clothes,” Aunt Lou was telling her as Liza came back into the room carrying a silver tray loaded with dishes and the smell of hot food. “Now you just eat up, my child, and Liza can bring you ’round to the sewing room when you git done. I’ll see what we can whip up.”

“Thank you, Aunt Lou. I’ll hurry,” Mandie assured her, as she picked up her fork. The black woman left the room. “Don’t go away, Liza. I’ll be finished in a minute.”

“I has to go eat, too, but I’ll be right back. Just pull that little cord over there by the window if you want me. It’ll ring in the kitchen,” Liza told her.

“You haven’t eaten yet? I thought I was the only one left to eat dinner,” Mandie told her. “Go get your food and come sit right here.” She pushed out a chair next to her with her foot.

Liza laughed. “You don’t understand, missy. I’se a servant. Us servants has our own table in the kitchen.”

“But I’m the only one at this big table. Can’t you come and eat with me?”

“Nope, can’t,” Liza replied. “Nobody exceptin’ Mr. Bond and Mr. Shaw eats at that table, and you, of course, ’cause you’se kin.”

“Where is Mr. Bond?”

“He et early ’cause he had to go off and tend to some bidness,” the dark girl told her. “Now you eat up. I’ll go eat and then I’ll be back.”

Liza laughed and danced out through the door. Mandie, famished as she was, hurriedly ate the rich food in anticipation of getting a new dress made for her—a brand new dress made just for her—one that nobody had ever worn.

When Liza took her to the sewing room, Mandie was again amazed with the wonders of her uncle’s house. It looked like a store. Fine materials, laces, ribbons, buttons of every color, were everywhere about the room. Aunt Lou, who was also the seamstress for the household, was waiting for her.

“You just pick out what you want and we make it,” the old woman told her.

Mandie immediately spied a roll of pale blue silk in the pile. She stroked the soft material with her fingertips.

“This one, please,” the girl murmured shyly. “I’ve never had a light-colored dress in my life.”

“And a bonnet to match.” Aunt Lou smiled at her. “We’ll just put lots of trimming on it—lace, ribbons, and sech. We’ll make a real baby doll out of you, that’s what we’ll do.”

Mandie spent the afternoon in the room while Aunt Lou pinned, measured, and cut material. She just couldn’t believe it would all turn into a dress just for her. When Aunt Lou was ready to sew, Liza came to tell Mandie she had a visitor in the parlor.

“Miss Polly, that lives in that big house next-door, she’s come to see you, missy,” Liza said. “She waiting in the parlor for you.”

“In the parlor? I don’t even know where
the parlor is,” Mandie laughed bewilderedly. “I’ve never seen such a big house in my life.”

“Right this way.” Liza led her. “Down this hall and on down these steps and it’s the big double door on the left, next to the front door. ’Member the room where you first came in?”

“I remember the room, but I didn’t remember the way. Thank you, Liza.” Mandie went on through the double door and there stood a girl about her own size in front of the sofa.

She had long, dark hair and eyes as dark as chinquapins. She smiled and came forward.

“My name’s Polly Cornwallis. I live next door, and Mr. Shaw’s cook told our cook that Mr. Shaw’s niece had come to visit, and so I came over.” She rolled off this long speech without taking a breath.

“I’m glad you live next door,” Mandie told her. “Sit down.”

They sat on the sofa.

“My name is Amanda Shaw. My uncle is gone off to Europe and I’m here alone, so I’m glad you came.”

They were friends at once and before they realized it, Liza was telling them supper was ready. Polly had to go home, but promised to come back the next day and bring her schoolbooks. But the next day brought more than Polly and her schoolbooks for Mandie.

Early the next morning, Jason Bond answered a knock at the front door. He found a messenger there from John Shaw’s lawyer’s office in Asheville.

“Mr. Wilson sent you this letter, Mr. Bond,” the young boy told him.

Mr. Bond took the letter, withdrew a paper from the envelope, and stood there reading.

“What’s this? What’s this?” Jason Bond was plainly shocked. “Come on in, my boy. I’ll get the cook to give you something to eat. I’ll have to send an answer back.”

He took the boy to the kitchen and left him there with Jenny. Then he hurried to his room and wrote a note. Hearing Mandie singing in her room, he knew she was up, and knocked on her door.

“I see you’re up bright and early. Come on
downstairs. I have something to tell you.” He led the way down to the dining room and yelled through the door to Jenny.

“Send Liza in here with something to eat,” he said and went back to sit down by the girl at the table.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Jason?” Mandie asked him. She could sense he was disturbed about something.

“Well, it’s like this,” he began, as Liza brought in the coffee and poured it. He waited until she left the room. “I have a letter here from your uncle’s lawyer.”

“You do?” Mandie leaned forward.

“Yes, but I’m afraid it’s bad news. He says—he says your uncle has—died in Europe and—”

“Died! Oh, no!” she gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. “Please, God, not my Uncle John, too!”

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Bond said. “I couldn’t think of any way to tell you. The letter says he was buried over there and—”

“When, Mr. Jason?”

“A few weeks ago. It took a long time for word to reach his lawyer and then his lawyer had to let us know,” the old man told her.

“Oh, Uncle John, now what will I do?” she sobbed.

Mr. Bond held her hand and tried to comfort her. “Don’t worry about what you’re going to do. You’re going to stay right here. I’m sending a note
back to the lawyer, telling him you are here and you are going to stay here until the will is found.”

“The will?” she asked.

“Yeh, until the will is found. Lawyer Wilson drew up a will for your uncle last year, but he says in this letter he believes your uncle made another one since then. At any rate, he thinks the will must be in his papers here in the house somewhere, so we’ll have to look for it.”

“What good is the will if Uncle John is dead?” she asked.

“Don’t you know what a will is? It’s a paper, a legal paper, stating who is to receive what of the inheritance when a person dies. Your uncle had lots of money and property and someone will get all that, depending on who is mentioned in his will,” Mr. Jason told her. “There’s a possibility you will be mentioned in his will as a legal heir.”

“An heir?”

“Yes, that’s the person who gets whatever is left to him by the person who dies.”

“But he never even saw me that I know of. He might not have even known that I was born.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, he knew he had a brother, who was your father; and since your father is dead, if he willed anything to him, then you would get it instead.”

Mandie finally understood most of what Mr. Bond was telling her, and she became anxious to find the will. She also wanted to talk to someone her own age.

“May I invite Polly to spend the night with me, Mr. Bond?”

“Of course, but her mother will have to agree, you know.”

So when Polly came over and heard the news, she returned home to tell her mother and came back to tell Mandie that her mother would come to call later in the afternoon.

Mrs. Cornwallis, a young widow, was very expensively dressed; her clothes were beautiful. Mandie was a little unsure of herself in the presence of such a lady.

“My dear, such a shock for you. And just the day after you got here, too. You must come over to our house and stay until things are settled,” Mrs. Cornwallis told her.

“Thank you, Mrs. Cornwallis, but I can’t leave. I have to help Mr. Jason look for Uncle John’s will,” Mandie said. “And I would like Polly to spend the night with me, if you would let her.”

“Yes, yes, of course, dear,” Polly’s mother agreed. “But, doesn’t anyone know where John Shaw kept his will?”

“No, not even his lawyer. He says it must be somewhere here in the house, so we have to find it.”

“Mandie, can I help you look?” Polly put in.

“That’s why I wanted you to spend the night,” Mandie replied.

Mrs. Cornwallis rose to go. “Polly can spend the night, dear; but please get some sleep, girls.” She laughed as she left.

“Will you have to go home now because your uncle died? I sure hope not,” Polly said.

“Oh, no, Mr. Jason said I was to stay here until the will is found; and we’re going to find it ourselves. Come on! We’ll start right now.”

The two girls left Polly’s nightclothes in Mandie’s room and then in whispers decided to take candles and go up to the third floor. Mandie had not yet been to the third floor of the house, and was anxious to do a little exploring.

They found the door to the stairs, turned the knob and it opened. Silently they gazed up the dark steps, then slowly began their ascent on the creaking stairway. They reached a landing halfway up and stopped to open the window and push open the shutters to let in the light and fresh air before climbing the last flight.

“At last!” sighed Polly, as they reached yet another door at the top of the stairs.

Upon opening it, they found themselves in a long hallway. Holding their half-spent candles at arm’s length, they cautiously followed the corridor to the only door they could see in the hall, at the left. Mandie, arriving first, pushed it open.

Before them was a huge, impressive bedroom furnished with two ornately carved four-poster beds. Each was covered with a white crocheted spread and draped with matching canopy curtains. There were two full-length mirrors with heavy wood frames to match the beds. Four tall windows were covered with sheer Priscillas.

Before the girls could take in more in the meager light, the canopy curtain moved slightly on one of the beds and they heard a strange noise. At the same time, a draft from somewhere snuffed out their candles. With this, the frightened girls ran down the hall in search of the stairway. Just as they reached it, the door slammed violently and when they grabbed for the doorknob they discovered there was none.

Mandie gasped and clung to Polly as the two raced down to the other end of the hall. In the darkness they both stumbled into the wall, pushing a hidden panel open which led to yet another descending stairway. Just when they were beginning to wonder if the stairs would end, they came to a short hallway. They could see no door, but more stairs led downward and they took the plunge hand in hand.

To continue the maze, they found another door, opened it and stumbled into a dark room, managing to cross it without bumping into any furniture. A second door in the room led to another stairway, at which point Mandie cried, “Where in the world are we?”

“Don’t ask me,” was Polly’s bewildered reply.

At the end of another hall they came upon a locked door, but this time Polly discovered a large key dangling on a nail beside the door. With a trembling hand she inserted the key in the lock. Exhausted with suspense and fear she handed the key to Mandie and asked her to open the door. To
the complete surprise of both the girls there were bushes and vines growing directly in front of them in the open doorway. They pushed through the shrubbery and exclaimed together, “We’re in the woods!”