Mandie Collection, The: 4 (41 page)

“Yes,” Mrs. Taft muttered with a strained smile at the housekeeper.

Suddenly the baroness turned to Frau Jahn and spoke to her. Frau Jahn translated for Mrs. Taft. “The baroness asks that you please forgive her necessary conversation with Fraulein Wagner. She will dispense with it shortly.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Taft said.

The aunt spoke then, “They are discussing the arrangements for the dinner party tomorrow night.” Then turning to the young people across the room, she added, “I am Frau Schiller, Fraulein Wagner’s aunt. It is nice to meet you young Americans.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” the three young people chimed.

“I am sorry, Frau Schiller. Please forgive my manners. I simply forgot to introduce them to you,” Mrs. Taft said, somewhat hastily.

“Of course, madam. You have beautiful young people in your care,” Frau Schiller replied.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Taft said. “It is a job, keeping up with them.”

“You’re right on that score,” Senator Morton said, smiling at the two ladies.

Mandie suddenly realized her old Cherokee friend was not present.

“Grandmother, where is Uncle Ned?” she asked.

“He has gone for a walk. He’ll be back soon,” Mrs. Taft told her. “And you might tell me where your kitten is, dear.”

“Oh, he’s in our suite,” Mandie explained. “Olga feeds him in our bathroom, so I just leave him there.”

Mandie glanced at Elsa’s aunt while the woman was not looking at them. The woman didn’t seem to be much older than Elsa, but she
had a more mature figure. Her hair and eyes were also dark, and she was wearing a simple black dress and no jewelry.

Mrs. Taft was talking to Frau Schiller. “Will Miss Wagner’s mother also be coming for the dinner tomorrow night?” she asked the German woman.

“Nein, no, madam,” Frau Schiller replied with a sad expression on her face. “Elsa’s mother passed to the beyond last year and Elsa was left alone, her father having been deceased for many years. Since a young lady must have proper supervision, I moved into the house with her. When she marries Rupert next year, they will live there and I shall return to my own estate.”

“I am sorry about her family,” Mrs. Taft said. “So they will not be wed until next year?”

“That is correct. You see, we are just now coming out of our period of mourning. Once that is past we have many things to accomplish before the wedding,” Frau Schiller explained.

Mrs. Taft looked around and asked, “I haven’t seen Rupert. Was he not here to greet his bride-to-be?”

“The Baroness Geissler explained that he is away on a short journey of business and will return soon,” Frau Schiller said.

Mandie and her friends looked at each other. Where had Rupert gone?

He had followed them outside after dinner and had vanished into the woods.
Some business in the woods
, Mandie thought. He must not be really interested in Elsa, considering the way he was acting.

Baroness Geissler finished her conversation with Elsa and spoke to Mrs. Taft and the senator through Frau Jahn’s interpretation. Elsa seemed to be in deep thought and wasn’t really paying any attention to anyone.

“The baroness says we will have guests arriving tomorrow from several different countries. Some of them are American and you may be acquainted with them,” Frau Jahn said.

“Oh, please tell me the names,” Mrs. Taft said to her.

Mandie and her friends began their own conversation, quietly enough that Elsa could not hear what they were saying.

“I wish it would hurry up and be time for everyone to go to bed, so we can go outside and watch the juniper tree,” Mandie whispered.

“Yes, well, it—” Jonathan began, and then the cuckoo clock on
the mantelpiece interrupted with its shrill call to announce the hour of ten o’clock. Everyone looked at it.

Mrs. Taft gasped and said, “Oh, dear, I didn’t realize it was so late.” She turned to the young people. “I think you should all get to bed now. We’ll rise early in the morning to prepare for a busy day.”

Mandie and her friends rose to say good-night. At that moment Uncle Ned came into the room. He was still wearing his leather jacket and native breeches. Elsa and her aunt both gasped at the sight of him in his unusual garments, and then they pretended to ignore him.

Mrs. Taft spoke up, “Come on in, Uncle Ned. I would like you to meet these ladies.”

Uncle Ned stepped forward, and Mrs. Taft introduced him to Frau Schiller and Elsa Wagner. Both women were distant and very formal with the old man.

They probably can’t figure out exactly who he is
, Mandie thought as she watched.

When the Cherokee finally sat down, Mandie rushed to grasp his hand and say good-night. And as the conversation began again among the adults Mandie whispered, “Did you see Rupert anywhere outside?”

Uncle Ned shook his head and said softly, “No see him.”

Mrs. Taft glanced at her granddaughter and said, “Amanda! Bedtime, dear.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” Mandie replied.

The three young people bid everyone good-night and left the room to go upstairs.

After they were out of hearing, they paused to make their plans.

“Let’s meet at the top of the stairs as soon as everyone has gone to bed,” Mandie said softly to her friends.

“Are you sure you really want to go outside in the dark and watch the tree?” Celia asked. “It may be too dark to see anything.”

“Celia, if you don’t want to come you don’t have to,” Mandie said indignantly. “It’ll be all right if you just want to go to bed. Jonathan will go with me, won’t you, Jonathan?”

“Sure, I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” Jonathan said with his mischievous smile.

“No, Mandie, I really do want to go, because the tree may jump
up and down and I don’t want to miss that,” Celia replied as they all moved on up the stairs.

“All right,” Mandie agreed. “I doubt that we’ll see the tree jump up and down, but we’ll go watch just in case.”

The three went to their rooms, agreeing to listen for the occupants of the house to retire. Then they would meet at the top of the stairs for their adventure outside.

When Mandie opened the door to her suite, Snowball jumped down from a nearby table and came running to his mistress, meowing for all he was worth. She picked him up.

“You missed me, didn’t you, Snowball?” Mandie said, cuddling the kitten on her shoulder and rubbing his white fur. He kept wailing.

“Mandie, something must be wrong with him, crying like that,” Celia said, going to look at him.

Mandie held him in her arms to look at him. “What is wrong, Snowball?” She quickly ran inside the bathroom and looked around for his food bowl. There was no dish anywhere.

“Oh, goodness! Olga must have forgotten to feed Snowball!” Mandie said with a big sigh.

“No wonder he is crying then,” Celia said.

“I suppose I’ll have to go back downstairs and look for the kitchen to get something to eat for him,” Mandie decided, putting Snowball down.

“Want me to go with you?” Celia asked.

“All right, but let’s be awfully quiet so no one will hear us. Otherwise, Grandmother may find out we’ve been prowling around the castle when we’re supposed to be going to bed,” Mandie said.

The two girls went softly along the corridors and down the stairs. Then they explored different directions and finally found themselves in the hallway on to which the old kitchen opened.

“That door goes into that old kitchen, I think, so we must be near the kitchen they use now,” Mandie whispered as she went toward the closed door.

She carefully pushed open the door enough to see inside, with Celia peeking over her shoulder. Both girls gasped as they watched Rupert lower something on a rope into the old well inside the room. He bent over to watch it go down. Then he leaned forward over the
edge, apparently tying the end of the rope to something down below. He straightened up, smiled to himself, and brushed his hands together.

The girls quickly darted down the corridor to the nearest door and ran inside of what was evidently the pantry. They listened quietly as Rupert walked heavily down the hallway until his footsteps could no longer be heard.

Mandie whispered, “Let’s go see what he put in that well.” She was out of the pantry and hurrying to the old kitchen before Celia could object.

The girls examined the well, and although there was only one dim lamp burning in the room, they could see the hook far, far below where the rope was secured.

“No way we can reach that,” Mandie said, exasperated.

“No, we might fall in,” Celia cautioned.

“If we could find a long stick, we might be able to pull on the rope,” Mandie suggested.

“Mandie, it’s too late to mess with that,” Celia objected. “Remember, we have to get food for Snowball and then we are going outside to watch the tree.”

“Yes, you’re right, Celia,” Mandie said, straightening up. “Tomorrow we’ll look to see if the rope is still down there. Now, let’s find the kitchen.”

The girls discovered the present-day kitchen was just next door. They heard laughter behind the door and pushed it open. The servants were busy cleaning. They all stopped to look at the girls in the doorway.

“Could we please have some food for my kitten?” Mandie asked as she and Celia stepped into the room.

The three uniformed women servants looked at her and then at one another.

“Oh, goodness, Mandie, they don’t understand English,” Celia said.

“Food,” Mandie repeated, putting her fingers to her mouth. Then she crooked her arms and said, “Kitty, kitty, kitty.”

The women exchanged glances again and then laughed, still not comprehending.

Mandie walked over to the leftover food on the long wooden table, picked up a used dish and pointed with it toward the food.

“Ah!” the oldest woman said with a big smile. She reached into a cupboard, took out a small bowl, and went to the big iron stove across the room. There were several pots, and she lifted the lid on the largest and dipped inside with a large ladle.

Mandie followed her and watched. Evidently this was part of the stew they had had at dinner. Snowball would love it.

“Not too full. I might spill it,” Mandie said as the woman kept filling the bowl.

Not understanding Mandie’s remark, the woman ignored her and reached back into the cupboard, pulled out a large dish towel and covered the bowl with it. Then she handed it to Mandie with a burst of German words and a smile.

“Thanks,” Mandie said. Then she remembered the expression Jonathan had translated when they overheard Frau Schiller. She repeated the German word: “Danke.”

All three women smiled broadly, and watched the girls as they left the room.

Mandie carefully balanced the bowl as they made their way back to their rooms.

Snowball greeted them with more wailing until Mandie set the bowl on the bathroom floor. He immediately gobbled down the stew.

“You eat your fill, and then you climb up on the bed and go to sleep,” Mandie told her cat as she and Celia went back into the bedroom to sit on the big bed.

“I wonder what Rupert put in that well. We’ve just got to find out,” Mandie remarked.

“Maybe Jonathan could reach it,” Celia suggested.

“Good idea. We’ll tell him about it when we go outside in a little while,” Mandie agreed. “And I do hope this venture will be worthwhile, because I imagine it is cold out there.”

“Me too,” Celia agreed. “Germany is much colder this time of year than back home.”

“Let’s get our cloaks ready,” Mandie said.

They prepared their wraps, and sat quietly waiting until they thought it would be late enough for everyone to have gone to bed.

CHAPTER EIGHT

WHAT HAS RUPERT BEEN DOING?

“It’s time,” Mandie said softly as the clock struck midnight somewhere in the castle. She picked up her dark heavy cloak and put it around her.

Celia did likewise. “Are we going to leave Snowball here?” she asked.

“Definitely,” Mandie replied, looking at the ball of white fur sleeping on the bed.

Mandie slowly opened the door and looked out into the hallway. There was no one in sight. “Come on,” she whispered.

Celia followed, carefully closing the door to their suite.

The deep silence and the dim lights in the wide corridor made the place eerie. The girls crept along slowly, careful not to make any noise. Mandie held her breath, hoping no one would appear and catch them up after hours. She was determined to watch the tree.

When they finally got to the landing of the stairs, they found Jonathan sitting on the top step. He grinned and rose as they came up.

“I’m ready,” he told them in a low voice.

“So are we,” Mandie said.

They softly descended the huge staircase, pausing now and then
to listen for any sound. The front door came into view at the far end of the corridor downstairs and the three hurried toward it.

As they drew nearer, Mandie suddenly put out her hands to stop her friends. She had spotted Rupert sitting on the bench by the door where they had sat earlier watching the arrival of Elsa Wagner and Frau Schiller. Celia and Jonathan saw him at the same time. He seemed to be reading some papers on the table.

The three young people quietly, slowly, backed up the hallway, keeping an eye on Rupert, and stepping into an adjoining corridor.

“Now how will we get out of here?” Mandie asked in a whisper.

“We’ll just find another door,” Jonathan said in a low voice.

“The only other door I know of is the one near the old kitchen—which reminds me,” Mandie whispered. “Jonathan, we saw Rupert putting something down the well in that old kitchen. We had to go find something for Snowball to eat because Olga had not fed him. He was meowing like he was starved. We happened to find the old kitchen while we were looking for the one they use now.”

“Something into the well?” Jonathan questioned. “What did it look like?”

“We couldn’t tell,” Celia spoke up.

“We only saw him let the rope down in the well with something on the end of it,” Mandie explained. “Then he tied the top end of the rope so far down we couldn’t reach it to pull it up, but I think you could.”