Mandie excitedly looked out the window. Sometimes she could catch small glimpses of the Charleston beach and some people strolling down to wiggle their toes in the water. After her and Celia´s daring discovery at Senator Morton´s, her grandmother had thrown her a surprise party. Her thoughts ran back to the great time she had with her friends. All of them had been able to make it. Wow, I really am loved, she thought. Sallie, Dimar, Jonathan, Uncle Ned, Morning Star, her mother, Uncle John, and Joe. Joe, she thought. Her thoughts ran back to the moment Joe was standing close enough to her to pull her towards him and whisper into her ear "I love you, Mandie Shaw." She remembered her face and how it turned bright red. She thought everyone had heard, but apparently, they were all too deep in conversation to hear them. "I missed you, Joe," she responded. Then he slowly grabbed her hand and held it for a while.
"Mandie!" pause. "Mandie!" Celia was starting to get impatient. "MANDIE!" she finally said in an exasperated tone. "Come on, we´re here. Tommy will be waiting for us outside."
"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry. Just daydreaming," Mandie answered still a little distracted.
"Mandie, are you alright?" questioned Sallie with a little concern. "That´s unlike you. You usually pay attention to everything. Always expecting a new mystery!"
"Oh. I´m alright. Just umm… admiring the scenery," Mandie answered quickly with a slights smile.
"Well, come on, we don´t want to keep the others waiting, and I certainly wouldn´t like to keep you from seeing Tommy. Isn´t that right, Sallie?" Celia said giggling.
"Oh no!" We certainly wouldn´t like to keep Tommy waiting either," Sallie added.
"Oh hush! Both of you! Too bad Mr. Rogers won´t be here to escort you to the party Tommy told me about," Mandie said with a smirk.
Celia´s face turned bright red in a matter of seconds, and Celia, trying to hide it said with interest, "Ooo! What party?"
"No one in particular," Mandie answered plainly. "Now let´s get going."
Together they walked down the aisle of the train to meet up with Uncle Ned, Dimar, Joe, and Jonathan. The train was crowded so the three girls had to push their way through the crowd.
"My, my. Can you believe it?" said an elderly lady whom the girls were passing by. "I can´t believe… been accused of robbery and… to make matters worse… pirate ancestry!" finished the lady.
The girls only kept going forward as if they had not heard a thing. Only Mandie thought about it but decided to put it out of her mind since she couldn't figure out what the lady had meant. When they finally reached the boys Mandie was the first to speak.
"I´m so glad you could escort us all the way to Charleston, Uncle Ned. It´s a pity you can´t stay, though."
"Must go back to Deep Creek. Dimar must also go. Must help with the schoolhouse. But Sallie may stay."
"Thank you, Uncle Ned!" Mandie said excitedly and jumped up and hugged the old Cherokee man. "It´s said that you won´t get to stay either," she continued, this time directing herself to Dimar.
"Yes," he answered, "but I must go and help Mr. O'Neal with some modifications he would like to make to the schoolhouse."
"Of course. I´m sure Mr. Riley O'Neal will be very grateful. But now we must be going. We don´t want the train to start again before we get off," said Mandie.
"Yes, and we´ll be counting on all of you to visit us at the reservation," Dimar said.
"I would sure like to go. I´ve never been to any kind of reservation. I´m sure I´ll love everything," Jonathan quickly piped in.
"As long as they don´t give him owl stew," Joe murmured under his breath.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye. It was so nice seeing you again," Celia said and reaching to hug Dimar and Uncle Ned.
"Thank you, my grandfather, for letting me stay. I will soon return home," Sallie said also hugging her grandfather.
"Yes. You come home soon," he said.
"I will. I must return to my grandmother and help with the schoolhouse also," Sallie told Uncle Ned.
"Thank you. Both of you, for coming all the way down to Florida for my birthday. It meant a lot to me," Mandie said.
"I promise Jim Shaw to take care of his papoose. Always," Ned replied. "Now you go and see friends. Don´t get in trouble. Remember, think, then act."
"I will. I promise, Uncle Ned," said Mandie.
Finally, after hands were shook, hugs were given, and goodbyes were said, the girls, accompanied by Joe and Jonathan, got off the train and waved to Uncle Ned and Dimar as the train started off.
"Well, that was quite a train ride, wouldn´t you agree?" Jonathan asked Joe.
"Oh, yeah. Sure. It was the most interesting train ride I´ve ever had," Joe said sarcastically.
"What happened?" Sallie asked with interest.
"Oh, nothing. Only that Jonathan here was giving us some trouble," Joe said while giving Jonathan a piercing glance.
"Me?" Jonathan exclaimed faking to be surprised. "I was an angel back there."
"Right! I forgot! You never give anyone any trouble."
"You got that right, my friend," said Jonathan while Joe rolled his eyes. "Now, let's go find some food. Because I´m starving."
"We just ate, silly," said Celia.
"Like a million years ago. It´s been ages since I last ate something," Jonathan exaggerated.
"I should think that the Pattons will be waiting for us and then we´ll find something to eat together," Mandie said in response to Jonathan´s complain.
"And we should also hurry up and find them because we need to freshen up a little bit before we do anything else," Celia added.
"Girls," Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Common. Let´s go. We have to find them. Tommy said he would be waiting for us at the station," Mandie said rushing towards the station building. "I can´t wait to tell him all about Florida and the ´ghosts´!"
"Miss Amanda Shaw?" a tall, middle aged man, with a moustache and a uniform asked.
"Yes?" Mandie said, wondering who the man could be.
"I am Mr. Jacob Edwards, the Pattons´ butler," he said with a British accent. "I´m afraid they could not come to receive you in person and they send their apologies. That is why they have sent me to get you. The chauffeur is waiting by the carriage and I will take care of your luggage."
"Oh! That´s sad news. I hope everything is alright," Celia said politely.
"Everything is taken care of. Now, if you´ll follow me, I will show you towards the carriage," said Mr. Edwards.
"Thank you," Mandie said. "Will the Pattons be at home when we get there?" she inquired.
"I believe that Mr. Thomas is there waiting for you."
"Oh good!" said Mandie.
While the young people stepped into the very elegant carriage, Mr. Edwards and the chauffeur were loading their luggage and soon were ready to go. For the first half of the trip to the Pattons mansion, everyone was very quiet, but soon the scenery started to change from city streets to the calm Charleston beach.
"I think I might enjoy a swim down by the beach, don´t you think so?" Jonathan said while enjoying the warm sun.
"That sounds like a good idea," Joe said.
"And the ladies are welcome to join us," Jonathan finished with a big grin staring at the girls.
"I think we´ll just enjoy a nice stroll by the beach, right Mandie?" Celia said calmly and ignoring Jonathan.
"Yeah, I think that´ll be best since I don´t know how to swim," Mandie said with a slight pout.
"I´d be honored to teach you," said Jonathan imitating a formal bow and extending his hand while sitting.
Mandie just rolled her eyes and quickly saw that they were getting close to Tommy´s house.
"Oh look! We´re almost there," she said pointing towards the mansion at a distance. "I do hope the Pattons will be there. I haven´t seen Tommy´s family in such a long time."
"I do hope there´s food!" Jonathan teased.
"Yeah, I´m kind'a getting hungry now," Joe said.
"Well, whether you like it or not, we are not going directly to the dining room," Celia said firmly. "We will have to freshen up and get out of these travel suits. It´s warmer that I expected so it will be good if you two change as well."
"Oh man!" Jonathan groaned loudly. "I suffer from a special kind of sickness that makes me have a lot of pain if I don´t eat soon," he continued with a smile trying to enchant Celia.
"Celia," Sallie said, "don´t you think it has been a long time since we last ate. I do believe that Jonathan is correct, but of course we must change first."
"Thank you, mademoiselle," Jonathan said with a big grin and giving Celia an ´I told you so´, mischievous look.
"Oh! Do what you would like, but Mandie, Sallie, and I will go freshen up first, isn´t that right?" Celia asked looking for Mandie and Sallie´s approval.
"Well… I would like to chat with Tommy´s family for a bit," Mandie answered slowly trying not to look Celia directly in the eyes.
"I think I´ll stay with Mandie for a while. I would like to meet the Pattons, and there is so much to explore. Everything is so beautiful," Sallie explained while she looked around.
Celia looked shocked and Jonathan make his grin even bigger.
"Well, I suppose it´ll just be me then," said Celia.
"Really, Celia, what has gotten into you?" Mandie asked.
"There´s no harm in wanting to be a lady once in a while," Celia said calmly.
Soon they were in front of the Patton´s large mansion and as they were stepping down from the carriage Mandie noticed Tommy coming down the steps of the front porch to greet them. He was wearing his usual outfit. Long dark brown pair of trousers with a vest to match them and a white shirt with his cap on top of his curly brown hair.
"Mandie!" Tommy yelled excitedly.
Everyone turned up to see Tommy hurriedly running down the steps to them.
"It´s so good to see you, Mandie, and such a good timing to come also," Tommy talked fast, "I could really use your help in solving a mystery. You´ve probably heard by now. The news are all over town. Everyone's talking about it," Tommy kept going.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tommy, stop! Hold on! Catch your breath!" Mandie told him.
"What are you talking about?" Joe asked.
"What? You don´t know?" Tommy asked surprised.
"Know what?" Mandie asked with curiosity.
"The news! There all over town!" Tommy yelled one again.
"Tommy, we don´t know what you´re talking about," Celia said calmly.
"Okay, then let´s get some food first and then you can tell us," Jonathan said grinning.
"Yeah, I bet you´re hungry," Tommy said leading them up the steps into the house, "common then!"
They settled down in the dining table while Celia went up to her room because she insisted that she should freshen up first.
"So, Tommy, what´s all this about? Explain it carefully," Mandie said slowly.
"Okay, this is what happened. As you know, my father is a representative of Charleston and when my parents were at a town meeting a man came in and accused the Pattons, us, of robbing the towns money because we were involved with pirates, and because of our distant pirate ancestry, that made the information that this man had more trustworthy according to the council…"
Tommy kept going until he finished the story while the young people ate. "So that is the story and I could sure use your help in solving this mystery."
"Well, you found the right lady to do this job. If anyone can figure this out, it´s Mandie," Joe said proudly.
Mandie blushed.
"Thank you for coming, especially now. And also thank you for agreeing to help us," Tommy said.
"What are friends for?" Celia asked as she entered the room after she had freshened up. "Oh, and by the way, I sure could use some food," Celia smiled while she exchanged glances with Jonathan.
"Of course!" Tommy said and rang a bell.
"So, when do we get started on this new mystery?" Jonathan asked.
"As soon as possible!" Mandie was starting to get excited.
Hi! This is my first FanFic! I would LOVE your reviews so I know what I´m getting wrong and what you think of the story. Sorry for any grammar of spelling mistakes. As you can see this is right after the Seaside Rendezvous and I know Celia seemed a little off (probably because I couldn´t think of anything else they could talk about, she seemed a little annoying) Also, I think I should improve Jonathan´s normal and fun character and his mischievous ways. I need practice to be able to write better. Thanks for reading. Look out for the next chapter. Oh! and I´m Booklover (thats me when I still didn´t have an account) so if I review your story I´m the same person. Again, sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes.