New Horizons (19 page)

“Papa, you shouldn't have to change the lock on your office. It's so near the law enforcement office, and I don't think the man would dare bother it right under their noses,” Mary Lou said.

“I don't trust that man, Mary Lou,” Mr. Dunnigan replied. “I believe he would dare to do anything that came to his mind.”

“Mrs. Thomason was having her locks on the boardinghouse changed today,” Mrs. Dunnigan assured the girls, “and said she would bring you girls new keys so you can get in.”

Mary Lou looked at Mandie and Celia and said, “I don't know why y'all don't just move your things out of her house and into ours. Y'all aren't going to stay there for the rest of the school year, anyhow.”

Mrs. Dunnigan spoke up. “Yes, that's what I was thinking, too. Why don't y'all just give up your room over there? I've told you already you are both welcome here. In fact, you seem like part of our family now and we wouldn't want y'all to move out.”

Mandie and Celia looked at each other. Celia shrugged her shoulders. Mandie smiled and looked at Mrs. Dunnigan. “Thank you, Mrs. Dunnigan, we appreciate your kindness so much. Celia and I love living here with y'all and don't really want to go back to the boardinghouse. I guess we should just move the rest of our things over here then.”

“When Mr. Ryland comes to take us to the flower shop, why don't we just get him to move our things then?” Celia suggested to Mandie. “It won't take long because we don't have much left over there.”

“Yes, we can do that and get everything settled once and for all,” Mandie answered.

“I'm so glad y'all are going to stay with us for the rest of the school year. It would be awfully lonely around here without y'all, now that we've gotten so used to each other,” Mary Lou said with a big smile.

Mr. Ryland was waiting with the carriage when everyone finished the noonday meal, and they all went over to Mrs. Thomason's house.

“Well, welcome, all of you,” Mrs. Thomason said, opening the door in surprise to see Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan along with Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou.

“Mrs. Thomason, we've decided to move the rest of our things over to the Dunnigans',” Mandie quickly explained. “Our school year will be over soon anyhow, and it will give you a chance to rent our room to someone who might be more permanent.”

“I understand,” Mrs. Thomason said, nodding. “Perhaps next school year you girls will want a room here again.”

“Perhaps,” Mandie replied. “But right now things have been so frightening and hectic that I don't believe we would even sleep at night if we were to stay here.”

“I know exactly what you mean, dear,” Mrs. Thomason replied. “However, I should let you know that I did have all the locks changed on my house today and was preparing to give y'all new keys. I feel everything here is safe now.”

“That is good to know,” Mandie said.

“Mr. Ryland is waiting to load their things into the carriage,”
Mr. Dunnigan told Mrs. Thomason. “Shall I ask him to come inside now?”

“Yes, please do,” Mrs. Thomason replied.

With the small amount of belongings Mandie and Celia had left at the boardinghouse, the two men had the room emptied and the carriage loaded in just a short while. Mr. Dunnigan surveyed the carriage, then looked at the girls and said, “Well, even so, we managed to fill the carriage and there is no room for anyone to ride, so we should start walking back so we can let Mr. Ryland into the house with your things.”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie and Celia agreed.

As everyone said good-bye to Mrs. Thomason, she suddenly called to Mandie. “Oh dear, Amanda, I almost forgot. Please wait a minute. You received some mail today that I need to give you.” She hurried back inside the house as everyone waited on the walkway.

“I wonder who wrote to me at this house.” Mandie looked puzzled.

Then Mrs. Thomason came back to the door with a small white envelope in her hand. “It must be important. I noticed it came all the way from Ireland,” she said.

“Adrian,” Mandie said under her breath. She took the white envelope and quickly slipped it into the pocket of her full skirt.

Celia heard her and grinned. “Adrian. He won't give up, will he?”

Mary Lou grinned at Mandie and teased, “Oh, a beau in Ireland!”

Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan overheard the remarks and smiled as everyone headed back toward the Dunnigans'.

It didn't take long for Mr. Dunnigan and Mr. Ryland to get the carriage unloaded, and with Mary Lou's help, the girls soon had all their clothes hung up and everything in place.

“Now, shall we go to the flower shop?” Mary Lou asked.

“I would like to freshen up a little before we go,” Mandie told her friends. “I'll only be a minute or two.” She headed down the hallway toward the bathroom.

“It should only take two minutes at the most to open that letter and read it,” Mary Lou teased.

“We'll be down in the parlor,” Celia called to Mandie. She couldn't keep the grin off her face.

In the bathroom, Mandie quickly opened the letter and pulled out the one sheet of paper. She read,
Just a note to let you know that I shall be sailing for America shortly and will spend some time in your city. I do hope you will be remaining in Charleston for the summer. Upon arrival I shall contact you at your college. Until then, Adrian
.

Mandie straightened up and said to herself, “I hope you don't get here before I go home for the summer. I doubt that you'd ever find me in my little hometown in North Carolina.” She quickly stuck the letter back inside the envelope, rushed into her room, and buried it in her pile of scarves and ribbons in the bureau drawer.

As she hurried down the stairs to join her friends, she muttered to herself, “Too many things happening at once.”

Mandie wasn't sure whether she wanted to see Adrian when he came to the United States or not. He had seemed interesting when she had met him in Europe last summer, but that was a long time ago, and they didn't seem to have much in common.

“Oh well, I have plenty of time to decide about that. School won't be out for a while yet.”

Rushing into the parlor, she felt herself blush when Mary Lou and Celia grinned at her.

“Come on, let's go,” she said, continuing to walk toward the front door. “We don't have a whole lot of time left today.”

Mary Lou and Celia smiled at each other and hurried after her.

chapter 14

The next day the newspaper published an article about the burglaries that had been happening around town. It mentioned Sol Jacks as a suspect, since he had apparently been into some questionable dealings recently, and how he had suddenly fled town.

Mandie, Celia, and Mary Lou read the article together at breakfast that morning.

“He jumped onto a boat bound for Africa?” Mandie was both shocked and angry. “Now the police will never be able to catch him!”

“Well, at least we won't have to worry about him using those diagrams he still has to break into more houses,” Celia said.

And with the absence of Sol Jacks came the absence of burglaries. The law officials decided that the locksmith was indeed their guilty man.

The school year neared the end. There were concerts, lectures, and out-of-town visitors speaking on various topics; and the
worry about final examinations began to spread among the girls.

Both Mary Lou and Grace had strict standards they had to meet in order to receive an extension on their scholarships for the next year. And Mandie, Celia, Mary Lou, and Grace often studied together on subjects they were taking.

The other girls at the college were still aloof and hostile with them at times. George Stuart's sister continued staring and smirking at Mandie whenever she saw her. April Snow and Polly Cornwallis just ignored Mandie and Celia and Mary Lou.

One day Mandie wanted to look at books at the antique bookstore and Celia went with her. Mary Lou and Grace had to stay behind to study for their final exams. Mandie promised to pick up Mary Lou at four o'clock.

On their way to Meeting Street, Celia remarked, “You know, Mandie, this would be an opportunity to ask the bookstore owner questions about your grandfather.”

“Don't you remember? We tried that before and it didn't work,” Mandie replied.

“Do you think there's a possibility she might have old newspapers in her shop?” Celia asked.

“I had not thought about that,” Mandie replied. “I don't remember seeing anything but books there, but we could ask Mrs. Heyward if she keeps any old newspapers.”

When they entered the shop, Mrs. Heyward was busy talking to an elderly lady. “That's a question I get very often, but I'm sorry to say that we don't keep any old newspapers. They are too much trouble. However, you can go to the newspaper office
and look at every paper they have ever put out.”

“I thank you for the information,” the lady said, looking around. “I'll just take a look at your books, then.”

Mandie and Celia also looked at the books on the shelves, but Mandie was so deep in thought that she only pretended to see the books in front of her. “I wonder where the newspaper office is,” she finally whispered to Celia.

“Mrs. Heyward could probably tell us, if you want to ask,” Celia replied.

“No, I'd rather ask Mr. Ryland. I'm sure he would know,” Mandie said.

“And I'm sure he could take us there,” Celia added.

“If we go right now, we'll have time to stop in the newspaper office before we have to pick Mary Lou up from the college,” Mandie said. “Come on, I'll look for a book some other time.”

They hurried outside to where Mr. Ryland was waiting with the carriage.

“Mr. Ryland, do you know where the newspaper office is?” Mandie asked as they approached him.

“Oh sure. Do you want to go there?” Mr. Ryland replied.

“Yes, sir, I'd like to look up some old newspapers concerning something I heard about,” Mandie explained.

“Then we go,” he said.

The newspaper building was tall and slender, three stories high, and stood between a dry goods store and a hardware store. Mandie looked up at it and asked, “Mr. Ryland, does the newspaper use the whole building?”

“Oh yes, miss, they do. You see, they've been here a long time, and they save every newspaper they've ever printed. It takes a big building to hold all of it,” he replied as they stood by the carriage.

“Would you please wait for us while we're in there?” Mandie asked. “We shouldn't be too long.”

“Certainly, miss, I'll be right here,” he replied.

Mandie and Celia pushed open the heavy front door and found themselves in a large room, most of which was fenced off by a large counter at the front. They could see several desks where people sat working on papers. One man was hollering over a telephone in an effort to be heard on the other end of the line. Two men were standing in the far back corner of the room, evidently arguing loudly with hands waving, enforcing whatever was being said.

Mandie looked at Celia as they stood at the counter. “What do we do now, I wonder? No one seems to have noticed us come in.”

“If we could get past this counter, we could probably get someone's attention,” Celia said, looking around for an opening.

The two men standing in the back stopped talking, and one came toward the front but stopped before he got to the counter. He looked up and saw the girls and then walked away, ignoring them.

“Well, how do you like that?” Mandie said. She suddenly raised her voice and yelled, “Mister, we have a question.”

The discussions in the room stopped immediately and everyone stared at the two girls, but no one came forward.

“Please, could we speak to someone?” Mandie said to no one in particular.

The man who had started forward before finally came to the counter. “What do you ladies want?” he asked in a harsh voice.

“We would like to ask about looking at copies of old newspapers, please,” Mandie said, trying to sound older so they wouldn't ignore her again.

“You want to look at old newspapers?” the man replied. “No way, miss, not today. We are in the process of putting the paper to bed and don't have time. Come back another day.” He started to walk away from the counter.

“If you would just show us where they are, we won't bother you,” Mandie said, determined to get into the papers.

“I'm sorry, miss, but you cannot get into the archives without someone supervising, and I said we're too busy today,” the man said. “Now scram, get out of here.”

Mandie straightened her shoulders, pushed out her chin, and said, “I have never run into such a rude man before. We will leave so you can do your screaming at someone else.”

Mandie and Celia were distinctly aware that they had become the center of attention in the room. So they quickly turned around and opened the front door to head outside as conversations began and everyone started talking at once again.

Mr. Ryland saw them coming and stepped forward. “Did you get to see whatever you wanted to see?” he asked.

“Oh no, we didn't see anything but a huge room full of
ill-mannered men,” Mandie replied, and she related the events to him.

“They were just too busy to be bothered with us,” Celia said when Mandie was done. “We can come back another day.” The girls climbed into the carriage.

“Where to now, misses?” Mr. Ryland asked.

“I wonder if the library might have some old newspapers,” Mandie said.

“Do you know where the public library is, Mr. Ryland?” Celia asked.

“The public library? I am not sure about that, miss,” Mr. Ryland replied. “Perhaps we could drive around and you could watch for it.”

Mandie flipped open the watch she wore on a chain around her neck. “We'd have time to find it before we have to pick up Mary Lou, but we won't be able to go inside and look at records.”