The Mandie Collection (32 page)

“Me too,” Celia agreed.

Mandie came rushing back to the cart and said, “I hope no one comes in here and starts looking for the source of that smell.”

“Yes, we'd better hurry and eat,” Jonathan said. “Help yourselves, girls.”

The three loaded their plates and took them to the table where they quickly devoured the food. They carried on their conversation in whispers for fear of someone coming in and discovering them. Snowball hungrily cleaned off his plate under the table and then curled up near
Mandie's feet. Once they were finished eating, they quietly returned their dishes to the cart.

“Do you think we should take the cart back to the parlor?” Celia asked.

“You hold the door for me and I'll take it back,” Jonathan whispered back.

Mandie watched Snowball while Celia helped Jonathan with the cart.

“Be right back,” Jonathan told them as he went down the corridor with the food cart.

As soon as Celia sat down next to Mandie at the table, Snowball began squirming around and meowing.

“Oh no,” Mandie said with a big sigh. “He wants his sandbox.”

“I'll stay here while you take him upstairs,” Celia offered.

Mandie bent down and picked up the white cat. “That'll take too long,” she said, looking around the room. “Don't you think it would be all right if I just set him in one of these big pots full of dirt?” She glanced at Celia.

“I'm not sure, Mandie,” Celia replied as she rose from her chair.

Snowball squirmed vigorously in her arms, and Mandie said, “I don't think I have time to consider it.” She rushed to the nearest huge pot that didn't have anything growing in its dirt and set Snowball inside it.

And at that moment the outside door to the greenery faintly squeaked as it was opened.

Mandie caught her breath and held tightly to the end of Snowball's leash. Celia cautiously crept to her side. The two stood there waiting and trying to see through the maze of plants and pots. There was only silence.

Mandie was beginning to think she had imagined the squeak when suddenly there was a sound behind them. She whirled around to see Jonathan hurrying toward them. And at the same time there was the sound of running feet on the other side of the room.

“Jonathan, quick. That end of the room,” Mandie called to him, pointing ahead.

Jonathan instantly turned in that direction and disappeared between the plants. Mandie picked up Snowball and ran the other way, holding the cat in her arms. Celia started down the center of the room.

And it was Celia who suddenly screamed, “Here!” which was followed by the sound of a struggle.

Mandie and Jonathan rushed that way and found Celia struggling to hold Angelina by her long dark hair as the two of them kicked and fought. Mandie grabbed one of the girl's arms and Jonathan got the other one.

“What are you doing in my house again?” Jonathan demanded as the girl sat down on the floor and looked up at him. “Get up!”

Celia reached down to grasp Angelina's hair again, and the girl immediately stood up. “Don't pull my hair!” she said, trying to slap at Celia, but Mandie and Jonathan managed to grab her hands.

“I asked you a question. What are you doing in my house?” Jonathan repeated in a stern voice.

“I want my dog,” the girl said, looking from him to the girls.

“That white dog does not belong to you, and you might as well stop saying he does because no one believes you,” Jonathan told her. “And this is my house, not yours.”

The girl frowned and did not answer.

“We know your name is Angelina,” Mandie said. “What is your last name? Angelina what?”

“None of your business,” Angelina said, trying to kick at Mandie.

“We are not going to let you go until you answer our questions, so you might as well begin talking,” Jonathan ordered.

“My name is Angelina Phipps, so let me go now,” the girl said.

“Phipps?” Jonathan questioned her. “Did you say Phipps?”

“Angelina Phipps is who I am,” she replied.

“Jens's last name is Phipps. Are you related to him?” Jonathan asked.

“No, I am not, that mean old man,” the girl said sharply.

“Who is the man that comes here with you? Is he your father?” Mandie asked her.

The girl looked at her and said, “He is my uncle Mario. I do not have a father.”

“Where is your mother then?” Mandie asked.

The girl's face grew sad as she said slowly, “She died.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, Angelina,” Celia told her.

“But this uncle of yours, Mario, knows our butler, Jens, doesn't he?” Jonathan asked, watching her closely.

“They lived in the same place back in Spain,” she replied.

“Spain? Why, Jens is from England,” Jonathan said.

“I know nothing else. Now I am going home,” she said and somehow managed to suddenly free her hands.

“If I catch you back on our property again I will call the police to you. Do you understand that, Angelina?” Jonathan asked as the girl edged her way toward the outside door. “Go on home and never, ever come back here.”

As the girl disappeared through the outside door, the three young people looked at each other and started walking back toward the door into the house. As soon as they stepped inside the corridor, Jonathan reached back and turned the latch on the door.

“It didn't do us much good to catch her, did it?” Celia said as they made their way back to the parlor.

“She said her name is Phipps. She may just be a relative of Jens's,” Jonathan said thoughtfully as they went inside the parlor and sat down by the fireplace.

Mandie glanced around the room and said, “The food cart is already gone.”

Celia and Jonathan both scanned the parlor.

“I suppose someone took it away as soon as I left it,” Jonathan said.

“I wonder if anyone missed us and the cart while we had it out in the glass room?” Mandie said.

“One of the servants could have come in here to see if everything was all right while we were gone,” Jonathan reasoned. “I sure hope it wasn't Jens.”

“Because if it was Jens, he might have figured we were in the glass room?” Mandie questioned.

“Exactly,” Jonathan said. “However, if he came to the greenery, I sure didn't hear or see him.”

“Too late to worry about it now,” Celia said.

“It doesn't matter. Whoever got it knows that I ramble all around the house all the time, and they probably thought we had gone to the game room or the back parlor,” Jonathan said. Then he stood up and added, “The dog. I almost forgot about the poor dog. I'm not sure anyone has fed him. He's supposed to still be in the back parlor. I'd better go see.”

“I'll go with you,” Mandie said, rising and picking up Snowball.

“And I will, too,” Celia added as she stood up and followed them into the hallway.

When Jonathan opened the door to the back parlor, he found the room empty. “He's not here,” he said in alarm. “I'd better ask Mrs. Cook if she knows where he is.”

The girls followed Jonathan to the kitchen where Mrs. Cook was finishing her duties for the day. She turned from the sink to look at them.

“That dog, Master Jonathan, if I may say so, he needs a little looking after once in a while,” the woman said. “Shut up all day in that parlor—he needs fresh air and exercise. That's no way to treat a dog, 'tis not.”

“I'm sorry, Mrs. Cook. I've never had a dog before, and I don't know how to take care of one too well. But where is the dog?” Jonathan asked anxiously, looking around the room.

“With Leila. I tell Leila to take him out in the garden, then I will feed him,” Mrs. Cook said, turning back to the dishes in the sink.

“In the garden with Leila? Thank you, Mrs. Cook,” Jonathan said, quickly turning and leaving the room.

The girls followed him to the back door where he stepped outside to look for Leila and the dog.

“I'll stay right here, Jonathan. It's too cold to go outside,” Mandie told him as she stopped in the doorway.

“It's freezing,” Celia added, standing beside Mandie.

The girls watched as Jonathan ran across the garden calling for the dog. “Here, boy, here. Where are you?”

Finally they heard Leila answer. “Here he is, Master Jonathan.”

Mandie could hear the dog's happy yelps as he evidently saw Jonathan.

When Jonathan came within sight, holding the dog's leash with Leila following, Mandie heard the maid say, “Master Jonathan, there was a girl come into the garden wanting to take the dog. I tell her she cannot, and she tried to pull his leash, but the dog he did not like that and he barked at her. Then she ran away.”

Jonathan stopped and looked at the young maid. “Thank you for telling me, Leila,” he said. “No one is to ever take this dog unless I tell you myself.”

“Ja, Master Jonathan. I understand,” Leila replied as they reached the doorway.

“I will take him to the kitchen to feed him. Thank you,” Jonathan told the girl, who went down the hallway.

“Angelina must have seen Leila with the dog after we let her go from the greenery,” Jonathan remarked as they went back to the kitchen.

“Luckily she wasn't able to take him,” Mandie said.

In the kitchen Mrs. Cook set a bowl of food down by the cookstove, and the dog greedily ate every bite as the three young people watched.

“I'll take him up to the front parlor with us, and then I'll keep him in my room tonight, Mrs. Cook. Thank you,” Jonathan told the woman as they left the kitchen.

“Be sure you do,” Mrs. Cook called after him.

When they got back to the parlor, the dog stretched out on the hearth in the warmth of the fire and went to sleep while Mandie, Celia, and Jonathan discussed the happenings of the evening. Snowball hissed at the dog once and then settled down near him.

“We haven't seen Jens all evening,” Jonathan remarked.

“Is he usually around this time of day?” Mandie asked.

“Most of the time,” Jonathan said.

“Maybe he went out somewhere,” Celia suggested.

“Did he take your father and Celia's mother to the restaurant in the motorcar?” Mandie asked.

Jonathan glanced at her and said, “I would think my father would take the carriage tonight because of the possibility of snow. The motorcar is too open and too hard to handle in bad weather.”

“Then it would be Hodson driving the carriage and not Jens?” Mandie asked.

“I'm not sure. Most of the time it is, but I think I'll go check,” Jonathan said as he stood up. “If you girls would watch the dog for me, I'll be right back.”

He was gone only a few minutes. And he looked puzzled as he entered the parlor.

“Well?” Mandie asked.

“Hodson did drive Father and Mrs. Hamilton in the carriage, but Mrs. Yodkin says immediately after they left, Jens came and told her he
was going on an errand and would be back shortly. He has not returned yet,” Jonathan explained as he sat down.

“Maybe it turned out to be a longer errand than he expected,” Celia said.

“I've never known him to go out like that when Hodson was gone. It has always been the rule that one of them is here at all times,” Jonathan stated.

“More mystery all the time,” Mandie said with a loud sigh. “I suppose we will just have to sit here and wait for him to come back, and then you can ask him where he's been.”

Jonathan grinned at her and said, “I'll leave that up to my father, thank you.”

“I understand,” Mandie said, giving him a big smile. “We can't solve all the mysteries around this big house.”

She had no idea how long Celia's mother and Jonathan's father would be out, but she imagined the three of them would be asleep long before that. This was New York, and things weren't normal to her here.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHOSE DOG IS IT ANYHOW?

Tired out by the day's activities and the cold, Mandie decided to go to bed about eleven o'clock. And Celia, after walking what she called miles that day shopping, readily agreed that she, too, would like to retire.

“Jonathan, are you going to check on Jens again?” Mandie asked as they rose from their seats near the fireplace in the parlor. She picked up her white cat.

“Yes, one more time. You girls just wait here for a minute, and I'll see whether he has returned or not,” Jonathan told them as he left the parlor.

The white dog rose from the hearth, stretched, and yawned.

“Now you just stay put,” Mandie told the animal. “Jonathan will be back in a minute.”

The dog looked up at her as though he understood. Snowball stiffened in her arms and growled at him.

Celia stooped down to pat the dog on the head. To her surprise the dog sat down and closed his eyes, evidently enjoying the attention. “It's a shame that someone has lost such an intelligent dog.”

But the minute Jonathan came back into the parlor, the dog jumped up and ran to him.

“Jens is not back yet,” Jonathan said as he reached for the dog's leash on a table nearby and hooked it on his collar. “I'm going to take
the dog out into the garden for a minute, and then I am going to bed, too. I'll let him sleep by my bed.”

“Do you suppose Jens will come back home tonight?” Mandie asked.

“If he wants his job, he had better. I imagine he is already in pretty deep trouble by even going out tonight,” Jonathan replied as he stood up and held the end of the dog's leash.

“Good night,” Mandie said. “We'll see you bright and early in the morning.”

“Good night,” Jonathan replied as they left the parlor.

“Be sure you close your bedroom door so the dog can't get out,” Celia reminded him as they went to their different rooms.

Once in their room, the girls discussed the happenings of the day. After they had dressed for bed and crawled beneath the covers, they were both soon asleep.