Mandie Collection, The: 4 (42 page)

“Let’s go see,” Jonathan agreed in a low voice.

The three quietly made their way to the old kitchen. Mandie softly pushed open the door, enough to peek in. There was no one inside.

“Come on,” she said, stepping into the old kitchen and going to the well.

Mandie explained to Jonathan about the rope. He looked down inside the well.

“I can see the rope, but it seems to be fastened a long way down,” Jonathan said, bending as far as he could.

“Can you reach it?” Mandie asked.

Jonathan tried and tried to make contact with the rope swinging inside the well, without any success. He straightened up to look at Mandie. “I’m not as tall as Rupert, you know. I can’t reach as far as he can. But if I had something to hook on to the rope I could pull it up.”

The three looked around the room without finding anything that could be used.

“What about something from the wall in the hallway? There’s a lot of antique armor and tools hanging there,” Mandie said.

“That’s a good idea,” Jonathan agreed. The three went out into the corridor.

Mandie spotted a long spear hanging over a doorway. “What about that thing?” she asked, pointing to it.

“Maybe we could find something lower, where we can reach it without climbing,” Jonathan said, walking on to look at the various tools.

In a large alcove off the hallway was a huge open fireplace. Mandie found a poker standing beside it. She grabbed it and turned back to Jonathan.

“Here, this ought to do,” she told him as he took the tool.

Jonathan examined the poker. “I believe it will,” he said.

Back in the kitchen the girls watched as Jonathan lowered the poker into the well and tried to snatch at the rope. After a few tries he hooked it.

“I got it!” he exclaimed as he began to pull upward.

Mandie and Celia crowded near as he brought the rope out of the well. The end of it was tied to an old bucket. But the bucket was empty.

“Of all things!” Mandie exclaimed, examining the bucket. “I wonder why he put this bucket into the well. It’s dry, which means it didn’t go all the way down into the water.”

“The well may be dry,” Celia said.

“Of course!” Mandie agreed, as Jonathan began to lower the bucket back into the well. “It was probably used to draw up water when the well was in use.”

Jonathan finished lowering the bucket. The top end of the rope was still attached to the hook where Rupert had tied it.

“I hear someone coming!” Mandie suddenly whispered.

The three looked around the room and found another door, which they quickly entered. Quietly peering out, they saw Rupert enter the old kitchen with the papers he had been reading. He rolled them up, tied a string around them, pulled the bucket up, and put them in it. Then he lowered the bucket back into the well.

Mandie and the others watched as Rupert glanced around the room,
and then left by the hall door through which he had come. The three breathed a collective sigh of relief. Mandie started to push the door open to go back into the old kitchen, when Rupert suddenly came back through the door from the hallway. The three withdrew quickly and peeked to see what Rupert was doing.

Rupert walked around the room several times, and then put out the one lamp burning there. Mandie had to squint to see him in the darkness as she watched through a crack in the door. Rupert withdrew the bucket from the well and removed the papers he had just put in it.

At that moment someone else entered the old kitchen. A woman with long dark hair.

“It’s about time you got here,” Rupert told her.

“I thought you were coming to my house in the woods,” the woman replied.

“Didn’t you find my note?” he asked as they stood there in the darkness.

“We’ve always met at my house. Therefore—” the woman began.

Rupert interrupted angrily, “You are aware that Elsa has arrived. I could not go visiting you while she is here.”

“I know. Anyway, I finally thought to look in our secret hiding place to see if you had left any message,” the woman said. “And I found your note there. I came as soon as I got it.”

Mandie held her breath as she eavesdropped with her friends. Who was this woman? What was Rupert up to?

Rupert held up the papers in his hand and said, “I have everything signed here, and I want you to deliver these to Herr Zieger tonight. He will give you cash—a lot of money to bring back to me.”

“But what are those papers?” the woman wanted to know. “And how am I going to find you when I get back?”

“These are legal papers,” Rupert said, holding them out to her. “Now hurry on. I’ll be here when you return.”

“Legal papers? Will I get into trouble delivering them? What is this all about?” the woman asked.

Rupert angrily smacked the palm of his hand with the rolled-up papers. “It is all legal,” he said. “And if you must know, it covers property that I own, property that my dear American-loving mother
gave to me before she ran off with that stupid American. I am selling it to spite her.”

The woman gasped. “Are you certain I won’t be involved in any trouble?” she asked. “I have my mother to take care of, which I won’t be able to do if I am accosted by the law.”

“Do not worry about the law,” Rupert said impatiently as he handed her the papers. “You will have to take the pony cart. The amount of money will be too heavy to carry, even though Herr Zieger lives on the next property. I will wait for you in the library. Now, go!” He gave her a little push.

“All right, all right,” the woman said, holding on to the papers as the two turned to leave the room.

“And be very quiet hitching up the cart,” Rupert was saying as they closed the door behind them.

Mandie and her friends drew deep breaths as they continued to stand by the door.

“Well, so he hates Americans. And
we
are Americans,” Mandie said.

“Yes,” Jonathan agreed.

“And he is doing things to spite his mother,” Celia added.

“We need to do something about that,” Mandie said.

“We can’t go interfering with Rupert’s personal business, Mandie,” Jonathan objected.

“But his grandmother ought to know what he’s doing,” Mandie said.

“Mandie, his grandmother doesn’t speak English, so we can’t even talk to her,” Celia reminded her.

“Maybe I could learn enough German to explain to her,” Mandie said.

“Never!” Jonathan told her. “I know a little German, but I could never learn enough in the few days we’re going to be here to carry on a conversation with the baroness.”

“Frau Jahn speaks both languages!” Mandie exclaimed. “I could talk to her and ask her to tell the baroness.”

“I don’t think the baroness would appreciate such personal business being discussed with her servants,” Jonathan said.

“Well, I’ll think of some solution,” Mandie said, quickly turning
to go down the corridor. “Come on. Let’s go watch the tree. It may be already jumping by now.”

The three found their way outside without seeing anyone. Mandie led the way around the castle to the juniper tree. The moon was shining brightly but the night air was cold. They found a low wall around a flower bed nearby, and they all sat down there to watch and wait.

Mandie’s thoughts strayed to the scene they had just witnessed in the old kitchen. Who was that woman? She couldn’t see the stranger very well in the darkness, but she was pretty sure she was not Yvette, the maid. Well then, she must be the woman they had seen in the cottage in the woods, because they had heard her refer to her house in the woods.

Turning to her friends, Mandie said, “You know, Rupert must know that woman awfully well to ask her to do something like he did and to carry a whole lot of money for him.”

“She is probably a worker of some kind here at the castle,” Jonathan said.

“Right, and I am pretty sure it wasn’t Yvette,” Celia spoke up. “The woman we saw didn’t have a French accent like Yvette would.”

“I wonder why they were talking in English, when we know Rupert hates Americans so much. You’d think he would refuse to use our language,” Mandie remarked as she watched the tall juniper tree in front of them.

“Maybe that is the only language both he and the woman speak. The woman may not speak or understand German. You know she did have an unusual accent,” Jonathan added.

As the three talked they kept their attention on the tree. Not even the wind was moving the branches of the giant juniper. The night was almost completely silent. Once in a while the sound of the horses drifted up to them, and insects twittered in the darkness.

Mandie pulled her dark cloak tighter around her.
How could that huge tree ever jump up and down
, she wondered as she gazed at it. Someone must be making up stories, but how could she prove them wrong? Unless she saw it with her own eyes she’d never believe that tale.

Turning back to her friends, she said, “I wonder where Elsa is. You’d think we’d see her somewhere in the house at least, but she seems to be staying in an isolated room somewhere in the castle.”

Jonathan smiled his mischievous smile as he replied, “Rupert may have had something to do with that. He wouldn’t want her too close around because of his other lady friends.”

“Lady friends?” Mandie exclaimed. “You think he has lady friends?”

“Sure, he’s old enough to be interested in women if he’s old enough to be engaged,” Jonathan said.

“We did see him at that cottage in the woods, and we heard him in the room with the maid,” Celia agreed.

“Someone needs to straighten that young man out,” Mandie said, vehemently stamping her foot. “Chasing other women when he’s engaged, and selling land to spite his mother. I still think we ought to tell on him somehow, even if it would make him angry with us. He doesn’t like us anyway.”

“But, Mandie, we’ve been over all that already,” Jonathan said. “Please don’t insist on exposing his various activities. I won’t join in on that.”

“Neither will I,” Celia spoke up.

Mandie sighed heavily and swished her cloak around her closer. “But we’re supposed to help the wayward, and we’d certainly be helping him if we told on him, because I imagine the baroness would take some strict measures.”

“We don’t really know the baroness that well,” Jonathan said. “She might take the view that we were meddling in her private affairs.”

Horses’ hooves clopped in the distance and the three young people immediately became quiet and listened and watched to see what was coming up the road. A small cart pulled by a pony came into view.

“It’s that woman returning with the money,” Mandie whispered.

“Right,” Jonathan agreed.

“Let’s be real quiet so she won’t see us,” Celia said, shrinking down into her dark cloak.

The cart went on down the driveway and around the castle. As soon as it was out of sight, Mandie jumped up and beckoned to her friends. “Let’s go watch!” she told them.

They slipped silently around the end of the castle to where they could see the woman tying the pony to a hitching post. The woman looked around, tossed her long hair back, and went through the doorway to the castle. The young people silently hurried after her, staying
in the shadows, and then noiselessly entering the house. The woman was nowhere in sight.

“She was going to meet Rupert in the library. Do you know where that is?” Mandie whispered to Jonathan.

“I have an idea. Follow me,” Jonathan replied.

“Please be quiet,” Celia reminded them.

Jonathan led the way through corridors and doors until they finally spotted the woman walking ahead of them. They slowed down so she wouldn’t see or hear them. She pushed open double doors on the corridor wall and went inside.

The young people rushed up to the doors as soon as they closed, and Mandie peeked through the large keyhole. She could see Rupert sitting in the room. He stood up as the woman approached him.

“Did you get the money?” he asked.

“No,” the woman answered. “Herr Zieger is away for the night his butler said.” She withdrew the rolled-up papers from under her cloak. “Here are your papers.”

Rupert snatched them out of her hand and stamped about the room.

“If you had gotten here earlier you would have caught him before he left,” Rupert told the woman. “But you had to be late meeting me, and by the time you got to his house, of course he was gone.”

The woman stood there silently looking at Rupert.

Rupert stopped in front of her and said in an authoritative voice, “You be here tomorrow night by nine o’clock at the latest, do you understand? And I don’t want any more excuses. Now go on home. I have to put these papers away.”

Without a word the woman turned to leave the room. The young people scampered down the hallway and darted into a dark room. It seemed to be a small parlor. They pushed the door almost closed and watched as the woman left. She disappeared quickly down the corridor.

“Oh, he is mean!” Mandie said crossly.

“She must work for him or she would have said something back,” Celia said.

“Or maybe she is in love with him,” Jonathan teased as they watched for Rupert to leave the library.

“I don’t see how anyone could love that mean man,” Mandie said.

Rupert came down the hall from the library. He was not carrying the papers with him. Mandie thought he must have hidden them in the library. He disappeared quickly.

“I suppose we might as well go to bed. It must be late,” Mandie decided. “No use in looking for the papers in the library this time of night.”

“But why would you want to look for Rupert’s papers?” Jonathan asked.

“I’m just curious about what he is doing,” Mandie replied, opening the door.

“But it’s none of our business, Mandie,” Celia said, following her into the hallway.

“I still think we might be able to help straighten him out somehow,” Mandie insisted.

“Well, I am going to bed,” Jonathan stated as he walked quickly ahead of the girls. “I see no sense in standing around all night discussing Rupert.”

Mandie looked at him and sighed. “We stayed up this late and we still didn’t see the tree jump.”

The girls followed Jonathan upstairs to their suite.