Mandie Collection, The: 4 (31 page)

As they watched, the woman spread the skirt of her gown in a curtsy and smiled at them. She suddenly ran as fast as she could in the direction of the chalet. They followed her.

She went directly to the stone patio at the back of the house and stopped in the center of it. After she had turned around to face them, the night air was suddenly filled with operatic singing. She didn’t falter over a single note. Mandie and her friends stood there and watched in wonderment as the lady performed.

Suddenly the singing stopped and the lady curtsied again. Everyone automatically applauded. The woman smiled and threw kisses. Jonathan
on impulse snatched a bloom from the garden where they were standing and ran forward to present it to the lady. She took it with a big smile and curtsied and they applauded.

Once again, she began singing.

By this time, Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton had heard the commotion. After they found the young people missing from their rooms, they had come outside to see what was going on.

“Amanda!” Mrs. Taft called to her granddaughter as she approached. “What is going on?”

“Grandmother! Listen! Isn’t she wonderful!” Mandie replied, clapping as the woman finished singing.

“Who is this woman?” Senator Morton asked Uncle Ned.

“Was locked in little house,” the old Indian said, pointing to the cottage below.

Mrs. Taft walked closer to get a better look at the woman in the bright moonlight. “What is your name?” she asked.

“I am Maria Zaranova! I am known around the world for my voice,” the woman said emphatically. “I must go home now.”

The woman started to walk away, but Mandie quickly grasped her hand and asked, “Why don’t you come inside the big house with us? We could talk a little.”

“I must conserve my voice and get my rest for tomorrow night’s performance,” the woman said. “In between shows I will visit with you, dear.”

Mrs. Taft spoke to the senator. “Do you think she could really be Maria Zaranova?” she asked.

Senator Morton thought for a moment and said, “I don’t believe I remember what happened to Maria Zaranova after she disappeared from the world of opera. Yes, this lady could possibly be her.”

Mrs. Taft stopped the woman as she was leaving and asked several questions about operas and theaters that Mandie’s grandmother was knowledgeable about. The woman evidently gave the correct answers, for Mrs. Taft turned back to everyone and said, “This really must be Maria Zaranova. She knew the answer to everything I asked. I can remember going to the opera with my parents when I was a tiny girl to hear her sing. She was the world’s greatest.”

The young people were excited. They gathered around the woman who stood there smiling at them.

“You mean she really is a famous opera star?” Mandie asked.

“She used to be the most important singer of her day,” Mrs. Taft said. “And I can’t remember what happened to her, but here she is, as sure as I’m alive.”

“Where do you live now, Miss Zaranova?” Senator Morton asked the lady.

“Up on the mountain—that way,” Miss Zaranova said, pointing off to her left. “I have to come down to the theater every night, every night except Monday. You know the theater is always closed on Monday, and I get an extra day’s rest then.”

The senator looked at Mrs. Taft. “I’m afraid she’s still living in the past,” he said under his breath.

The woman started to leave again. “I must go home now and get some rest.”

Mrs. Taft stepped forward. “But won’t you please come into the house and visit with your fans for a moment? We’d love to give you a cup of tea. It would refresh your voice.”

The woman thought for a moment and then agreed. “All right, but only for a moment. Let’s hurry now.”

They all walked around the house and in through the front door. Mrs. Hedgewick was dressed and standing inside the hallway when Mandie marched in carrying Snowball.

“I heard such a commotion. Is something wrong, madam?” she asked.

“Not really, Mrs. Hedgewick,” Mrs. Taft said. Turning to the others she said, “Would y’all please take Miss Zaranova into the parlor and I’ll see to ordering tea.”

As they moved on toward the parlor, Mandie lingered behind to hear what her grandmother said to the housekeeper. Mrs. Hedgewick was plainly shocked. She could hardly believe such a thing had happened.

“This solves the mystery of the tower being haunted by the singing young woman, Mrs. Hedgewick. Aren’t you glad?” Mandie said.

“Why, yes, dear. Mr. and Mrs. Thaler will be well pleased to have that tale settled,” Mrs. Hedgewick said. “Now I will see to tea if you can keep the lady occupied.” She disappeared down the hallway.

“Imagine this,” said Mrs. Taft as she walked with Mandie to the parlor, “imagine having tea at this hour of the night, or morning I should say. I do believe it’s after midnight.”

Mrs. Taft went on inside and sat down near Maria Zaranova. Mandie motioned to her friends to come outside into the hallway. The three walked back to the main staircase at the front door and sat on the steps.

“Where do you suppose the Bagatelles went?” Mandie asked, softly.

“Probably back to their suite,” Celia said.

“I doubt that. They know we caught them doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. I wonder who they really are anyway,” Jonathan remarked.

“They must be gangsters, or half-crazy people, or something like that to be acting the way they have,” Mandie said. Snowball squirmed in her arms and she put him down.

“Isn’t it wonderful that we found a long-lost opera star?” Celia said.

“And that we solved the mystery of the ‘haunted’ tower with the singing myth?” Mandie added. “But there is one mystery we haven’t been able to solve: Where is the entrance to the tower?”

Snowball had disappeared and Mandie quickly looked around for him. She and her friends walked back toward a door under the main staircase. It was open a crack.

“Oh, he went in there!” said Mandie, pointing at the secluded door. She rushed over to open the door and exclaimed, “This must be the door to the cellar.”

Someone seemed to be holding the door on the inside and Mandie couldn’t pull it open. It wasn’t locked because it moved an inch or two when she tried it.

“Who’s in there?” Mandie demanded as she tried to pull the door open.

Jonathan and Celia stepped forward to help, and when the three gave a hard jerk, the door flew open. There to their amazement was the strange woman from the ship who had been mysteriously following them everywhere they went in Europe. They stood there petrified, staring at the woman.

“The Bagatelles have packed and gone,” the woman said quickly, and she thrust some papers at Mandie. “Read these. You’ll understand.”

Mandie took the papers and her friends crowded around. Without their noticing, the woman quickly left the house.

“Look at this!” Mandie said, holding out a single sheet of the paper.

“Those people were reporters for a magazine. This is a letter giving them the assignment to investigate the rumors of singing at this house. Of all the nerve, pretending to be friends of the Thalers.”

Jonathan and Celia quickly read it. “And the editor wrote the note that was supposed to have been from the Thalers inviting them to come visit. They knew all the time the Thalers were gone and they picked this time to get into the house.”

“This is some kind of a diary they’d been keeping,” Mandie said, showing them a small notebook in the stack of papers. “Look at that. They wrote here that they were planning to lock the lady up somewhere so everyone would still think the tower was haunted. They didn’t want anyone to see her because they wanted to write about how mysterious the singing was.”

“I knew there was something wrong about those people,” Jonathan said while he and Celia were looking over the notebook.

Suddenly Mandie said, “In all the excitement, I’ve forgotten Snowball!” She turned around and went back to see where the kitten had run off to.

She opened the door with Jonathan and Celia behind her and the three gasped. “The stairs to the tower!” the three cried together as they surveyed the narrow, winding staircase that went all the way up, out of sight.

“Come on!” Mandie said to her friends as she led the way.

By the time they got to the top their legs were rubbery. “Look!” she cried as she came to a room at the top, “this is the tower room!”

Her friends joined her. They looked around the stone-walled room. There was nothing there, not a single piece of furniture except for an old wooden crate sitting by one of the windows. Mandie quickly examined the curtains.

“The curtains are clean. I told y’all,” she said. “Someone has been keeping the curtains clean.”

They looked out the windows and could see all the way to the Alps.

Suddenly there was a loud meow, and Mandie looked around to find Snowball sitting on a high ledge near a window. “I’m sorry I forgot all about you, Snowball,” Mandie ran to rescue him.

“Mandie, I think we’d better go back downstairs,” Celia said. “Your grandmother is going to wonder where we are.”

“You’re right. Let’s go. I want to talk to Miss Zaranova anyway,” Mandie said.

The three young people and Snowball went back down the stairs faster than they had come up, even though it was dark in the windowless stairwell.

When they arrived at the bottom, the door was shut. Trying to open it, Jonathan discovered it was locked. “Someone locked the door,” Jonathan announced.

“Now what?” Mandie said, picking up Snowball so he wouldn’t run away again.

“Let’s knock real hard. Someone will hear us, I’m sure,” Celia said.

The three of them knocked hard for a few minutes, but they thought no one had heard. Then a key turned in the door and Mrs. Hedgewick stood there in the doorway.

“Where have you been?” she asked sternly.

“We’re sorry, Mrs. Hedgewick,” Mandie apologized. “You see, a woman we sorta know came out of here and left the door open. We found out the stairs led to the tower, so that’s where we’ve been.”

“You should not have gone up those steps. They are in dangerous condition. The foundation is cracking,” Mrs. Hedgewick reprimanded them. She looked at the girls’ nightclothes. “Don’t you young ladies think you ought to go dress or go back to bed now?”

Mandie and Celia suddenly realized they had been running around in their nightclothes. Jonathan laughed as they walked out into the hallway. Mrs. Hedgewick locked the door behind them.

“Come to think of it, my grandmother and Senator Morton were dressed when they came out of the house a while ago,” Mandie said. “We’re the only ones running around half-dressed.”

“What shall we do?” Celia asked.

“Oh, well, since everyone has already seen us this way, we might as well go on into the parlor,” Mandie decided. She still held on to Snowball and the papers the woman had given her as she led the way to the parlor.

Mrs. Taft, Senator Morton, and Uncle Ned were sitting near Miss Zaranova, evidently having an interesting visit with her. When the young people entered the room, the woman stood up and said, “My, my, here are my fans. You almost missed me, dears. I must be going home now.”

Uncle Ned stood up and said, “I take lady home. I see where she live.”

“Would you please, Uncle Ned?” Mrs. Taft said. “Now that we’ve found her, we don’t want to lose her.”

“Grandmother, please let me go, too,” Mandie begged.

“And me,” Jonathan said.

“And me, too,” Celia said.

“All right, I suppose since we’re all up and around it’ll be all right,” Mrs. Taft replied. “But, Amanda and Celia, you must get dressed—and quickly—this lady won’t wait much longer.”

The girls rushed upstairs, dressed, and returned as fast as they could. Mrs. Taft had made arrangements with Mrs. Hedgewick for Uncle Ned to use the pony cart.

Miss Zaranova showed them the way over rough trails and through thickets that the pony and cart could barely get through. At last they came within sight of a tiny shack high on the side of a mountain. Then they had to leave the cart and walk the rest of the way up the steep incline.

“You sure do live a long way up the mountain, Miss Zaranova, to come all the way down to the chalet every night,” Mandie remarked as they climbed upward.

“Walking is good for the legs, keeps them trim,” the lady said.

The young people noticed she didn’t seem to be out of breath at all when they reached the hut. She stopped them at the door and turned to say, “I will bid you good-night here. I must go inside and get my rest.”

Uncle Ned told the woman, “We will see you again.”

“Yes, please do,” Miss Zaranova replied as she opened the warped door, its rusty hinges squeaking in protest.

The young people got a glimpse inside, seeing only meager furnishings. Then the woman closed the door behind her.

“Oh, she is pitiful,” Mandie said with tears in her voice. “We’ve got to do something to help her.”

“Yes, we must share what Big God gives us,” Uncle Ned agreed as they started back down hill.

When they arrived back at the house, Mrs. Taft and the senator were still in the parlor waiting for them. After the young people discussed the pitiful plight of the woman, they all decided to do something to help.

“Why, I don’t imagine she has enough to eat,” Senator Morton said. “She looked thin as a rail.”

“She wouldn’t have any way to make a living I don’t suppose,” Mrs. Taft said.

Mandie spoke up. “Grandmother, I want you to give her all my spending money, the cash you are holding for me for this tour of Europe. I don’t need it.”

“Mine too, Mrs. Taft,” Celia volunteered.

“Well, I don’t have any right now, but as soon as I can get some money, I’ll be glad to do my part, too,” Jonathan said.

Mrs. Taft looked at the group and smiled. “We’ll do something for her before we leave the country.”

“When are we leaving Switzerland?” Mandie asked.

“Probably the day after tomorrow,” Mrs. Taft said. “I think we’ve had a nice rest here and it’s time to get out and do something.”

The young people suddenly remembered the strange woman from the ship, and they all started to tell Mandie’s grandmother about her at once. Mrs. Taft sorted out the facts from their conversation and was amazed that the woman had been seen in the Thalers’ house and that the Bagatelles had turned out to be reporters.