Mystery at Peacock Hall (3 page)

Violet was charmed by the story. Jefferson seemed more like a person.

      Back at Peacock Hall, the children walked around outside. Daffodils bloomed around the empty goldfish pond, but fall leaves still lay heaped under the pecan trees.

    “I thought a gardener lived here,” Jessie commented.

Henry nodded. “Tate, Althea called him.”

“He doesn’t seem to do very much.”

Suddenly a loud, eerie sound shattered the stillness.

Jessie got goose bumps. “What was
that
?”

Henry laughed. “I think it’s the master of Peacock Hall. He wants to make sure we notice him.”

Sure enough, the male peacock strutted around the side of a small brick outbuilding. His folded train swept behind him.

“Oh, boy!” Benny cried. “He’s big!”

The children waited, hoping the bird would display his tail. The peahen appeared, too, in her less flashy plumage.

Giving his call again, the peacock lifted his train in a dazzling show of color. He turned in a slow circle.

“He’s so beautiful!” breathed Violet. “I wish I had my camera.”

“Maybe Cousin Althea has some paper and pens. You can draw him,” Jessie suggested.

Benny admired the sapphire “eyes” in the tail feathers. “I’d sure like to have one of those feathers,” he said.

“Birds lose their feathers all the time,” Henry told him. “You and Watch are always finding blue jay feathers in the grass back home.”

“I bet Watch would bark if he saw this big bird,” Benny said. He missed his dog, but knew Mrs. McGregor was taking good care of him.

“Henry’s right,” said Jessie. “Let’s see if we can find any feathers.”

They walked around the small brick building. In the back was an enclosure made of chicken wire.

Inside the pen were pans of water and cracked corn, and a wooden shelter like a doghouse. But no sapphire-tipped plumes.

“We’ll be here all week,” Violet assured her little brother. “Maybe we’ll find a peacock feather later.”

But Benny was staring at something beyond the peacock pen. “Look!” he cried.

Violet turned her head, wondering what was so exciting about a clothesline. T-shirts and jeans hung from a line that was stretched from the small building to a locust tree.

Next to him, Jessie gasped. “Benny, you have sharp eyes!”

“It’s just a bunch of laundry —” Henry began. Then he saw it, too. The pair of jeans on the end had a hole in one knee.

“Those jeans!” Violet declared. “I bet the scrap of denim we found this morning matches the hole in those jeans. Henry, do you have it?”

Henry tugged the scrap from his pocket. “Right here. All we have to do is —”

Just then a man came around the corner. He had white hair that stood up in spikes and wore baggy jeans and a plaid flannel shirt. His face was scarlet with anger.

“What do you kids think you’re doing?” the man growled.

“Nothing, sir,” Henry said politely. “We were just walking around.”

The man came up to him. Jessie noted he wasn’t much bigger than Henry. He also seemed a lot older than Grandfather. What was he so mad about?

“We’re the Aldens,” she said, introducing the others. “We’re visiting Cousin Althea. You must be Mr. Tate.”

The man raised a white eyebrow. “You’re with Mr. Alden? Mrs. Randolph said she’d asked him to come.”

 
“That’s right,” Henry said. “Cousin Althea wrote to our grandfather for help.”

“She’s a fine lady,” the old man remarked. “I hope your granddaddy can get her out of this fix she’s in.”

“He’ll do his best,” Violet put in. “Are you the gardener, Mr. Tate?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’m the gardener. I’ve worked here for fifty years. My daddy was the gardener before me. And my name is just plain Tate.”

“Is this your house?” Benny asked, glancing at the brick outbuilding. “We have a little house, too. Not the one we live in now. But we can play in our old house.”

Tate looked confused.

Jessie explained, “Benny means we once lived in a boxcar. That was before Grandfather found us. He brought our boxcar to his house and we use it for a sort of clubhouse.”

Benny asked Tate again, “Do you live in this house?”

“It’s the smokehouse,” Tate said, somewhat gruffly. “In the old days, meat was hung in this building to cure. But it’s no place for children to fool around. Go on back to the main house, you hear?”

Shocked at the old man’s sudden unfriendliness, the Aldens turned and headed toward Peacock Hall.

“What’s wrong with
him
?” Violet said.

“I guess he’s funny about his place,” Henry said with a shrug. “It must be his house. Nobody else lives here but Althea, and she wouldn’t hang her laundry way out here.”

“She wouldn’t wear jeans and T-shirts, either,” Jessie added. “But Tate does. Those must be his clothes hanging on that line. And I still think the piece of material we found came from that pair of jeans.”

Violet stopped. “Do you think Tate climbed the ladder up to our window last night? Why would he do that?”

Jessie didn’t have an answer.

There were many mysteries at Peacock Hall. Would they solve any of them by Friday?

“Y
ou heard Grandfather last night,” Henry said as they cleared the breakfast dishes the next morning. “Cousin Althea needs nine thousand dollars by Friday. That’s three days from now.”

The night before, Grandfather brought back groceries along with his grim news. The tax bill was indeed correct. But he would try to get Althea an extension, more time to pay. “Nine thousand dollars!” Benny exclaimed. “That’s more than I have in my piggy bank!”

“It’s more than we
all
have in our piggy banks,” Jessie said.

“I’ll call Mrs. McGregor,” Benny said, putting the jelly up on the cupboard. “She’ll send me my bank and I’ll give it to Althea.”

Henry stacked plates to rinse before washing. “That’s nice of you, Benny, but Althea probably wouldn’t take your pennies and nickels.”

“How will Grandfather help her raise that much money by Friday?” Violet wanted to know. “It seems impossible.”

Henry filled the sink with hot, soapy water. “There’s only one way: We have to find the treasure.”

“But we don’t even know what it is!” Jessie said, shaking the tablecloth out the back door.

“Then we’ll just have to look harder,” said Benny.

“We’ll find it,” Violet said confidently. “We can’t let Cousin Althea down.”

As soon as the dishes were done, the kids dashed upstairs. Yesterday they’d cleaned the small rooms on the third floor. Today they’d work on the second floor.

Jessie yanked back the dusty curtains in the first room. She looked out the window and into the yard below. Althea was talking to Tate. Both had slumped shoulders.

She wondered if Cousin Althea and the gardener were afraid. If Peacock Hall was sold, where would they go? Grandfather was in town again, looking for a way to save Peacock Hall.

The children worked hard for two hours. They also peered behind paintings for hidden wall safes, searched dressers and desks for secret compartments, and tapped inside closets for false backs.

But their hunt turned up only dust bunnies. No treasure.

They were all grimy and tired. They needed a break.

“Let’s walk to Heather and David’s roadside stand,” Jessie suggested. “I’d like parsley for tonight’s dinner to go with those new potatoes Grandfather bought.”

   “Yeah!” Benny agreed. As much as he liked the big old house, he was glad to go outside.

After washing up, the children set off across the dandelion-spotted field that was a shortcut to the highway.

Benny skipped in the bright green grass. The warm sunshine made him giddy. He plucked a handful of dandelions and tossed them in the air.

Henry smiled at his brother. The soft spring air made him feel like running, too.

“Race you!” he challenged, and the kids were off.

By the time they reached the wooden stand at the side of the highway, they were out of breath and giggling.

Heather Olsen was arranging ivy in a basket. She smiled when she heard the Aldens.

“Looks like you guys have spring fever!” she said.

Benny felt his forehead. “Not me. I’m not sick.”

“It’s an expression,” Henry told him. “It means that people feel good in the springtime.”

“What can I do for you today?” Heather asked them.

“I’d like some parsley,” said Jessie. “Grandfather bought some new potatoes. I’m going to make parsley potatoes for dinner tonight.”

Heather slipped the leafy plant into a plastic bag. “That sounds delicious. I bet you’re a good cook.”

“We all like to cook,” Jessie said.

“But I’d rather eat!” Benny put in.

Violet sniffed. Something fragrant sweetened the air around the stand.

“What is that nice smell?” she asked Heather.

“Lavender. It’s often made into sachets, perfumes, and lotions.” Heather pointed to a bouquet of dried purple flowers pinned to her sweater. “I wear it all the time.”

Violet wondered where David was today. Before she could ask, a shiny black car pulled off the highway.

A woman with stiff blond hair and pink lipstick stepped out of the car.

   “Hello,” the woman said, stalking across the gravel in spiky high heels. “I’m Marlene Sanders.”

Jessie perked up. The name sounded familiar. Where had she heard it before?

“Hello,” Heather greeted. “Welcome to my stand.”

“And you are?” Marlene demanded.

“I’m Heather Olsen.” The younger woman suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.

Marlene gave a fake smile. “Heather, who sells herbs. How cute. I’ll take some basil and thyme.”

Heather began measuring snipped leafy herbs into a small silver scale. “Is this enough?”

The woman pinched green stems between fingers tipped with long pink fingernails. “Your herbs
are
fresh?” she asked archly.

“Of course,” Heather replied. Nervously, she tied the plastic bag with a strand of brown twine.

Benny also realized Heather’s son wasn’t around. “Where’s David?” he asked.

“He’s . . . off on an errand,” Heather said, tying the twine into a tight knot.

Marlene peeled dollar bills from an expensive leather wallet. “I don’t see a business license anywhere.” Her tone was disapproving.

“It’s at home,” Heather said quickly, her face pale. “If you’re finished, I have plants to water.”

“Of course. But you
do
know licenses must be displayed. It’s the law.” Marlene Sanders got back into her shiny car and drove off.

Jessie was concerned about Heather. The young woman seemed frightened.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Heather said shortly. “I just have a lot of work to do.”

Jessie glanced at Henry, who nodded back. It was obvious Heather wanted them to leave.

“We should be going,” Jessie said. “Cousin Althea is taking us to Monticello this afternoon.”

“Tell David we said hi,” Benny said. Then he spotted a boy in a red-striped shirt coming across the field. “There he is! Hey, David!”

As soon as David saw the Aldens, he quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction into the woods.

“What’s wrong with
him
?” Benny said.

“He’s just shy,” Heather told him. “If you’re going to Monticello, you’d better hurry back to Peacock Hall.”

The children didn’t need another hint. When they were well away from Heather’s herb stand, they discussed the strange incident.

“David is not shy,” Violet stated. “He’s avoiding us.”

“But why?” Jessie wondered. “We’ve never done or said anything to upset him.”

“Maybe not, but his mother was plenty upset,” Henry put in. “Did you see how nervous she was when Marlene Sanders was asking a bunch of nosy questions?”

Jessie scratched her head. “I’ve heard that woman’s name before, but I can’t think where. You’re right, Henry. Heather definitely acted like she had something to hide.”

“
Another
mystery!” Benny crowed. “So far we have to find the hidden treasure and find out who climbed up to the girls’ window —”

“And figure out what’s the matter with Heather and David,” Violet finished for him. “That’s three mysteries and we only have three days.”