The Mandie Collection (32 page)

John Shaw called after him, “I'll see that he behaves in New York.” He laughed as he glanced at Joe. “Now, Miss Celia, we are glad to see you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Shaw,” Celia replied.

Abraham and Mr. Bond came in with Celia's trunk.

“Which room, missy?” Mr. Bond asked Mandie.

“My room. Celia is going to share my room with me,” Mandie replied.

“And, Joe, your father and I put your bags in the first room on the left at the top of the staircase,” John Shaw explained as he walked toward the parlor door.

“Thank you, Mr. Shaw,” Joe said. Turning to the girls, he said, “While Celia is getting settled in your room, Mandie, I'll go on up and freshen up.”

“Meet you in the back parlor in thirty minutes,” Mandie told him.

Up in Mandie's room, the girls hung up Celia's dresses from her trunk as they talked.

“And how did Frances Faye find her grandmother?” Mandie asked, pushing her dresses to one end of the huge wardrobe to make room for Celia's.

“It so happened that Mrs. Edmonds, one of our neighbors, had heard of a lady by the name of Fordham who lived way out in the country on the other side of Richmond,” Celia explained as she hung up a dress.

“So y'all went to investigate,” Mandie said.

“Yes, Aunt Rebecca and I took Frances Faye in our rig and drove out in the direction Mrs. Edmonds had explained,” Celia said. Then excitedly she added, “Oh, Mandie, you should have seen the old lady when she found out who Frances Faye was. We thought she was going to absolutely suffocate the girl, she hugged her so tight. And then Frances Faye began crying and couldn't speak for a few minutes. I wish you could have been with us.”

“I do, too,” Mandie agreed. “I'm so happy for her.”

“And, Mandie, her grandmother must be wealthy,” Celia said. “I want you to see her mansion someday. I think it's the biggest house I've ever seen. And the part I saw was furnished in stuff that must have cost a fortune.”

“Celia, I wonder why Frances Faye's mother never had anything to do with the grandmother,” Mandie said, frowning thoughtfully. “From what Frances Faye told us, her mother barely had a living, and they lived in an old house.”

“I have no idea, Mandie. That's a mystery you'll have to solve,” Celia said, hanging up the last of her dresses.

“Yes, I suppose I'll have to go visit Frances Faye in her new home someday,” Mandie said.

When the girls joined Joe in the back parlor, they had to explain about Frances Faye and her grandmother.

“It's wonderful that Frances Faye was able to find her grandmother so quickly,” Joe said. “I can imagine how she felt when her mother died and she had no one in this world.”

“Yes, but I'm wondering why the mother and the grandmother never were in contact,” Mandie said.

Joe shrugged his shoulders and said, “They probably didn't like each other for some reason.”

“But I wonder why,” Mandie said, squinting her blue eyes as she frowned in thought.

“Mandie, you might as well forget about poking into those people's business. It wouldn't be nice at all,” Joe told her.

“If I go visit them, I wouldn't have to poke,” Mandie answered with a big grin. “Frances Faye has probably found out by now why her grandmother and her mother never were in contact. And Frances Faye would probably just tell me without my asking.”

At that moment someone tapped on the door and then opened it. Polly Cornwallis, Mandie's next-door neighbor and schoolmate, stuck her head inside. “I figured you'd all be back here,” she said as she came into the room and sat down. “My mother is in the parlor visiting with your mothers.” She looked at Mandie and Celia.

“Well, hello, Polly,” Mandie said, not too happy to see the girl. She always seemed to know when Joe was visiting at Mandie's house, and she would always find some excuse to come visit.

“My mother and I just arrived a little while ago,” Celia remarked.

“And so did I,” Joe added.

Everyone seemed at a loss for conversation.

“My mother came over to ask your mother, Mandie, if I could go to New York with y'all. Mother has other plans, so we thought it would be nice if I could join y'all. I'd just love to see that good-looking Jonathan Guyer again,” Polly explained, all the time keeping her eyes on Joe.

Mandie felt her face flush in anger as she tried to steady her voice to keep Polly from knowing she was displeased with the idea
of the girl traveling all the way to New York with them and then staying at Jonathan's house. She blew out her breath and said, “So my mother agreed?”

“Yes, she did. Isn't that wonderful?” Polly replied.

“We may be leaving tomorrow. Can you get ready that fast?” Mandie asked.

“Of course,” Polly said. “The servants will pack my clothes for me.”

“How long will your mother be gone?” Celia asked.

“She's not sure, but she said she'd let Mrs. Shaw know before we leave,” Polly explained. “I'm so excited about the trip, especially the chance to see Jonathan's great mansion. Y'all had told me you could get lost in it, remember?”

“Yes, it is huge,” Mandie agreed. “I can imagine there are lots of secret places in it.”

“Secret places?” Polly questioned her.

“Yes, spooky, dark closets and attics and basements where someone could hide,” Mandie replied. She knew how afraid Polly was of even going into the basement at their boarding school or in the Shaw house.

“Hmm,” Polly muttered as she shrugged her shoulders and tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder. She straightened up and said, “Well, we don't have to go poking into places like that.”

“Not unless Mandie finds a mystery that we have to explore in such places,” Joe said, grinning at Mandie.

“But we don't have to help Mandie solve mysteries up there, that is, if she finds any,” Polly protested. She squinted her dark eyes.

“Oh, Polly, Mandie finds a mystery everywhere she goes,” Celia said. “However, we don't have to help solve them if we don't want to.”

“That's right,” Mandie agreed. “You can stay by yourself while we go off solving mysteries in New York.”

“I will make that decision when you actually find a mystery,” Polly said. She stood up. “Now I have to go see if my mother is ready to go home.” She started toward the door and added, “Mandie, your mother promised to let us know exactly when I should be ready to travel.”

“We will, Polly,” Mandie replied as Polly left the room and closed the door behind her.

“Whew!” Joe blew out his breath and said, “She probably won't join us in any mystery at Jonathan's house.”

“We may not even find a mystery up there,” Celia said.

“I just wanted her to know that if I do run into a mystery up there, I certainly plan on solving it,” Mandie said.

The door opened right then, and Liza, the Shaws' young maid, stuck her head into the room and announced, “Dat Miss Sweet Thang has done gone home with her ma now.” She grinned and closed the door.

“Thank you, Liza,” Mandie said as the door closed. She stood up and said, “Let's go in the parlor and find out when we will be leaving for New York.”

Celia and Joe followed Mandie out the door.

Mandie's mother, Elizabeth, her grandmother, Mrs. Taft, and Celia's mother were discussing their journey to New York.

“Y'all come on in,” Elizabeth Shaw told them. “I believe we have our final plans made.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie said, sitting on a settee with her two friends.

“We've decided we should go ahead tomorrow,” Elizabeth said. “So y'all need to have your luggage ready for the train tomorrow.”

“And bring enough clothes to last you two weeks. That's how long we will be staying in New York,” Mrs. Hamilton said.

“And we had to invite that Polly Cornwallis to go with us,” Mrs. Taft said with a loud sigh. “I do hope she doesn't spoil our visit for us.”

“Don't worry, Grandmother, we won't let her,” Mandie promised with a big grin. That was one thing they had in common. Neither of them was fond of Polly Cornwallis.

“I wouldn't be so sure of that,” Joe whispered.

“I just hope the weather will be nice while we're there and that it doesn't rain,” Elizabeth said.

Mrs. Hamilton laughed and said, “Somehow it always seems to rain when I visit up there.”

Mandie asked, “We are all going to stay at the Guyers' house,
aren't we?” She looked at her grandmother. Everyone knew Mrs. Taft didn't seem to be very friendly with Jonathan Guyer's father, and no one knew exactly why.

“Of course, dear, we've all been invited to stay there,” Elizabeth replied.

Mandie looked at her friends and whispered, “Now, there's a mystery right there. If Grandmother doesn't like Mr. Guyer, why does she agree to go visit there?”

“You should find out,” Joe whispered back teasingly.

“It would be something interesting to know,” Celia also whispered.

“Amanda, have you sorted out what you plan on taking with you? If not, now is a good time to do it,” Elizabeth said.

Mandie stood up and replied, “If Abraham could bring my trunk down from the attic, I could begin filling it up.”

Joe instantly joined Mandie as he said, “Mrs. Shaw, I would be glad to get it down for her.”

“Thank you, Joe, that would save some time,” Elizabeth replied. “Amanda, show Joe where it is.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie answered as she went out the door.

Joe and Celia followed as Mandie climbed the steps to the attic. She pushed open the door at the top of the stairs. It was dark inside the attic because all the shutters on the windows were closed, but Mandie knew exactly where her trunk was, which was not far from the door.

“If you'll get one handle, I'll get the other, and we can get it down the stairs,” Mandie said, stooping to reach for the handle on one end.

Joe got the other handle and said, “I could probably get it by myself by sliding it down the steps if it's empty.”

“It's empty, but I'll help anyway if you'll get in the front so you can catch the weight if I drop my end,” Mandie told him.

“All right, but please let me know if you are going to turn it loose. Those steps are steep, and it could get out of control,” Joe warned her.

“And I will stay behind y'all just in case,” Celia told them.

They were about halfway down the steps when Snowball came running up to them, slipped by, and went on through the attic door. The three stopped to look.

“Oh shucks, now I'll have to go get that cat,” Mandie said, looking back up the steps. “I forgot to close the door.”

“I could see if he will come to me, Mandie,” Celia told her.

“He probably won't even come to me. I'll have to find him and carry him out of that attic. You know how much he loves to nose around up there,” Mandie replied.

“Just let go of your end, Mandie. Since the trunk is empty, it's not heavy. I'll let it slide the rest of the way,” Joe told her.

“I'll help you, Joe,” Celia said, stepping down to take the handle Mandie was holding.

“All right, then. Y'all wait for me at the landing, and I'll go get Snowball,” Mandie told them.

Mandie hurried back up, calling, “Snowball, Snowball, come here. Where are you?”

She slowly made her way through the darkness in the room, trying to spot the white cat as she called to him. There was no sound until she accidentally ran into an old lampstand, which turned over and made a loud noise. Then Snowball came flying out of the stuff stored there and raced out the door and down the steps.

“I don't think I broke anything,” Mandie said to herself as she turned to leave the room. She closed the door behind her this time as she went down the stairs. She saw Snowball disappear at the foot of the steps.

Mandie caught up with her friends, who had the trunk all the way down to the floor below.

“Thanks,” Mandie told them. “Since this is the third floor, all we need to do now is get it down one more flight of stairs.” She reached for a handle.

Just as the three reached the second floor, where Mandie's room was, Mandie looked down the next flight and saw Uncle Ned, her father's old Cherokee friend, coming up.

“Oh, there's Uncle Ned,” she told her friends.

As the three waited for the old man to get up the steps, Mandie noticed he was carrying some kind of bundle. Then she became excited as she went to meet him. “Oh, Uncle Ned, you've brought back the quilt we found in the attic during Christmas holidays,” she said, looking at the bundle.

“Miz 'Lizbeth say bring quilt up here to Papoose,” Uncle Ned said. “Where put it?”

“We can just put it in my room for the time being. What did the quilt say, Uncle Ned? Did you get the message written on it read?” Mandie was jabbering away without waiting for him to reply.

This was the quilt she and her friends had found in the attic and which Uncle Ned said contained a Cherokee message written on it. He had taken it home with him then and promised to get Uncle Wirt, the oldest member of the tribe, to translate the message.

Mandie led the way to her room, and everyone followed. Uncle Ned laid the quilt on her bed. She quickly unrolled it to look at the symbols sewn on it. “Well, Uncle Ned, what does it say?” she asked again.

Uncle Ned frowned as he stood there looking at the quilt. “Secret,” he said, shaking his head sadly.

“A secret message? But what does it say, Uncle Ned? What did Uncle Wirt tell you it meant?” Mandie insisted.

Uncle Ned shook his head again. “Wirt say sad, bad message. Put quilt back where you find it,” he said slowly.

“But, Uncle Ned, I want to know what the quilt says. Please,” Mandie insisted.

“Wirt say no tell, sad, bad message,” the old man repeated. He turned to leave the room.