Mandie Collection, The: 4 (38 page)

“I think he’s learned that when you put the leash on him, it means we’re going out,” Celia observed.

“I imagine so by now,” Mandie replied. She glanced at her trunk
as they walked by it. The lid was open, and she said to Olga, “I see you got my trunk opened.”

“Yes, but, miss, look,” Olga said, going over to the trunk. “The man had to break the lock.”

“Oh, my!” Mandie exclaimed as she examined it. “How will I lock it again when we travel on?”

“We have trunks in the attic,” the maid told her. “I will ask the baroness for another one for you.”

“Ask the baroness for another
trunk?
” Mandie questioned her. “Can’t the man repair the lock on mine?”

“He said not. It is impossible. Broken here and here,” Olga said, pointing to the broken metal strips around the lock. “But do not worry. I get another trunk.”

“From the attic?” Mandie said, her blue eyes twinkling. “Can we go with you to the attic?”

“If you like,” Olga said, laying down the armful of clothes.

“Not right now, Olga. Jonathan is waiting for us to go outdoors,” Mandie said. “Maybe later. When you have the time.”

“Yes,” Olga agreed, walking them to the door.

When Mandie and Celia joined Jonathan in the hallway, Mandie told him excitedly, “This castle has an attic! And we’re going up there later with Olga to find another trunk for my clothes. The lock had to be broken to get mine open.”

“That should be interesting,” Jonathan replied as they walked down the hallway toward the stairs.

“Yes, if the attic is as old as the rest of this castle, imagine what could be up there!” Mandie said enthusiastically, leading Snowball along by his leash.

“Mandie, wouldn’t anything that old be rotten or rusted by now?” Celia asked as they turned down the steps.

“Maybe,” Mandie agreed. “But there should be lots of old things in good condition, too, if it’s at all like other attics I’ve been in.”

Jonathan stopped at the bottom of the steps and pointed to the left. “I believe the outside door is this way.”

They opened the door and stepped outside. The sun was shining, but it didn’t seem as bright as the sun back home. The sky looked gray as Mandie viewed it through the foliage of the trees.

“This is the door we came in from the carriage,” Mandie remarked
as they looked around. “Let’s go to the other side of the house where the drawbridge is. Olga said the juniper tree is near it.”

The three walked through the irregular flower gardens toward the end of the castle. The grounds of other mansions they had visited had neat, planned gardens. This estate seemed to have a more casual, natural look, with trees and shrubbery scattered about here and there, and odd-shaped beds of blooming greenery in disarray. But Mandie noticed everything was freshly cut and clean.

“There!” Mandie said as they rounded the corner. She pointed to a huge juniper tree. “That must be the one.”

They stopped to look.

“Yes, it does seem to be the largest tree here,” Jonathan agreed.

“But it’s just a plain old juniper tree. How could it possibly jump up and down?” Celia commented.

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Mandie replied, securing Snowball’s leash as he tried to get away.

“And how do you propose doing that?” Jonathan asked.

“Well,” Mandie said thoughtfully, gazing at the tree. “We could just stand here and watch it until it moves.”

“Couldn’t we at least sit down?” Celia asked.

“Yes, let’s get comfortable. If we’re going to wait for that tree to jump up and down, it could be an awfully long time,” Jonathan said. He looked around and spotted a low wall nearby. “Why don’t we sit over there?”

“Shall we see the rest of the yard first?” Mandie asked, turning the next corner of the castle. “Look! There’s the moat and drawbridge. Just like the pictures in our history book.”

Jonathan and Celia followed her. The three stopped at the drawbridge, which was open, and looked inside.

“My goodness! It looks like the carriage is in there!” Mandie exclaimed.

“Yes it is,” Jonathan said. “That was the original purpose of the drawbridge, to allow travelers to enter the walls of the castle. When everyone was safely inside, the drawbridge was pulled up to conceal the carriage from the enemy or passersby.”

“And there are no windows large enough to enter on the ground floor, just those slits in the walls,” Mandie said.

“What a good idea,” Celia said.

After walking completely around the castle, looking at all the surroundings, the three arrived back at the huge juniper tree and sat down on the low wall to watch and wait.

“Well, if that tree decides to move, we’ll be sure to see it from here,” Jonathan remarked.

“I don’t really think it will move,” Mandie admitted, tying Snowball’s leash to a nearby bush.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Celia asked.

“There has to be some kind of mystery about it,” Mandie replied. “A huge tree like that couldn’t possibly jump up and down. Evidently someone is just making up tales about it. If we wait long enough, maybe we’ll find out something.”

They watched and waited for a long time and nothing happened. Their conversation turned to other things.

“What are you going to wear to dinner tomorrow night, Mandie?” Celia asked.

“I don’t know,” Mandie replied. “Since Grandmother asked us to leave many of our things in the hotel in London in order not to be bogged down with luggage, I don’t remember exactly what I brought. I’ll have to see.”

“I doubt that my father will come to that dinner,” Jonathan remarked as he drew circles in the dirt with a stick.

“I hope he doesn’t,” Mandie confided. “Because he could decide to take you back home, and I’d like you to travel on with us. Besides, we haven’t even met your aunt and uncle in Paris yet.”

“If they ever return home, I might be able to talk my father into letting me visit with them awhile,” Jonathan said, straightening up and brushing the sand from his hands.

“And then we’d finally get to meet them,” Celia added. “They sure do travel a lot. They seem to be always off to somewhere else as soon as they return to Paris.”

“Well, you know people who work for newspapers. They always travel a lot,” Jonathan explained.

“Just like Uncle Ned,” Mandie said. “He’s always going somewhere. I hope he gets here in time for the dinner tomorrow night.”

“Mandie, I don’t think this tree is ever going to move,” Jonathan said, standing up. “How about walking around beyond the grounds a bit? We can always come back and check on the tree.”

“Well, all right,” Mandie agreed, untying Snowball’s leash from the bush. “Which way do you want to go? It looks like the place is completely surrounded by forest.”

Celia looked around and then pointed. “I see a pathway over there. Why don’t we see where it leads?”

The others agreed and the three started down the lane that led away into the trees on the side of the castle. The ground was firm, evidently well-traveled, Mandie decided as they went along. Here and there she noticed dried hoof-prints in the dirt. The trees on either side were so thick it was impossible to see very far through them.

Suddenly they came into a clearing with a small hut in the center of it. Even though it looked old, there were lace curtains in the windows, and a few flowers bloomed against the wall of the tiny house.

The three young people stood there staring at the cottage, Snowball straining at his leash.

“What do you suggest we do?” Jonathan asked.

“Let’s knock on the door and see if anyone’s home,” Mandie answered.

“There’s no telling who could be living there, Mandie,” Celia objected. “They might not like strangers coming up to their door uninvited.”

“I don’t think they’d mind. It’s probably someone who works for the castle. We’re still on the estate property, as far as I know,” Mandie replied.

As they discussed whether they would knock, the door to the hut suddenly opened, and who should step outside, but Rupert! The three young people gasped in surprise.

Rupert paused when he saw them, then closed the door quickly behind him, and strode forward on the pathway without speaking a word. He held his head high and frowned angrily, ignoring them completely.

For once, none of the three spoke. Mandie couldn’t think of a thing to say. After the way Rupert had behaved toward them earlier, she had decided to leave him alone. But they all turned to watch until he was out of sight down the pathway toward the castle.

“Well!” Mandie said, blowing out her breath. “I wonder who lives here, and what Rupert was doing inside the house?”

“It must belong to the castle,” Jonathan remarked, “and whoever
lives in it must work for Rupert’s family. He was no doubt here on castle business, don’t you think?”

“Maybe,” Mandie said as they stood still, again staring at the small house. Then she saw the curtain move, and was sure a young woman inside was watching them. “Don’t look now, but I just saw a woman behind those curtains in the right-hand window.”

Jonathan and Celia nonchalantly rolled their eyes toward the right-hand window without moving.

“I see her, too,” Celia agreed.

“And so do I,” Jonathan said. “She’s probably a maid at the castle.”

“Why do you think Rupert was visiting her?” Mandie asked. She watched the window. “The woman looks vaguely familiar. She has long black hair, and looks a few years older than I am.”

“You’re right, Mandie,” Celia said.

“We can’t just stand here all day staring at the hut,” Jonathan reminded them. “Are we going on down the pathway around this clearing, or are we going back to the castle?”

“Let’s walk on for a while,” Mandie said, looking at Celia.

“All right, let’s go on,” Celia agreed.

The pathway made a wide arc past the house and then descended a steep hillside. As the three paused to look ahead, they could see the distant mountains as well as the green meadows below. The trees had thinned out here, and the grass made a luxurious carpet under their feet until it reached the edge of the downgrade. Then rocks formed the pathway with low bushes and wild flowers along the sides.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” Mandie said, looking beyond where they stood.

“It’s also a pretty rough and steep path,” Jonathan reminded her as he gazed at the trail leading down the embankment.

“I see another path over this way,” Celia said, pointing to her left.

Mandie looked in that direction and said, “You’re right. And it goes right into the woods.”

“Let’s try it,” Jonathan said. “It looks easier.”

They began walking in that direction. The pathway looked a lot like the first one, but was almost swallowed up by the huge trees that also shut out most of the sunlight.

After a while they came to a fork in the pathway. It split to the left and right. They stopped to choose their way.

“Right or left?” Mandie asked.

“The paths look the same,” Jonathan remarked.

“Let’s go to the left,” Celia decided.

“Why?” Mandie asked, looking to the left.

“I think I see some beautiful flowers up ahead on the path,” Celia said as she walked on.

As they neared the bright colors, Mandie looked about for birds or animals. There didn’t seem to be anything living in the forest.

When they finally got close enough to see the area beyond the flowers, they discovered another cottage situated by the trail. The flowers seemed to belong to the occupant. The house was similar to the one they had just seen. Lace curtains adorned the windows, and the shingles looked old.

As Mandie stood there wishing they could pick the flowers, she noticed a faint spiral of smoke coming from the chimney.

“Someone must be home. I see smoke from a fire,” she told her friends.

“It looks like the estate owns several cottages in the woods for the workers to live in,” Jonathan remarked.

Just then, an elderly woman emerged from the front door. She had a homemade broom, and was intent on sweeping the stoop. At first she didn’t seem to notice the young people as they watched and waited. But when she descended the short flight of steps, sweeping them off as she went, she finally looked up and saw them. She backed up the steps, staring at the strangers.

“Hello,” Mandie called to her as she walked forward. “We are visiting at the castle.”

The woman backed into the doorway and held the door open, as if ready to dart inside. Her eyes didn’t waver from them.

Mandie and the others moved closer, cautiously.

“Do you understand English?” Mandie asked.

The woman still didn’t utter a word, but stood there transfixed.

“Sprechen Sie Englisch?” Jonathan asked her.

“Nein, nein, nein!” the woman quickly replied.

“What did you say to her? She looks scared,” Mandie said.

“I only asked her if she speaks English and she said ‘no,’ ” he explained.

“Well then, say something to her in German,” Mandie said.

“I don’t know much,” Jonathan admitted. Then he turned back to the old woman and said, “Guten Tag.”

The woman immediately replied in a rush of German, and Jonathan couldn’t understand a word she was saying. “Sorry, I don’t know what that’s all about. Maybe we’d better go,” Jonathan said.

Mandie suddenly remembered the words Frau Jahn had taught her that morning to thank the baroness. “Vielen Dank,” she called to the woman.

“But what are you thanking her for, Mandie?” Celia asked, also remembering what the German words meant.

The woman smiled, waved to them, and went inside the cottage, closing the door behind her.

“Those are the only words I know,” Mandie said. “I wish I knew more, so I could talk to the people we meet.”

“You can always learn,” Jonathan said with his mischievous smile.

“That would take too long. I want to be able to speak to them right now, during our trip here to Europe,” Mandie replied.

“I think you ought to learn some languages when you go back to school, so you’ll be able to talk to people the next time you travel over here,” Jonathan said. “French is probably a good one to learn, and of course German, and some Italian.”