The Secret of the Mansion (14 page)

it was, so I could surprise her, and then that night when she was hearing you say your prayers, you said, ‘And please, God, don’t let me tell Mummy that

Trixie bought her bedroom slippers for Christmas.”’

“That was different,” Bobby said, squirming with embarrassment. “I was just a little boy then. I’m all growed up now.”

“Well, then,” Trixie went on reluctantly, “I’ll tell you

161 143 what we discovered. The old summerhouse. It’s all covered over with vines and branches. When you’re well, I’ll take you up there and show it to

you.”

Bobby flung himself back on the pillows, sulking with disappointment. “What’s so ‘citing about an old summerhouse?” he demanded petulantly. “Go on, read!”

After Trixie had been reading for what seemed like hours, Bobby dropped off to sleep. During this short nap, Trixie fed and watered the chickens and gathered

the eggs. She was putting them away when her parents returned.

“Sh-h,” she cautioned them. “The Little King is asleep. I’m practically hoarse from reading to him, but he was as good as gold.”

Mrs. Belden smiled. “He’s always good with you, Trixie. That is, when you don’t lose your patience, as you sometimes do.”

Mr. Belden patted Trixie’s shoulder approvingly. “Keep on the way you’re going, Trixie,” he said, “and you’ll surely have a horse next year. We ran into

Jed Tomlin at the Happen Inn where we stopped for tea. He said he’s got a nice young colt he wants to sell next spring after he’s broken and schooled it.

How would you like that?”

“Oh, Dad!” Trixie almost dropped the egg she was

162 144 holding- “Will he want an awful lot of money for his horse? Do you think I can earn enough by next summer?”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” her father said, his eyes twinkling. “I’m delighted our new neighbors are being so generous with their horses and giving

you a chance to learn to ride. Brian and Mart, of course, learned at camp. So I imagine that even if you didn’t earn enough to buy the Tomlin colt yourself,

you could interest your brothers in sharing in the purchase.”

Trixie was so excited at the prospect of a horse on Crabapple Farm she could hardly eat her dinner, and it was a long time after she had gone to bed before

she fell asleep. “I’ll earn the money for the colt myself,” she kept saying over and over. “He’ll be as strong and fast as Jupiter, and although I’ll let

Brian and Mart ride him sometimes, he won’t really like anyone but me.”

163 145

Understanding Regan

The next morning, Honey came down to the hollow right after breakfast. She was so excited that she burst right into the kitchen without knocking.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she cried, her cheeks aflame with embarrassment when she realized what she had done.

“Sorry for what?” demanded Trixie who was alone in the kitchen.

“For forgetting to knock,” Honey explained. “I don’t know what’s come over me lately, Trixie.” She giggled. “I seem to have forgotten all the good manners

Miss Lefferts taught me.”

“Pooh,” Trixie said impatiently. “I don’t know who Miss Lefferts is—or was, but I think you would have been awfully silly to knock when you could see me

right through the screen door. People in the country don’t bother much about knocking, anyway. We usually open the door, poke our heads inside and yell,

‘Yoo-hoo.’”

Honey’s giggle changed into loud laughter. “What’s so funny?” Trixie brought the breakfast cups to the sink and frowned at Honey.

164 146 “Oh, oh,” Honey chortled. “If anybody did that in New York City-why-oh,” she interrupted herself, still shaking with laughter, “you couldn’t anyway.

Not in the apartment house we lived in. Even if you managed to sneak by the doorman and the elevator boy, you couldn’t open a door and poke your head inside.

People in New York always keep their doors locked. At least people who lived in our apartment did.”

“Sounds like prison,” Trixie said, still frowning.

“It was, sort of,” Honey admitted. “I mean, I used to ride up and down in the elevator day after day with the same people and they never spoke to me, even

though we were neighbors, living on the same floor. Sometimes they would smile, but as for yelling ‘Yoo-hoo’-” she went off into gales of laughter.

Trixie couldn’t help laughing, too. Finally she sobered. “What you mean is that if we’d been neighbors in a big city we might never have met?”

Honey shook her head up and down. “And wouldn’t that have been awful? Maybe not for you, but for me.” “For me, too,” Trixie said emphatically. “I have lots

of friends who live in Sleepyside, but I hardly ever see them during the summer. They seem to forget that I’m alive when school closes. And the funny thing

is, Honey,” she added frankly, “although I’ve known those

165 147 girls since we started in kindergarten together I don’t like any of them half as much as I like you.”

Honey gulped and looked as though she were going to go from laughter to tears. 1-1-you-you,” she stammered, then quickly recovered her poise. “I just love

you, and Jim, too. I wish you could have been with us yesterday on our ride. He’s simply marvelous.”

“I’ll bet he is,” Trixie said. “Tell me all about it while I wash these dishes.”

“Let me help.” Honey grabbed a dish towel off the rack and pulled a tall stool to the sink. “Oh, I forgot. Regan sent Bobby a present.” She reached into

the pocket of her jeans and brought out a small box. When she lifted the cover Trixie couldn’t help letting out a little yell of surprise. The box was

filled to the brim with tiny plastic horses-black ones and red ones and yellow ones. Some of them were trotting, some of them were galloping, and some

of them were rearing with manes and tails flowing.

“I never saw anything so cute in my life,” Trixie cried. “They must have cost a fortune! Bobby will adore them. It was darling of Regan to remember him.”

“That’s Regan for you,” Honey said, carefully slipping the box back in her pocket. “He loves kids of all ages. One reason is because he didn’t have a very

happy

166 148 childhood himself, I guess. He doesn’t say much about it, but I couldn’t help getting the impression that he had a pretty hard time while he was

growing up.”

“Maybe that’s why he’s so good to us, too,” Trixie said as she handed Honey another plate.

Mrs. Belden appeared then with a trayful of dishes which she had just carried down from Bobby’s room. “Good morning, Honey,” she said. “I’m glad you dropped

in. Wouldn’t you like to run up and say hello to Bobby? It would cheer him up a lot. I’ve just given him a bath and dressed him in clean pajamas. He’s

ready for visitors.”

“I’d love to,” Honey said enthusiastically. “I have a present for him from Regan.” She darted off.

Trixie took the tray from her mother and said, “I’ll do these. Honey will help. She’ll help with the gardening, too, I know. We won’t leave until all the

chores are done, Moms.”

“Well, thank you, Trixie,” Mrs. Belden said, sinking tiredly into the nearest chair. “Keeping Bobby quietly in bed is a fulltime job, but I want you to

have fun, too. Do whatever you think is most important in the garden. Then you and Honey run along and forget about chores until lunchtime.” She gathered

up her knitting bag, some magazines and went back upstairs.

In another minute Honey joined Trixie in the

167 149 kitchen. “Bobby is so cute,” she said enviously. “I’d give anything in the world for a little brother like that. And an older brother like Jim would

be marvelous, too. He’s really an expert horseman. He rides like a centaur. I mean, when he swings into the saddle it looks as though he and the horse

were one. Jupiter behaved like a lamb yesterday-and you know Jupe .”

“I certainly do,” Trixie admitted ruefully. “I suppose Jim rode him with a snaffle bit and had him eating out of his hand.”

“Well, not exactly,” Honey said. “But Jim never had to use the curb. He talked to Jupe for a while before he mounted him, and they seemed to understand

each other perfectly. Then we left the woods and rode across country through the fields, jumping fences and little brooks. It was the best ride I ever

had. I wish you could have been with us.”

“I don’t know how to jump yet,” Trixie reminded her. “So I couldn’t have kept up with you. Am I going to have another lesson today?”

“This afternoon,” Honey said. “And be careful when you talk to Regan, Even though I gave both horses a rubdown yesterday when I brought them back, I think

Regan suspects something. Both saddle blankets were soaked with sweat, you know, and I couldn’t do anything

168 150 about that but let Regan think you and I had a short ride in the corral on Lady and Strawberry.”

“I’ll be careful,” Trixie promised.

Honey helped her finish all the breakfast dishes, and then they went down to the garden. Trixie showed her how to hill up the potato vines, and, after an

hour’s work, they climbed the path to the Miser’s Mansion.

“We’re going to have one last look around,” Trixie told Jim. “Why don’t you take this flashlight and see what you can find in the cellar?”

Honey took the other flashlight and carefully inspected the shelves, cupboards, and closets while Trixie went through the stacks of books. “Mr. Frayne might

have cut out the pages of one of them,” she said, “and hid the money in there. Other people have done that.”

They kept at it till lunchtime, and they were all completely discouraged. Jim washed up at the well and hungrily munched the cold turkey leg Trixie had

brought him.

“There’s just one other place,” he said between mouthfuls. “The summerhouse. Now that I’ve got a flashlight, I can look in there for a trap door or something.”

“That’s right,” Trixie encouraged him. “But I still have a feeling the money, or whatever it is, is in the living-room.”

169 151 “Well, you’re welcome to keep on searching through all that junk as long as you want to. I’ve given up. Either there isn’t any money, or it’s hidden

too well for me to find it.” He grinned. “I even went through that barrel of bottle tops this morning. What a mess that was!”

The girls went home for lunch then, and, after Trixie had read Bobby to sleep, she hurried up to the Wheelers’ stable.

Regan said nothing about his suspicions during the lesson, but afterward, when the girls were helping him groom the horses, he said casually, “Thought that

big old rambling house on the other hill was empty.”

“It is,” Trixie said quickly. “It belongs to old Mr. Frayne, and he’s dying in the hospital.”

“Huh.” Regan pretended to be very busy with his curry-comb. “I’ve got a pretty good view of that place from my room over the garage,” he said as though

he were talking to himself. “Could have sworn I saw somebody roaming around there this morning. Matter of fact, was pretty sure that two of the three kids

I saw were you girls.”

Trixie and Honey stared at each other behind his back but said nothing. After a long, nerve-wracking silence, Regan began again. “Ran away from an orphan-170 152 age myself when I was about that redheaded boy’s age. Never regretted it, either. Was crazy over horses and finally got a job at a riding school.

Learned a lot there,” he went on reminiscently. “Learned enough, anyway, so I can tell right off whether a horse has been ridden or not.” He straightened

up to face them, his eyes twinkling. “Now Jupe here, he had a good gallop yesterday afternoon. Know neither one of you girls could have given him such

a workout. Figure that redheaded kid knows how to handle a horse.”

Trixie held her breath, not daring to look at Honey. Regan gave Jupiter an affectionate slap. “I don’t have much time to give you the proper amount of exercise

with the boss away, do 1, old boy? I’m not likely to say anything if Miss Honey, every now and then, takes you along when she goes off on Strawberry.”

He laughed. “Some people might think it peculiar that she bothers to saddle and bridle you when nobody’s going to ride you, but me, I don’t aim to ask

any questions. There’s just one thing, though. Trixie’s got to promise to stick to Lady till I say the word. We’d all get into a lot of trouble if anything

happened to Jupe.” He placed his hands on his hips, grinning. “Is it a deal, girls?”

“Oh, yes,” they both cried together.

“We’d like to tell you about it, Regan,” Honey

171 153 added, “but we promised not to. I think you’re simply swell to trust us.”

“Well, that’s that, then.” Regan led Jupiter into his stall. “If the kid should get into any trouble, you might let me know. It wasn’t so very long ago

that I was hiding out in barns myself, wondering where the next meal was coming from.”

He strolled nonchalantly out of the stable, and Trixie gasped, “Gee, he’s great, isn’t he, Honey? It was sure lucky nobody else in your house saw us. What

a break!”

“Miss Trask’s a good sport, too,” Honey said loyally. “But I’m not sure what she’d do if she knew Jim had run away from home.”

“She’s swell,” Trixie agreed. “But I bet she’d feel she ought to tell the police or try to talk Jim into going back.”