The Mandie Collection (60 page)

“Right that time,” Mandie said.

“Maybe they'll quit acting crazy and ring right all the time,” Celia said.

“But then we wouldn't have a mystery to solve,” Mandie argued. “I'm getting hungry. Let's get dressed and go find some breakfast.”

After a delicious, hot breakfast, the girls were allowed to go to the church. Ben brought the rig around to the front door, and they were soon on their way.

The wind was still blowing hard and cold. The few people they saw walking on the streets were bundled up in heavy winter clothes. Winter had arrived.

Ben coaxed the horses to a fast speed, and Annie held onto her seat in fright.

“Now, you listen heah, you, Ben,” she said sternly. “Don't you go runnin' wild like dat. You liable to git us all killed.”

“But de Missies, dey like ridin' fast, don't you now?” he called back to the girls.

“Not too fast, please, Ben,” Celia replied.

“We don't want to scare Annie, so would you please slow down a little, Ben?” Mandie asked.

“All righty, Missy. We sho' don't wanta skeer dis old woman up heah beside me, does we now?” Ben replied, laughing as he slowed the horses.

Annie twisted around and gave Ben a mean look. “Whut old woman?” she demanded. “Ain't me. I ain't old as you are. Won't be eighteen 'til next summer.”

“Well, if you ain't old, den quit actin' like you wuz,” Ben replied. As he pulled the rig up in front of the church, he turned to grin at the girls. “Heah we be's,” he announced.

The girls jumped down from the rig and waited for Annie. She looked back at Ben. “Ain't you comin' wid us?”

“I stays right heah,” Ben replied, settling back comfortably in the driver's seat.

“He can't go in with us, Annie,” Mandie told the maid. “That would be too many people to hide. There are three of us already. Come on.”

As they entered the church, they looked around. There was no one in the vestibule or the sanctuary.

“Annie, we have to hide you somewhere,” Mandie said, walking toward the altar. “How about standing behind those draperies up there where the choir sits?”

“Lawsy mercy, Missy. Why I got to hide?” Annie asked nervously.

“We came here to watch to see if anyone goes up there and rings the bells. We all have to hide,” Mandie explained. “Come on. You can get behind those draperies. It'll be more comfortable than sitting down on the floor behind that low curtain across the platform like we're going to do.”

Annie reluctantly followed Mandie and Celia to the draperies. The girls showed her how to keep herself hidden. There was even a small stool back there where she could just barely have room to sit.

The girls stepped back to look at the dark red plush draperies as they fell into folds and concealed Annie.

“Just right,” Celia remarked.

“Annie, please don't make any noise or come out unless we come back there to get you,” Mandie warned.

“I sho' won't, Missy. Jes' you don't fo'git and leave me heah all day,” Annie answered from behind the draperies.

“We won't. We're only going to stay until the bells ring at twelve noon. Then we have to go back and get ready to check into school,” Mandie explained.

The girls hurried over to the low curtain across the platform behind the pulpit. They stepped behind it and sat down on the floor.

Celia looked at the curtain in front of her, which was only a little higher than her head. “It just barely hides us,” she said.

“We can peek through the holes where the curtain rings are, though. See?” Mandie said, bending forward to fit her eye to the opening for the rod. “Mandie! I just thought of something!” Celia said suddenly. “We forgot to look up in the gallery and the belfry to see if anyone was already up there.”

Mandie sprang to her feet. “You're right,” she said. “We need to be sure there's no one there. Let's go see.”

They dropped their capes and gloves behind the curtain where they had been hiding, and started for the stairs.

“Where you two gwine now?” Annie called from behind the draperies.

“We're just going to look upstairs, Annie. We'll be right back.” Mandie answered. “Please stay where you are.”

“I ain't stayin' heah long by myself,” Annie called back.

“We'll be back in a minute,” Mandie promised.

The girls hurried to the door and raced up the stairs to the gallery. No one was there. They opened the door to look up into the belfry. No one was there, either.

“We can't see inside the whole belfry from down here,” Mandie said, moving around to look upward. She grabbed the end of the rope ladder. “You stay right here. I'm going up there to look around.”

“Be careful,” Celia whispered, as Mandie quickly climbed up the rope ladder.

At the top Mandie walked around. “Nobody up here, either,” she called. She quickly came back down the swinging rope ladder. As she let go of the last rung, she sat down hard on the floor.

“Are you all right?” Celia bent down to make sure her friend wasn't hurt.

“I'm all right,” Mandie assured her. “I came down too fast, and it made the ladder swing too much. I just let go to keep from swinging around.” She stood up and brushed off her skirt.

The girls again took up their watch behind the low curtains. They sat still and talked only in whispers in case someone suddenly came into the church. During a long silence, the girls were startled when Annie sneezed loudly.

“Bless you,” Celia called to the maid.

“I hope you're not getting a cold, Annie,” Mandie said in a loud whisper.

“I ain't got no cold yet, but I will have if I has to stay in dis cold place much longer,” Annie complained. Suddenly the draperies moved, there was a loud crash, and the Negro girl fell through the opening in the draperies.

Mandie and Celia jumped up and ran to her rescue.

“I be all right.” Annie got up from the floor. “Dis dadblasted stool jes' turned over. Dat's all.” She set the stool upright again. “Y'all go on back and git dis over wid so's we kin go home.” She returned to her hiding place.

Mandie and Celia resumed their watch from behind the low curtains.

“It won't be long till twelve o'clock, Annie,” Mandie called.

She and Celia put their capes around themselves and huddled together. It was cold in the church.

Before long the huge double doors of the church made a loud squeaking noise.

“Sh-h!” Mandie whispered.

As she and Celia peered through the holes in the curtain, an expensively dressed woman appeared inside the sanctuary. A tall, neatly attired man followed her from the vestibule down the center aisle.

Mandie's heart did flip-flops as she watched and waited. Celia grabbed Mandie's hand tightly.

The couple talked in low voices as they walked down the aisle, pausing to look into each pew on both sides, making their way toward the front.

Mandie strained her ears but couldn't make out what the strangers were saying. She just hoped Annie would stay out of sight.

As the strangers neared the altar, Mandie could hear a little of what they were saying.

“I know it's got to be here,” the woman said. “I was . . .”

Mandie couldn't hear the end of the sentence because the woman had leaned down between the pews.

“Well, we have to find it,” the man said firmly. “If someone else finds it, that wouldn't be too good.”

“Oh, dear,” the woman sighed. She seemed almost in tears.

“We've got to find it,” the man repeated. “You go up that aisle over there, and I'll take this one over here.” He indicated the two aisles at the sides of the church.

The woman started looking in the pews on the left as the man went to the right. “If only you'd stop blaming me,” she moaned.

“I know it wasn't intentional, but it was your fault,” the man told the woman. “If you hadn't decided to come into this church to keep from being seen you wouldn't have lost it.”

“You told me to hide and I didn't know what else to do,” the woman protested.

“Well, if you had stayed in one place instead of walking around looking at all those stained-glass windows we'd know what area to search,” he said. “It could be almost anywhere in here.”

“I was afraid someone would come in and see me if I just sat still,” the woman said. As the strangers got farther away up the aisles, Mandie couldn't make out what they were saying, but by the time they reached the back of the church, they were obviously arguing.

The man took the woman's arm and pointed to the last pew. She pulled her arm away and slid into the pew. But when the man sat down next to her, she moved away from him. Then taking a handkerchief from her purse, she dabbed at her eyes.

Mandie and Celia looked at each other. They dared not even whisper for fear of being heard. The man seemed so angry, and the woman seemed to be afraid of him. The man was doing most of the talking. Oh, how the girls wished they could hear their conversation!

Finally, the strangers got up and started back down the outside aisles. This time they moved slower, carefully bending to look at the
seat of each pew and then stooping to look beneath each one. They finally met in front.

“Nothing,” the woman sobbed.

“Nothing over there, either. Let's go up this center aisle once more,” the man said. “And please be sure you look very carefully.”

As they walked along together, the woman took the left side and the man, the right. Once in a while the man would watch the woman when she wasn't looking as though he wanted to be sure of what she was doing.

Mandie realized her foot had gone to sleep from being cramped up behind the curtain, but she dared not change positions.

Celia shivered again and wrapped her arms about herself.

The strangers finally met at the back of the church, but just as the man opened his mouth to speak, the bells started ringing in the belfry. The man grabbed the woman by the arm and pushed her ahead of him as they rushed out the doors of the church.

Mandie and Celia sat stunned for a moment, looking at each other and mouthing the numbers as the bells rang—one, two, three . . . Finally Mandie jumped up, stomping the foot that had gone to sleep, and hurriedly limped toward the stairs to the gallery. “Let's see who's in the belfry,” she said.

Celia didn't seem in a hurry to run into someone up there, but she followed anyway.

As they ran up the stairs, they kept counting—out loud now. Across the gallery, they jerked open the door to the belfry.

“I'll go first,” Mandie offered, grabbing the rope.

“You're not really going up there, are you?” Celia's voice quivered.

“Of course,” Mandie called back.

The bells stopped after twelve rings and then sounded a weak, shaky thirteenth ring.

Mandie hurried up the ladder as Celia stood below and watched. She put her head through the opening at the top, and looked around before she got off the ladder. “There's nobody up here,” she called, climbing onto the belfry floor. “I don't see a thing.”

“Come on back down then,” Celia hollered.

Then suddenly Mandie heard her name, “M-M-Mandie!” She looked down to see Celia frozen on the spot and white as a sheet.

A hand reached out and touched Celia on the shoulder. Celia screamed.

“Look behind you, Celia,” Mandie yelled. “It's only Annie.”

Trembling all over, Celia turned slightly.

Annie came around her and apologized. “I'se sorry, Missy,” she said. “I didn't mean to skeer you. Y'all went and left me alone down there, and I jes' got skeered.”

“Th-that's all right, Annie,” Celia managed to say.

Annie looked up into the belfry just as Mandie hurried down the rope ladder. The hem of Mandie's long skirt was tucked into her waistband to keep it out of her way.

As Mandie swung onto the floor and straightened her skirt, Annie gasped. “Lawsy mercy, Missy. Miz Taft have a heart 'tack if she know you go climbin' round dat way.”

“You worry too much, Annie,” Mandie said. She turned to Celia. “Are you all right?”

Celia took a deep breath. “I am now,” she said, her voice still trembling. “But I was sure whoever has been messing with the bells had caught me.”

“I'm sorry, Celia,” Mandie said. “I guess we'd better go now. We have to get to school, you know.”

“Thank goodness!” Celia exclaimed.

The three made their way through the gallery to the stairs.

“I didn't see anything going on up there, but there's got to be something wrong somewhere,” Mandie said.

At the bottom of the stairs, Celia stopped. “And those people who were here a while ago,” she said, “I wonder who they were and what they were looking for.”

“I do, too,” Mandie said as they went on through the vestibule. “Have you ever seen them before, Annie?”

“Now, Missy, jes' 'cause I lives in Asheville ain't no sign I knows ev'rybody in town,” Annie said, opening the front door. “ 'Sides, dis be white folks' church. I goes to my own church. I don't mix wid no white folks.”

Mandie and Celia looked at each other and smiled as they went on down the front steps. Ben was waiting in the rig. He saw them coming and stepped down to the road by the rig.

“Not only dat,” Annie continued, “dat lady didn't look like she come from dis heah town.”

“What makes you say that?” Mandie asked.

“She jes' look too high uppity,” Annie replied. “You know, too fancy dressed.”

“Aren't there any fancy, uppity people in this town?” Mandie teased.

“No, not de likes of huh,” Annie shook her head. “I don't think she live in dis heah town.”

Mandie turned to Celia. “Why don't we look around outside while we're here?”