The Mandie Collection (29 page)

“Thank you, thank you,” Mandie kept mumbling to the people watching as they descended the steps.

The strangers kept jabbering away in their foreign language as Jonathan, holding firmly to the white cat, followed Dr. Plumbley and spoke to the people in their tongue.

Mandie tried to talk on the short ride to Jonathan's house, but she kept running out of breath. She was still not thinking clearly and asked, “Dr. Plumbley, how did you find us?”

“My office is two blocks over from where you were,” Dr. Plumbley said. “A Spanish boy came into my office screaming that someone was sick and had asked for me.” He looked at her and smiled as she rode securely tucked in between the doctor and Jonathan, who was still holding on to Snowball.

“Thank you, Dr. Plumbley,” Mandie said in a cracked voice. “When are you coming to Franklin again?”

“I'd like to come down and visit Abraham sometime after the weather warms up,” Dr. Plumbley replied. “I hope your family are all well.”

“Yes,” Mandie managed to say and then ran out of breath again.

“Mandie came to New York with her friend Celia Hamilton and Celia's mother. My father asked them to stay at our house,” Jonathan explained. “Do you know Mandie's family?”

“Why, I sure do,” Dr. Plumbley said with a big smile. “I wouldn't be a doctor today if it hadn't been for their generosity. And not only that, they are also helping to educate my nephew who is studying medicine.” He looked across the seat at Jonathan and added, “They treat me like kin people.”

“I'm not sure how long they are planning to stay, but maybe we could visit before they go home to North Carolina,” Jonathan suggested.

Mandie, not exactly coherent with her cold disorienting her, looked up at the doctor and said, “I want you and Moses to come eat Thanksgiving dinner with us.”

Dr. Plumbley started to object, but Jonathan quickly said, “Yes, that would be a great idea. We are not having any guests for dinner tomorrow except Mandie and Celia and Mrs. Hamilton. My father had to go to Washington yesterday, but he is supposed to return home this afternoon. I know he would make you both welcome.”

“Good idea, Jonathan,” Mandie mumbled. “Tell Mrs. Cook two more people are coming.” She fell silent and leaned her head on Jonathan's shoulder.

“Please say you and your nephew will come,” Jonathan told him, and then with a smile he added, “Besides, we may need you to look at Mandie again tomorrow to be sure she is recuperating from this cold.”

“I don't normally go to dinner at other people's houses unless the man of the house expressly asks me, and you say your father is away,” Dr. Plumbley said.

“Which makes me the man of the house right now,” Jonathan said proudly. “And it is absolutely all right with my father if I invite people to dinner.”

Dr. Plumbley silently looked at Jonathan and then asked, “What time?”

Jonathan grinned and said, “Come early so we can talk. We always have the Thanksgiving dinner at noon, so if you and your nephew could make it a couple hours before that, we'd have time to get acquainted.”

“Thank you, young man,” Dr. Plumbley said with a nod. “Moses and I will be there about ten o'clock then.”

The doctor turned the buggy into the Guyer driveway and pulled
up under the portico. Mandie shook her head, trying to clear it, then she saw Jens quickly rush toward the buggy as Jonathan jumped down.

“Jens, the doctor here needs to put Miss Amanda in her bed. She's sick with a cold,” Jonathan explained.

“No, no, no,” Mandie protested as Dr. Plumbley picked her up out of the buggy. “I don't want to go to bed. Can't I just lie on the settee by the fire?”

“Sure, Mandie,” Jonathan said, still holding Snowball, and directed the doctor into the parlor where he deposited Mandie on the settee.

Mrs. Yodkin, evidently hearing the commotion, came rushing in with pillows and quilts. “First, we take off the coat and hat,” the housekeeper told Mandie as she sat on the settee and began removing Mandie's outer garments. “And then the shoes come off.” She helped Mandie sit back against the pillows and quickly covered her with the quilts. “Now we bring tea, and we bring the cat to the kitchen,” the woman added as she took Snowball from Jonathan and left the room.

Dr. Plumbley smiled at Jonathan and said, “You have a very efficient housekeeper, I must say. I was just going to order hot tea and bed rest. Now I have to be going, but we will see you tomorrow. Thank you for the invitation.” He shook Jonathan's hand.

Mandie reminded the doctor to be sure he and Moses did come, and the doctor reminded her to behave herself and rest.

Jonathan walked the doctor to the door, then came back into the parlor. He looked around. Everyone but Mandie had vanished. “Where did Jens go? I want to ask him some questions,” Jonathan said as he removed his coat and hat and threw them on a nearby chair.

“I will ring for him to come back,” Jonathan said. He pulled one of the bell ropes by the window. “He is going to have to answer some questions.” He went to stand by the fireplace.

“When Mrs. Yodkin brings the tea for you, I will ask her to tell Jens we want to talk with him in here,” Jonathan said.

Mandie started to sit up higher on the settee, then she remembered something. “Jonathan, we'll never find that man again, and we may never see the girl again,” she said.

“I expect to get some information from Jens,” Jonathan told her.

The butler returned to the parlor and stood in the doorway. “Yes, Master Jonathan,” he said.

Mandie waited eagerly to hear the conversation with Jens.

“Jens, Miss Amanda and I have some questions we'd like answered,” Jonathan began.

“Yes, Master Jonathan,” Jens said politely but with aloofness.

“Miss Amanda saw you giving an envelope to a strange man in the greenery early this morning,” Jonathan began. “And then we saw the same man and the girl who tried to claim the dog running out of the house later this morning while you claimed they had tied you up and stolen something. Exactly what is this all about?”

Jens cleared his throat and avoided looking straight into Jonathan's eyes. “I gave the man some money for his Spanish charity, and evidently he thought there was more money in the house and came back to rob us,” he explained.

Mandie listened and sensed that the man was not telling everything he knew.

“Who is this man? What is his name?” Jonathan asked.

“I do not know, Master Jonathan. He came begging for his charity,” Jens insisted. “And when he returned, he had the girl with him. She kept saying you had stolen her dog.”

Mandie raised up a little and asked, “Where is the dog?”

“Oh, he is safe,” Jens said. “He has been in the kitchen all morning. Mrs. Yodkin just put him in the back parlor so she can feed the cat in the kitchen. And, I might add, she will be bringing your noonday meal in here since your other guests have not returned.”

“Thank goodness we got back before Celia and her mother did,” Mandie whispered hoarsely to Jonathan.

“Jens, I don't believe you are telling me everything you know,” Jonathan said to the butler. “Who is that man? You must know or you wouldn't have been so friendly with him. Why did you give him money that you distinctly told him not to tell where he got it? According to Miss Amanda, you also told him not to rush whatever it was he planned to do, because that is not the way we do things. What did you mean by that?”

Jens cleared his throat again and replied, “He wanted to go back to all those Spanish people and tell them where he got the money, and I knew that wouldn't do. They'd all be here begging for more money.”

Jonathan looked at Mandie. She thought about that for a moment
and then shook her head without Jens seeing her do this, making Jonathan understand that she didn't believe Jens's explanation.

“Where does this man live, Jens? How did you happen to know him?” Jonathan asked.

“But, Master Jonathan, I do not know this man, and I have no idea as to where he lives,” Jens denied.

“Yet you gave him an envelope full of money?” Jonathan questioned. “Jens, I don't believe what you are saying.”

“I am very sorry, Master Jonathan, but I speak the truth,” Jens insisted. “I do make donations to charity now and then, and I believed the man when he said his family did not have any heat or anything to eat.”

“When we untied you, you called the man and the girl thieves and said they stole something,” Jonathan reminded him. “Well, if you don't know what they stole, how do you know they stole anything at all?”

Jens hesitated and then said, “They bragged to me that they had stolen something because you had stolen the girl's dog.”

“How did they manage to tie you up? Was there no one else around? Also, how did they get into the house in the first place?” Jonathan asked.

“Master Jonathan, the man knocked on the back door and said he had come to tell me how much his family appreciated the money,” Jens replied. “Then before I realized it, he had thrown a rope around me, and the girl was with him. If you remember, all the maids were working upstairs at that time.”

“Where was Mrs. Cook? She was supposed to be in the kitchen all morning,” Mandie put in. “I left my cat in there, and she said she would watch him. But she wasn't there when we found you, and my cat was running loose.”

“I am sorry, miss, but you will have to ask Mrs. Cook,” Jens said. “She came into the kitchen right after you two ran out the back door. She said she had seen nothing and did not know those people had tied me up.”

“Jens, this is a very puzzling situation, and I believe you could help us clear some of this up if you would tell us the truth,” Jonathan said.

Jens tightened his lips and stood up very straight. “I do beg your
pardon, Master Jonathan, but I am telling you all the truth that I am aware of.”

“How much money did you give the man, Jens?” Jonathan asked.

“Not very much,” the butler replied, shifting his eyes. “Only enough to buy food and heat for his family, and I must say, he has twelve children.”

“Twelve children,” Mandie exclaimed under her breath.
How could anyone support so many children?

“Now I will tell you what we know,” Jonathan said, still standing by the fireplace while Jens remained just inside the doorway. “Miss Amanda and I followed that man, and he ended up in one of those awful tenement buildings over on the East Side. There must have been dozens and dozens of people living in that one building.” He paused and looked at Jens, but the butler did not show any sign of knowledge about this.

“And we also know that girl was there in that building,” Jonathan added.

“But, Master Jonathan, you and the miss should not have gone into such a neighborhood. It could have been an ill fate,” Jens said.

“As it turned out, we did meet up with problems there,” Jonathan said. “We were locked outside on the roof all morning, and that is why Miss Amanda has such a terrible cold.”

“I am very sorry, Master Jonathan, but you should have thought twice before you ventured into that cluster of foreigners,” Jens said.

“I want you to know that when my father returns, I intend discussing all this matter with him. I am sure he will have more questions for you. You may go about your duties now, Jens,” Jonathan said.

“Yes, Master Jonathan,” the butler replied and disappeared through the doorway into the hall.

Jonathan shook his head, looked at Mandie, and said, “I just don't know what to make of that conversation with Jens. I'm sure he's not telling the complete truth.” He sat down on a chair near the settee where Mandie was lying.

“I don't think he was, either,” Mandie agreed.

At that moment Mrs. Yodkin came into the parlor carrying a silver tray with a teapot and china on it. She set it down on a table near Mandie.

“Now I will pour this tea for you, and you must drink every drop,”
she told Mandie. “We must get you well so you can eat Thanksgiving turkey tomorrow.”

Mandie watched as she poured the tea into a cup and handed it to her. “Thank you, Mrs. Yodkin,” she said. “I really appreciate your kindness.”

Then Monet wheeled in a cart laden with steaming food and parked it near the table. Jonathan stepped over to see what was on it.

“Monet will stay and serve for you,” Mrs. Yodkin said as she started to leave the room.

“We can do it, Mrs. Yodkin,” Mandie protested.

“Yes, we can wait on ourselves. Thank you, Mrs. Yodkin, Monet,” he told the two women.

The two servants looked at each other and then left the room.

“I have to sit up because I think I might be able to eat something. I feel so hungry my stomach hurts,” Mandie remarked as she pushed up to a sitting position with her feet and legs still under the quilts. “Everything smells good.”

Jonathan grinned as he picked up plates from the cart and said, “That sounds like you're better already.”

“I do feel better,” Mandie agreed as Jonathan put food on a plate and handed it to her. “But you know, Jonathan, this thing is nowhere settled. We need to find out what that man and that girl were supposed to have stolen, for one thing. And if we could just catch up with that man and talk to him, maybe he would tell us a different story from what Jens did.”

“You're right. I was thinking the same thing,” Jonathan said, heaping a plate for himself and then sitting near the settee. “I hate to bring my father into this because I'd like to solve everything myself.”

“If only we had Uncle Ned here, he would be able to help us. He knows so much about people in general,” Mandie remarked as she tasted the potatoes on her plate.

“But this is New York, and Uncle Ned is all the way down in North Carolina, and being Cherokee he just might not have ever been to New York,” Jonathan reminded her.