Chapter 11- Secrets Revealed and a Surprise Guest
Soon after dinner the four children and Mr. Bond made their way upstairs and went back to the task of looking for the will.
"I wish we knew what it looked like. It might make this easier," Joe said as he and Mr. Bond looked through books.
"Me too. I wish Father had given us some idea of what to look for. He couldn't have planned it like this, could he?" Alex asked Mr. Bond.
"I'm not sure, Miss Alexandra. Your father had a lot of secrets, but it was no secret how much he loved you. Maybe he thought, out of all people, you'd find it since you are his daughter," Mr. Bond said, patting Alex's hand.
"Have the bedrooms on this floor been checked?" Mandie asked.
"On this floor, no," Mr. Bond said.
"What about downstairs where the Indians lived?" Alex asked, cocking her head.
"Well, to my knowledge, your father never went down there," Jason said.
"What if he did it without your knowledge?" Mandie asked frantically.
"You're right we should be thorough," Mr. Bond said, going to the door hidden behind the curtain picture of Talitha Shaw.
They continued to search through papers. It was 2 in the morning and Alex rubbed her eyes tiredly. Looking for the will in here was getting them mo where. If they didn't find it Etta would take Mandie, unless there was another way to stall for time.
"Tired?" Mandie whispered.
"A little. These late hours are finally catching up with me," Alex said as Joe pulled out another framed picture.
"Look at this," Joe said, showing the picture to all of them. The picture was of a beautiful blonde woman. The locket around her neck was similar to Mandie's. "Id fight with my brother over her," Joe said in admiration.
"She's not my mother. My mother was a brunette. I guess she was the woman Father and Uncle Jim fought over. But why would Father keep the picture all these years? Especially after marrying my mother?" Alex asked.
"Do you think this is her? Must have died young," Polly commented. "Oh, how terribly tragic!"
The stranger entered the yard of the huge mansion. After all that had happened he was happy to be home where he belonged. Leaving when he did had been a huge mistake.
Usually he always took a trip in the fall, but this year he shouldn't have. He had had the feeling he should have stayed home, but he hadn't.
He went up the porch steps and attempted to open the front door. The door was locked. The man looked at it in dismay. The door was rarely ever locked. Something must have happened while he was gone for them to lock the door.
Fortunately he knew of another way in. If he had been looking around he would have seen that he was being watched, but he hadn't.
Alex put the picture of the woman beside the picture of her father and uncle before sitting on the floor with the others. "My father's probably not even in the will. Uncle John probably willed it all to Alex if she was ever found," Mandie said glumly.
"Hush. Sit down here and think like Mr. John. We all need new perspectives," Polly said.
"I don't think Father willed everything to me, Mandie. Why would he if he knew that Uncle Jim could have some of it? He couldn't have been that angry, could he?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. I wouldn't if I was angry," Mandie said as Polly and Joe both started and grabbed the two pictures.
"It's the same picture," Polly said, holding Mandie's locket in her other hand. "I bet the other half is hiding underneath," Polly exclaimed.
The man made his way through the dark woods. It had been a long time since he had entered the house through the Indian room below. He had hidden a few things in there, but he had no reason to ever go in there.
He opened the wooden door and entered the cavern. He remembered how scared he was of this place when he was a boy and when he had taken his baby down here when she was two. He had howled in fear and his baby had screamed, burying her face in his chest. But now was not the time to think of a little girl gone forever.
"A man having a picture of him and his brother in a locket is strange," Joe commented as Polly, Alex, and Mandie looked at the locket carefully and then the picture of John and Jim Shaw.
"I think Joe's right. I would put a picture of my mother, not my brother in a locket," Alex said.
"But its sweet," Polly argued.
"Y'all we're sidetracked," Mandie said, closing the locket.
"I don't think so," Joe said.
"I know his brother's underneath. You just can't wear a lopsided locket," Polly said, opening the locket again. Polly moved the picture of Uncle Jim. Instead of John Shaw being underneath, the blonde haired woman looked back at them. They looked at the picture in shock.
"Finally something that makes sense," Joe said, holding the framed picture up to Mandie's face.
"You sure don't look a thing like Etta," Polly said. The resemblance between the woman and Mandie was incredible! If this was who Alex thought it was that meant that Etta had no claim to Mandie.
"Again, sidetracked. The will," Mandie said, pushing the framed photo down.
"Mandie, don't you know what this means? This means you don't have to go with Etta. If she's not your mother then she can't force you to go with her," Alex said as they all stood.
"I'll rejoice later. Right now we have to find the will," Mandie said.
The stranger made it down the cave and into the Indian room. He knew his way in this room and could know where he was going without seeing.
He was confident that he could enter the house through the office when someone knocked him over. He started and turned to face a tall Indian. The moonlight was shining enough to reveal who he was. A look of surprise crossed the Indian's face.
"You late, John Shaw," the Indian said gruffly.
John Shaw smiled in spite of himself. His Indian friend, Ned, was never one to beat around the bush. "I'm sorry. Why is the front door locked?" John asked. He had only insisted on the doors being locked after Alexandra had been stolen from the front yard.
"Jason Bond say that he protect children in house," Ned said. Children? What children? The only children who had ever lived here in his memory had been his brother, Jim, and Alexandra.
"Come. Children need help," Ned said as they went towards the office.
"The treasure trunks guarded secrets, the antler necklace protected secrets, but I already have the antler necklace and it's not protecting anything," Mandie complained as they looked at the picture of Talitha Shaw.
"Maybe we should check the Indian room," Polly suggested.
"Sounds like a good plan," Alex said, looking at the picture of her grandmother. She wondered what Talitha would have done in this case.
"No!" Joe moved the cloth picture aside and opened another smaller door. He pulled out a small chest and handed it to Polly as he closed the door.
"Open it," Polly said as they put the chest on the table. Mandie hesitated as Polly opened it, revealing envelopes all stacked in there.
Alex pulled out one. The name Elizabeth Taft and Asheville, North Carolina was on it. Her mother's name had been Laura Bensons. This was different. It was also different for Mandie too.
"My middle name is Elizabeth," Mandie said in surprise.
"Asheville, North Carolina is only six hours away from here by train," Polly said excitedly.
"Polly, she's obviously dead," Mandie said in a practical voice.
"But someone had to be there to send the letters back to my father," Alex said, looking carefully at the envelopes.
"Who, Alex?" Joe asked.
"I have no idea, but this does mean that Mandie's not leaving tomorrow," Alex smiled at her cousin.
"I guess so," Mandie said as a loud knock filled the office.
"Open this door right now, Children!" Bayne Locke's voice came through the door in an authoritative command.
"They'll do no such thing," Mr. Bond's voice came through, filling them with relief.
"I demand to know what is going on in there. Open this door right now or I shall break it down!" Bayne demanded.
"You'll have to get through me first," Mr. Bond said. A scuffle was soon heard through the door.
The children's attention was drawn away from it as the picture curtain moved. Polly screamed in terror as Ned came into the room.
"Uncle Ned!" Mandie exclaimed as both cousins hugged the Indian.
"Papooses, I bring Uncle John," Ned said, moving aside before Alex could ask what he meant.
A tall man wearing a hat came into the room. He removed the hat. He had long reddish hair; the same color as Alex's. It was the same man in the picture with Uncle Jim, except a little older.
Alex felt a combination of joy and sadness as she looked at him. Joy of him being alive made her happy, but she also wondered if her father still loved her like he had once.
John Shaw paused and frowned as he looked at the girl with blonde hair. It was like looking at Elizabeth and his mother at the same time. He hadn't seen Elizabeth since the day the Taft's moved to Asheville after Jim and Elizabeth's marriage was annulled. This girl was also living proof that Elizabeth's baby hadn't died like he had been told.
His eyes went directly to the redhead next to her. His breath caught as he looked into her dark brown eyes; the eyes that revealed her Indian blood. Alexandra. His daughter was all right and standing right in front of him. She looked happy, but she also looked sad. Her dark eyes had a liquid quality.
Alexandra looked beautiful with her reddish hair, tumbling down her back. The yellow dress she was wearing made her hair brighter and her skin glow. She had always looked like him and his father when she was a baby, but she had inherited Laura's petite frame and the shape of her cheekbones.
Both girls looked toward the door. "Alex," he heard the blonde whisper, squeezing Alexandra's arm.
"Shhh! Wait a minute. What am I saying? Mr. Locke already knows we're in here," Alex said, stooping down and attempting to untie her shoe.
"Alex, what are you doing?" Polly Cornwallis from next door asked, echoing John's confusion.
"Alex. Where had his girl gotten that nickname? It was a name given to boys; not a girl. Especially not his little girl.
"Trying to get this knot out. If I can open the door Maybe I can hit Mr. Locke with the heel. It's either my shoe or the fireplace shovel over there," Alexandra said wearily.
"I don't think that'd work, Alex," the boy in the room said.
"Well, I'm open to suggestions," Alexandra said.
"Why don't you let me try something?" John asked, walking past Alexandra and his niece. He opened the door, watching the fight in the hallway.