Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 04] (7 page)

“Send me home if you like, but I will not apologize to Amanda,” April sneered. “It’s all true. My mother might not even be at home. She was supposed to visit her family in New York after she left me here.”

Mandie was sorry that April had to be suspended, but hadn’t she brought it upon herself?

“We’ll find your mother,” Miss Prudence told her. “In the meantime, all your social privileges are cancelled. You will be allowed out of your room only to attend classes and for meals. Remember, you must remain in your room at all other times.”

“But the party is tomorrow night,” April objected.

Mandie realized how disappointed the girl must be, but she couldn’t help feeling some satisfaction that April was being punished.

Miss Prudence stood. “You will not attend the social under any circumstances,” she said. “You will be confined to your room.” She paused for a moment. “You may go to your classes now. I will let you know when we have contacted your mother, April. And Amanda, I will do my best to restore
order after that terribly unfortunate incident,” she said.

“Thank you, Miss Prudence,” Mandie replied.

At the noon meal the schoolmistress stood before all the girls in the dining room and rang the, tinkling silver bell next to her plate.

“Young ladies,” she began, “the unladylike conduct of one of our students has come to my attention. I am sure some of you heard April Snow call Amanda Shaw an unladylike name.” Miss Prudence cleared her throat and continued. “This is a serious offense, and therefore, April has been suspended for ten days.”

The students gasped and loud whispering instantly filled the dining room.

Miss Prudence rang the bell again. “As soon as April’s mother can be contacted,” she continued, “April will be forced to leave the school for ten days. At the end of that time we will decide whether we would like to have her back. Meanwhile, she is confined to her room except for classes and meals.”

All the girls turned to gaze at April, but she didn’t seem to notice. April was staring into space, ignoring the whole scene.

Miss Prudence went on. “I want to state here and now that there will be no more of this type of behavior. Everyone is to forget what was said. If I hear of any of you even discussing the matter, you will be liable for suspension, also.”

Mandie and Celia looked at each other in shock. Mandie was confused. She felt relief that April was leaving, but she hadn’t meant to cause her so much trouble. Still, she did have to tell the truth. There was no way around that.

But now April really had a reason to be angry with Mandie. What if they couldn’t reach her mother for a few days? April could have plenty of opportunities to get even.

The girls had worked hard decorating the huge barn in the backyard for the party.

They made paper lanterns to hang across the lawn and inside the building. Bright, twisted streamers stretched overhead. Long boards lying across two sawhorses became tables with white bedsheets serving as tablecloths. Dozens of chairs, stored in the loft, were brought down and cleaned. At one end of the barn was a stage used for school plays. For the evening’s event, the girls decorated it with magnolia leaves and flowers from the garden. Oil lamps hung in safe places to be lit when needed, and a three-piece minstrel show had been engaged to perform.

Each girl daintily lettered two place cards for the table—one with her name and one for the boy who would be her partner. There were gallons of lemonade in the kitchen and the hand-cranked ice cream churn stood ready. The girls had been helping prepare the food all week. They were even allowed to do a little experimenting. There was more food than they could possibly eat, but anything left would be taken to the local orphanage.

On the evening of the party, Mandie and Celia dressed nervously in their room. Celia wore a pale lavender muslin
dress with green lace and ribbons. She arranged her auburn hair in curls and tied them back with a matching green ribbon. Around her neck hung a delicate cameo on a thin gold chain.

Mandie had chosen her pale pink chiffon dress accented with deeper pink rose petals. Her blonde hair hung loosely in ringlets around her shoulders. She wore a tiny silver locket that contained pictures of her father and mother.

Twirling in front of the long mirror in the corner, she laughed. “Hey, is that really Amanda Elizabeth Shaw? I look so old.”

Celia came to stand by her. “So do I. I suppose we have to grow up some time, but I don’t think I’m going to like it.”

“You will by the time you get there,” Mandie assured her. “Just think, we won’t have to go to school anymore. We can stay home with our families.”

“No, you’re wrong there,” Celia said. “I don’t have any brothers and sisters, and neither do you. We’ll both be expected to get married and have babies so the family won’t run out.”

“No, you’re the one who’s wrong,” Mandie replied. “Once we’re grown we’ll have minds of our own. If we want to get married, we will. And if we don’t, we won’t.”

“I suppose you’ll marry that boy Joe you told me about.”

“Joe and I—” Suddenly the bell interrupted her reply. “That means it’s time for us to go downstairs.”

Celia gulped. “Do I have everything on that I’m supposed to? Is it all arranged properly?” she asked.

“You look fine, Celia. Let’s go.”

By the time all the girls assembled on the veranda, the three surreys full of boys had arrived. Uncle Cal hurried out to help with the rigs and horses.

The schoolmaster left the first surrey and made sure the
boys met their partners in an orderly fashion.

Tommy and Robert immediately spotted Mandie and Celia as they approached the porch steps.

Tommy teasingly bowed to Mandie. “Miss Amanda!”

Robert imitated him. “Miss Celia!” he said.

The girls held back a giggle as they greeted them.

“My, my!” Mandie exclaimed, eyeing their fine dark suits. “You look like real gentlemen tonight.”

Tommy pulled at his collar, “These things are terribly uncomfortable,” he complained.

“I’m not sure I can eat very much with all this on, either,” Robert added. He sat down beside Celia on the veranda.

Celia smiled at him. “I’m not sure I can eat at all.

“Me either,” Mandie said. “The girls cooked all the food and it may not be fit to eat.”

“We’ll manage,” Tommy assured her.

Mandie found herself comparing Tommy with her lifetime friend, Joe. Tommy and Joe both had that happy, carefree spirit, but Tommy was taller and looked a little older. She wondered what Joe would look like dressed up in an expensive suit like Tommy’s. Joe never wore a suit except to church. And he did wear one to her mother’s wedding. But the suits he wore were not finely tailored like these. Still, Joe was her kind of people. And he had told her he wanted to marry her when they grew up.

Miss Prudence cleared her throat loudly. “It is time to go to the barn in the backyard,” she announced.

“The barn?” Tommy shrieked. “You mean we’re going to have a dinner in a
barn
?” He looked down at his fancy clothes.

Mandie laughed. “It’s not what you think,” she explained. “The barn isn’t used for animals. They’ve made it into a theater for the school’s dramatics class.”

As the two girls and their partners entered the building, the boys whistled in appreciation of what they found inside.

“You girls have really been busy,” Tommy remarked.

“Thank you for noticing,” Mandie said with a giggle. “Now, we’re supposed to find our places. We’re at the second table next to Celia and Robert.”

The four of them walked down the side of the table directly under the loft opening. Celia stopped. “Here are mine and yours, Robert,” she said. “Mandie and Tommy are supposed to be next to us.”

They all looked, but Mandie’s and Tommy’s place cards were not there.

Mandie was puzzled. “I know they’re supposed to be here. Someone must have switched them.”

At that instant, a small piece of straw dropped from the loft above. Mandie looked up. There was a flash of red as someone moved out of sight. April! It had to be! Since she couldn’t come to the party because of Mandie, April was determined to make more trouble for her.

Celia saw Mandie looking up. They exchanged knowing glances.

“I think we have an uninvited guest,” Mandie whispered to Celia.

By then everyone had found a place and was standing behind a chair waiting to be seated. Mandie and her friends felt embarrassed as Miss Prudence frowned at the four of them standing behind only two chairs.

When the schoolmistress realized what the situation was, she came and asked everyone to move down a little so that two places could be added at the table. While Mandie and Miss Prudence discussed the matter, Robert and Tommy found two chairs across the room and brought them over.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this later,” Miss Prudence
promised. “I’ll have Aunt Phoebe bring more silver and china.”

Mandie risked a question. “Miss Prudence, is April Snow in her room?”

The woman looked sharply at Mandie. “She had better be.”

“There’s someone in the loft,” Mandie said quietly without looking up.

“I’ll take care of it,” Miss Prudence answered. She returned quickly to her place at the head of the table and asked everyone to be seated.

A few minutes later, as Uncle Cal passed by Miss Prudence, she stopped him and spoke to him. The old man glanced upward, then walked to the back of the barn and climbed the ladder to the loft. Mandie watched as he disappeared upstairs. In a moment he came back down the ladder and shook his head at the schoolmistress. Miss Prudence turned her gaze upon Mandie.

Tommy had been watching the whole thing. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“I told Miss Prudence I saw someone in the loft, so I guess she sent Uncle Cal to look. Evidently he didn’t find anyone, but there’s another way out. There’s a ladder at the window on the outside,” Mandie told him.

“And how do you know?” he teased.

“Because I’ve used it,” Mandie answered. “We had to take things out of the loft for this party, and I helped.”

Tommy grinned at her. “You’re quite a girl—or young lady—I guess I’m supposed to say,” he corrected himself.

There wasn’t a lot of conversation during dinner. The boys were too busy devouring everything in sight. Evidently the girls’ cooking experiments were a success.

After the meal, the minstrel show began. The enthusiastic applause was followed by encore after encore. Eventually
Miss Prudence shook her tinkling silver bell and announced that it was time to say good night.

Later in their room, Mandie and Celia chattered about the evening.

Celia plopped down on the bed. “Robert is really nice,” she said, beginning to get ready for bed.

“Yes, he is,” Mandie agreed, “and so is Tommy. He’s going to write me a letter.”

“Robert said he wanted to call on me one day soon, but I said I didn’t think we were old enough for that.”

Mandie nodded and picked up her nightgown. “You’re right. Besides, we’ve got other things to do. We have to learn everything this school wants to teach us so we can get out of here,” she said, pulling her nightgown over her head.

Mandie sighed deeply, picked up her Bible from the table by the bed, and sat down. “Tomorrow is Sunday. I need to read my Sunday school lesson before I go to bed,” she said. Celia took her Bible and sat on her side of the bed. “We still have ten minutes before we have to put out the light,” she replied.

“Our lesson is on the Beatitudes in Matthew,” Mandie said. “I sure need to learn all this. It’s so hard to love your enemies. I don’t think I’ve been doing a very good job with April.”

“Mandie, nobody’s perfect. I’m sure God will forgive you for telling Miss Prudence your suspicions about April in the loft. She deserved that.”

“But, Celia, it doesn’t matter whether or not the other person deserves it. We aren’t supposed to do bad things to people when they do bad things to us.”

“That’s all right up to a certain point. But you had to tell on April. This whole thing is getting out of hand.”

“Listen to this,” Mandie told her. “Read chapter five, verse
forty-four. ‘But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ ” Mandie looked up from reading. “You see, we’re even supposed to love people who are mean to us.”

“But how can you love someone who acts like April? She’s impossible!”

“Celia, I don’t know what—” The ten o’clock bell interrupted Mandie’s answer. “I guess we’ll have to blow out the light, now.”

They closed their Bibles, placed them on the table, and Mandie extinguished the lamp.

The girls crawled into bed and were soon dozing.

Suddenly, the clanging, squeaking noise startled them awake. They sat up in bed. The noise overhead sounded even louder this time. Celia grabbed for Mandie in fright.

“Let’s go up there,” Mandie said. She jumped out of bed. “Only this time we’ll take a lamp with us.”

“But what if we get caught?”

“Nobody’s going to catch us. Come on,” Mandie urged. She lit the lamp and picked it up.

Celia stayed close behind Mandie as they tiptoed out to the hallway. Suddenly the house was completely quiet.

“The noise stopped. Let’s go back,” Celia begged, pulling at Mandie’s nightgown.

“No, Celia. We only need one trip up to the attic to see what’s making the noise,” Mandie said with determination. She started up the dark steps. “I’m going.”

Celia gave in and followed. As the two girls approached the attic, they could see that the door at the top of the stairway was closed. Mandie reached forward and pushed the door open slowly. She held the lamp inside the doorway
and looked around. The lamp threw only a small amount of light in the dark attic.

Mandie stepped forward. “Look at all the old furniture in here,” she whispered. “I don’t see a thing that could have been making the noise.”

Celia stayed close to her friend. “Let’s go, Mandie,” she begged. “There’s nothing here.”