The Mandie Collection (9 page)

She leaned forward and spoke to Mrs. Taft. “Grandmother, maybe Uncle Ned will know something when he comes back. Remember, one of his braves said he saw Miss Hope at the springhouse on the farm, and I’m sure Uncle Ned will do some investigating on that because Willie acted so strange, saying Miss Hope was a grown woman with her own mind.”

“Yes, I remember,” Mrs. Taft said.

Ben pulled the rig up in front of the first store on the main thoroughfare, which was the largest store in Asheville and sold just about everything.

“Will dis here store do, Miz Taft?” Ben looked back and asked as he pulled the reins and brought the horse to a stop.

“Yes, Ben, this is fine,” Mrs. Taft replied.

Senator Morton helped her down from the rig, and the young people followed, led by Mandie. Her grandmother had not told them to stay in the rig, so she was quickly taking advantage of the opportunity to go inside the store.

The owner, seeing Mrs. Taft enter, rushed forward to greet her. “How are you today, Mrs. Taft? What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to ask about Miss Hope,” Mrs. Taft replied as everyone came to a halt in the middle aisle.

“Miss Hope?” the man questioned.

“Yes, you know she is missing from the school, and I was hoping you might have seen her,” Mrs. Taft explained.

“No, ma’am, I have not seen Miss Hope since I believe it was three weeks ago last Friday she came in and bought some soap, only one cake, that fancy kind she uses, Lady Mary’s Complexion Soap,” he replied.

“As you must know, Miss Hope is missing, and she hasn’t been seen since Saturday of last week,” Mrs. Taft told him. “Have you not seen her in three weeks, then?”

“No, ma’am, she has not been in the store since then,” he said.

“Just in case she does come into the store, would you please notify Miss Prudence immediately? She is worried about her.” Mrs. Taft explained what little information they had about the missing schoolmarm.

“Yes, ma’am, rest assured I will notify Miss Prudence if I see Miss Hope,” he said.

They returned to the rig, and as Mrs. Taft stepped back in, she said to Senator Morton, “It must be time for our noon meal. Shall we go to the dining room at the Biltmore?”

Senator Morton followed her into the rig. “Yes, ma’am, that sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Mandie and her friends looked at each other and grinned as they took their seats.

“We’re going to get to eat at the Biltmore,” she whispered.

“I’ve never eaten there,” Celia said.

“Neither have I,” Joe added.

“Is that a fancy place to dine or something?” Jonathan asked.

“Oh yes, it’s the most prestigious place in town to be seen dining,” Mandie replied.

“Can it compare with our restaurants in New York?” Jonathan mischievously asked.

As Ben pulled the rig out into the road, Mandie replied, “Lots nicer than some of your restaurants I’ve seen.”

“Now we take a break,” Joe said. “I wonder what we will do after we eat.”

“If we listen to Grandmother’s conversation with the senator we’ll find out,” Mandie said.

Mandie wondered if they would return home to Mrs. Taft’s house after the meal, or just where else her grandmother would take them. She hoped she could get back and see that new maid, Dobie, before she left for the day. She wanted to ask her some questions.

After the noonday meal, Mrs. Taft decided to continue checking with store owners in town for someone who might have seen Miss Hope. This took hours with no results. Exhausted from the heat, she finally decided to go home. But by the time they got back to Mrs. Taft’s house, Dobie had left for the day.

Mandie and her friends sat in the back parlor, relaxing after a tiresome day. Snowball had joined them and was asleep on the footstool.

“I’m going to be up early tomorrow morning, and I am going to catch Dobie and ask her some questions,” Mandie stated firmly.

“Will she be working then?” Celia asked.

“I’ll ask Ella when she is supposed to come to work,” Mandie replied. “I just can’t imagine what she was doing in our room. I’ve never even seen her before and certainly didn’t know she was working here for my grandmother.”

“I was surprised your grandmother didn’t want to go check with Miss Prudence after our rounds today and see what that lady might have heard,” Joe remarked.

Mandie smiled and said, “Grandmother was too tired. And so was the senator.”

“Maybe she will decide to go over there after supper and talk to Miss Prudence,” Jonathan said.

“Maybe,” Mandie agreed. She looked up and saw the door slowly open. She waited to see who it was. “Uncle Ned!” she exclaimed as the old man came into the room.

“Long day,” Uncle Ned said as he sat down. “Long journey.”

“Did you go to Mr. Chadwick’s School?” Mandie eagerly asked.

Celia said, “And did you see Robert? Was he there?”

The old Indian smiled at the girls and said, “Go to school. Mr. Chadwick gone, vacation. Robert not there.”

“Oh, shucks,” Mandie said.

“Mr. Chadwick was gone on vacation? Was the school closed, then?” Joe asked.

Uncle Ned shook his head and said, “Number-two man stay in charge while Mr. Chadwick go away.”

“At least we didn’t go wandering over there for nothing,” Jonathan said.

The hall door opened again, and this time it was Annie. She looked around the room and asked, “Should I bring coffee? Miz Taft resting and senator man in his room.”

“Oh yes, please do, Annie. I’m sure Uncle Ned would like some coffee,” Mandie said, looking at Uncle Ned.

“Yes, coffee,” he agreed.

“I’ll bring it right back,” Annie said, leaving the room.

“What else did you do today, Uncle Ned?” Mandie asked.

“Went to see braves,” he said. “They tell me things.”

Mandie and her friends silently waited while he paused to think. He continued, “Braves tell me again they did see Miss Hope at spring on farm that day.”

“They did?” Mandie asked, her eyes growing big.

“Yes, that day but no more,” Uncle Ned finished.

“So they haven’t seen her any more,” Mandie said in a disappointed voice.

“Was there anyone else with her that day?” Jonathan asked.

Uncle Ned shook his head and explained, “Braves say alone.”

“Maybe Willie didn’t see Miss Hope, then,” Celia remarked.

Uncle Ned shook his head and explained, “When braves see Miss Hope, then Miss Hope see them. She hide.”

“I wonder if she was hiding somewhere while we were out there,” Mandie said.

The old man nodded his head and said, “Maybe.”

“We could go back out there and search everywhere for her,” Mandie suggested.

“Oh no, that wouldn’t work,” Joe said. “If those people don’t want us to find Miss Hope, I’m sure they would have ways of hiding her, so it remains a secret why she wants to stay there and hide.”

“Where grandmother go today?” Uncle Ned asked.

Annie came back with the tea cart loaded with hot coffee and sweet cakes. She quickly served everyone in the room and left the cart.

When everyone had their coffee and cakes, Mandie finally replied to Uncle Ned’s question. “We went by the preacher’s house first and he wasn’t home. He’d gone visiting over in the mountains, so we went to some of the stores downtown, but no one had seen Miss Hope in quite a while. We ate at the Biltmore and went to see the sheriff.”

“Sheriff?” Uncle Ned repeated as he sipped his coffee. “Will sheriff look for Miss Hope?”

“Yes, sir, he said he would,” Mandie replied, taking a bite of sweet cake.

“It was a long, hot day,” Jonathan added.

“But it was nice eating at the Biltmore,” Celia said.

“Remember, the sheriff said he would come by tonight and talk to Annie about seeing Miss Hope at the churchyard that night,” Joe reminded everyone.

“Oh yes, I hope Grandmother is down here when he comes,” Mandie said. Looking back at Uncle Ned, she asked, “Are your braves going to keep watching out at the farm, in case Miss Hope shows up somewhere out there again?”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned replied. “Will watch day and night.”

“Can they do that without being seen?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes,” Uncle Ned replied.

“Of course, Jonathan,” Mandie added. “Indians are good detectives.” And then grinning at him over her coffee cup, she added, “I’m one-fourth Cherokee, you know. That’s why I’m such a good detective.”

Everyone laughed, including Uncle Ned.

“Good detectives don’t get in trouble while they are detecting,” Joe teased her.

Mandie looked at him and said, “I don’t always get in trouble. Anyhow, I usually solve the mystery. You have to admit that.”

“Well, now, most of the time,” Joe agreed.

“We’ve been through some scary mysteries, haven’t we, Mandie?” Celia remarked.

“Definitely we have,” Mandie replied. Turning back to Uncle Ned, she asked, “If your braves see Miss Hope again, will they come and let you know? Or will they follow her and see where she goes?”

“Will let me know, one will,” Uncle Ned said. “Other will follow.”

“It’s such a long way out to the farm, Miss Hope would have probably disappeared by the time they came and got you,” Mandie said.

Uncle Ned smiled at her and said, “Not far on horseback.”

“Yes, it would be much faster on a horse than in the rig,” Mandie agreed.

Annie opened the door and said, “Miz Taft and de senator both in de parlor up front. She say y’all come in there.”

“Thank you,” Mandie said as she rose and Annie left. She led the way to the front parlor. Snowball followed and found a stool by the hearth to curl up on and go back to sleep.

“Annie said you were back, Uncle Ned,” Mrs. Taft greeted him as he sat down near Senator Morton. “I thought you might have news about Miss Hope.”

“Not new news,” he said and then related what he had told the young people.

“Evidently Miss Hope is staying at the farm and they are all keeping it secret, then,” Mrs. Taft said thoughtfully. “I wonder why.”

“That does seem strange,” Senator Morton agreed. “Perhaps your men will see her again and catch up with her next time.”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned agreed.

There was a knock on the front door down the hall from the parlor, voices, and then Annie came to the door of the parlor.

“Miz Taft, de sheriff man here to see you,” she said.

“Thank you, Annie, please bring him in here,” Mrs. Taft told her.

When Annie brought the sheriff to the parlor, Mrs. Taft asked Annie to sit down a minute and tell the sheriff about her possibly seeing Miss Hope in the churchyard that night.

Sheriff Jones listened and then asked, “Then you are not sure it was Miss Hope that you saw, is that right?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m almost sure. It sho’ did look like her,” Annie replied. “It was jes’ a lil bit too dark for me to be sure.”

Looking at Mrs. Taft, Sheriff Jones said, “And I believe you said you still haven’t been able to see Preacher Tallant?”

“Not yet, but tomorrow is Sunday, and I plan on catching him at church long enough to ask a few questions,” Mrs. Taft replied. “I’ll let you know what he has to say.”

“I thank you, ma’am,” Sheriff Jones said as he stood up to leave.

“Annie, please show the sheriff back out,” Mrs. Taft told the girl. “Good day, Sheriff.”

When the sheriff and Annie had left the room, Mrs. Taft said, “I told the sheriff all this must be kept confidential, that Miss Prudence had forbidden me to consult with law enforcement. So you young people please remember that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the four said.

“Of course, if the sheriff learns of anything about Miss Hope’s whereabouts, then I will have to decide exactly how to tell Miss Prudence,” Mrs. Taft added.

“But Uncle Ned said Miss Hope had been seen at the farm. You didn’t tell the sheriff about that, Grandmother,” Mandie reminded her.

“No, I didn’t,” Mrs. Taft replied. “I did not want to have the sheriff going out to the farm and interfering with Uncle Ned’s men watching out there.”

“Are we going to see Miss Prudence again?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, I thought we could run over there for a few minutes after supper. I need to keep in touch with her just in case she hears something herself about Miss Hope that might help find the woman,” Mrs. Taft replied. Then, looking at Uncle Ned, she asked, “Would you like to go with us, Uncle Ned? I don’t intend staying but a few minutes.”

“Yes, but will not tell her about braves watching,” Uncle Ned replied.

“Oh no, we don’t want her to know that, but in due time when we do learn something, we can let her know then,” Mrs. Taft agreed.

Supper was a hurried affair again that night so they could get on over to the school and return home before dark.

Aunt Phoebe met them at the door of the school and put them in the parlor, where Miss Prudence joined them after a few minutes.

She came into the room looking all flustered and said, “I’m so sorry to keep you all waiting, but I was just accomplishing a most dreaded task,” she said as she sat down.

“That’s all right, Miss Prudence,” Mrs. Taft replied.

Miss Prudence fidgeted in her chair for a minute and then explained, “You see, I’ve been needing to go through my sister’s belongings to see if I could find any clue to her disappearance.” She stopped, took a long breath, then added, “I’ve been afraid I might find something I didn’t want to find.”

Mrs. Taft quickly glanced at her with a puzzled look and said, “I certainly hope you didn’t find anything, should I say, bad?”

“No, nothing unexpected. All her things seemed to be in order and all there. She didn’t take anything that I can find missing,” the lady replied, pushing back a stray lock of hair. “But we will keep on looking. I mainly wanted to check with you in case you had learned something helpful in this search.”

Mandie and her friends were sitting together across the room. Mandie put her hand over her mouth to whisper, “Miss Prudence isn’t acting exactly right, is she?”

Celia agreed. “No, she isn’t. She seems to be all flustered about something.”

“Do you reckon she has learned something and doesn’t want your grandmother to know about it for the same strange reason?” Joe whispered.

“She does act like she is hiding something, doesn’t she?” Mandie agreed.

All three friends nodded in agreement.

Miss Prudence turned to Uncle Ned and asked, “I don’t suppose you have seen Miss Hope or learned anything, have you?”

“No, ma’am,” Uncle Ned replied. “Working on it. Will let you know.”

“And, Senator Morton, I suppose you are going along with Mrs. Taft on her search, aren’t you?” Miss Prudence asked.

“Yes, ma’am, it’s a long, drawn-out problem,” the senator replied.

Suddenly Aunt Phoebe came rushing into the parlor.

“Excuse me, Miss Prudence, but you say let you know if happened again, and it jes’ happened,” she said excitedly. “Dat light in de attic gone on agin.”

Miss Prudence looked at her in alarm and said, “How do you know? Were you up that way?”

“No, ma’am, but Cal, he be out in de yard talkin’ wid Ben, and dey look up and see de light through dat window up there. Do you want them to go check it out?”

“Yes, immediately, Aunt Phoebe. We’ll wait down here until they go up and come back down, and please tell them to hurry,” Miss Prudence replied.

“Yessum,” Phoebe replied as she hurried out of the room.

Mandie was itching to investigate the attic herself, but there was no way she would be allowed to do so, so she whispered to her friends instead, “Oh, how I wish we could catch whoever is up there, don’t y’all?”

“Not exactly,” Celia replied.

“Sure, we could catch them all right,” Jonathan agreed.

“But we cannot go up there,” Joe reminded them.

Mandie turned back to listen to the adults’ conversation.

“Could this be someone dangerous?” Senator Morton asked.

“I don’t know how anyone from outside could have come in and got all the way to the attic without someone seeing them. The servants are working all through the house,” Miss Prudence said with a deep frown as she twisted her handkerchief in nervous fingers.

“Like me go look?” Uncle Ned asked Miss Prudence.

“If you want to, Uncle Ned. The more men we have around here at a time like this the better off we are,” Miss Prudence replied.

Uncle Ned rose and quickly asked, “Which way to go?”

“Straight down the hallway and then left at the back,” Miss Prudence said in a shaky voice.

Uncle Ned left the parlor.

Mandie and her friends watched and listened. Miss Prudence, Mrs. Taft, and Senator Morton were all silent as they waited.

After what seemed a long time but could have been only a few minutes, Uncle Ned returned to the parlor. He looked at Miss Prudence and said, “No one up there. Search. Look good. No one.”

“Oh dear, they must have gotten away. I wonder where they are. This schoolhouse is so big they could find lots of hiding places, I’m sure,” Miss Prudence said, wadding up her handkerchief.

“Miss Prudence, Celia and I know this whole house. Could we go look around?” Mandie asked.

“Only if you take the boys with you. Look for the maids and see where they are,” Miss Prudence said, and then turning to Mrs. Taft she added, “With your permission, of course, Mrs. Taft.”

“Yes, but Amanda, y’all stay together,” Mrs. Taft replied.

“Yes, ma’am,” the four agreed as they rushed out of the parlor.