Mandie Collection, The: 4 (49 page)

“Then if she doesn’t have any friends to visit, that means she will want us with her everywhere she goes,” Jonathan said.

“Maybe she and Senator Morton will want to go somewhere without us,” Mandie said hopefully.

“Mandie, couldn’t we just tell your grandmother we think someone is in that boat and needs help?” Celia asked.

“No, no, no!” Mandie quickly replied. “She would just say she’ll get the police to investigate and then forbid us to go there.”

“If you think she would forbid it, then we shouldn’t go,” Celia said.

“Well, I’m not sure she would,” Mandie replied. “But I don’t think she’d mind if we helped someone in distress.”

“Mandie, it would depend on who it is and what is wrong,” Jonathan told her.

“But we won’t know that until we find out what’s going on in that boat,” Mandie insisted.

Celia sighed and looked at her friend. “I think we’re going to get into trouble again.”

The three had walked so slowly that the adults had stopped for them to catch up.

“Amanda, let’s move a little faster. I don’t know about y’all, but I feel like having some food,” Mrs. Taft said as they came up to her and Senator Morton.

“Food! That’s for me,” Jonathan agreed with his mischievous grin.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied. “I just realized I’m hungry, too. Where are we going to eat?”

“In the hotel, dear,” Mrs. Taft said. “Tomorrow we’ll rent a carriage and go sightseeing. We’ll find some interesting place to eat then.”

The three young people exchanged glances.

“Will this sightseeing take all day, Grandmother?” Mandie asked as they walked on.

“Why yes, dear. That’s what we came for, so y’all could see the town,” Mrs. Taft said, stepping forward beside Senator Morton.

Jonathan made a silent groan upon hearing that. Celia smiled. But Mandie said softly, “Don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way to get back to that boat.”

“If you say so,” Jonathan replied.

CHAPTER TWO

ROBBERY

The next morning after a hearty breakfast, Mandie and her friends and her grandmother waited in the reception room of the hotel where they were staying while Senator Morton went out to engage a carriage for a day of sightseeing.

“Grandmother, could we just walk around in the lobby till Senator Morton gets back?” Mandie asked as she stood up from the settee where she and Celia and Jonathan had been sitting opposite Mrs. Taft. She held Snowball by his leash.

Celia and Jonathan quickly looked at Mandie and then at her grandmother.

“No, dear, you will all stay right here and stay seated until the senator gets a carriage for us,” Mrs. Taft replied emphatically, pointing to the settee.

Mandie quickly sat back down by her friends. “I just figured we’d be sitting most of the time in the carriage and my legs feel like they need some exercise,” she said.

“We’ll get plenty of exercise getting in and out of the carriage and walking around the places we plan to visit,” Mrs. Taft replied. She kept watching the doorway for the senator to return.

Mandie sighed softly and glanced at her friends. Celia smiled and Jonathan made a face and shrugged his shoulders.

“What are we going to see, Mrs. Taft?” Jonathan asked.

Mrs. Taft turned to look at him. She smiled and said, “I’m not very well acquainted with Antwerp, but Senator Morton is and he knows where to go and what to see. We will visit one art museum.”

Mandie sighed to herself and grimaced. She knew absolutely nothing about art and was not really anxious to learn. To her a picture was a picture. Some she liked and some she didn’t. This place called Antwerp didn’t seem to be very interesting. Except for the abandoned fishing boat down by the pier and its moaning and groaning sound, she thought the city was boring.

“Daydreaming?” Celia whispered.

Mandie took a deep breath and smiled. Her blue eyes twinkled. “I suppose I’m just getting tired of this European trip. When we run out of mysteries to solve it gets boring.”

“I agree,” Celia said softly.

“Don’t give up,” Jonathan muttered under his breath. “We’ll get back to that old boat somehow.”

Mandie had watched her grandmother during their whisperings. Mrs. Taft had not seemed to hear or notice. But she knew her grandmother well enough to know that the lady would drag them to every nook and cranny in the city before they journeyed on to the next country. The tour of Europe was considered part of their education, Mrs. Taft had informed them, and she didn’t intend letting them miss a single important place.

“Watch out!” Jonathan suddenly called to her.

Mandie’s hold on Snowball’s leash was lax, and the kitten chose that moment to dart away from her grasp. He quickly disappeared into the adjoining lobby. The three young people ran after him.

“Amanda! Don’t let that cat get away!” Mrs. Taft called after them as they went through the doorway.

“Snowball, you come back here, do you hear?” Mandie yelled at the fleeing white cat.

Snowball glanced back at his mistress and quickly ran through the open door of the elevator nearby. The only person Mandie could see inside it was a short dark man who was carrying what looked like a large piece of cardboard. The man evidently didn’t even see the cat or the young people as the door closed and the elevator began its journey upward.

“Oh, just wait till I get my hands on you, Snowball!” Mandie exclaimed as she watched the elevator leave.

“Half a second earlier and I could have held the door of the elevator,” Jonathan groaned.

“I don’t know why that man inside didn’t see Snowball,” Celia said.

“Celia, would you please go tell my grandmother what has happened, and I’ll run up the steps to try to catch him when the elevator opens,” Mandie said.

“Sure, Mandie,” Celia said and hurried back toward the reception room.

“Come on,” Jonathan said, quickly rushing up the nearby staircase.

Mandie raised her long heavy skirts and ran after him. The two were out of breath as they looked at the indicator for the elevator on that floor.

“It didn’t stop here. Come on. Next floor,” Jonathan said, racing up more steps.

Mandie caught up with him, and they were both annoyed to see by the indicator that the elevator was still traveling upward.

“How many floors does this hotel have?” Mandie asked, trying to catch her breath as she turned to follow Jonathan up another flight of stairs.

“Four. This is the top floor,” Jonathan gasped as they arrived at the elevator.

The elevator was just stopping as they rushed up. Mandie could see through the glass door that the man was still on it. As it opened the man cautiously stepped out, looking first to the left and then to the right. As he saw the two young people standing there, he quickly looked down the long corridor. At that moment Snowball raced out behind him and got in his pathway. The man raised his foot to kick at the cat.

Mandie and Jonathan immediately realized what the man was planning to do and they rushed forward and knocked the man down. The large cardboard he was carrying slid across the hallway. Mandie snatched up Snowball.

“Don’t you dare kick my kitten!” Mandie yelled at the man as he got up from the floor and hurried to pick up the cardboard.

“I did not kick that cat,” the man said in British English as he
straightened up with the cardboard in his hands. He was quickly examining it.

Mandie watched. It wasn’t a piece of cardboard, after all. It was some kind of painting. She could see one corner of the picture where the cloth covering had slipped off. It was a green color.

“You planned to kick that cat. We saw you,” Jonathan told him.

“It’s good you didn’t because you would have gotten a lot worse from us,” Mandie added.

“And I tell you that you are lucky you didn’t damage this,” the man said haughtily, tucking the painting under his arm and hurrying down the corridor.

“I’d sure like to know who that man was,” Mandie commented as they watched the man walk away. Then she noticed he was not going to a room on that floor but had run down the staircase instead. “Now isn’t that stupid? Why did he come all the way up here on the elevator and then go back down the steps?”

“Come on, Mandie,” Jonathan urged her. “Maybe he pushed the wrong button or something. Anyway, we’d better get back downstairs to your grandmother.”

“I hope she’s not too upset with Snowball,” Mandie remarked as they went down the stairs.

The two reached the ground floor in time to glimpse the man going out the front door of the hotel. He was still carrying the painting.

“That man certainly acts strange,” Mandie commented as they watched him leave.

“Mandie, Jonathan, the senator is back and we’re ready to leave,” Celia called to them from the doorway of the reception room.

Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton appeared behind Celia.

“Amanda, please, please hold on to that cat or you will have to leave him in your room when we go out,” Mrs. Taft told her.

“But, Grandmother, the maid or someone might let him out if I leave him in my room,” Mandie protested as they all walked toward the front door. “I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful with him.” She had carried the kitten down the stairs and continued to hold him in her arms as they went outside and entered a carriage waiting for them.

Once inside the vehicle the two adults began their own conversation. So the young people discussed the man with the painting. Celia had seen him leave the hotel.

“Maybe he was a stranger in town and got in the wrong hotel,” Celia suggested.

Mandie thought for a moment and then agreed. “That could have been the reason he left. And he did speak English with a British accent.”

“He had a British accent, but I don’t think he was British,” Jonathan disagreed. “There was a slight twang to his speech, as though he had learned the English in England but was really some other nationality”

Mandie’s blue eyes opened wide. “Well, aren’t you smart, Jonathan Guyer? I never would have caught that twang, as you call it. But then I’m not familiar with other languages like you are.”

Mrs. Taft spoke to them. “Are y’all watching the scenery as we travel along? Look at all the beautiful trees and flowers. There’s an interesting building.” She pointed to a huge structure with ornate carvings. “Senator Morton, would you please tell us what you know about the city?”

“I’d be glad to,” Senator Morton said, smiling at the three young people. “That particular building is one of the government offices. We are on our way to the square in the main part of the city. There you’ll see some really old and beautiful architecture.”

Senator Morton continued on and on. As Mandie gazed out the window, her mind traveled back home. She wondered how her mother was, and her little baby brother, and her Uncle John who had married her mother when her father died. And, oh, how she’d like to see Aunt Lou and Liza and Jenny and Abraham—all who worked for her Uncle John and all her very dear friends. She wondered when Uncle Ned would arrive in Antwerp.

“Grandmother, do you have any idea as to when Uncle Ned will get into town?” Mandie asked as soon as Senator Morton took a moment to catch his breath.

“No, dear,” Mrs. Taft said as she turned to the senator. “Have you received any message from him?”

“No word at all, but then I don’t expect to because he said he would catch up with us as soon as he could,” Senator Morton said.

“I know he had to stop to see some friends after we left the castle in Germany, but we aren’t going to be here very long, and I
was hoping he’d hurry up and come,” Mandie complained as she held tightly to Snowball in her lap.

“I’m sure he will, dear,” Mrs. Taft replied as their carriage came to a halt.

Mandie looked out to see the square that the senator had told them about. It was old and beautiful in its own way, but she had seen so many squares in Europe that they were all beginning to blend in together in her mind.

They alighted from the carriage, and the adults led the way around the square. Mrs. Taft cautioned the young people not to get out of her sight.

“We’ve been through so many difficult situations since we came to Europe that I insist for the rest of your visit all of you are to stay within my sight,” Mrs. Taft told them as they walked past shops of various kinds.

“Yes, Grandmother,” Mandie replied.

“Yes, ma’am,” Celia and Jonathan added.

The three drifted along behind the adults, and finally at noontime Senator Morton found a pleasant little sidewalk cafe where they could rest and eat. Mandie tied Snowball’s leash securely to the table leg.

After having Senator Morton translate the menu for them, all the young people decided on “just some scrambled eggs and rolls,” as Mandie said.

Mrs. Taft immediately looked anxiously at the three young faces. “Y’all are not sick, are you?”

The three smiled and Mandie said, “I’m just tired of food that I’m not used to. I’d really love to have some grits, with the eggs, and some of Aunt Lou’s hot biscuits.”

“Me too,” Celia agreed.

“And I’d like to have some of that good old New York food, just anything so long as it’s cooked back home,” Jonathan remarked.

“Maybe you three can eat more tonight then,” Mrs. Taft suggested, turning to Senator Morton with her order.

“I’ve never had New York food, Jonathan,” Mandie told him. “But I don’t imagine it could be as good as our food back home in North Carolina.”

“It’s every bit as good and probably better, but I haven’t had any
of your Southern food, so I don’t know for sure,” Jonathan replied, a mischievous grin lighting his face.

“So you’ve traveled all over the world practically, but you’ve never been in the southern part of our own country. Shame on you,” Mandie teased. “You’re going to have to come and visit. And we’ll take you to see my Cherokee kinspeople.”

“I plan to one day, but you know how it is with my father so tied up in business deals all over the world. I have to go to school wherever he sends me,” Jonathan said.

“Jonathan, I do hope your aunt and uncle in Paris come back home soon so you can go stay with them awhile after we all go home,” Celia told him.