The Mandie Collection (5 page)

“Well, come in, miss.” The man held the door open and Mandie turned to catch a glimpse of Uncle Ned's smiling face.

She entered a wide hallway and followed the man to a room on the right, which she decided must be the company parlor judging from the rich furnishings. She sat down on the edge of a soft armchair and deposited her bag on the floor by her side. Snowball escaped from her arms and went running off into the other part of the house.

“When will Uncle John be back?” she asked.

“Oh, he's gone to Europe. He's been gone since March. I'm the caretaker, Jason Bond.” He was still standing as he explained.

“Oh, goodness, to Europe!” She was dismayed to have come all this way and then not find her uncle at home. “What will I do?”

“Where're you from, miss?”

“I lived with my daddy, Jim Shaw, and my mother over at Charley Gap in Swain County until my daddy died in April and my mother got married again. Then they sent me away to live with some awful people at Almond Station and I ran away.” She told the man the truth, knowing her uncle would have to know. “I—I don't have anywhere to live.”

“Oh, well, plenty of room here. He oughta be back any day now. Come on, I'll find you a room.” He picked up her bag and led the way up a long flight of stairs to the second floor, and then down a long hall and opened the door to a room furnished with blue and gold. Mandie stared in delight. Never had she seen such an elegant room.

“How about this one?” Jason Bond was asking as she stood there.

“Oh, it's beautiful! It's wonderful!” She stood in the middle of the room, gazing about.

“I'll get Liza to bring you some fresh water for your pitcher over there, and some breakfast if you ain't et yet.”

“Oh, I am hungry,” she said. “In fact, I'm starving!” She laughed.

“Well, we'll fix that.” Jason Bond went out the door and she removed her wrinkled bonnet, tossed it on the bed and sat down in a big, soft chair. She had a strange feeling that she must be in the wrong house. How could her uncle have so much when her father had had so little?

An enormous old black woman knocked and then came on in with a tray of food, followed by a young black girl with a bucket of water.

“I'm Lou, Aunt Lou, they call me, my child. I keeps this house together.” She set the tray on a table nearby and stood before Mandie. “Now, what might be your name?”

“Amanda Shaw, Aunt Lou. My daddy was Jim Shaw, John's brother.” She lifted the cloth covering the food and exclaimed, “Oh, thank you, Aunt Lou. I'll eat every bite; I'm so hungry.”

“Well, you'd better had if you gonna stay around here. Now this here's Liza. She'll be lookin' after you whiles you here.” She beckoned to the young girl who still stood behind her. Liza came forward and poured the water into the pitcher on the washstand.

“Guess you'd better wash that dirty face 'fore you eat.” Aunt Lou smiled at her. “Liza, you comb that pretty hair for my child. But let her eat first.”

Aunt Lou left the room and Mandie went to wash her face in the bowl of water.

“I be back later, Miss Amanda,” Liza told her. “You want anything, all you has to do is pull that cord over there.”

“Pull that cord?” Mandie asked, looking to where Liza was pointing toward the drapery beside the bed.

Liza laughed and danced around the room. “That makes a bell ring down at the other end where I hear it and I knows you calling me.” She danced on out the door, laughing.

Snowball came running into the room and jumped up into Amanda's lap as she sat down to eat.

“You just wait, Snowball. You have to eat on the floor. Here,” she said, putting him down and giving him some milk in a saucer that had been on her tray. She added a bit of bacon. “Now you eat it all up because we're going to take a nap.”

True to her word, she, with Snowball's help, ate every bite of the food and then, pulling down the silky bedspread, she flopped onto the big soft bed and fell fast asleep with the kitten curled up beside her.

At noontime Liza came to call the girl to dinner and had to wake her.

“Time to eat, Miss Amanda,” Liza said, shaking the girl.

Mandie sat up rubbing her eyes. “Eat? I just ate. Oh, goodness, what time is it?” Snowball rose and stretched.

“It's time to eat again. Wash your face and I'll comb that hair,” Liza told her.

The black girl quickly unbraided Mandie's hair, combed out the many tangles and then braided it again.

“I think I'll wash your hair later,” Liza suggested.

“Oh, yes, it is dirty,” Mandie agreed, remembering the bed of twigs she had slept on and the many miles she had walked through briars, dusty roads and river water.

“Later,” Liza said. “Now you just follow me. I'll show you where the food be.”

They went back down the long, carpeted hall, down the elaborate staircase and through another long hall into the most beautiful room Mandie had ever seen. A huge crystal chandelier hung over an enormous dining table covered with a crocheted tablecloth and set with one place at the end for her. Silver candelabra stood at intervals along the table. A whole wall was covered by a tapestry of peacocks and flowers. The opposite side of the room had long French doors opening onto a terrace. Mandie stopped to gaze about the room.

“Here, missy, down to this end,” Liza beckoned to her as she pulled out a chair with a velvet seat. “You set right here and I bring on the food.”

Mandie, still speechless, walked to the chair and sat down. Then she turned quickly as the girl turned to leave the room. “What do you have to eat?”

“Anything you want, missy. Ham, chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans, turnip salat, cornpone, biscuits, honey, preserves, anything you want. Now what must I bring you?” Liza waited.

“You mean you have all those things already cooked? All for one meal?”

“Well, missy, all us servants have to eat too, and there's two more 'sides me and Lou. There's Jenny, the cook, and there's Abraham, the yard man, what lives in the house in the backyard. Lou, she's the boss,” Liza went on. “So we just cook everything at one time. That's the way Mr. Shaw tells us to do. Want me to bring you some of everything?” Liza grinned.

“Oh, no, I couldn't possibly eat so much. Just a small piece of ham, a spoonful of green beans, a huge sweet potato, a big piece of cornbread, and milk,” Mandie told her. “My uncle must be an awfully rich man if he has all that for one meal.”

“Oh, he is, missy. Richest man this side of Richmond, they say. So much money he'll never spend it all. And no one to leave it to—except—”

Aunt Lou came through the door at that moment.

“Liza, git a move on here. Take that cat there and feed it and git this child something to eat. And no more of that gossip, you hear?”

Without a word, Liza took Snowball and quickly left. the room.

“And how is my child feeling after her nap?” Aunt Lou put her arm around Mandie's shoulders.

“Fine, Aunt Lou. Liza says my uncle is unusually rich; is that so?”

“I don't knows about it being unusual, but he shore is rich. Liza ain't got no business meddling in his affairs like that, though.”

“She wasn't meddling, Aunt Lou. I asked her. You see, my daddy was never rich.”

“Many's a good man that don't git rich.”

“You see, you can tell by my clothes that I am not rich. I don't have any pretty, fancy dresses and bonnets.” Mandie smoothed her dark gray frock.

“Well, that's one thing we's can fix, my child. We's got a sewing room here that's just plumb spang full of pritty cloth. We'll just make you up some new clothes,” Aunt Lou was telling her as Liza came back into the room carrying a silver tray loaded with dishes and the smell of hot food. “Now you just eat up, my child, and Liza can bring you 'round to the sewing room when you git done. I'll see what we can whip up.”

“Thank you, Aunt Lou. I'll hurry,” Mandie assured her, as she picked up her fork. The black woman left the room. “Don't go away, Liza. I'll be finished in a minute.”

“I has to go eat, too, but I'll be right back. Just pull that little cord over there by the window if you want me. It'll ring in the kitchen,” Liza told her.

“You haven't eaten yet? I thought I was the only one left to eat dinner,” Mandie told her. “Go get your food and come sit right here.” She pushed out a chair next to her with her foot.

Liza laughed. “You don't understand, missy. I'se a servant. Us servants has our own table in the kitchen.”

“But I'm the only one at this big table. Can't you come and eat with me?”

“Nope, can't,” Liza replied. “Nobody exceptin' Mr. Bond and Mr. Shaw eats at that table, and you, of course, 'cause you'se kin.”

“Where is Mr. Bond?”

“He et early 'cause he had to go off and tend to some bidness,” the dark girl told her. “Now you eat up. I'll go eat and then I'll be back.”

Liza laughed and danced out through the door. Mandie, famished as she was, hurriedly ate the rich food in anticipation of getting a new dress made for her—a brand new dress made just for her—one that nobody had ever worn.

When Liza took her to the sewing room, Mandie was again amazed with the wonders of her uncle's house. It looked like a store. Fine materials, laces, ribbons, buttons of every color, were everywhere about the room. Aunt Lou, who was also the seamstress for the household, was waiting for her.

“You just pick out what you want and we make it,” the old woman told her.

Mandie immediately spied a roll of pale blue silk in the pile. She stroked the soft material with her fingertips.

“This one, please,” the girl murmured shyly. “I've never had a light-colored dress in my life.”

“And a bonnet to match.” Aunt Lou smiled at her. “We'll just put lots of trimming on it—lace, ribbons, and sech. We'll make a real baby doll out of you, that's what we'll do.”

Mandie spent the afternoon in the room while Aunt Lou pinned, measured, and cut material. She just couldn't believe it would all turn into a dress just for her. When Aunt Lou was ready to sew, Liza came to tell Mandie she had a visitor in the parlor.

“Miss Polly, that lives in that big house next-door, she's come to see you, missy,” Liza said. “She waiting in the parlor for you.”

“In the parlor? I don't even know where the parlor is,” Mandie laughed bewilderedly. “I've never seen such a big house in my life.”

“Right this way.” Liza led her. “Down this hall and on down these steps and it's the big double door on the left, next to the front door. 'Member the room where you first came in?”

“I remember the room, but I didn't remember the way. Thank you, Liza.” Mandie went on through the double door and there stood a girl about her own size in front of the sofa.

She had long, dark hair and eyes as dark as chinquapins. She smiled and came forward.

“My name's Polly Cornwallis. I live next door, and Mr. Shaw's cook told our cook that Mr. Shaw's niece had come to visit, and so I came over.” She rolled off this long speech without taking a breath.

“I'm glad you live next door,” Mandie told her. “Sit down.” They sat on the sofa.

“My name is Amanda Shaw. My uncle is gone off to Europe and I'm here alone, so I'm glad you came.”

They were friends at once and before they realized it, Liza was telling them supper was ready. Polly had to go home, but promised to come back the next day and bring her schoolbooks. But the next day brought more than Polly and her schoolbooks for Mandie.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE SECRET TUNNEL

Early the next morning, Jason Bond answered a knock at the front door. He found a messenger there from John Shaw's lawyer's office in Asheville.

“Mr. Wilson sent you this letter, Mr. Bond,” the young boy told him.

Mr. Bond took the letter, withdrew a paper from the envelope, and stood there reading.

“What's this? What's this?” Jason Bond was plainly shocked. “Come on in, my boy. I'll get the cook to give you something to eat. I'll have to send an answer back.”

He took the boy to the kitchen and left him there with Jenny. Then he hurried to his room and wrote a note. Hearing Mandie singing in her room, he knew she was up, and knocked on her door.

“I see you're up bright and early. Come on downstairs. I have something to tell you.” He led the way down to the dining room and yelled through the door to Jenny.

“Send Liza in here with something to eat,” he said and went back to sit down by the girl at the table.

“What's wrong, Mr. Jason?” Mandie asked him. She could sense he was disturbed about something.

“Well, it's like this,” he began, as Liza brought in the coffee and poured it. He waited until she left the room. “I have a letter here from your uncle's lawyer.”

“You do?” Mandie leaned forward.

“Yes, but I'm afraid it's bad news. He says—he says your uncle has—died in Europe and—”

“Died! Oh, no!” she gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. “Please, God, not my Uncle John, too!”

“I'm sorry,” Mr. Bond said. “I couldn't think of any way to tell you. The letter says he was buried over there and—”

“When, Mr. Jason?”

“A few weeks ago. It took a long time for word to reach his lawyer and then his lawyer had to let us know,” the old man told her.

“Oh, Uncle John, now what will I do?” she sobbed.

Mr. Bond held her hand and tried to comfort her. “Don't worry about what you're going to do. You're going to stay right here. I'm sending a note back to the lawyer, telling him you are here and you are going to stay here until the will is found.”

“The will?” she asked.

“Yeh, until the will is found. Lawyer Wilson drew up a will for your uncle last year, but he says in this letter he believes your uncle made another one since then. At any rate, he thinks the will must be in his papers here in the house somewhere, so we'll have to look for it.”