The Mandie Collection (28 page)

“Just wait till you hear the latest about the mystery of the old house,” Mandie replied.

Then Celia's mother, Jane, and Aunt Rebecca came to join them. They got in the rig while John Shaw and Dr. Woodard went to get their luggage that had been checked on the train.

“Oh, I have good news, Mandie,” Celia said, glancing at her mother in the seat in front of them. “Mother says I can go with you to visit your Cherokee kinpeople, provided we go when she isn't planning for us to visit some of our relatives.”

“Oh, I'm so glad, Celia,” Mandie told her. “But when are you going to visit your relatives?”

Jane Hamilton turned halfway in the seat to look back at Mandie. “That is more or less flexible,” she said. “I think we can work out dates with your mother about when y'all are going to visit your relatives.”

“Joe is going, too,” Mandie said, looking at him. “In fact, we're going to stay awhile at his house. Joe, when will you be out of school for the summer?”

“I'm not sure yet. It will depend on whether I want to take an extra subject next year, and if I do I'll have to take the examination for it, and that will be after the school formally closes for the summer. I'll know as soon as I get back to school,” he said.

“And I'll have to talk to my mother and Uncle John about dates, too,” Mandie said. “We can do that while y'all are here and get some ideas as to when we can all go.”

“Are your mother and your uncle going with you, Amanda?” Jane Hamilton asked.

“I think Uncle John will go, but I don't know about Mother. We haven't discussed it yet,” Mandie replied.

“I was hoping your mother would like to go to New York with me while you girls go visit your relatives,” Jane Hamilton said.

“Maybe Mother might want to do that, but Uncle John has already told me he would like to visit our Cherokee kinpeople,” Mandie explained. Then she had a sudden idea. “Why don't you take Grandmother with you? She likes to travel.” She glanced at Joe, who grinned at her.

“Mrs. Taft? Well, of course she would be welcome to come along,” Jane Hamilton replied. “Does she not have any plans yet for the summer?”

Mandie shrugged her shoulders and said, “She keeps telling me she wants to make some plans—plans that would include me—and I told her I wanted to visit my kinpeople, but you know my grandmother.” She smiled at Mrs. Hamilton.

She smiled back and said, “In that case, maybe I can get her off your hands. I know she loves New York. Let's just keep this between us and I'll see what can be done.” She winked at Mandie.

“Thanks,” Mandie said with a big grin.

John Shaw and Dr. Woodard came back then, with the railroad helpers carrying the Hamiltons' trunks, which they put in the back of the rig.

“Looks like everything arrived all right,” Aunt Rebecca said, watching the luggage. “We were so late checking things, I was afraid it would be delayed.”

“I believe it's all there,” Jane Hamilton agreed.

“Are you going to New York, too?” Mandie asked.

“I'm not sure yet,” Aunt Rebecca replied. “I'm afraid I might not be able to handle Mollie in New York, and I haven't found a place to leave her yet.”

“Will y'all be visiting the Guyers while you're in New York?” Joe asked.

“We will at least see them while we're there,” Mrs. Hamilton replied.

“I thought maybe Jonathan Guyer might want to come down here and go with us to visit my Cherokee kinpeople, but I haven't asked him yet,” Mandie said.

“I have an idea,” Jane Hamilton said. “Why don't we arrange things so that y'all could go to New York with us and either go before or after that to visit your relatives?”

“We'll have to talk to my mother about that,” Mandie said.

John Shaw and Dr. Woodard got in the rig, and as John picked up the reins, he said, “We're on our way now. I know y'all are tired after that train ride from Richmond.”

“It's not really bad,” Mrs. Hamilton said. “But I will be glad to get freshened up and get a cup of Aunt Lou's coffee.”

“She'll have it waiting,” John Shaw told her.

Mandie didn't want to say too much about the old house with the
grown-ups around to hear, so she waited until they got to her house and she went upstairs with Celia to her room.

While Celia changed clothes, Mandie told her everything that had happened about the old house. “And now we know there is someone living in there because they took the food basket off the porch,” Mandie concluded.

Celia quickly brushed her long auburn curls and straightened her skirt. “I don't know how you're ever going to find out who it is if they won't come to the door when you knock, and you said you watch and watch and no one ever comes out,” she said.

“I suppose we have to keep watching and maybe we'll finally see someone,” Mandie said. “Anyway, come on, let's go. Joe is going to get tired of waiting for us downstairs.”

Since the noon meal was not quite ready, Mandie and Joe took Celia down to the rose arbor and showed her the house.

“Somebody is living in that? Looks like it's going to fall flat any minute,” Celia remarked.

“It's probably a tramp, or someone hiding from the law, or something like that,” Joe said.

“Oh, goodness, and y'all have been going down there,” Celia said with a loud gasp.

“But we haven't seen anyone so we don't know who is in there,” Mandie added. “It could just be some poor person who doesn't have anywhere to live.”

The day passed quickly. Before Mandie knew it, it was time to begin getting ready for the dinner party. Even though the house had plenty of guest rooms, Celia always shared Mandie's room when she came to visit. The girls discussed their dresses, and since Celia had brought a bright green silk dress with her to wear, Mandie put on her blue chiffon. They carefully arranged their hair, put on special jewelry, and even stole a whiff of perfume from Mandie's mother's atomizer.

When the guests arrived late that afternoon, the young people stayed in their own little group and observed.

“I'm glad Mother didn't invite anyone our ages that we would have to entertain, because after we eat we will be able to slip away and go watch the old house,” Mandie said as the three stood in
the parlor near the hall doorway, watching as the ladies and gentlemen came in.

“I believe there are ten people besides our own parents, so that is going to be quite a crowd at the dinner table,” Joe remarked.

“Yes, but I'm glad because we won't have to carry on a conversation with any of them,” Mandie said.

“And no young ones our ages that we have to be nice to,” Celia added with a big smile.

“Oh, but look,” Mandie said. “There is a little girl with the Harrisons.”

Mandie and her friends watched as her mother greeted the Harrisons and then brought the little girl over to meet them. “Amanda, this is Mrs. Harrison's granddaughter, Cecily Millen.” Elizabeth went back to her friends.

“Hello,” Mandie said. The girl had brown hair, changeable eyes that flashed blue and green, and a tiny sprinkling of freckles on her nose.

“Hello,” Cecily replied. She seemed shy without much to say.

“I'm glad you could come, Cecily,” Mandie told her. “These are my friends, Celia Hamilton and Joe Woodard.”

After Celia and Joe exchanged greetings with Cecily, Mandie said, “Would you like to go sit with us in the back parlor? The adults will be drifting in and out, but we could talk awhile before we go in to dinner.”

“Oh, yes, that would be nice. Thank you,” Cecily replied.

The four young people sat in the back parlor and got acquainted. Before they knew it, dinner was announced, and they were all seated together at the dining room table. Mandie liked Cecily and learned that the girl was eleven years old and was visiting her grandmother for the holidays. She lived in Tennessee.

Finally dinner was over. The guests began leaving, and as soon as Cecily and her grandmother left, Mandie, Joe, and Celia went down to the rose arbor. The moon was not shining and the night seemed awfully dark, so when they sat down to watch the old house it was barely visible down the hill. But they also realized it would be hard for anyone down there to see them because of the dark
night. They watched and watched with no results for what seemed like hours.

Finally Joe spoke. “Don't y'all think we ought to go back to the house now? The guests may be leaving and everyone will wonder where we are.”

“I suppose we'll have to,” Mandie agreed, standing up and smoothing her long skirt.

As she straightened up, something caught her eye down the hill. There was a faint light inside the old house. Her friends saw it at the same time.

“A light,” Joe whispered.

“It's an awfully small light, whatever it is,” Celia commented.

“And now that we see it, we're going to have to go back to the house. It's too late to stay here any longer. What luck,” Mandie fussed.

“It wouldn't do us any good to stay and watch that light because we can't go down there and investigate. We are forbidden, remember?” Joe reminded her.

“I know, but sooner or later whoever is in there will have to come out, and I hope we see them when they do,” Mandie replied.

The three slowly made their way back up the hill, stopping to look back now and then. The light stayed there and was visible in the dark night until they turned the curve at the top of the slope.

Once they were back in the yard of the Shaw house, Mandie stopped to say, “If we get up early enough in the morning we could go back and look before breakfast to see if the light is still there.”

“Mandie, we'd have to come back before daylight in order to see the light,” Joe reminded her.

“If the day is dark and cloudy like tonight has turned out to be, we could see it,” Mandie replied.

“I hope it doesn't rain,” Celia said.

“Yes, it would be too messy to go back in the rain like we did the other day,” Mandie agreed. “But let's plan on meeting down in the kitchen real early tomorrow morning.”

“If you insist,” Joe finally agreed.

Mandie dreamed of the light that night, but she was as flustered
in the dream as she had been earlier. She couldn't seem to get near enough to see anything. The light seemed to move farther away as she tried to approach it. Then she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep for a long time thinking about it.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A DISCOVERY

The next morning the three met in the kitchen, but to their dismay the weather outside was dark and cloudy with the threat of rain any minute. Joe built up the fire in the stove, and Mandie put on a pot of coffee, while Celia got down the cups and saucers.

By the time the coffee had perked, John Shaw joined them. And Aunt Lou came into the room shortly thereafter.

“Looks like it's going to be a rainy day,” John Shaw remarked.

“Which means we're going to have to stay inside, I suppose,” Mandie said in disappointment.

“That's right,” John Shaw agreed with a smile. “I was hoping you would realize that. I don't want you going out in all this bad weather, Amanda. Even though we have a doctor with us, it would be terrible if you went out, caught a cold, and ended up spending your holidays moaning and groaning.”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie agreed.

“Has my father gone out this morning? Do you know?” Joe asked John Shaw.

“Yes, he went out about an hour ago, but he's only making calls in and around Franklin, so he'll be back for the noon meal,” John Shaw said.

“After breakfast would y'all like to go to the back parlor and play checkers or something?” Mandie asked her friends.

“Fine,” Joe agreed. “But there are three of us and we need a fourth person to even things up.”

“I'll ask Aunt Rebecca if y'all want me to. She plays checkers with Mollie a lot,” Celia offered.

Mandie and Joe both agreed. So that is the way they spent Saturday, because the rain never stopped and the wind outside was chilly.

At bedtime everyone hoped Sunday would be clear and sunshiny. They all planned to go to church in the morning and then the three young people would be free to watch the old house or whatever else they decided on.

During the night the wind woke Mandie. She raised up on her elbow to listen as it roared around the house. She could hear a loose shutter bang now and then, but there was no sound of anyone being up. Snowball had curled up next to her pillow, and Celia was sound asleep.

Mandie pulled the covers up around her shoulders and tried to shut out the sound, but it was almost daybreak before she finally dropped back off to sleep.

When daylight came, Mandie, Joe, and Celia went down to the kitchen. John Shaw and Dr. Woodard were already there and Aunt Lou was bustling around getting things ready for breakfast. The wind seemed to have subsided.

After everyone got coffee and sat down at the table, Mandie asked, “Did y'all hear the wind blowing last night? It woke me up.”

Aunt Lou said across the room, “It sho' woke up Liza, too. She came to my room all cryin' and scared, and I had to let her sleep wid me de rest of de night.”

“Yes, it woke me up, too,” John Shaw said.

“Seems to have blown itself out this morning,” Dr. Woodard said, drinking his coffee.

“It's raining again, though,” John Shaw added.

“Are we going to church?” Mandie asked, still worried about the weather.

“We'll see what the ladies think,” John Shaw said. “If they think
we should stay home, then we can have our little Bible study together in the parlor this morning.”

Snowball had followed Mandie down to the kitchen and started meowing at Aunt Lou until she set a saucer down with food on it for him. Then he began eating like he was starved.