Mandie Collection, The: 4 (27 page)

“When?” Mandie asked quickly.

“In a few days,” Mrs. Taft said. “I was hoping the Thalers would get back home before we left, but it doesn’t look like they will. Mrs. Hedgewick told me today that Mrs. Thalers’ mother is no better.”

“Her mother lives in Germany and we are going to Germany,” Mandie spoke up. “Maybe we could visit Mrs. Thaler at her mother’s when we go to see the baroness.”

Mrs. Taft smiled at her granddaughter and said, “Unfortunately, dear, we couldn’t do that. Germany is large, and the baroness doesn’t live anywhere near Mrs. Thalers’ mother. We’ll just have to come back here next time we come to Europe to visit with the Thalers.”

“We could wait a few more days for Mrs. Thaler to come home,” Senator Morton said. “We have an open invitation to visit the baroness.”

“Maybe,” Mrs. Taft replied. “We don’t want to waste time, though, because we have lots of other places to travel to before we return home.”

The grandfather clock struck eight and Mandie immediately rose.

“We’d better go write those letters if we’re going to be in our rooms by nine o’clock,” she said, looking at her friends.

“Yes, dear, y’all go ahead and be sure you’re in bed by nine o’clock,” Mrs. Taft reminded.

After good-nights were said, the young people raced to their rooms for paper and pens and met in the parlor at the top of the stairs.

The three didn’t waste time on conversation, but hastily scribbled
their letters. As they folded them up and put them into envelopes, Jonathan smiled and said, “I managed to write one page.”

“That’s better than nothing,” Mandie said, quickly licking her envelope.

“I can think of so much to say to my mother I have trouble stopping once I get started,” Celia remarked as she sealed her letter in the envelope.

“I understand if we leave these letters on the table in the front hallway downstairs, the servants will mail them for us,” Jonathan said.

“If y’all will give me yours, I’ll take them down,” Celia said, rising.

“We need a last-minute conference before we go to our rooms,” Jonathan said.

“Right,” Mandie agreed. “Remember we have to listen out for Uncle Ned to come back. And we have to watch out for the Bagatelles. They are always roaming around the house and we might run into them. I hope they’re not in the observation room when we go up there.”

“We know your grandmother and Senator Morton are retiring at nine o’clock, and the servants here seem to disappear after supper every night, so that’s most of the people out of the way,” Jonathan remarked. “Why don’t we meet here in this parlor at ten o’clock?”

“That’s a good idea, because we don’t want to be up too late,” Mandie agreed. “You know Grandmother said we had to get up early to go to church.”

“And I don’t want to stand down there in the yard by myself at too late an hour,” Celia said.

“All right, we meet here at ten. Don’t forget,” Jonathan told the girls.

“Wait for me till I take these letters down,” Celia said, rushing out of the room.

“I hope no one sees Celia in the yard at that hour,” Mandie remarked to Jonathan after her friend had left the room.

“And I hope she doesn’t panic, all alone in the dark,” Jonathan added.

Celia quickly returned and the three went to their suites.

“I think we’d better put out the lights, just in case my grandmother comes to check on us or has the maid do it,” Mandie said, reaching for

Snowball who was curled up asleep in the middle of the bed. “Sorry, Snowball, but we’ve got to turn down the bed.”

“And we’d better get into bed, too,” Celia added.

“But with our clothes on?” Mandie asked. “I don’t want to have to undress and then dress again to go out on the roof.” She set Snowball on the carpet.

Celia helped Mandie turn down the covers on the big bed and suggested, “Let’s leave that small lamp on in the sitting room.”

“All right, that way we can see the clock to know when it’s ten o’clock,” Mandie said, plumping up a pillow.

She and Celia jumped into bed and pulled the covers up to hide their clothes in case someone came in. Snowball immediately bounced up on their feet and curled up to go back to sleep.

“Don’t forget to listen for Uncle Ned,” Mandie reminded her friend. “I’m not sure whether we’ll be able to hear him come in and go in his room or not.”

“Mandie, poke me if I start dozing off,” Celia said.

“We can talk in whispers so we don’t get too sleepy,” Mandie said softly.

“Do you think the people in Ireland really believe in ghosts, like that blacksmith said?” Celia asked in a whisper.

“I don’t know. Maybe that man was just joking,” Mandie replied. “Besides, he has evidently never been back to Ireland since his mother brought him over here as a baby. He can’t know a whole lot about the country.”

“But his mother was Irish, and she would have taught him what she believed,” Celia reminded her.

“I know,” Mandie said. “I’ve always heard people say the Irish are superstitious, but I’ve never really thought about it. There is an old lady who’s Irish living near my father’s house, and I know she used to say things like ‘if your nose itches company is coming,’ ‘if your hand itches you’re going to get money,’ and ‘if a black cat crosses your path you’ll have bad luck if you continue on unless you turn your hat around backwards,’ and all that kind of stuff.”

“Oh, I’ve heard things like that,” Celia agreed, “but I didn’t know they were supposed to be Irish sayings.”

“I don’t know where they originated. One time I thought maybe they
came from the Indians. You know, some of my Cherokee kinpeople have some strong beliefs in those same superstitions,” Mandie whispered.

“Mandie, listen. I hear someone,” Celia said softly. She sat up in bed to listen.

Mandie quickly crept out of bed and went to open the hall door just a crack. She got a glimpse of the Bagatelles as they went into their suite.

Mandie closed the door and ran to jump back in bed. “It was just the Bagatelles going to their suite,” she told Celia.

“At least we know where they are,” Celia whispered.

The girls lay still, listening for any other sounds. A few minutes later they heard a door open and close softly. Mandie jumped up again, but this time Mandie didn’t see anyone when she peeked out into the hall.

“That had to be Uncle Ned,” she said as she got back in bed.

“What do you think you’ll find in the tower if you can get in from the roof?” Celia asked quietly.

“I have no idea, but there’s got to be something in there, some reason the tower is closed. Mrs. Saverne said the people locked that girl in the tower so she couldn’t run away. Maybe it’s like a bedroom in there,” Mandie said. “The girl had to have some kind of furniture to live in the tower.”

“It’s probably so old it’s real dirty and falling apart,” Celia said, “since this was all supposed to have happened before anyone living now was ever born. That’s a long time ago. I looked around the village and saw some real old people.”

“Celia, I just thought of something,” Mandie exclaimed, sitting up in bed. “That minister’s mother only speaks French. Do you suppose the minister will give his sermon in French? We won’t be able to understand a word.”

Celia giggled and said, “That would be funny. Either your grandmother, the senator, or Jonathan will have to tell us afterward what the man said.”

“But that blacksmith speaks English. I wonder if he goes to that church,” Mandie said.

“Your grandmother said the Thalers are German and they go to that church,” Celia reminded her.

“The languages are such a conglomeration here, I just don’t know
what he’ll do,” Mandie said. “If they sing hymns that we know, we can always sing in English while they’re singing in French, I suppose.”

Celia giggled again. “Now that would be funny,” she whispered.

The girls talked on about different things. Mandie kept straining to see the clock every now and then. Finally when it was ten minutes till ten, she threw back the covers and got out of bed. Celia followed. They quickly threw the blanket back up over their pillows and left it rumpled.

“If anyone glances in here in the darkness they’ll probably think we’re in bed,” Mandie declared with satisfaction as she looked at the bed. Snowball moved around, looked at his mistress, and decided to curl back up on the bed.

“And you, Snowball, have got to stay here,” she told the kitten as she patted his head.

The girls straightened their wrinkled clothes and quietly hurried down the hall to meet Jonathan in the small parlor at the top of the stairs.

“Right on time,” Jonathan greeted them as they carefully opened the door. He held up a large coil of rope. “This ought to be plenty to reach across the roof.”

“I hope so,” Mandie said, looking at the rope. “Did you remember to bring a hammer?”

“Right here.” He patted his belt where he had stuck a small hammer. “I took it from the stables tonight after everyone had gone to bed.”

The girls gasped. “You’ve already been outside?” Mandie asked.

“Sure. The moon is shining so we should be able to see up on the roof,” he said.

“That means you’ll definitely have to stand in the shadow of the bushes down there, Celia, or someone might look out and see you,” Mandie reminded her.

“Yes,” Celia said, nervously.

“Let’s go outside with Celia to see where she’ll be and then we can come back inside and go up to the observation room,” Mandie said.

“Yes, we have to be sure she’s in a place where she can see the roof,” Jonathan said. He pushed the rope under the settee in the room. “I’ll leave that here and get it on the way back. Let’s go.”

The three crept softly down the dark staircase and quietly opened the
front door. They stayed near the house in the shadow of the shrubbery just in case someone happened to look out a window.

“This way,” Jonathan whispered, leading the way down the slope at the back of the chalet. Then he stopped and looked back up at the house. “This should be all right. You can see the windows of the observation room up there.” He pointed to the room where he and Mandie would be and said, “And the chimney is over there, and then the tower.”

Mandie looked around and walked over to a huge oak tree. “If you stand behind this tree, Celia, you can look around it and see the roof. If anyone comes by you can hide behind the big trunk,” she said.

Celia did as Mandie suggested. She nervously looked around and said, “Y’all please hurry. I don’t want to stay down here too long. It’s just plain spooky this time of the night.”

“All right, we’ll hurry,” Mandie promised. “Now don’t forget to start singing if you see anyone in the yard here. If anyone hears singing they’ll probably just think it’s the singing that comes from the ghost, or whatever you want to call it, up in the tower. Watch out for us.”

“I will,” Celia promised. Mandie and Jonathan turned to hurry back into the house.

Jonathan got the rope from the parlor and they quietly crept up the steps to the observation room.

They didn’t see or hear anyone. The moon was shining brightly through the windows in the room, and Jonathan quickly walked over to the beam and fastened the end of the rope securely to it. Then he tied another rope to the beam and wrapped the other end around Mandie’s waist.

“That’s for safety, just in case you slip. You see, you’ll still be anchored to the beam here,” Jonathan quietly explained. “And I’ll do the same for myself.” He fastened another rope to the beam and around his waist. He picked up the coil of the first rope and slung it over his shoulder.

“Please be careful,” Mandie whispered.

“You too,” Jonathan said softly, stepping out the French window. “When I get to the chimney you follow me as soon as I get the rope tied to it.”

Mandie bent out the window to watch as Jonathan slowly made his way toward the chimney. She could see him swing out on the rope and then swing back onto the roof. He tried this several times before
he was able to gain footing on the slanted roof. Then he lay down and wormed his way to the chimney. He threw the rope around it and tied it fast, then he looked back for Mandie.

Mandie thought it really looked pretty easy. She wasn’t too frightened with the prospect of hanging on to a rope that high up and working her way over to where Jonathan was waiting. She looked down into the yard and barely made out Celia standing there in the darkness. Then she took a deep breath, grasped the rope Jonathan had just tied from the beam to the chimney, and stepped out the window.

“Oh, goodness!” she exclaimed to herself, as her feet dangled in the air. “I’ve got to do this fast!”

She moved one hand and then the other as she worked her way along the rope toward the chimney. “If I can just get my feet on the roof,” she grunted. Finally she felt the roof under her feet. She saw Jonathan watching from beside the chimney, and then she tried to look down to be sure Celia was still there.

As she held on to the rope with one hand, she tried to straighten her skirts so she could see below. She suddenly lost her grasp and felt herself falling toward the edge of the roof.

She gasped, but almost lost her breath when the next moment the rope around her waist jerked her up short against the side of the chalet below the windows.

“Oh, please help me!” she cried in a subdued voice as she tried to swing over to see where Jonathan was. She realized she was below the roof and completely out of Jonathan’s sight. The rope seemed to have tightened around her waist and was cutting into her sides. Now and then her feet would brush against the wall of the chalet as she swung on the rope tied around her waist. She desperately tried to wiggle around and catch the rope with her hands to get the weight off her waist.

Suddenly she felt the rope give a little. She seemed to drop a little bit farther down.

“The rope is coming undone on the window beam,” she cried to herself. “I’m going to fall to the ground and break my neck. Oh, dear God, please help me!”

She grew dizzy and felt herself fainting away.

CHAPTER TEN

CELIA’S BRAVERY

Mandie heard a voice saying, “Wake up, you silly girl.” She blinked her eyes and realized she was talking to herself. She could remember falling from the roof, and the pain around her waist was still there, so she knew she was still hanging at the end of her rope.