The Mandie Collection (28 page)

“Do you think it'll be all right for Hilda to go?” Uncle John asked. “Mightn't she get into something and get hurt?”

“No, I think Mandie will be able to control her,” Dr. Woodard replied.

“Tell me about the mine, please,” Celia begged.

“It's just a great big hole in the ground,” Joe teased.

“Are you sure the mine is safe?” Mrs. Taft asked.

“I'm having workmen go over every inch of it before the young people will be allowed inside,” John assured her.

Elizabeth bristled. “Mother, you know John and I would never allow Amanda to go if it weren't safe.”

“Yes, of course, dear,” Mrs. Taft replied.

Later that night, when Elizabeth told the girls it was time to go to bed, Mandie didn't protest.

“All right, Mother.” She yawned. “I guess it has been a long day.” She turned to Hilda. “You are to sleep in the room with Celia, Sallie, and me,” she said. “Let's go upstairs.”

Saying good-night to everyone, the girls went up to Mandie's room. Mandie pulled a trundle bed out from under her bed and showed it to Hilda. “You sleep on this,” she said.

Hilda stood watching, not saying a word. It took a lot of coaxing from the other three girls to get Hilda to undress for bed. When they finally got her to lie down in the trundle bed, Hilda held onto the covers and watched every move the others made as they finished getting ready for bed.

“Do you think she'll stay there to sleep?” Sallie asked doubtfully. “I think so. Anyway, I'll hear her if she gets up during the night,” Mandie answered.

But Mandie slept soundly that night and didn't hear a thing.

CHAPTER THREE

WAITING

Mandie awoke early, just about dawn, and when she opened her eyes, the trundle bed was empty. She sat up quickly, disturbing Snowball who was sleeping at her feet.

Where was Hilda?

Sallie stirred in her bed and sat up.

“Hilda is gone!” Mandie whispered.

Sallie blinked her eyes a few times and looked around the room. “We must find her,” the Indian girl said, swinging her feet out of bed onto the floor.

Mandie crawled over the trundle bed and stood up. “There's no telling where Hilda is,” she said, pulling her robe on over her long nightgown. “Come on,” she whispered in order not to wake Celia.

Snowball jumped down from the bed and stretched, watching his mistress.

Sallie quickly threw on her robe and slippers, and the two girls started toward the door.

Suddenly the door came open and Hilda walked in, followed by Liza.

“Case y'all been lookin' fo' dis Hilda girl, she been sleepin' in my bed,” Liza told them.

Taking one look at Mandie, Hilda went straight to the trundle bed and jumped in, pulling the covers over her.

“In
your
bed, Liza?” Mandie asked, astonished.

“In de middle o' de night I heerd somethin,' and here she wuz gittin' in de other side o' my bed. She didn't say a word, jes' got under de covers and went straight to sleep,” Liza explained.

“I wonder how she knew where Liza was,” Sallie said.

“I don't rightly know, Missy,” Liza told them. “I told her she had to come back up here 'cause I has to git down to de kitchen.” “I'm sorry, Liza. I'll try to keep her here tonight,” Mandie said.

“Dat's all right, Missy. I don't care if she wants to sleep in my bed, long as she don't kick,” Liza said.

Mandie and Sallie laughed.

Celia awoke and sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around. “As long as who doesn't kick?” she asked, yawning sleepily.

“Hilda sneaked off during the night and slept with Liza,” Mandie explained.

“I gotta go, Missy. Gotta help git breakfus',” Liza said, dancing over to the door. “I knows she don't know no better, so don't y'all be mean to her.” Liza rushed out of the room.

“Sorry we woke you, Celia,” Mandie apologized.

Celia swung her feet onto the carpet and stood up, stretching. “That's all right. I'm hungry anyway, and Liza said she was going to cook breakfast,” she replied. “I don't want to miss that.”

“All right, let's get dressed and go down to the kitchen,” Mandie suggested.

“That is a good idea,” Sallie agreed. “But what about Hilda?” The girls looked at Hilda in the trundle bed. She was either fast asleep or was making a good pretense of it.

“Let's just leave her here,” Mandie said. “I don't think she wants to get up right now.”

The three girls washed their faces quickly and slipped into their dresses, being careful not to disturb Hilda. After they brushed their hair, Mandie picked up Snowball, and they tiptoed out of the room.

As Celia silently closed the door behind them, Hilda opened one eye to see that they were gone, then jumped up and quickly put on her dress and shoes. Taking Mandie's shawl from the wardrobe, she
threw it around her shoulders, opened the door, and listened. Hearing nothing, she stepped into the hallway and paused again. Then she tiptoed down the servants' stairway at the end of the hallway. Making her way through the dimly lighted hallway downstairs, she found the back door, opened it, and ran out into the yard and off through the shrubbery.

Although Mandie and her two friends stood right inside the kitchen near the back door, they didn't hear her leave.

Aunt Lou was stacking plates on the table while Jenny, the cook, tended something on the big black cookstove and Liza folded napkins.

“Whut fo' you girls done got up so early?” Aunt Lou asked them.

“Please, Aunt Lou, let us eat here in the kitchen,” Mandie begged. “It'll be a long time before the grownups get up, and we're starving to death.”

“And I s'pose dem boys dey'll be comin' to de kitchen, too,” Aunt Lou fussed.

“I don't know whether they're awake yet or not,” Mandie told her.

“They are,” came a loud voice behind them. “We're hungry, too.”

The girls turned to find Joe and Dimar standing just inside the doorway, listening to their conversation.

“Now, my chile, I ain't said y'all could eat in here,” Aunt Lou said, “ 'cause y'all ain't told me why y'all got up so early.”

“It was because of Hilda,” Celia volunteered.

Aunt Lou put her hands on her broad hips as she straightened up. “Dat Hilda girl?”

“Yes. Hilda slept in Liza's bed last night,” Mandie said. “She slipped out of my room after we went to sleep.”

Aunt Lou looked from Mandie to Liza, who grinned and kept on with her task. “Liza, why didn't you make dat girl go back where she belong?” Aunt Lou asked.

“She ain't right in de haid so I didn't wanta be mean to huh,” Liza replied.

“She ain't right in de haid 'cause nobody don't try to teach huh no sense,” Aunt Lou said.

“We've been trying to, Aunt Lou,” Mandie said. “She's learning. It's slow, but she is learning.”

“Dr. Woodard says she is brighter than we think she is,” Sallie added.

“That's right,” Joe agreed.

“And where be dat Hilda girl now?” Aunt Lou asked.

“Liza brought her back to my room a while ago. She's asleep on the trundle bed,” Mandie explained.

Aunt Lou shook her head. “I still cain't let y'all eat yet, 'cause breakfus' ain't ready,” she said, exasperated. “Y'all find somethin' else to do till we's ready.”

Mandie looked at her friends. “What shall we do until breakfast?” she asked them.

“I haven't seen the tunnel yet,” Celia said. “You've always talked about the tunnel in this house. I'd like to see it.”

“We could do that this morning,” Mandie said. “I know the rest of you have been through it, but it won't take long to show it to Celia.”

The others agreed enthusiastically, and Mandie led them out of the kitchen and down the hall toward the stairs. As they passed the parlor, Mandie heard a noise and peeked in. There sat Uncle John, quietly reading the newspaper by the window. She went in to speak to him, and the others followed.

“Why are you up so early, Uncle John?” she asked.

“I don't know,” he said. “Something woke me before dawn, and I couldn't get back to sleep. What are you all up to already?”

“We want to show Celia the secret tunnel,” Mandie answered.

Uncle John's face grew sober, and he stood up. He folded the newspaper and laid it on the table. “I'd like to talk to you alone, Amanda, before you go through the tunnel,” Uncle John told her.

Everyone looked at Mandie, questioningly.

“This is a personal matter between Amanda and me. It won't take long,” he said.

“All right, Uncle John,” Mandie replied. “Will the rest of you wait for me here in the parlor for a few minutes?”

They all nodded.

What have I done now?
she wondered. If Uncle John needed to have a private conversation with her, it must be something bad, she reasoned.

Uncle John laughed. “Don't look so worried, Amanda. I'm not going to spank you.”

Everyone laughed. Mandie drew a breath of relief.

“Let's go upstairs,” Uncle John suggested as they started to leave the parlor.

Mandie followed her uncle from the room. “Upstairs?” she questioned.

He led her up the steps to the door of the third floor library. There he paused with his hand on the doorknob. “I don't know whether I ever told you or not, but this room was my mother's favorite place in this house. She came here to think and solve problems, and to read all our many wonderful books,” he said.

“You told me she was a beautiful young Indian girl when your father married her,” Mandie replied.

Uncle John slowly opened the door. “Yes, she never lived to grow old,” he said sadly, pushing the door open wide.

Immediately in front of them, across the length of the room was a huge fireplace. Over that hung a portrait that had not been there before.

Mandie rushed forward. “My Grandmother Shaw!” she cried. “Oh, she was so beautiful!”

Tears moistened Mandie's blue eyes as she stared at the likeness of a beautiful Indian girl looking down at her. The girl was dressed in red silk, her thick black hair piled high on her head. Indian beads sparkled on her ears, and at her throat they were entwined with a red ribbon.

“She looks as though she could see us and could speak,” Mandie said softly.

Uncle John nodded and put an arm around his stepdaughter. “I had told you this portrait was in Asheville getting the frame refinished, remember? I just got it back last week, and I wanted you to see it alone with me,” he told her.

Mandie reached up to grasp his hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Uncle John, for knowing how important this moment is to me. I wish I could have known her,” she said with a quiver in her voice.

“Yes, well, even your father was too young to remember her. She died when Jim was only a few months old, but since I was fifteen years older than your father, I can remember her well. She was beautiful, always happy, full of life, always doing things for other people. And she and my father were so much in love. After she died, my father just wasted away. He died in 1868, as you know, when your father was only five years old.”

Mandie turned to face him. “And my father died so young, Uncle John. He was just barely thirty-seven years old.”

Uncle John tightened his arm around her. “I know, dear. Only God knows the answer to our sorrows.”

Mandie wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and looked up at her uncle. “I thank God every night in my prayers for helping me to find you and my real mother after my father died,” Mandie said. “And I would never have agreed to anyone but you marrying my mother and becoming my stepfather.”

“Yes, I suppose you would have given an unwanted stepfather a bad time,” Uncle John teased her, smoothing her long blonde hair.

“You know me!” Mandie laughed.

“Now I think you'd better get back to your friends. I've left the door unlocked over there for you,” Uncle John told her, pointing to a small door at one side of the room. “I knew you would want to show Celia the tunnel.”

“Thanks, Uncle John. I love you,” Mandie said. Squeezing his hand tightly, she hurried back to the other young people and found them impatiently waiting for her in the parlor. Snowball was curled up in the middle of the carpet.

“Are you ready now?” Mandie asked.

“Are
you
ready'?” Joe laughed.

“Yes, I had a nice surprise just now. I'll show you when we get up there,” Mandie promised.

“Step this way, ladies and gent,” Joe teased as he rose to lead the way. “We've all been there before except Celia, so you know the way.”

Celia, Sallie, and Dimar followed Joe and Mandie up the stairs to the third floor. They hurried down the long hallway to the door to the library where Mandie had just been.

As they stepped into the room, Mandie pointed to the portrait. “That's what Uncle John wanted to show me,” she told her friends. “He just got it back from being refinished. I had never seen it before. It's my Grandmother Shaw—my father's mother, and Uncle John's mother, too, of course.”

The group paused to admire the portrait.

Mandie turned toward the small door that Uncle John had left unlocked. “Joe, would you please carry that lamp over there?” she asked.

Joe picked up the lamp from a nearby table and lighted it.

As Mandie opened the door, Celia stood directly behind her. “It looks just like a closet with a paneled wall, doesn't it?” Mandie stood to one side to let Celia look closely. Then Mandie continued. “Watch what happens when I push this.” She pushed the latch, and the paneled wall swung around, making a doorway.

Celia caught her breath in astonishment.

“Now we go right through here,” Joe said as he stepped through the doorway into the tunnel.