The Mandie Collection (7 page)

“I put it on the bureau over there.” Mandie pointed to it.

But, in the morning the key was gone. It was nowhere to be found.

CHAPTER SIX

THE GHOST

One morning, later that week, the two girls had wandered across the road through the cemetery, reading stone markers and commenting about the names, when they perceived someone knocking at John Shaw's front door.

They hurried across the road to find a tall young man with big hazel eyes, standing there with a black traveling bag in his hand.

He looked down at the girls, smiled, and asked, “Is this where Mr. John Shaw lived before he died abroad?”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie told him. “I'm his niece, Amanda Shaw.”

“You are?” he questioned her. “I'm his nephew. You live here?”

“Yes, come on in and sit down. I'll get Mr. Bond.” She opened the door and met Mr. Bond in the hallway. “Mr. Bond, this is Uncle John's nephew.”

The old man quickly looked the young man over and said slowly, “Mr. John Shaw didn't have any nephews.”

“Well, I'm Bayne Locke, his sister's son. And since I
am
his nephew, I have come to claim my part of his property,” the young man told him.

“I said, Mr. Shaw did not have any nephews; in fact, no living relatives, except his brother, Jim, and his family and they live in Swain County,” Jason Bond was emphatic.

“I am John Shaw's
nephew
,” the stranger insisted, standing there in the hallway. “My mother died when I was born and I never have
seen my uncle, but I'm sure I can claim at least part of what he owned. Where's his will?”

Mr. Bond looked puzzled, scratching his head thoughtfully. “To tell you the truth, we haven't found the will yet. But we have received word from his lawyer concerning the property—”

The young man interrupted, “I have as much right to stay here as anyone else until the will is found, if it
is
ever found.” He plopped his bag on the floor.

“Oh, it'll be found all right,” Mr. Bond told him.

“Well, until it is found, please show me my room. I've been traveling all the way from Richmond and I'm tired,” Bayne Locke demanded.

“I suppose you can stay here tonight, but I'll have to have proof as to who you are,” the old man said.

“I have it right here.” Bayne pulled a paper from his inside pocket and handed it to Mr. Bond.

“All this says is that you are the son of Martha Shaw and Caro Locke. It does not prove you're John Shaw's nephew.”

“Anybody that knows the Shaw family knows that he had a sister who died twenty-two years ago giving birth to a son in Richmond,” Bayne told him.

Mr. Bond still stood there scratching his head. Mandie was left speechless with the matter. Then Polly suddenly looked from Bayne to Mandie and spoke up.

“Well, Mandie, you have a cousin!” she exclaimed.

“Well, sort of, I suppose I do,” Mandie agreed. Then she turned to Mr. Bond. “I'll show my cousin to a room, Mr. Bond. Which room should I put him in?”

“Either one down the hall upstairs. I'll get Liza to go up and get things ready.” Mr. Bond turned back down the hallway toward the kitchen.

The girls led the young man up the stairs, past Mr. Bond's room, to an unoccupied bedroom.

Mandie pushed open the door and peered into the room. It was well furnished with heavy furniture, red rugs and gold draperies.

“This will have to do,” she said, standing aside for Bayne Locke to enter the room. “It's on the front of the house and won't get the afternoon sun.”

“Fine, fine,” Bayne muttered, throwing up the windows and opening the shutters.

Liza danced in with a broom and a dustmop.

“Shoo, shoo! You-alls just git out of the way now, so's I can git this place shuck up,” the black girl ordered the girls.

Mandie turned back as she went out the door, followed by Polly.

“Dinner's at twelve o'clock on the button. Don't be late.”

“Never been to dinner on time in my life, but I'll turn over a new leaf just for you,” Bayne called back to her.

As the two girls sat in the swing on the front porch, Polly asked, “What are you going to do now? That man says he's your cousin, and he'll take what he came after, if you ask me.”

“We'll see about that! Just leave him to me!” Mandie teased.

“But what can you do about it?” Polly wanted to know.

“Tonight's the night for Uncle Ned to come visit,” Mandie said.

“Uncle Ned? Who's he?”

“He's the Indian who brought me here. Remember I told you?”

“Yeh, but so what? What can an Indian do about this Bayne Locke?”

“I'll ask Uncle Ned to get the Cherokees to check up on this so-called cousin. Uncle Ned has his own ways of finding out things.”

The screen door opened and Aunt Lou stuck her head out. “Got that new dress done fuh you, my child.”

Mandie quickly followed her back into the house with Polly close behind. The blue dress was finished and pressed and was hanging in the sewing room. Mandie could only stand and gasp. She had never owned such a garment in all her life.

“Well, don't just stand there, my child. We'se got to put it on to see if it fits.” Aunt Lou smiled as she began to unbutton the dress Mandie was wearing.

The dress fit perfectly and Mandie turned and twirled in front of the long mirror with oh's and ah's and Polly admiring.

“It's beautiful, Aunt Lou.” Mandie was tearful as she turned to hug the old woman tightly. “Thank you, Aunt Lou! Thank you!”

“It takes a pretty girl like you to make a dress pretty,” Aunt Lou told her. “You look mighty fine, my child.”

“Positively heavenly, Mandie,” Polly agreed.

“Will you unbutton me now, Aunt Lou?” Mandie asked.

“Unbutton you? What for? There's more acomin' from where that one came from. Now you just keep it on and enjoy it, my child.” The old woman patted her on the head.

“More, Aunt Lou?”

“Sho' 'nuff. Next one will be ready 'fore you git that one dirty,” Aunt Lou assured her. “Gonna be the lady of the house, you is. And you gotta look like the lady of the house—no more countrified looks. You'se a city girl now. Gotta dress like city folks.”

“But, Aunt Lou, I hate to make so much work for you. You have other things to do, I know.”

“Ain't just me working on these dresses. Got help from old Miz Burnette over on the hill, too.”

“Mrs. Burnette makes my clothes too, Mandie,” Polly told her. “Mother says she does the best work in town.”

“Somebody has to pay her,” Mandie said.

“Oh, never you mind about pay. Mr. Bond done arranged all that. Now git on 'bout your business. I'se got other things to do,” Aunt Lou gave the two girls an affectionate shove out the door.

Thank you, dear God, Mandie whispered to herself. Thank you for all these nice things.

That night, when Mandie met Uncle Ned in the summerhouse nearby, she wore her new blue dress. The old Indian was happy when she told him about all the nice things that had happened to her, but he was greatly disturbed when he heard that her Uncle
John had died and Bayne Locke had come to the house saying he was his nephew.

“Bayne Locke. You know where he come from?” he asked.

“He said he had come all the way from Richmond, Uncle Ned,” Mandie told him. “I suppose he must have lived there before he came here.”

“Cherokee go to Richmond. Find out. I know by next full moon,” he promised.

“Thank you, Uncle Ned. I seem to ask you for so many things, but I don't have anyone else to ask,” the girl said.

“No, no—is all right. You one of us. Cherokee keep watch over Papoose. I promise Jim Shaw. Anything you ask, I do,” Ned reminded her. “You Cherokee, too.”

“Isn't that wonderful, Uncle Ned? That I have such people, people who will always look out for me. Tell all the Cherokees I am grateful. I'm happy that I'm one of you and I long for the day when I can visit my people.”

Not only was Mandie planning to check up on Bayne Locke, but Mr. Bond had immediately sent a messenger to Lawyer Wilson's office, requesting information concerning the young man.

Later that night when he thought everyone was sound asleep, Mr. Bond climbed the stairs to the third story in a determined effort to locate John Shaw's will and settle the matter once and for all as far as Bayne Locke was concerned.

John Shaw's library was directly over the room that Mandie and Polly occupied on the second floor and he tried to be very quiet, but despite his efforts, he stumbled into a chair in the darkness.

“Polly, did you hear that?” Mandie shook her sleeping friend.

“Yes,” Polly said, sitting straight up in the bed.

“A ghost!” Mandie whispered.

“In Uncle John's library. Let's go see what it is,” Polly said, jumping from the bed.

“This time of night?” Mandie was leery of such adventures.

“Ghosts only walk at night. Didn't you know that?” Polly informed her. “I read a book about ghosts once. They can't do you
any harm. So why be afraid? We're more powerful than they are. Want to go see what one really looks like?”

“Oh, Polly, you aren't afraid of anything, are you?” Mandie reached for her slippers. “Let's go, if you insist.”

Polly led the way up the dark stairs while Mandie carried the oil lamp from her room. They crept along the hall and found the door open to Uncle John's library. As they cautiously peeped in, Mandie began to laugh.

“Some ghost that is!”

Mr. Bond turned at the sound of her voice. “Why, what are you two doing up this time of night?”

“We heard a noise, so we came up to see who it was,” Polly answered. “We had kinda hoped it was a ghost.”

“Well, I'm not a ghost,” Mr. Bond chuckled. “But I'd advise you two to be quiet and not disturb the rest of the house. I don't want that Mr. Locke poking his nose in here.”

“No, that wouldn't do,” Mandie agreed. “He might find the will before we do. Can we do anything to help?”

“Well, start at the comer there and look through every book on the shelves. If you find any piece of paper at all, or any handwriting in the books, let me see it,” Jason Bond told them.

So the real work began on the search for the important paper.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SEARCH FOR THE WILL

The search for the will was more involved than anyone had dreamed. Jason Bond and the two girls covered every inch of the house—except the tunnel. The missing key had not been found either, after it had disappeared from Mandie's bureau.

Mandie spoke to Mr. Bond about it, “I've asked Aunt Lou, Liza, Jenny, and even Abraham, and nobody has seen a key of any kind.”

“Could be that Mr. Bayne Locke has been in your room, Mandie, but don't ask him about it. We don't want him involved in what we're doing around here. The less he knows the better,” Jason Bond told her. “You two girls just keep your eyes peeled. Maybe it'll turn up somewhere.”

No one had been able to find the entrance to the tunnel from the inside of the house, and with the key lost, the door could not be opened from the outside.

Mr. Bond was leaving the dining room after breakfast one morning, when there was a knock on the front door. He went to see who it was, followed closely by the two girls.

A tall, middle-aged woman with gray, staring eyes, and a tall, brunette girl were standing there.

“I'm Mrs. Gaynelle Snow and this is my daughter, Ruby. I've come to claim my part of my uncle's estate,” the woman announced to Mr. Bond.

“Well, dad-blast it! If everyone in the continent ain't gonna try to claim John Shaw's property!” he shouted angrily.

“What did you say?” The woman stared at him with her sharp eyes, then peered to get a glimpse of Mandie and Polly behind him in the hall. “
Well
, if you're not going to invite me in, I guess I'll just walk in!” She pushed the old man aside and stepped into the hallway. “Where are the servants? Tell one of them to show me to my room!”

“Room! You'd think we was running a hotel here!” Mr. Bond stood there ruffling his white hair, trying to resolve the situation.

Liza was crossing the hall just then and the woman, followed by her daughter, yelled at her, “Hey, you there, find me a room in this mansion.”

Liza stopped and stared at the woman and the girl and then looked at Mr. Bond.

“Might as well take them up to a room,” he sighed. “Claim they're kinfolk. I'll have to prove them a lie before I can throw them out.”

The girl turned her nose up at Polly and Mandie as she followed Liza and her mother up the stairs.

“Stupid ain't the word!” Polly exclaimed.

“Right you are!” Mandie agreed.

After the unexpected arrival of Mrs. Gaynelle Snow and her daughter, Ruby, things took on an even livelier pace at the John Shaw house.

Mandie and Polly took the notion to move into a bedroom on the third floor. They had grown tired of the room on the second floor where Bayne Locke always seemed to be lurking in the hallway watching their every move. Jason Bond warned they would be too frightened up there and wouldn't stay one night, if that long. But they in turn said they would stay no matter what happened.

Polly's mother, young, widowed, and longing for companionship, saw her chance for a trip to Philadelphia without her daughter, as long as the mystery seemed to be prolonged. Polly eagerly moved more of her things over to join Mandie in their new room on the
third floor. Liza thoroughly cleaned the large bedroom for them, but was anxious to get back downstairs. All the servants were leery of the third floor and the attic.

The two girls were putting their things away in the drawers and the wardrobe, when Polly handed Mandie a cut glass jar full of powder. “Here's your powder, Mandie.” Just as she reached for it, it slipped and fell to the floor, sprinkling the carpet and dusting Snowball, who gingerly jumped across the room, shaking his feet and licking his fur.