The Mandie Collection (46 page)

“No, I don't have to. But I suppose I will,” Celia replied. “I just wish I could understand why you're so determined to go up there.”

“I can't explain it,” Mandie answered, “but something tells me I should keep looking.”

“Well, I sure hope it's worth getting into trouble for,” Celia said.

CHAPTER EIGHT

CAUGHT!

Even though all the girls were required to attend Sunday school and services, they were not all in the same classroom at church. Therefore, Mandie and Celia did not see April until they filed into the pews across the aisle from Mr. Chadwick's boys.

April sat at the end of the pew directly across from Tommy. She tried her best to attract his attention, but Tommy didn't seem to notice her. He looked straight ahead.

Celia poked Mandie and motioned for her to look. Mandie smiled as she and her friend sat down in the pew directly behind April.

During the entire service April kept looking at Tommy. When the audience stood to sing a hymn, she deliberately reached out and dropped her handkerchief in the aisle.

When Tommy didn't respond, she tried other tactics. Quickly replacing her hymn book in the rack, she leaned across the aisle and spoke loudly above the music. “Tommy, do you have an extra hymnal? We seem to be short one over here,” she said.

All the girls held their breath and looked to see if Miss Prudence had heard. But the schoolmistress kept singing heartily.

Without missing a note, Tommy handed April his hymnal and turned to share Robert's.

April took the book but did not sing a word. She just stood there holding the open hymnal and watching Tommy. At the end of the
song, as everyone sat down, April leaned across the aisle and handed Tommy the hymn book.

“Here, would you put this back where it belongs?” she said loudly.

Everyone nearby turned to look, including Miss Prudence. She frowned at April, then turned her attention to the pastor's sermon.

When the service was over, Miss Prudence guided April out of the church. “This way, April, with the other girls,” she said.

The boys left by the other aisle, but April had to go with Miss Prudence. After shaking hands with the pastor at the door, the girls began their short walk back to the school.

Celia nudged Mandie. “Imagine carrying on like that in church,” she said softly so no one else could hear.

“I suppose it's her last chance, for a while at least. I heard Miss Prudence tell her that her mother would be here to get her after the noon meal,” Mandie said.

“Hallelujah!” Celia laughed.

“Celia, didn't the Sunday school lesson do you any good at all?” Mandie scolded.

“We'll discuss that later.”

Mandie sighed. “I guess we'll have plenty of time. Remember, we have to stay in our room except for meals and classes.”

“Oh, well, at least that's better than being suspended like April,” Celia replied.

Reaching the school, the girls hurried to their room to leave their bonnets, gloves, purses, and Bibles. They would have to move quickly to get to the dining table on time.

As Mandie and Celia entered their room, Mandie immediately sensed something wrong. Looking about, she discovered that her pink chiffon dress was missing. She had hung it on the hook next to Celia's lavender dress the night before.

“Oh, no! Not again!” she exclaimed.

Celia understood immediately. “April!” she accused.

“I'm not sure, but April is going home today. We'll see what happens while she's gone,” Mandie said. “Come on. We don't want to be late to the table. We're in enough trouble already.”

In the dining room, a tall, arrogant-looking woman stood behind the chair next to Miss Prudence.

The schoolmistress rang her little silver bell. “Young ladies, this is Mrs. Snow, April's mother. April will be going home today, and we are not sure when she will return.”

There was no doubt that April went home that afternoon. So when they heard the noises in the attic that evening, they knew it couldn't possibly be April.

Immediately after supper, Mandie and Celia went straight to their room. The sun still shone brightly, and the two girls sat on the window seat, silently watching the other girls stroll around the lawn below.

The noise was barely discernible at first. Gradually it grew louder. The girls looked at each other. A moment later, the noise stopped.

“It can't be April this time,” Mandie reasoned.

“No,” Celia replied.

“Are we going to see what it is or not?”

“That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“On what you decide,” Celia answered. “I always go along with you.”

“All right. Let's go.” Mandie led the way to the door, and they stopped to listen. “I can't hear anybody in the hall,” Mandie whispered. Slowly, she opened the door.

“Quick! Let's get out of this hall!” Celia told her.

They quietly ran for the attic staircase and hurried up the steps. The window let in plenty of light this time, so they could see that the door at the top was closed.

“The door!” Mandie whispered. “I didn't close it last night.”

Celia thought for a moment.

“But Miss Prudence was going to send Uncle Cal to clean up the glass, remember? He probably closed it.”

“Right,” Mandie agreed. She put her finger to her lips, then slowly turned the doorknob and swung the door inward.

The two girls stood at the doorway and looked around. There was enough light to distinguish most of the discarded objects of furniture around the attic: tables, chairs, chests, trunks, and boxes.

“There's nothing here,” Celia whispered.

“No, I guess not,” Mandie answered. Still looking around, she moved her foot. Crunch. She looked down. The glass chimney she had broken had not been cleaned up. She pointed to it, motioning to Celia.

“Uncle Cal didn't come up here. Who closed the door?” she whispered.

At that moment a huge rat ran across Celia's foot. She screamed. “Let's go!” she cried. Running out of the room, she stumbled down the stairs with Mandie following.

But just as they turned the corner to go to their room, they saw Miss Prudence.

The woman put her hands on her hips and advanced toward them with a stern expression on her face. “This is it!” she exclaimed. “You have broken my orders to stay in your room. You are both suspended from school for ten days. Celia, I will contact your mother immediately, and Mandie, I will send word for your grandmother to come and get you, since she lives here in town.”

Terrible thoughts revolved in Mandie's head. Going to her grandmother's house would be more dreadful than being suspended.

“My grandmother?” she protested. “But, Miss Prudence, I don't really know my grandmother. I don't think she'd want me to come to her house. I've never been there. I've only seen her once in my whole life.”

Miss Prudence looked at her in surprise. “And what is wrong between you and your grandmother?” the schoolmistress asked.

“She didn't like my father,” Mandie replied, “because he was half Cherokee. She didn't want him to marry her daughter.”

“I know all about that,” Miss Prudence said with impatience. “But she is your grandmother whether she likes it or not, and she shall hear from me.”

Celia hung her head. “My mother is ill, Miss Prudence, because of my father's death. Do I have to go home? It would worry her so much.”

Mandie spoke up quickly. “My grandmother's house is huge, so I know she has plenty of room. Couldn't Celia go with me to my grandmother's house?”

“Oh, yes, please, Miss Prudence,” Celia begged.

The schoolmistress relaxed her stern expression. “I suppose it doesn't matter where you go, as long as I know you are in responsible hands. But the decision will remain with Mandie's grandmother, of course,” she said. “I suppose you girls were in the attic?”

Mandie nodded. “We heard the noise again.”

“It certainly is strange that no one else has ever heard these noises,” said Miss Prudence.

Mandie swallowed and looked her straight in the eye. “We're not lying about it, Miss Prudence. We really have been hearing noises up there.”

“Probably rats. Now get your things together, and do not—I repeat—do not leave that room again tonight. I will send a message to your grandmother as soon as I can find Uncle Cal.” Miss Prudence stood watching while Mandie and Celia returned to their room.

The girls began picking up their belongings and piling them on the bed.

“Thank you, Mandie, for asking me to your grandmother's,” Celia said.

“Never mind thanking me,” Mandie teased. “I'm afraid to face my grandmother alone. But I didn't want your mother to be upset, either. This way, maybe she won't ever find out.”

“Then I'm glad I'm going with you.”

“Oh, Celia, I just thought of something!” Mandie exclaimed. “Uncle Ned is supposed to visit me tomorrow night. How will he know where I am?”

Celia thought for a moment. “Ask Uncle Cal to watch for him. He and Aunt Phoebe said they saw him when he was here before.”

“Smart!” Mandie replied. “I'm glad you're going with me, too.”

Later, the two girls stood on the veranda watching, while Uncle Cal loaded their belongings into the surrey.

As they began the drive to her grandmother's house, Mandie spoke her concern to Uncle Cal. “You will watch out for Uncle Ned, won't you, Uncle Cal, and tell him where I am?”

“I sho' will, Missy. I be lookin' fo' 'im,” the old Negro assured her. “Phoebe see bettuh in de dahk. I gits huh to watch. Don't you worry none, Missy. We looks fo' 'im.”

“I appreciate that, Uncle Cal,” Mandie told him. “You know why we're going to my grandmother's house, don't you?”

“Missy, I don' ax. Miz Taft, she tell me y'all gits ten days outa school to spend wid huh.”

“Ten days out of school because we've been bad,” Mandie said, explaining about the noises in the attic.

“Ain't ne'er been nobody in de attic since years ago, Missy, when I tuck some things up dah fo' Miz Prudence. Ain't nobody e'er goes up dah.”

“But we really did hear something—several times,” Celia insisted.

“Mought be de rats.”

“No, we saw some rats up there, but rats couldn't bang on metal and make the boards squeak, could they?” Mandie asked.

“Reckon not, Missy. Reckon we oughta find out whut's up dah, but I reckon Miz Prudence ain't gonna do it.”

“You're right, Uncle Cal,” Mandie agreed. “She didn't believe us at all about the noises.”

Uncle Cal turned the surrey off onto a driveway leading to a huge mansion.

Celia's eyes grew wide. “Mandie, is this where your grandmother lives?” she asked.

“I'm afraid it is,” Mandie replied. “But I've never been inside. My grandmother was never at home when we were in Asheville.”

The closer they got, the bigger the mansion looked.

“She sure has a big house!” Celia exclaimed.

Suddenly, Mandie's stomach felt like it was tied in knots. “Uncle Cal, are you sure she said it was all right for Celia and me to come and stay awhile?”

“Missy, she say, ‘You go back right now and git dem girls, tonight. Don't wait 'til tomorruh. Go now.' And dat's whut I done.” Uncle Cal stopped the surrey in the driveway near the front door.

A Negro man in butler's uniform appeared at the doorway and came forward, greeting them with a smile. “Evenin', Missy Manda and Missy Celia. Y'all jes' go right in. I bring yo' things.”

Mandie and Celia said good-bye to Uncle Cal and walked slowly toward the ornate front door.

At the door, a black maid greeted them. “Evenin', Missies,” she said. “Miz Taft, she say ‘bring y'all right in.' Dis way, please.”

The maid led them down a huge center hallway and through double doors into the most elegant parlor either girl had ever seen. Mandie had thought her Uncle John's house was a mansion, but it couldn't compare with this one. The one time Mandie talked to her grandmother, she had learned that her grandmother was well off. But Mandie hadn't dreamed of anything this beautiful.

Her grandmother sat reading by a window that overlooked a bright, lush flower garden. She put down her book. “Come in, come in,” she said, motioning for them to sit in the plush, high-backed chairs near hers. “Sit down. Take off your bonnets and gloves and get comfortable.”

The girls sat down, and Mrs. Taft studied Celia carefully.

“So this is Jane's little girl, Celia,” she said.

The girls looked at her in surprise.

“You girls don't know it, but, Amanda, your mother went to school with Celia's mother.”

The girls turned toward each other and grinned.

“No wonder we're such good friends.” Mandie laughed.

“It's almost like we're kinpeople,” Celia added.

“I'm so glad to invite you to my home, Celia. I hope you enjoy your stay here,” Mrs. Taft said kindly. “Now, they tell me you two kept insisting you heard noises in the attic, and that you kept breaking rules in order to investigate. Is that right?”

Mandie looked down and fidgeted with her gloves. “Yes, ma'am.” She lifted her chin. “But we
did
hear noises in the attic. And Miss Prudence wouldn't believe us. So we
did
break the rules, I guess,” she admitted.

Mandie's grandmother laughed. “Exactly what I would have done under the circumstances. I have a mischievous streak in me, myself,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

The girls stared at her in amazement.

“Oh, I'm far too old for such tomfoolery now, but when I was young, nothing could have stopped me,” she assured them. “You see, Amanda, that is something you have inherited from me.”