Mandie Collection, The: 4 (17 page)

“But how did you know about my kitten?” Mandie asked in surprise.

“We did not know until we saw you get out of the carriage with him. Then we sent the houseman to fill this pot and place it here,” the maid explained.

“Thank you. I appreciate it, and I’m sure Snowball appreciates it,” Mandie said with a little laugh.

The maid turned to Celia and said, “Your bedroom is on the other side of the sitting room, miss.” She led the way, then opened the wardrobe to display Celia’s neatly arranged clothes. Celia removed the bonnet from her auburn curls and dropped it onto the dresser.

“Thank you. You are very efficient,” Celia said.

The dark-haired girl smiled and asked, “Is there anything you young ladies would like before I retire?”

When the girls assured her they had everything they needed, the maid bid them good night and left, closing the door to the hallway behind her.

Mandie put Snowball down and removed his red leash and collar. He shook himself, washed his face, then began exploring his new surroundings.

The two girls inspected everything, too. There was an outside door in Celia’s room. They checked it and found it locked securely.

“I don’t care if it is locked, Mandie. I don’t like outside doors in my room,” Celia complained. “I won’t sleep a wink.”

“Oh, Celia, you can sleep with me. These beds are big enough for three people anyway,” Mandie said, leading the way back into her bedroom. “Besides, I think it’s kinda cold, don’t you?”

Celia laughed nervously. “Mandie, you don’t have to make up excuses on account of me. I just plain don’t like this big dark house.”

“I tell you what,” Mandie said. “We’ll just leave the light burning
all night in the sitting room. That way, at least we can see if we get scared.”

Celia got her nightclothes, which were laid out in her room, and came back to Mandie’s to get ready for bed.

Even though it was after midnight, the girls lay awake talking. Snowball curled up at their feet and went to sleep.

“This year sure has been wonderful,” Mandie began. “And the best thing of all is this trip to Europe with my grandmother and the senator, getting to travel on a real ship, meeting so many people, and seeing so many places. Meeting up with Jonathan has been one of the best things.”

“Yes, 1901 will be a year I’ll always remember,” Celia replied.

“You know, I’ve certainly had some adventures—more than most thirteen-year-old girls,” Mandie said, giving Snowball a little shove as he rolled onto her foot.

“I’ll say—some adventures,” Celia said. “Some of the most scary experiences I’ve ever heard of, much less lived through. And all the dangerous people we’ve come in contact with...” She scooted up a little on her big pillow. “Mandie, please, let’s don’t get involved with any more mysteries while we’re here in Europe. Let’s just enjoy our trip like
normal
girls would.”

Mandie gave a little laugh and said, “But, Celia, look at the mysteries we’ve solved and the people we’ve been able to help. Besides, I think it’s fun using your brain to solve things.”

“Well, let’s let Uncle Ned use his brain to solve the mystery about this house. He’s the one who mentioned it in the first place, and I don’t think it’s our business,” Celia said.

“He’ll help us,” Mandie said. “But I do wish he had given us a hint of what the mystery is all about.”

“Remember he said in Rome that there was a mystery about this house. That’s all. Maybe there isn’t anything to solve. Maybe it’s just someone’s notion that there’s a mystery,” Celia suggested.

“Uncle Ned wouldn’t have mentioned it if he didn’t know there was something—Snowball, what’s wrong with you?” Mandie interrupted herself as her kitten suddenly sat up and gave a little growl. She raised up on one elbow to look at him in the dim light.

Celia instantly sprang up in the bed. “Mandie, he hears something. Look at his fur—it’s all ruffled up!” she whispered.

“Celia, I don’t hear a thing,” Mandie said. She listened for a moment. Suddenly she realized there was another growl coming from outside the sitting-room door.

Celia heard it at the same time. She clutched the bedcovers. “There’s something in the hall!” she managed to whisper.

“Right,” Mandie agreed, as she quietly slipped out of bed and reached for the poker standing by the open fireplace.

She tiptoed across the room and into the sitting room to the closed hall door. She listened silently for a moment. Celia had followed, but stopped at the doorway to Mandie’s bedroom.

Suddenly Snowball jumped down from the bed and rushed to the hall door. Mandie snatched him up and cautiously opened the heavy door a crack to peek outside. She couldn’t see anything in the dim hallway. Pushing the door open farther, she said, “There’s nothing out here.” She closed it, returned the poker to the fireplace, and shook Snowball—who had calmed down by now. “Snowball, you gave us a false alarm!”

“But, Mandie, I heard a growl outside the door,” Celia insisted as they got back into the big bed. Snowball settled down again at their feet.

“I thought I did, too. But it must have been Snowball making that noise,” Mandie said.

“But why was Snowball so upset then?” Celia asked.

“Maybe he heard a rat or something,” Mandie said, poking her pillow into place.

“A rat?” Celia asked, frightened. “Mandie, I hope this house doesn’t have rats in it!”

“Snowball won’t let them bother us,” Mandie replied. “Celia, we’d better go to sleep. Good night.”

“You’re right,” Celia agreed. “Good night.”

The girls had finally relaxed and were slowly drifting to sleep, when Snowball jumped up, agitated. Celia and Mandie both heard heavy footsteps in the hallway. They seemed to pause outside the sitting-room door.

Celia began to whisper and Mandie clapped her hand over Celia’s mouth and said softly, “Sh-h-h-h!”

Again Mandie slipped soundlessly out of the big bed, grabbed the poker, and crept to the sitting-room door. As she got closer, she saw
the doorknob turn. This time she paused in fright. Celia had followed her, and Mandie could tell by the look on her face that Celia had also seen the knob turn.

The girls stood still, waiting to see who would open the door. They held their breath and Mandie grasped the poker more firmly. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. There was no more movement at the door.

Finally Mandie got up courage and said loudly, “I’m going to see who is messing with our door!” She grabbed the knob and flung the door open. No one was there. She and Celia both peered into the dark hallway. It was empty.

Mandie closed the door and leaned against it for a moment as she contemplated the situation. “I know there was someone out there. I distinctly saw the doorknob move!”

“So did I,” said Celia as she sat down on the carpet, “and I’m scared. My legs won’t hold me up any longer.”

“We could just leave the door open for the rest of the night,” Mandie said. “Then we could see everything.”

“Oh, no, please!” Celia pleaded as she got to her feet. “Isn’t there any kind of latch or lock on the door?”

Mandie bent down to examine it. “Of course. Look, there’s a bolt.” She tried unsuccessfully to move it. Then she jabbed at it with the poker but it still wouldn’t move.

“Mandie, you could wake up everyone in the house with all that noise,” Celia warned her.

“Everyone in this house?” Mandie looked incredulously at her friend. “You know very well there isn’t anyone in this big wing except us and Jonathan. Jonathan! Do you suppose he could be playing tricks on us?”

Celia thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think he’d do that, especially not tonight, when we’re all so tired from our journey.”

“I’m not so sure he wouldn’t,” Mandie said, as the girls went back to bed. “But let’s not mention the noises to anyone. Just in case he had anything to do with it, he’ll think he failed to scare us, all right?”

“Whatever you say,” Celia said. “I’m going to try to get to sleep.”

“Me, too,” Mandie replied, as she snuggled down under the bedcovers.

Snowball walked around in circles on top of the girls’ feet, then finally settled down to sleep.

Mandie thought of her friend Joe Woodard back home in North Carolina. If only he were here, he could help them figure out what all these things were about.

Joe usually tried to discourage Mandie from getting involved in an adventure, but when he saw she was determined to go ahead, he would join her. And Mandie had not run into a single mystery that they couldn’t solve.

She finally drifted off to sleep, and dreamed of Joe and the log cabin at Charley Gap where she and her father had lived until his death. Uncle Ned had helped her find her wealthy kinpeople, but Joe had remained her loyal friend.

She dreamed of Joe’s promise to get her father’s house back when he grew up and became a lawyer. For this she had promised to marry him.

Now she relived all this in her dream. As she stood looking at her father’s log cabin, she could hear strange music that seemed to float down with the breeze from the mountainside. She strained her ears but couldn’t understand a word of the song.

CHAPTER TWO

WAS IT SINGING?

Mandie awoke the next morning with the sunlight streaming in across her face. She rose in her bed to see where she was, then remembered. She was in the Thalers’ chalet in Switzerland. Celia Hamilton, by her side, was already awake and stretching lazily. Snowball was roaming around the suite.

“No one has called us. What time is it?” Mandie asked, anxiously jumping out of bed to look at the huge grandfather clock in the sitting room. “It’s only six-thirty, but the sun is so bright I thought it was later.” She went back to flop down on the big bed.

“I was so worried last night, that it took some time before I finally went to sleep,” Celia remarked, sitting up beside her friend. “But I kept waking up every now and then. Sometime during the night I heard singing—imagine, someone singing in the middle of the night!”

Mandie quickly looked at her. “Singing? I dreamed I was back at Charley Gap and heard singing coming from the mountain. It wasn’t very clear. I couldn’t make out the words.”

“Neither could I,” Celia said, pushing back her auburn curls. “But it was a woman’s high soprano voice.”

“That’s what I heard, too,” Mandie said quickly. “How could we both hear the same thing? I thought I dreamed it, but you actually heard it?”

“I’m sure I did. I was wide awake,” Celia insisted. “I thought it would take forever to get back to sleep. The singing had already stopped before I dozed off again.”

“Hmmm!” Mandie mused thoughtfully, as she got up to walk around the room. “Do you suppose I was really awake and heard the same singing you did? I don’t know, though. My dream was so clear. I could see our log cabin at Charley Gap, and there was Joe Woodard standing under the chestnut trees.”

“Maybe you were really dreaming, but you actually heard the same singing I did,” Celia said, reaching for her clothes.

“I guess that’s possible,” Mandie agreed. “I was so tired after that long journey, I was in a daze when we went to bed. Oh, well, I guess we’d better get dressed for breakfast.” She went to the wardrobe to choose a dress for the day.

Celia took the clothes she had worn the day before and went to her bedroom to find a fresh dress.

Mandie had dressed and was standing in front of the gilt-edged mirror in the sitting room, trying to pin up her long, blonde hair, when someone knocked at the door. Half-turning, she called out, “Come in!”

She watched in the mirror for the door behind her to open, but nothing happened. After waiting a couple of seconds, she dropped the hairpins on the table and went to open the door.

“I said, come in!” Mandie quickly opened the door and looked out into the long wide hallway. There was no one there. “Well!” she sighed. She started to close the door, but at that moment Jonathan came out of his suite across the corridor.

“Good morning!” he called.

“Good morning, Jonathan. Did you just now knock on our door?” Mandie asked.

“As a matter of fact, I did. But I had forgotten my handkerchief, so I ran back to get it,” Jonathan explained with a impish grin.

“Well, at least that’s accounted for,” Mandie said, turning back into the room. “I suppose you can come in and sit here by the door, provided we leave it open. But you’ll have to watch Snowball; he might go out into the hall. We’ll be ready in a minute, and then we can go sniffing for food.”

“Thanks,” Jonathan said, sitting down in a small chair by the open door. He picked up Snowball, who was rubbing against his ankles.

Mandie picked up the hairpins and went into Celia’s bedroom. Celia was already dressed and tying a ribbon in her hair.

“Are you not going to put your hair up?” Mandie asked.

“I don’t have time. It takes me so long. What about yours? Let me brush it and tie it back for you,” Celia offered.

“Thanks, Celia. I don’t think I’ll ever learn how to put my hair up right,” Mandie complained as she sat down.

Celia quickly brushed out Mandie’s long hair, took a ribbon from her bureau, and tied back the blonde tresses. She inspected it and decided, “There. I think it looks nice that way.”

Mandie stood up to look in the mirror and said, “It’s an awful lot of hair to hang so loose, but I suppose it’ll have to do for right now. Jonathan is waiting for us to go to breakfast.” After Mandie put Snowball in his red harness and fastened his leash, the three young people hurried down the long, deserted hallway.

At the first heavy door dividing the hallway, they couldn’t agree which way they had come the night before. The corridor went in three different directions.

Jonathan told them, “I’m sure we came straight down the hallway. We shouldn’t make any turns now.”

“Well, I suppose if we go the wrong way we can always turn around and come back and go another way,” Mandie decided, as they followed Jonathan’s directions.

They soon came to another dividing door across the hallway. “Let’s just keep going straight ahead,” Jonathan suggested.

As they went through the doorway, they met a maid in a trim uniform hurrying toward them from the other end of the corridor.