Mandie Collection, The: 4 (68 page)

“Mandie, I’m sure we left the window open in our room,” Celia said.

“That’s right. Let’s go around that end and see if we can climb up to it,” Mandie said.

They hurried to the corner of the house and looked up at the windows to their room. There was one window open, but it looked like a long, straight climb to get to it.

“How can we get up there?” Mandie asked.

“Why don’t we just go back and ask Dieter to let us in?” Jonathan suggested.

“Well, I suppose we could,” Mandie reluctantly agreed. “You go get him, and Celia and I will wait right here.”

Jonathan hurried back toward the barn. The girls kept looking at the windows above.

Soon Mandie began to wonder where Jonathan had gone. He’d had plenty of time to go to the barn and back, but there was no sign of him. He couldn’t have gotten lost.

“Maybe we ought to go see where Jonathan went,” Mandie whispered to Celia.

“Maybe,” Celia agreed.

Suddenly there was a low hissing sound, and the girls looked up to see Jonathan standing on the roof with a coiled rope in his hands.

“I’m going to tie this to the chimney and throw it down to you,” he whispered hoarsely.

The girls nodded.

“Why don’t you just go in the window of our room and come down and unlock the door?” Mandie whispered back.

Jonathan silently agreed. They watched as he secured the rope around the chimney, and then grasping it tightly he swung down and dangled in front of the window to the girls’ room. Finally he caught a toehold and slid through over the windowsill. Then he leaned back out the window and waved to the girls.

Mandie and Celia hastened around the house to the front door to wait for him. Just as they stepped on the stoop, the door swung wide and Anna came out of the house. She stopped in surprise at seeing the girls, and then went on down the pathway.

“At least she left the door open for us,” Mandie said with relief as she and Celia stepped inside and Jonathan appeared at the foot of the stairs. “Anna opened the door and came out,” Mandie told Jonathan.

“Good,” Jonathan said with a big breath. “I couldn’t find Dieter.”

“Let’s all go to our rooms,” Celia said, tiptoeing up the stairway.

Mandie and Jonathan quickly followed her up the stairs and down the hallway. Jonathan waved good-night as he went to the end where his room was. Mandie and Celia came to their room and found the door standing wide open.

“Snowball! Jonathan must have left the door open!” Mandie said excitedly, rushing into their room and then to the bathroom. “Snowball’s gone!”

“Oh, Mandie, what are we going to do?” Celia asked as they stood there in the middle of the room.

“We’re going to have to find him before we can go to bed,” Mandie told her.

“I hope he didn’t get out of the house,” Celia said.

“Come on, let’s get Jonathan to help. We’ve got to find him,” Mandie said as she went out into the hallway and on toward Jonathan’s room. Celia followed.

Because they had just arrived that day, they weren’t familiar with the house. They had no idea where the servants stayed, or the layout of the rest of the house. But they would soon know every nook and cranny, because Snowball had to be found.

CHAPTER FOUR

WHERE HAD SNOWBALL BEEN?

“Jonathan!” Mandie whispered outside his door as she knocked softly.

He immediately opened the door and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“You left our door open and Snowball got out and is gone. Will you help us look for him?” Mandie asked.

“I didn’t leave your door open. It was standing open when I went through your window. I’m sorry Snowball has escaped. But don’t worry, I’ll help you find him,” the boy told her as he joined the girls in the hallway.

“How are we going to do this?” Celia asked.

“We don’t know this house at all, so this is going to be difficult,” Mandie answered.

Jonathan thought for a moment and said, “We certainly can’t look in the rooms that are occupied by your grandmother or the senator’s room, but I suppose the rest are vacant.”

“But, Jonathan, where do you think the servants stay? We don’t want to disturb them,” Mandie said.

“You said Anna went out when you came in, and we saw Dieter at the barn, so maybe they have rooms in the barn where William is staying,” Jonathan said.

“All right, but what about Gretchen?” Mandie asked.

“I don’t know, but I’d say it’s probably clear, except for your grandmother and Senator Morton,” Jonathan replied. “Let’s start with our rooms.”

They hurried down the hall to check the girls’ room thoroughly, in case Snowball was hiding in there somewhere. “He’s not here!” Mandie declared as she knelt down and looked under the big bed.

“Or here,” Jonathan said, searching the bathroom.

Celia went through the wardrobe. “He’s not here either.”

“Your room next, Jonathan,” Mandie decided. “Let’s take this small lamp with us.” She picked up the lighted oil lamp from a table. “I hope it doesn’t go out.”

The boy’s room was similar to the girls’, and after a careful search Snowball wasn’t found there either. They began opening doors to the other rooms along the corridor, searching each one.

As they checked the last room, Mandie said, “You know, Snowball couldn’t be in any of these rooms, because all the doors are shut!” She was still carrying the lamp.

“Unless someone opened a door and he slipped inside the room,” Jonathan suggested.

“Now what? Shall we go downstairs?” Celia asked.

“I suppose so. That’s all that’s left except the attic—if this house has one,” Mandie said. Holding the lamp high to see, she led the way toward the staircase.

On the ground floor they found sitting rooms, the parlor, the dining room, the kitchen, a large pantry room, the storeroom, a sewing room, various closets, and a large glassed-in room full of growing plants and flowers.

The moonlight came through the glass skylights and windows and they didn’t really need the lamp to see, but Mandie held on to it. She sniffed the air. “There are roses growing in here. I can smell them.”

“And there are some yellow flowers here that have a nice scent, too,” Celia said as she bent toward the blossoms.

“How about these purple ones?” Jonathan asked. “I don’t know what they are. They don’t have any smell, and they feel rough.”

“I don’t know, but they’re all so beautiful,” Mandie declared. “I suppose Dieter takes care of all this.” She walked around looking at the many varieties of flowers.

“Mandie, don’t you think we ought to look for Snowball and get back to our rooms?” Celia asked.

“You’re right, Celia. It is late,” Mandie agreed as she began looking under tables and behind boxes, calling the kitten’s name. “He’s not here. Well, that leaves the attic, unless there is a cellar in this house.”

Jonathan had already found what must be the door to the cellar. It was securely locked. “He couldn’t be in the cellar. It’s locked,” he said.

“Let’s see if there’s an attic, then,” Mandie said, turning to leave the room. She noticed a door behind some tall plants that she had not seen before in the semi-darkness. “Here’s one more door,” she said, going over to it. As she reached it, the lamp went out.

Jonathan and Celia joined Mandie as she turned the latch and the door swung open by itself. They stood there trying to see into the dark room.

“I can’t see a thing,” Mandie said, putting her hands in front of her as she slowly stepped inside. There was only a glint of moonlight in the room.

Celia and Jonathan followed close behind. “It must be a storeroom,” Jonathan whispered.

At that moment they heard someone clear their throat. The three froze in their tracks, waiting to see what would happen next. As her eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, Mandie could see a faint outline of a bed in the far corner. Then suddenly someone sat up on the bed. Mandie thought it looked like Anna, and she backed out of the room, pushing Celia and Jonathan behind her. She touched the door and it closed behind them.

The three hurried across the flower room and went back through the door to the hallway where they had entered. Then they paused for a breath in the dim moonlight.

“Do y’all think that was Anna?” Mandie asked in a whisper.

“It looked like her,” Celia said.

“It could have been,” Jonathan agreed.

“That sure is a strange place to have a bedroom—behind the flower room,” Mandie remarked.

“Yes, but what about Snowball?” Jonathan asked.

“Oh, Snowball is so much trouble sometimes!” Mandie exclaimed. “I just wonder who let him out of our room.”

“Gretchen knew you had brought him here; so did Dieter, because he made the sandbox...” Celia began.

“And William also knew, but he is supposed to be staying in the barn,” Mandie said. “I’m sure Anna saw me holding him when we first came in today and tried to talk to her.”

“It was probably an accident—leaving the door open, I mean. Someone just wasn’t used to having a cat in the house,” Jonathan said.

“But what was anyone doing in our room?” Mandie asked.

Jonathan shrugged his shoulders and said, “Who knows? Maybe Gretchen went in for some reason.”

“But, Jonathan, think how late it is. It was already bedtime when we went out,” Mandie said. “What would Gretchen, or anyone else for that matter, be doing in our room at that hour?”

“I don’t know, but are we going to try to find the attic?” Jonathan asked.

“That’s all that’s left.” Mandie ascended the stairs to the second floor. Celia and Jonathan followed.

They paused at the top of the steps. “We need another lamp,” Mandie said. “Jonathan, have you got an extra one in your room?”

“I think so,” he said. “I’ll see.”

The three quietly walked down the corridor to Jonathan’s room, and the girls waited while he went inside and then returned with a small oil lamp, brightly burning.

“This one has plenty of oil,” Jonathan said, holding it up for the girls to see the supply of oil splashing around in the glass base.

“When we searched all the rooms on this floor, I don’t remember seeing a door to an attic, or anything that looked like one,” Mandie said as they stood there.

“Neither do I,” Celia said.

“I didn’t either, but if there’s an attic there’s got to be a door, and from the looks of the house outside I’d say there’s an attic,” Jonathan declared.

“Well, let’s begin right here,” Mandie said, opening the door to the first room they came to.

All the doors led into rooms. “I suppose we’ll have to look in each room again to see if there’s a door inside that leads to an attic,” Mandie decided.

They looked in every room, and finally in the last one, a small bedroom, they found another door.

“This must be it,” Mandie said, and pushing at it, she added, “And of course it’s locked.”

“We have been over every inch of this house, Mandie, except the locked doors. Snowball just isn’t in the house,” Jonathan declared.

Mandie sighed deeply, fidgeted with her long, blond braid, and said, “I sure hope he hasn’t gone outside and gotten lost.”

“I’ll go with you and look around the yard,” Jonathan offered.

“All right. Celia, you stay inside so we don’t get locked out this time,” Mandie told her friend.

“Please don’t be too long, Mandie. We’re going to have to go to bed sometime tonight,” Celia reminded her.

Mandie smiled and said, “We’ll be right back. Don’t get scared now. Nothing’s going to bother you. You’ll be safe inside the house. Just watch for us and be sure we can get back in.”

Celia looked at her and said, “Mandie, I’m not afraid. I’ll wait for y’all. I hope you find Snowball.”

Mandie and Jonathan circled the house as they looked through all the shrubbery and flowering bushes. Now and then Mandie softly called to Snowball, “Snowball, where are you? Come here. Kitty, kitty, kitty.”

They even went as far as the barn, but they didn’t go inside for fear of waking William and whoever else was sleeping there. Snowball just didn’t seem to be anywhere.

“Well, I guess we have to go back and go to bed,” Mandie admitted after one last look around the barn. “I just wonder how he got out.”

“Maybe he’ll come back on his own. You said he had done that before,” Jonathan told her as they walked back to the house, still watching for the white kitten.

“This is a strange place to him and I’m not sure he could find the way back,” Mandie said. “I’ll get up as soon as it’s light in the morning and look for him again.”

Celia was waiting and opened the door for them. She glanced at Mandie and said, “No Snowball?”

“No Snowball,” Mandie told her. “Let’s go to bed.”

The three young people went back to their rooms for the night.

Jonathan promised to help the girls look for the missing cat in the morning.

Mandie and Celia talked for a little while after they went to bed, but Celia fell asleep. Mandie tossed and turned, wondering where her precious white kitten was. He was her link to her father’s home. Shortly after her father had died her stepmother remarried, and Mandie was farmed out to another family in Swain County. She worked as a baby-sitter and was overloaded with other responsibilities.

As she lay there thinking, Mandie remembered snatching up Snowball in her father’s yard and taking him with her. He was the only thing left from her father’s home. Of course she still had Uncle Ned, her father’s old Cherokee friend, but Snowball was all hers. She could see her father watching her feed the scrawny little kitten when he was born. Snowball’s mother had disappeared before Snowball was old enough to eat by himself, and Jim Shaw had taught Mandie how to give the tiny kitten a drop of milk at a time with an eyedropper.

Tears filled Mandie’s eyes and she whispered a word to God: “Please, dear God, send my kitten back to me. Please.”

She finally fell asleep and dreamed. She was back home at Charley Gap, and her father was building the fence around his property. Snowball was chasing butterflies through the tall grass.

Suddenly something hit Mandie hard in the stomach as she slept. She felt it in her dream but didn’t wake up.

Celia woke first the next morning. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, remembering that Mandie wanted to look for Snowball as soon as it was daylight.