Mandie Collection, The: 4 (35 page)

“You’re probably right,” Mandie agreed.

An older woman in a crisp uniform came out to stand behind the butler. “If you will come with me,” she said. “My name is Jahn and I am the housekeeper of the baroness. This way, please.”

She led them inside through several jumbled passageways with stone floors and big woooden doors to various rooms. Finally they came to some narrow stone steps.

“You will occupy the rooms on the next floor,” she informed them, and hurried on ahead up the stairs.

“I can’t imagine my grandmother going up and down steps like these, so steep and narrow and not even a handrail to hold on to,” Mandie remarked to the senator as they followed the housekeeper.

Frau Jahn heard the remark and turned back to tell them, “Oh, but there are other stairs with handrails. These are only the first we happened to come to.”

“That’s good,” Mandie replied. “I’m sure she’ll prefer those with a rail.”

The woman showed them rooms upstairs near the end of a long hallway. She pushed open one door and turned to the senator, “This one for you, sir.” Stepping across the corridor she opened another door and spoke to Mandie, “And this one for you.”

“Thank you,” Mandie said as the senator also thanked the woman. Pausing in the doorway, she turned around to exclaim, “I forgot! We don’t even have our luggage. We can’t change out of these wet clothes until Grandmother and the others get here.”

“Oh, well, at least we can wash up,” Senator Morton said, turning to enter his room.

“I can find a robe for you, young lady,” the housekeeper offered. “And if you will give me your wet clothes I will dry them for you.”

“Oh, thank you,” Mandie replied.

“And, sir, I can get something for you also if you wish to stay in your room,” Frau Jahn said. “I will have the maid bring both of you some hot food. I’ll be right back.” She hurried down the hallway.

“I hope Grandmother gets here soon,” Mandie said as she went into her room. “See you tomorrow morning, Senator.”

“Yes, dear, I hope you sleep well,” the senator replied as he closed the door to his room.

The housekeeper soon returned with a fancy silk robe that was a little big for Mandie, but it felt comfortable after the wet clothes. After Frau Jahn had taken her clothes away and the maid brought some food, Mandie curled up in a big chair in front of a roaring fire in the huge fireplace.

She was so tired she soon dozed off. A falling log in the fireplace woke her. She jerked upright and for a moment wondered where she
was. The cuckoo clock on the mantelpiece “cuckooed” two o’clock in the morning.

“Goodness, Grandmother must not have gotten here yet,” she said to herself. “Or somebody would have brought my luggage.”

She rose and paced the floor, and finally decided to knock on the senator’s door.

“Senator Morton, are you still up?” she called through the door.

“Yes, dear, I am,” he replied, opening the door to his room. He was wearing somebody’s workclothes.

“Has my grandmother gotten here yet?” Mandie asked.

“No, I don’t believe so,” he said.

“Shouldn’t they have been here a long time ago?” she asked, anxiously.

“I would think so. In fact, I was wondering if I should go down and ask whether there has been any word from them,” Senator Morton said with a frown.

“Please do, Senator Morton. I’m really worried,” Mandie told him.

He went downstairs while Mandie waited in her room with the door open. When he returned he reported that the baroness kept various shifts of people working twenty-four hours, but the man he spoke to had not received any news. The baroness had come home some time ago, had waited up for her other guests, and finally gone to bed.

Mandie began pacing the floor again.
Where, oh, where could Grandmother, Jonathan, and Celia be?

CHAPTER THREE

TOGETHER AGAIN

Senator Morton stood in the open doorway to Mandie’s room as they talked.

“What are we going to do?” Mandie asked. “Do you think they got lost? Or maybe had another accident?”

“I suppose we could borrow the carriage and recruit a driver to go look for them,” the senator suggested. “There seem to be plenty of people working around this place, and I’m sure we could find someone, if not the driver who came and got us—”

Mandie hastily interrupted him, “Yes, please do, Senator Morton. If you will arrange it, I’ll get dressed real fast.” She turned back into the room and whirled around suddenly. “My clothes! The housekeeper took my clothes to dry them. Please, Senator Morton, could you find out where she took them? I don’t have anything else to put on.”

“Calm down, dear,” he told her. “You wait here and I’ll be right back with your clothes. I’ll find them somehow. And I’ll also arrange for a driver and carriage.”

Mandie left her door open to wait impatiently.

Maybe I shouldn’t have come on this trip to Europe
, she thought. The whole thing had been studded with disaster, everywhere they went. Right now she would like to be home in her own bed, with her mother
and Uncle John nearby. Once they were all safely home again she didn’t think she’d ever leave. She was just plumb tuckered out.

She flopped in the big chair by the fireplace, but bounced right up again. She couldn’t sit still not knowing what was happening to her grandmother, Celia, and Jonathan.

Senator Morton tapped on the open door. Mandie turned to see him holding a dark cloak.

“I’m terribly sorry dear, but the maid on duty downstairs says Frau Jahn put your clothes and mine in a room that she keeps locked. She went to bed, and no one else has the key. However, the maid offered you her own cloak,” he explained quickly.

“Our clothes are locked up? How silly! She knew we’d be needing them soon,” Mandie said, unhappily.

“Yes, dear, but don’t you understand? The housekeeper hung them to dry in a room where no one would bother them. She did it innocently enough,” the senator said. “Here, let’s see if this cloak will fit. The maid didn’t look much bigger than you.”

“All right. It’s just that I’m upset about the others not arriving yet,” Mandie said, quickly throwing the cloak over the robe she was wearing.

“It does fit all right, and I believe it’s wool,” Senator Morton commented, looking down at her stocking-feet. “You do have your shoes?”

“Oh, yes. They should be dry now. I’ve had them over here by the fire,” Mandie said, hurrying to the hearth. “Yes, they are dry.” She quickly slipped her shoes on and buttoned them up.

As they walked down the long hallway together, Senator Morton said, “I was able to engage the same driver who brought us here. So that should simplify things a little. He will know the roads we took. His name is Kurt.”

The driver had the carriage waiting for them at the door and he also had another man along in case they needed him. There were extra lanterns besides the usual ones on the carriage for night driving.

Mandie was delighted to find hot foot-warmers on the floor of the carriage and extra blankets on the seats. It was obvious the baroness had a well-run operation going in the castle. But remembering the lady whom she had met in Rome, Mandie was not surprised. There had been a definite air of authority about her, even though she didn’t speak a word of English. Mandie had not been able to understand a thing the
baroness said except through interpretation by her grandson, Rupert, who had been driving her motor car.

As they drove off into the dark night Mandie asked the senator, who sat on the opposite seat, “What are you planning to do? Where are we going?”

“Kurt and I discussed that, and we’ve decided to go back to the place where we had the accident and then come around the long way to the castle. Remember, he said he came by a short-cut when he brought us,” Senator Morton explained.

“And what if we don’t find them?” Mandie asked anxiously as she pulled the blanket around her.

“We’ll find them somewhere,” the senator assured her.

Mandie noticed he had put on somebody’s heavy woolen coat over the workclothes he was wearing. Even in the summertime it seemed awfully cold at night in the German mountains—and her worry added to the chill.

The driver drove slowly down the road so that they could all watch out for any sign of anyone along the way. This made Mandie nervous because she wanted to hurry up and find her grandmother and Celia and Jonathan, but she kept telling herself they might overlook something if they traveled too fast.

They met no other vehicles on the road and saw no one. As they approached the site of the wrecked carriage, the driver slowed down and stopped. He came to the door to speak to Senator Morton.

“I thought perhaps you might want to look around here again,” Kurt said.

Senator Morton and Mandie were both already getting out of the carriage.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Senator Morton agreed as he stepped down and gave Mandie his hand to assist her.

“But we’ve already looked around here,” Mandie said, pulling the wool cloak around her tightly. She shivered in the night air.

The other man helped the driver with the lanterns and the group walked around the area. All they could see was the wrecked carriage and the debris.

“You know, we never did know what happened to the horses that were pulling our carriage,” Mandie remarked.

“Since they didn’t stay around, they must not have been injured,
and simply ran away. You can see that the shafts are broken and also the leather thongs on the shafts are split apart.” Kurt showed her with the aid of a lantern as he explained.

“At least they must have made a clean break,” Mandie said, straightening up. She walked to the embankment that she and Jonathan had descended to retrieve the trunk. Swinging out the lantern the man had given her, Mandie leaned toward the edge to light up the rocks below. There was nothing to be seen except the rocks and bushes.

“Amanda, please be careful,” Senator Morton cautioned her as she stood near the edge of the cliff.

Mandie quickly straightened up. “I will—” Then she gasped, and exclaimed, “Listen, Listen! I hear something!” She stood still.

The other two men were searching a distance away. Senator Morton came to her side.

“What is it, dear?” he asked.

“It’s Snowball! It has to be! Don’t you hear him?” she cried, whirling around. “He’s down there!”

“Yes, it does sound like a cat,” the senator agreed. “But I don’t think your grandmother would have gone off and left Snowball here.”

Mandie turned back to the edge and stooped down to cast the light further on the area below. She saw a tiny spot of white. “There he is! It
is
Snowball!” She stood up and turned around. “I’ve got to get him.”

Senator Morton clasped her arm. “Wait, Amanda. You can’t go climbing around those rocks in the dark, especially with that long cloak on. We’ll get the men to go down there.”

Mandie hesitated. “Snowball probably won’t let the men pick him up. He doesn’t know them. Besides, he may be hurt. I’ve got to get him myself,” she insisted.

The senator held firmly to her arm. “No, Amanda, please be sensible about this. Let the men at least try.”

“Well, all right,” Mandie finally agreed. “I’ll walk on down the trail and call to him while the men go down to get him.”

By now the two men had come back, and after a quick explanation from Senator Morton, they hurried down the steep incline toward where Mandie had pointed. And Mandie, holding up the skirts of the long cloak and the robe beneath it, slowly made her way down the rough trail.

“Snowball, where are you?” she called loudly. “Come here, Snowball! Kitty, kitty!”

There was no sound from the kitten until she had gotten halfway down. Then a loud, angry meow met her ears. She was finally close enough to see him through the darkness. He was perched on top of a huge boulder with nothing close enough for him to jump to. He wouldn’t even try to get down.

Mandie stopped on the trail as near as she could get to him and called out, “Snowball, jump down. Come here at once! Do you hear? Snowball!”

The white kitten began meowing loudly at the sound of his mistress’s voice and began to circle the top of the rock. He stopped to peer at Mandie.

The two men had located the cat by now, and they surveyed the smooth sides of the boulder that was much taller than they were.

“We will throw a rope up to him, miss,” Kurt called to Mandie. “If he sticks his claws in it we’ll give a quick jerk and he’ll fall right down into our arms.”

“Oh, please, be careful,” Mandie yelled back across the bank.

She watched as Kurt coiled a thin rope and tossed it up on the top of the boulder. Snowball backed off in fright and almost fell off the other side. Kurt pulled the rope back down.

“We will try again,” Kurt called to Mandie.

She saw the rope hurl up again and this time she called to the kitten, “Snowball, catch it! Snowball, catch the rope!” She had often played with him this way, and he always caught the rope or string without any trouble.

This time when the rope landed, Snowball moved backward and then crept slowly forward to smell it.

Everyone waited. Mandie held her breath and then called to him again, “Snowball, get the rope. Get it!”

Snowball finally sank his claws into it and pulled it toward him.

The men below quickly gave a tug and before Mandie could say another word her kitten was safely down in the arms of Kurt.

“Got him, miss!” he called to Mandie as he tried to hold on to the squirming kitten and start back up the bank.

When Mandie met the men at the top on the roadway where Senator Morton had been waiting and watching, Snowball was putting up an awful protest. Kurt held the kitten’s feet together so he couldn’t scratch.

“Snowball! Shame on you! You should be grateful to the man,” Mandie told him as Kurt handed him to her.

“Is he all right?” Senator Morton asked as he bent to look.

Mandie quickly examined her pet. “I think he’s all right,” she said. “He’s probably hungry and he’s also wet from the rain.” She straightened up to look at the senator. “But, Senator Morton, my grandmother would never go off and leave Snowball. How did this happen?”