The Mandie Collection (35 page)

At that moment Mr. Guyer called to them from the door of the greenery. “What's taking so long?” He came out and walked up to them, squinting as he looked at Mario. “Who is this?”

Mario was practically shaking with fright. He wouldn't look directly at Mr. Guyer.

“This man's name is Mario, Father,” Jonathan began. “He has some connection with Jens, and we're trying to find out what it is.”

Mr. Guyer looked at Jonathan and asked, “Connection with Jens? Is he a relative?”

“No, Father, this is the man we told you about before,” Jonathan explained. “He says if he tells us whether he's related to Jens or not that Jens will stop giving him money. But we don't know what Jens gives him money for.”

“Well, now, Mario, you might as well tell us the truth because you can be sure I will interrogate Jens as soon as he returns,” Mr. Guyer told him.

Mario frowned and finally looked straight at Mr. Guyer. “Then I will tell you,” he began. “Jens was married to my sister. My sister dies. I bring Angelina to United States, and Jens pay me money to keep her.”

“Jens was married to your sister?” Mr. Guyer questioned. “Jens told me he did not have a family when I hired him in England to come here and work.”

“Jens and my sister have baby, Angelina. My sister dies soon, and Jens moves back to England and leaves Angelina with me and my family in Spain,” the man explained.

“And now he pays you to keep her? Why doesn't he keep her?” Mr. Guyer asked. “He has never told me a thing about this.”

Mandie was listening to every word. She looked at her friends and they both nodded at her. The three of them had been suspicious of the fact that Angelina's name was Phipps, the same as Jens's.

“He say to me you would not have him work if he had a family,” Mario said. “He say do not ever tell.”

“That is a ridiculous idea,” Mr. Guyer said.

“I have to go now and find Angelina. She was in the tenement that fell in,” Mario said.

“Yes, you go and find her. And I want you also to find Jens and bring both of them to me immediately,” Mr. Guyer told the man. “Now hurry.”

Mario looked at him in surprise and then smiled. “Sí, señor, I will be back.” He hurried across the garden.

Mr. Guyer turned to the young people and said, “Let's go back inside now. We will be eating soon.”

But soon afterward they were all sitting in the parlor when Jens appeared in the doorway and asked, “You wished to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Jens,” Mr. Guyer replied as he rose from his chair and came to stand in the doorway with the man. He glanced out into the hallway and called, “Come in here, Mario. This concerns you, too.”

The three young people and Mrs. Hamilton watched as Mario came to Jens's side and silently waited.

“I don't know whether Mario told you or not, but I now know the whole story about your having been married to Mario's sister and Angelina being your daughter,” Mr. Guyer began. “For heavens' sakes, man, why do you not claim your own daughter? Your own flesh and blood?”

Jens shuffled his feet and finally spoke. “I have no way to take care of her, sir. Therefore I have been paying Mario to do that.”

“No way to take care of her? I pay you a mighty good salary, Jens,” Mr. Guyer told him firmly.

“But, sir, I have no place for her to live,” Jens continued objecting.

“No place to live? That is another foolish idea,” Mr. Guyer said. “You know as well as I do that I own the building next door and that there is plenty of room in there for anyone who works for me to live.”

Jens dropped his eyes and didn't say anything.

“Now, Jens, I will tell you here and now, once and for all,” Mr. Guyer began. “If you do not set up a home for that daughter to live with you in that building, I will have to discharge you. I have no use whatsoever for any man who doesn't take care of his family.”

“Yes, sir, I understand,” Jens said. Then, after a short pause, he said, “Thank you, sir. I will move over there today and bring her with
me. You see, the tenement house that collapsed is the one where she lived with Mario.”

“I'm terribly sorry about that,” Mr. Guyer said. “Then Mario has no home, either. You will fix up the ground floor apartment for you and your daughter and then prepare a room on the second floor for Mario. I believe there's that much space vacant over there right now.”

Mr. Guyer turned to Mario and said, “Mario, what kind of work do you do?”

Mario seemed shy. “I do not have job,” he said. “I teach the school in Spain.”

“Oh, so you're a schoolteacher,” Mr. Guyer said with interest. “Then we'll see about setting up a room or two for you to tutor students in Spanish. You ought to be able to make a good living with that.”

The three young people had moved closer and closer as the conversation had gone on, and now they were standing next to the three men. Mario surprised them all as he suddenly hugged each one of them, saying, “Thank you, thank you!”

“I'm so glad for you, Mario,” Mandie said.

“And for Angelina,” Celia added.

“But where is Angelina?” Jonathan asked.

“We have not been able to find her, Master Jonathan,” Jens volunteered.

“Was she actually in the house when it collapsed?” Mr. Guyer asked.

“We don't think so, sir,” Jens said. “The police had thoroughly searched the place and had taken all the injured to the hospital. I went to the hospital, but I couldn't find her there, either.”

“Then you and Mario must keep looking for her,” Mr. Guyer said. “You may take the carriage if you like.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jens said. “We shall return as quickly as possible.”

“Gracias, señor,” Mario said, almost bowing with his thanks.

The men left, and Mr. Guyer went back to sit by the fireplace with Mrs. Hamilton.

“That was a very kind thing you did there, Lindall,” Mrs. Hamilton commented.

“In a way,” he said with a grin. “I don't want to lose Jens.”

The three young people sat down on the settee and discussed the events of the day.

“I hope Jens can control Angelina. She seems so wild,” Jonathan remarked.

“I hope they can find her,” Mandie said.

“Angelina will be awfully thrilled about living next door to the white dog, won't she?” Celia said.

“She certainly will. There's a gate in the other wall of the garden that opens into the garden to the building where she'll be living,” Jonathan told the girls. “I'll just have to make her understand that he is not to be taken out on the street.”

“I'm glad she's going to have a home,” Mandie said.

Mr. Guyer spoke across the room to them. “Young ladies, everything is off schedule because of the accident, but Mrs. Yodkin will be announcing dinner any minute now,” he told them and then added, “I do hope you don't regret staying with us instead of at the hotel.”

“I appreciate your asking us,” Celia said.

“Mr. Guyer, I've enjoyed visiting here in your home,” Mandie said. “You and Jonathan have just got to come visit us.”

“At your house or at your grandmother's in Asheville where you go to school?” Mr. Guyer asked.

“Oh, at my house, of course, when I'm home from school,” Mandie said. “However, if you're ever in Asheville when I'm there, you'll just have to come and visit at my grandmother's house.”

Mr. Guyer looked hard at her and smiled faintly as he said, “Your grandmother would have to ask me first. However, perhaps we might come during Christmas week to your mother's house. We'll see.”

Mandie thought of how her grandmother had tried to prevent her from coming to visit the Guyers. She couldn't think of a polite way to ask the question, but she wanted to know what was wrong between her grandmother and Mr. Guyer. She glanced at Jonathan and realized he was grinning. And even Celia was smiling.

“I'll ask my grandmother to ask you and Jonathan,” Mandie said, which was the only thing she could think of to say.

At that moment Mrs. Yodkin appeared at the door to the hallway. She looked directly at Mandie and said, “Begging pardon, miss, but there's someone at the front door asking for you.”

Mandie jumped up and said, “It's probably Dr. Plumbley after all.”

“No, miss, this man is an Indian if I ever saw one,” Mrs. Yodkin said with a frown. “There are two white people with him.”

Mandie didn't wait to hear more. “Uncle Ned!” she cried, excitedly rushing for the door.

And she got another surprise when she looked out the front door. There beside Uncle Ned stood Dr. Woodard and his son, Joe, from back home in North Carolina.

“Oh, I'm so glad to see y'all!” she cried, reaching for Uncle Ned's hand. “Come on in. Everybody is in the parlor.”

“Wait, Miss Amanda,” Dr. Woodard told her. He turned back to the porch and motioned toward a girl who was sitting on the steps. “Does this girl live here? She was a little scratched up in the building accident and said she didn't have a place to stay but that y'all would let her come here.”

“Oh, Angelina!” Mandie exclaimed as she went out onto the porch to the girl. Jonathan and Celia had followed Mandie to the door, and now they all stared at the girl. She had a small bandage around one hand, and when she looked up at them, Mandie could see that she had been crying.

“Come, Angelina,” Jonathan said, quickly reaching down to take her other hand. “You are going to be living in the house next door with your father. My father said so.”

“My father?” the girl asked as she stood up.

“Yes, Jens is your father, didn't you know that?” Jonathan asked her.

Angelina's eyes grew round as she said, “Nobody told me.”

“We're telling you now. Come on inside,” Jonathan insisted, leading her into the hallway.

As everyone appeared in the doorway to the parlor, Mr. Guyer came to greet them and introduce himself. Mrs. Hamilton had met them before, and she stood by smiling as they all got acquainted.

After everyone was seated, Mandie felt a sudden silence among the young people. Joe was staring at Jonathan, and Jonathan was surreptitiously looking at him. The two had never met before, but they had heard plenty about each other.

Jonathan looked directly at Joe, cleared his throat, and said, “So you are Joe?”

“So you are Jonathan. Mandie has told me a lot about you,” Joe said.

“She has told me a lot about you, too,” Jonathan replied.

Mandie, trying to make them feel at ease with each other, hurriedly asked, “Joe, how did you happen to be in New York, and with Uncle Ned?”

“We came to visit a college I had thought about attending next year,” Joe explained. “And somehow Uncle Ned found out where we were staying and just came walking in today.”

Uncle Ned added from across the room, “Grandmother of Papoose tell me to go see Papoose all right while I visit friend in New York.”

“And we happened to be downtown when that building collapsed,” Dr. Woodard explained. “In fact, we were looking for the office of Dr. Plumbley so we could say hello. But just as we got to his door, he was called to the scene and I went along to see what I could do.”

“Any serious injuries?” Mr. Guyer asked.

“Well, a few cuts and scratches but no broken bones,” Dr. Woodard said. “Most of the tenants were able to get out without injury, but the police are tearing down what was left standing of the old building.”

At that moment Jens appeared at the door to the hallway and said, “Begging pardon, Mr. Guyer, but I could not find—” Then he saw Angelina sitting on the rug by the hearth and playing with the white dog.

Mr. Guyer looked at him and said, “She's right here, Jens. Our friend Dr. Woodard brought her here.”

Angelina stood up and stared at Jens, and he stared back at her. Then she suddenly ran across the room to him, pulled on his hand, and said, “You are my father. I want to go home with you.”

Jens stood there speechless until Mr. Guyer said, “Jens, take Angelina to Mrs. Yodkin and ask her to get one of the maids to bathe her. She needs fresh clothes.”

“Yes, sir, but I do not have any clothes for her,” Jens said.

Mandie jumped up and said, “I'll see what I have in my things that she might be able to wear until you buy her something. I know I have a skirt that can be rolled up at the waistband to fit her.”

“I'll go with you,” Celia said, rising to follow.

“Just don't be too long, girls,” Mrs. Hamilton said. “We will be eating soon.”

Jens took Angelina down the hallway as Mandie and Celia hurried to their room. Once inside, Mandie closed the door and leaned against it.

“I really feel strange about Joe and Jonathan finally meeting. They seem so hostile to each other,” she said, taking a deep breath.

“Just think what it's going to be like when Jonathan comes to stay at your house for Christmas week. Joe will be there, too, most likely,” Celia reminded her.

“I know,” Mandie said as she closed her eyes and frowned. “This is going to be an interesting Christmas this year.”

She wondered whether or not she should have asked Mr. Guyer and Jonathan. But it was too late now. It had been done. And they were most likely coming. And she knew the Woodards always came to her house during Christmas.

“Oh well,” she said to herself, “I'll think about it when I get home.”