Mandie Collection, The: 4 (2 page)

Celia and Jonathan watched through the window with her as the engine from the other train was being disconnected and then run on a separate track that circled back onto the main track where it was coupled to the last car.

As the engine began to pull forward, Mandie remarked, “You know, all the people will have to ride backwards now, because all the seats faced forward when we were on it and they didn’t turn the cars around!”

“No, most of the seats are reversible,” Jonathan explained. “The conductor will just go through and flip all the seats to face the other
direction. That is, except for the compartments like the one we were in. If you remember, those seats faced each other. Your grandmother and the senator rode facing backwards all the way.”

“That’s right,” Mandie remembered.

Their train suddenly blew its whistle and took off with a jolt down the tracks. The young people still weren’t expecting such a sudden movement and they grasped the arms of the seats to keep from being hurled to the floor.

There was no possibility of carrying on a normal conversation above the noise of the train. And it was going so fast Mandie was sure they would have a wreck any minute. Besides that, she had trouble on her hands in the form of a white kitten. Snowball definitely didn’t like the fast ride and he clung frantically to Mandie’s dress, meowing loudly in protest. Mandie tried to comfort the kitten and at the same time control her own fear of the fast-moving train.

When they finally arrived at the station in Rome, Italy, Mandie gave a sigh of relief as the train lunged to a halt.

“Thank the Lord we made it in one piece,” Mandie gasped as she cuddled Snowball.

Mrs. Taft and the senator rose. “Now, everyone stay close together. This is a busy place and it would be easy to get lost,” Mrs. Taft warned the young people.

The senator stepped down and helped Mrs. Taft from the train. The young people followed. Mandie and Celia stared about them.

“So this is the capital of Italy,” Mandie remarked, holding her pet securely. “Remember when we studied the Roman Empire, Celia? Just look at all the beautiful architecture,” she said, indicating their surroundings in the huge, magnificent train station.

“And it’s so old and full of history,” Celia added.

“So much history that even a person who was born here doesn’t know all of it,” Jonathan said.

Mrs. Taft stopped to look back at them. “Amanda, Celia, and Jonathan,” she called, “hurry up. Senator Morton will hire a carriage to take us to our hotel.”

Mandie and Celia were so fascinated by the architecture overhead and the old statues in the depot, they kept bumping into people.

Jonathan made sure that they kept in sight of the adults. Otherwise they all would have been lost. “You girls think this building
is something? Just wait till you see the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel and the Pantheon and the Forum and the hundreds—probably thousands—of fountains here in Italy,” he told them.

“I’m so excited. I don’t want to waste a minute,” Mandie replied, hurrying to catch up with the adults. As she did, a woman came bursting around a corner in the corridor, and Mandie had to jump aside to keep from running into her. Then as she disappeared just as quickly into the crowd, Mandie stopped suddenly, causing Celia and Jonathan to bump into her. “That woman!” Mandie exclaimed. “That was the strange woman from the ship!” She pointed in the direction she had disappeared.

“Are you sure, Mandie?” Celia asked.

“Of course I’m sure, Celia,” Mandie said sharply. “As much as we’ve seen that woman, I know her when I see her.”

“Well, it’s too late to catch up with her now,” Jonathan told the girls. “Come on, Mandie. Your grandmother is getting ahead of us.”

There had been a strange woman on board the ship they had sailed on to England, and she seemed to follow the girls everywhere they went. Then they had seen the same woman in London, and she had turned up again in Paris. But she always vanished before they could catch up with her.

Mandie stomped her foot. “I am going to find out who that woman is if it’s the last thing I do,” she said.

“Mandie, that woman is dangerous,” Celia told her as they hurried on through the depot. “You know what happened to us in Paris. I think we ought to stay as far away from that woman as possible.”

“But she’s not staying away from us!” Mandie reminded her friend.

“I wouldn’t pay any attention to her if I were you. You know now not to trust strangers,” Jonathan said.

“I wouldn’t pay attention to her if she’d just stop following us around everywhere we go,” Mandie replied.

They followed the adults into a waiting room.

Mrs. Taft turned to them and said, “Sit down right there,” indicating a bench across the room. “Senator Morton will get us a carriage.”

The senator went through the revolving doors, and the young people sat down.

“I don’t think we should tell my grandmother about my seeing that
strange woman,” Mandie said under her breath as Mrs. Taft stood just inside the doorway across the room. “It would just worry her.”

“All right, Mandie,” Celia agreed. “But if that woman does anything besides follow us around, we’ll have to tell your grandmother.”

“Agreed,” Mandie replied, holding on to Snowball.

“I’ll help you watch out for her,” Jonathan offered.

“Well, I hope we don’t see her again,” Mandie said.

Senator Morton came back inside to show them to the waiting carriage. The young people followed the adults outside. Mandie and Celia again stopped to stare. The city was so old and beautiful. The girls had never seen anything like the huge structures about them.

“Amanda, Celia,” Mrs. Taft called from the carriage. “Come along. We’ll go sightseeing later. Right now we’ve got to get to the hotel.”

The hotel wasn’t far away, and the short journey in the carriage was so exciting the girls wished it could last longer. Jonathan and the adults pointed out several famous landmarks along the way.

“Oh, Grandmother, I wish we could stay here the rest of the year,” Mandie said. “We’ll never be able to see it all on such a short visit.”

“Don’t worry, dear. We’ll manage to fit it all in,” Mrs. Taft assured her.

The carriage came to a stop before a magnificent hotel. Mandie’s blue eyes grew big. “Are we staying in this place?” she asked.

“Yes, dear,” Mrs. Taft replied, stepping down from the carriage. “Now, you young people stay right with me while the senator checks us in.” She led the way into the lobby.

Senator Morton went to the front desk, and Mrs. Taft sat down on a nearby settee. The young people walked around the lobby to inspect their surroundings. The walls and floor were shiny marble, and there were paintings on the tile ceiling overhead. Roman statues stood as if in attendance, and the artwork of famous artists graced the walls.

Mandie gazed about in awe. “This must be an awfully rich country!” she remarked.

“Not really, Mandie,” Jonathan said. “Your grandmother just stays in the best hotels. I’m afraid we haven’t really seen how the average European lives.”

“You’re probably right,” Mandie admitted. “But I do know how poor people live, because I was poor once myself, that was before I found my Uncle John and my real mother. And my Cherokee kinpeople
are poor compared to most white people.” Turning to look into Jonathan’s dark eyes, she added, “But you probably don’t know much about being poor since your father is so rich.”

“I’ve never really been poor myself, but I do know how poor people live,” Jonathan told her. “In most of the private schools my father has sent me to, we have adopted a poor family and helped them to live more comfortably.”

“That’s what we do back home in Virginia,” Celia said. “All the people in our neighborhood try to help poor farmers who don’t have much.”

Senator Morton rejoined Mrs. Taft and she beckoned to the young people, “We’re ready to go to our rooms, dears.”

The three young people followed the adults down a huge corridor to an elevator, which they had learned early in their travels was called a lift in Europe.

“A lift?” Mandie complained, holding her stomach.

Jonathan smiled. “At least this one has a glass door, so you can see what we’re passing on the way up.”

“That doesn’t help much. I don’t like them,” Mandie said.

Celia sighed. “Me either. They make my stomach turn over.”

The elevator doors opened, and the girls reluctantly stepped inside behind the adults, Jonathan entering last. They all turned to face the front as the operator slid the doors shut. Mandie and Celia held hands and closed their eyes as the elevator began ascending. Snowball squirmed restlessly in Mandie’s other arm.

A few moments later, it came to a halt, and the doors opened.

“Here we are,” Senator Morton announced.

As they entered the empty hallway, Mandie looked around. “I certainly hope that strange woman doesn’t follow us here,” Mandie whispered to her friends. “I want to enjoy this city.”

Noticing their whispered conversation, Mrs. Taft said, “I do hope you young people are not planning secrets again.”

“No, ma’am,” the three chimed. They looked at each other and smiled.

We aren’t planning secrets
, Mandie thought.
We just don’t want to be followed around by that woman
.

CHAPTER TWO

THE MAGICIAN

When they reached their suites, they found the doors standing open, and a young man in uniform waiting to assist them in any way he could. He explained in broken English where he had placed their bags. The senator and Jonathan shared a suite across the hall from the others.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Taft said to the man as she and the girls went inside.

Mandie saw that the girls’ belongings were all together in the larger bedroom, and Mrs. Taft’s were in the other. She wondered how the man knew what belonged to whom and which room each would have. Then she remembered they had name tags on all their luggage.

Mandie smiled at the dark-haired man.

The bellhop noticed Snowball in Mandie’s arms and motioned for Mandie to follow him to the other side of the parlor. There he pointed to a sandbox for the kitten. Mandie set Snowball down, and the kitten immediately explored the box.

When the man started to leave, Mandie said, “Thank you.”

“
Prego
,” the bellhop replied, motioning with his hands. “Welcome.” He left the room to cross the hall to the senator’s suite.

Mandie stopped Jonathan, who was still in the hallway. “Where can we buy those bags to carry our journals in?” she asked.

“There are shops in this hotel,” Jonathan replied. “We can probably find some there.”

“Could we get them now?” Mandie asked as Celia came to the doorway.

“Ask your grandmother,” Jonathan answered.

Mandie rushed back into the suite to get permission from her grandmother, who gave Mandie strict instructions that she and her friends were not to go anywhere but the shops and should not be gone long.

“Come on, Celia,” Mandie said. Leaving Snowball to continue exploring the room, she closed the door.

“Do you have money, Mandie?” Celia asked.

“Oh, no!” Mandie exclaimed. “We don’t have any Italian money.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Celia remembered. “I have some English and French money, besides a few American dollars.”

“Come on,” Jonathan called from the doorway of the parlor. “We can exchange it at the front desk, like we did in France.”

The tall, elderly man on duty in the lobby spoke perfect English but had a little trouble understanding
American
English. But when the girls began pulling dollars out of their bags, he understood their intentions.

“We want to use our money in your shops,” Mandie told the man.

“Dollars?” the man questioned.

“Lire,” Jonathan said. “We need lire for our dollars.”

“Sí, sí
. Yes, lire for dollars,” the man said. Taking the girls’ money from the counter, he turned to open the safe behind him. “Shops are one floor down,” he said over his shoulder.

“We are so anxious to see everything!” Mandie enthused. “I think we’re going to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and the Capitol, and all those wonderful places you have here in your city.”

The man turned back with a handful of lire and began counting the money into the girls’ hands. When he finished, he looked up and said, “Don’t forget the catacombs.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t miss seeing them,” Mandie assured him.

“Good. The catacombs are the ancient underground cemeteries of the Christians,” the man explained. “There are several, but the ones most visited are the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. A basilica was built over these in the fourth century in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul.”

“They’re that old?” Mandie asked.

The man nodded.

“And we can go under the ground and see them?” Celia questioned.

“Yes, all the catacombs are open to the public,” the man replied. “The Franciscans are the custodians of St. Sebastian’s, and of course the blessed St. Sebastian himself is buried there.”

“I’ve never been to the catacombs,” Jonathan said. “Can we actually walk around down there?”

“Of course,” the clerk replied. “You will find several rooms, or sections, and a maze of passageways to explore.”

“And there are graves there?” Mandie asked.

“Actually, they are what we call crypts nowadays,” the clerk explained. Noticing another customer standing at the counter, he told Mandie and her friends, “We hope you enjoy your visit in our city. If we can be of any assistance to you, please inform us.” He smiled and turned to his other customer.

Mandie glanced at the tall, well-dressed young man with thick blond hair and deep blue eyes. He caught her looking at him and quickly turned his back and leaned on the counter.

Celia and Jonathan started walking toward the elevator. “Come on, Mandie,” Celia called.

Mandie caught up with her friends. “Did y’all see that handsome man back there at the counter?” she asked. “He looked like someone important.”

“Humph! He looked like a plain old actor to me,” Jonathan said. “Like the ones we have in New York.”