The Mandie Collection (4 page)

“But, Ben, I had to explain to Miss Prudence how we knew about the alley. I had to tell her the rig broke down when we took a shortcut back to the school that night,” Mandie groaned. “I'm sorry.”

“Wudn't no harm done, so Miz Taft, she ain't gwine git upset 'bout dat. All she do will be say don't go back dat way agin, and
we sho' ain't gwine back dat way agin,” Ben replied, glancing back at Mandie with a big smile. “Don't let it worry you none, missy.”

“I'm just dreading this visit at my grandmother's, and I hope we don't have to stay late,” Mandie said, sitting back in her seat.

The girls were the first to arrive, and Mrs. Taft was directing Ella, her maid, as to what dishes and linens to use that night. Annie, the bedroom maid, had let them in the front door, and after removing their wraps they found Mrs. Taft in the dining room.

“Use the small silver set for the coffee, Ella. Mrs. Manning has asked to borrow the large one for a dinner she is giving for her church, and if we don't use it tonight you won't have to polish it up for her,” Mrs. Taft was saying to Ella, who was removing dishes from the china closet. She turned when she saw the girls enter the room.

“Where is everybody, Grandmother? Aunt Rebecca and Mollie and Hilda?” Mandie asked.

Mrs. Taft smiled at her granddaughter and Celia. “Celia's aunt Rebecca is reading to them in the back parlor and trying to keep them out of mischief while I get everything set up. So please don't disturb them right now.”

“I won't,” Mandie agreed, smiling. She knew how active Mollie was.

Mrs. Taft turned back to the maid and said, “Ella, while you're in the cabinet, get down that large set and set it on the buffet so it'll be handy when Mrs. Manning comes after it.”

“Yessum,” Ella replied, climbing up on a stool to reach the top shelf of the glass-doored china cabinet.

Mandie hurried across the room and held up her arms. “I'll help you, Ella. Just give me a piece at a time and I'll set it down for you,” she said.

“Thank you, Missy Manda,” Ella answered warmly. “That be a big help.” She carefully passed each part of the silver down, and Mandie carefully placed them on the buffet. She stepped back to admire the fancy coffeepot, sugar bowl, and cream pitcher she had set on the matching silver tray. Each piece had been polished to shine like a looking glass.

Annie came to the doorway and announced, “More company knockin' at de door.”

“Well, go let them in,” Mrs. Taft instructed. Turning to the girls she said, “You two go receive them for me and I'll be with y'all shortly. Take them to the front parlor.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied eagerly, imagining the new arrivals to be Tommy Patton and Robert Rogers. She winked at Celia, and they followed Annie down the hallway and went on into the parlor while the maid continued to the front door.

“It's probably Tommy and Robert,” Mandie whispered to Celia as they quickly sat down on a settee near the fireplace.

But then the next minute Mandie could hear Annie saying, “Yes, ma'am, right dis way, please, ma'am. I take yo' wraps and put dem right heah.”

Mandie looked at Celia and made a face. “Must be Miss Prudence,” she whispered, and Celia nodded in agreement.

In a moment the schoolmistress appeared at the doorway to the parlor. Mandie and Celia both stood up. “Come right in, Miss Prudence. My grandmother said she would be with us shortly. Have a seat, please, ma'am,” Mandie said, nodding toward a seat near the warmth of the fireplace.

“Thank you, Amanda, Celia,” Miss Prudence replied as she sat down in the large chair. She pulled the cover back on the watch she wore on a chain around her neck. “I suppose I am a little early.”

“And we were earlier than you. Or maybe Grandmother is just running late,” Mandie remarked as she and Celia sat back down.

“Yes, I apologize, Miss Prudence. I am running a little late,” Mrs. Taft said, hurrying into the room. “Those two children are a handful to keep up with.” She went to sit opposite Miss Prudence. Turning back to Celia, she said, “Celia, dear, would you please go let your aunt Rebecca know Miss Prudence has arrived?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Celia replied.

As Celia left the room, Mandie quickly stood and followed her.

“I'll go with her,” Mandie explained to the two ladies by the fireplace.

When Celia opened the door, Aunt Rebecca was sitting on the settee by the window, with Mollie on one side of her and Hilda on the other. She was reading to the girls from a book in her lap.

Mollie instantly jumped down from the settee and ran to Mandie.

“Mandie, does my grandmother have leprechauns in this house? Does she? Do you know?” Mollie asked insistently. “Does she?”

Mandie bent down to embrace the small child. “Of course not, Mollie,” she replied. “Remember, I told you there are no such things as leprechauns.”

“Oh, but you said there are no leprechauns in the house where you live,” Mollie replied, shaking her red curls. “Might there be leprechauns in this house then, my grandmother's house? Do you know? Do you?” She pulled at Mandie's skirt as Mandie stood.

“Mollie, don't you remember I told you we just don't have leprechauns in the United States,” Mandie said with a smile.

“Mrs. Taft sent us to tell you that Miss Prudence has arrived and they are in the front parlor,” Celia told her aunt.

“Thank you, dear,” Aunt Rebecca said, standing up and placing the book on a table nearby. She turned to look at Mollie. “Now, Mollie, we must act like a grown-up lady tonight, remember? Special guests are coming to join us, and we want them to see what a nice little girl you are.”

Mollie frowned and crossed her feet as she stood there. “Will it be all right if I be asking them whether they be having leprechauns at their house maybe?”

“We will see,” Aunt Rebecca answered, shaking her head with a smile. She left the room with Mollie following closely behind her.

Mandie turned to Hilda, who was still sitting on the settee. “Hilda, do you want to come into the parlor with us? Everyone is going in there,” she explained.

Hilda was always quiet and shy. Mandie and Celia had found her hiding in the attic of their schoolhouse a long time ago, and Mrs. Taft had given her a home. She did not talk, and everyone wondered whether she was able to speak or not. Then at one time a while ago, she had seemed to understand Cherokee when Mandie's father's old friend Uncle Ned had been speaking. Her parents had kept her shut up in a room and didn't know what to do with her. They were greatly relieved when Mrs. Taft took charge of her.

Mandie watched to see what Hilda would do. The girl pushed back her long dark hair and stood up. The she suddenly ran out of
the room and disappeared down the hallway in the opposite direction of the parlor.

“Oh well,” Mandie said. “I suppose she will come back and join us when she gets ready.”

As Celia started to go down the hallway toward the parlor, Mandie laid a hand on her arm to stop her. In a low voice she asked, “Do you suppose Miss Prudence has told Grandmother about the alley yet?”

“Maybe,” Celia whispered.

There was a sound of voices in the front hallway, and Mandie quickly said, “Must be Tommy and Robert.” She grinned at her friend as the two of them hurried on down the corridor.

Tall, handsome Thomas Patton had just hung up his coat and hat when he looked over and saw Mandie. Robert Rogers was right behind him, and he smiled shyly at Celia.

“It was nice of your grandmother to ask us over tonight,” Tommy said after he had greeted Mandie.

“Let's let her know y'all are here,” Mandie said, leading the way to the parlor. Mrs. Taft looked up when they entered the room. “Grandmother, here is Tommy Patton and also Robert Rogers.”

Everyone exchanged greetings, and the young people sat down at one side of the room. Mollie, who had been sitting on a stool by Aunt Rebecca, immediately jumped up and ran over to join them, pulling a footstool over by Tommy.

“Do you be having leprechauns at your house?” the little girl asked.

Tommy smiled. “No, we have no leprechauns. But, come to think of it, we did have a ghost at our house one time.” He grinned at Mandie.

“There was a ghost? Will the ghost come back again?” Mollie asked, frowning as she tossed back her red curls. “Will it?”

Mandie was becoming irritated with all these questions from Mollie. “Mollie, let's not talk about leprechauns and ghosts anymore. Tommy and I would like to talk about something else,” she told the little girl.

“All right then, you talk, I listen,” Mollie replied and sat straight up on the stool to look from Mandie to Tommy.

Tommy laughed and asked Mandie, “Where is her playmate? You said Hilda was here.”

“I don't know where Hilda went. She was in the back parlor when we went to get Aunt Rebecca.”

Mollie quickly reached over to pull on Mandie's skirt. “I be knowing where Hilda went,” she said. “You want Hilda to come in here? I go get her.”

Before anyone could reply, Mollie jumped up and ran out of the parlor.

“Goodness knows where she will go, but at least there are two maids in the house. So maybe they'll look out for her,” Mandie said with a big sigh of relief.

“But this house is so big she might not be seen,” Celia remarked. “I imagine she knows where Hilda went and will stay with her. Since Mollie came to live at our house, Aunt Rebecca said she has been lonely with no other child around. So I imagine Mollie is glad to have Hilda.”

Tommy Patton cleared his throat, grinned at Mandie, and glanced at Celia. “Say, that was quite a daring escapade you girls were on the other night, according to what I've heard,” Tommy said teasingly.

Mandie felt her face turn red. “What escapade, Tommy Patton?”

“Going through that dark alley and your grandmother's rig breaking down in the middle of it,” Tommy explained with a grin.

“It's the talk of our school right now,” Robert added, glancing at Celia.

“It wasn't our fault,” Celia quickly said.

“How did y'all know about that?” Mandie aked.

“We were going down Main Street in our school's rig that night when we saw Uncle Cal and Ben walking down the street. So we stopped and offered them a ride,” Tommy said, still grinning. “Ben directed us to the alley where Mrs. Taft's rig was sitting. They said they could fix it, so we didn't stay to help because we would have been late for our curfew. Some adventure.”

Celia grinned at Mandie and said, “See, I told you so.”

Mandie lowered her voice and said, “I don't think Grandmother knows about that yet, but Miss Prudence said she is going to tell her and we may get in trouble.”

“What for? It wasn't your fault,” Robert put in.

“No, it wasn't, but you know how Miss Prudence is. From the way she talked, she seemed to think we should have kept Ben from going through there,” Mandie said.

“But we were only taking a shortcut to school in order to get back before the curfew bell. And Mrs. Taft herself kept us here that late, so I don't think Mrs. Taft will be too upset about it,” Celia said.

Mandie looked at Celia and said, “You're right. I hadn't thought about that. It was my grandmother who almost made us late in getting back to school. We were having a conversation about Mollie's visit here, and no one noticed the time until Grandmother suddenly looked at the clock and rushed us off back to school.”

“It's good you girls had Ben with you, because I understand that is a deserted warehouse area, and all kinds of tramps hang out there,” Tommy said to the girls. “Even the boys at our school are forbidden to go there.”

“We wouldn't have been there without Ben because he was the one who knew the shortcut through there,” Mandie said. “What is in those warehouses in that alley? Ben only said it was businesses of some kind.”

Robert laughed and said, “I doubt there's much business going on down that alley. It's just old dilapidated warehouses that ought to be torn down.”

“And how do you know that?” Celia asked teasingly.

“Well, I don't know anything about it for sure, just what I've heard and what Mr. Chadwick said when he put it off limits for our school,” Robert explained.

“If the place is isolated and no one lives or works there, I wonder what a puppy was doing in there. I know I heard a puppy whine while we were standing on the street after the rig broke down,” Mandie said.

“It was probably a stray dog of some kind,” Tommy said.

“It sounded like a small puppy, and I've been wanting to go back and see about it,” Mandie said.

“Oh no, I wouldn't go back in there if I were you. There might be bums hanging around those old buildings,” Tommy quickly told her.

“It would be all right to go there in the daytime to look for that puppy, wouldn't it?” Mandie asked.

“No, no, bums don't just pack up and leave wherever they are staying when it gets daylight. No, I'd say stay away from there,” Tommy replied.

Later, as everyone sat around the dining table, Mandie thought about the conversation with Tommy. Should she attempt to go back in that alley and look for the puppy?

Mollie had come back to the parlor holding Hilda by the hand, practically dragging the girl along with her, just as Mrs. Taft led the group to the dining room for the evening meal. Aunt Rebecca had immediately taken charge and placed the two girls on either side of her at the table, to Mandie's relief. She and Celia wanted a chance to talk to Tommy and Robert without interruptions from Mollie.

And while Mandie talked with Tommy, she tried to watch her grandmother and Miss Prudence to figure out whether the schoolmistress had told Mrs. Taft about their shortcut through the alley. The adults were involved in their own conversation, and Mollie and Hilda were interested in their food.