Mandie Collection, The: 4 (18 page)

“I am sorry for the delay in coming to wake you for breakfast,” she apologized as she came up to them. Mandie noticed an accent in her speech. “We just found out that the maid for your wing is ill this morning. We hadn’t realized until now that you had not been called for the morning meal. So if you will please follow me.”

“That’s all right,” Mandie said, as they followed the girl. “I hope the other girl is not seriously ill.”

“She’s not a girl, miss. She is an elderly lady and she has bad days
now and then,” the girl explained. “Anyway, I will be your maid while you are here. My name is Helga.”

“Thank you, Helga,” Mandie replied, as they went on. “My name is Amanda, but I’d rather be called Mandie, and this is my friend Celia Hamilton, and my friend Jonathan Guyer.”

Helga turned to look at Jonathan as they came to the wide staircase leading down. “Jonathan Guyer? Your father is Mr. Jonathan Lindall Guyer, am I correct?” she asked.

“Why, yes, he is, but how did you know?” Jonathan asked, puzzled.

“Your father, he is well-known here in Europe. I read about your disappearance in the newspapers,” Helga told him while they walked down the steps.

“Please, let’s not talk about that,” Jonathan said. “I am now in the care of Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton, until my father comes for me, or until my relatives in Paris return home so I can stay with them.”

After going through several hallways and doors, Helga finally stopped before a heavy, ornate door. She opened it, and they saw Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton seated at a small, white-covered table.

“I will feed kitty.” Helga offered, reaching for Snowball’s leash.

“Oh, thank you,” Mandie said, handing over the red strap as Snowball looked up and meowed at his mistress. Mandie stooped to tell him, “This lady is going to feed you while we eat. You be good now.” Rising, she said to Helga, “After he eats would you please bring him back to me? I’m not sure what we’ll be doing today and I don’t want to lose him in this great big house.”

“Yes, certainly,” Helga answered, pulling lightly on the leash. “Come along, kitty.” She walked off down the hallway with Snowball trying to race ahead of her.

When everyone had exchanged greetings, they all sat down and Senator Morton returned thanks for the meal.

“Sorry we’re late, Grandmother,” Mandie said.

“I understand, dear. I heard that the housekeeper didn’t know y’all hadn’t been called until a few minutes ago,” Mrs. Taft said. “Now that we are all here, let’s help ourselves to this wonderful food. The custom here for breakfast seems to be that the servants put the food on the table and leave us to wait on ourselves.”

“Just like home,” Mandie said, with a sigh. “Will it be all right if we go looking around afterward, since the owners are not home?”

“I think so, dear,” Mrs. Taft replied. “The housekeeper told us to make ourselves at home.”

Senator Morton sliced a piece of ham and said, “I understand the original part of this chalet is well over two hundred years old. That would be the center section where we entered last night. Now the house has dozens of rooms.”

Mrs. Taft added, “Besides the acres and acres of gardens, and several cottages among the trees at the back. There is also a lake.” She sipped her coffee, then said, “Y’all be careful around the water though.”

Mandie had other things on her mind. “I’d like to know when Uncle Ned is going to get here,” she said.

Celia looked at her and immediately nodded.

“Amanda,” Grandmother said, “what in this world are you going to do when Uncle Ned can’t keep up with you? He is getting pretty old, you know.”

Mandie laid down her fork and sighed. “I don’t know. I realize Uncle Ned can’t live forever, but I just don’t know what I’ll do when he’s gone.”

“Cheer up,” said Jonathan with a smile. “He may live to be a hundred, and you’ll be all grown up and won’t need him by then.”

But Mandie didn’t smile back. “I’ll always need Uncle Ned. He helps me through all my trials and troubles,” she said solemnly, clasping her hands together.

Senator Morton changed the subject. “I’d like to see the lake. How about if I come along with you?” he asked, looking around the table.

Mrs. Taft quickly added, “There is a stable of horses, and a small cart and driver to carry us around the estate.”

“Horses!” Mandie and Celia said together.

“Yes,
real
horses,” Jonathan teased.

“My mother raises horses on our farm in Virginia, you know,” Celia said to Jonathan.

“And my father always kept some horses when he was—when we lived at Charley Gap,” Mandie said. She turned to her grandmother and exclaimed, “Let’s go see the horses when we finish eating!”

Mrs. Taft consented and even agreed to go along with them.

After Helga, the maid, returned with Snowball, they all walked out to the stable. There were several purebred horses, which were friendly with the girls. They stuck their big noses through the fence for Mandie and Celia to pet them.

The dark-haired stable boy, Eckart, hitched a pony to a small cart and everyone piled in for a tour of the estate.

As they drove out of the thick trees surrounding the house and stable, huge snow-covered mountains came into view in the distance. The young people gasped in wonder.

“Is that really snow up there on those mountains?” Mandie asked, squinting to shield her eyes from the sun as she sat on the seat behind the stable boy.

“Yes, miss, it really is,” Eckart told her as he stopped the cart for them to look. “Those are the Alps.”

Several snow-covered peaks rose into the clouds, but the valley between Mandie and the mountains seemed to be covered with brightly colored flowers.

Celia said breathlessly, “It’s almost unreal to be warm and sunny down here, and to look up there and see snow on the mountains.”

“This is an amazing country,” Mrs. Taft remarked. “I wanted you girls to see the Alps. Jonathan has probably seen them during his school days here.”

“How far away from them are we?” Mandie wanted to know.

“A long, long way, over rough terrain,” Eckart explained. “The mountains look close because they are so big and so high.”

They continued on in the cart and soon came to the lake. The smooth, clear water was surrounded by flower gardens in full bloom. The girls giggled with delight as Eckart pulled up near the glimmering pool.

Snowball tried to wriggle free of Mandie’s grasp, so she suggested they all get out of the cart and walk around. Mandie noticed a small stone cottage standing in a clump of trees near the flower gardens.

“Does someone live in that house?” she asked the driver.

“No, miss,” he replied. “Mr. Thaler has not yet decided what he will do with it. You see, they’ve only been here a short time, and they have not taken care of everything yet. There are several cottages near here that are completely furnished. Servants live in two of them, but this one is not occupied.”

“Who lived here before the Thalers?” Mandie asked.

“Oh, miss, the former residents are all dead. The family lived here for many generations. Mr. Thaler was kind enough to employ some of them because they had been born here and had no place to go,” the boy explained. “Would you like to see the courtyard behind the chalet?”

“Of course,” Mrs. Taft said. “Are we too far away to walk?”

“No, madam. We are close. I’ll show you the way,” Eckart said, walking along the narrow road, leading the horse and cart.

They passed through a stand of trees and found themselves suddenly at the back of the chalet. Before them lay a courtyard paved with uneven stones, terraced into several levels descending to an inlet from the lake. Fountains spouted among hundreds of flowers and shrubs. Two great stone lions on pedestals guarded the rear entrance.

“Everything is so green, so fresh, and so beautiful!” Mandie exclaimed.

“And it all smells so good!” Celia added.

Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton wandered off among the flowers and sat on a stone bench near one of the fountains.

The young people looked up at the grand chalet. From the rear they could see it was three stories high. There was a tower and a room at the top with curtained windows, and a small balcony projected from it over the courtyard.

“That’s interesting!” Jonathan remarked.

“Is that tower room anywhere near our rooms?” Mandie asked, holding tightly to Snowball’s leash.

“I do not know which are your rooms, miss,” the boy said.

“We are staying in what the housekeeper called the east wing,” Mandie explained.

“Then you are on that side,” Eckart pointed to his left. “This is the north side of the chalet. The front faces south.”

Celia asked, “Does anyone use the tower room?”

“No, miss, that part of the house has not been renovated yet,” Eckart said.

“Could we go up there and see it?” Mandie asked.

Eckart cleared his throat and hesitated. “Why, I don’t really know, miss. You see, none of the servants go up there.”

“Why don’t they?” asked Jonathan. “Aren’t they responsible for taking care of the whole place?”

“Yes, they will look after the entire chalet once renovation is complete, but right now I think it would be impossible to get anyone to show you that tower,” Eckart said, dropping his gaze.

Mandie sensed a mystery at once. “Is there something wrong with the tower?”

“We don’t—really know, miss,” the boy responded with some hesitation. “You see, the villagers claim the tower is—haunted.”

“Haunted?” Mandie exclaimed. Her blue eyes sparkled with the thrill of discovery.

“Please, we must not get into details,” Eckart quickly replied. “The Thalers won’t appreciate my talking to you about it.”

“But why?” Mandie asked.

“Miss, I really think I should return to the stable if you do not need my services,” said Eckart, turning to the bush where he had tethered the pony. “If you wish the cart again, please let me know.”

The boy jumped into the cart and drove back through the trees.

Jonathan, Celia and Mandie looked at each other, and then up at the tower.

“Do you think the tower is really haunted?” Celia exclaimed.

“There’s no such thing as a place being haunted,” Mandie declared. “There’s some kind of mystery about it, and I imagine that’s what Uncle Ned was hinting at.”

“And you plan to solve it, right?” asked Jonathan.

“Right,” Mandie affirmed.

Celia warned, “Mandie, we might get in trouble. Eckart said the servants don’t go up there, so how are we going to get up there? Besides, it looks awfully spooky.”

“Spooky? How can it look spooky from way down here on the ground?” Mandie asked.

“But it
sounds
awfully spooky,” Celia corrected herself. “I don’t think we should go poking around up there.”

“I have an idea this must have been the front of the chalet in its early days,” Jonathan speculated. “You can tell the wings have been added to the rest—there is a slight difference in the color of the stone. And all the old places I have seen in Europe have the tower right in the front, if there is a tower. And Senator Morton did say this center section is the original house.”

“I suppose we’ll have to walk all the way around to the front door to get back inside,” Mandie remarked.

Mrs. Taft and the senator started walking down the path around the chalet and called to Mandie. She and Celia and Jonathan followed the adults and examined the chalet as they walked by. The additions had lots of windows, but the original structure had hardly any. They also noticed a side door in the east wing.

As Mrs. Taft and the senator arrived at the front door, Mrs. Taft asked Mandie if they were going to come in.

Mandie looked at her friends. “I suppose so,” she said. “I’d like to see the inside of the house.”

Jonathan and Celia agreed.

Mrs. Taft cautioned them, “Just remember to conduct yourselves in a fitting manner, and don’t do anything rude.” Turning to the senator, she said, “Let’s ask the housekeeper where the sitting room is.”

The senator followed Mrs. Taft down the hall, and Mandie turned to her friends, “Let’s go upstairs.” She picked up Snowball and hurried toward the staircase at the far end of the corridor with Jonathan right at her heels.

“Where are we going, Mandie?” Celia wanted to know as she rushed to keep up with the other two.

“I don’t know exactly. We can just explore.”

Jonathan agreed. “Let’s look around the original part of the house.”

When they arrived at the top of the stairs, it looked familiar.

“We’ve been through here before,” Celia noted aloud.

“You’re right,” Mandie said, holding Snowball more firmly.

“There should be a corridor going to the back,” Jonathan puzzled.

“That’s right, because the tower is at the back of the house,” Mandie added.

Celia shivered when she heard this.

“I don’t see any way to get through to the back of the house,” Mandie said. She opened the doors along the hallway. “These are all bedrooms and sitting rooms.”

“There has to be a way back,” insisted Jonathan as he looked into the rooms.

Mandie thought for a moment and said, “Probably a secret door or something, right?” She went into a room and examined the walls.

Jonathan did the same while Celia watched.

“Nothing in this room,” he declared.

“Mandie, are you looking for a secret door like the one in your Uncle John’s house—the one that leads into the secret tunnel?” Celia asked. “Here, let me take Snowball.”

Mandie handed him to her friend and said, “I suppose it has to be something like that.” She and Jonathan continued searching the room.

They worked their way all the way down the corridor to the east wing, then back to the west wing without finding any passage to the back of the house.

Finally they sat down in one of the sitting rooms to discuss the situation. Celia set Snowball down and allowed him to walk while she held his leash.

“There has to be a way,” Mandie insisted.

“Unless there really is a deep, dark secret that has caused them to seal up the tower,” Jonathan suggested.

“That’s it!” Mandie agreed.