Part 29 (2/2)
”She wouldn't have fallen asleep if she had been frightened,” Norah said with a wise nod of her head.
Granny contradicted her flatly. ”I went to sleep and I was frightened,”
she said with a deep, deep sigh. ”I never was more frightened in my life. I don't think I can wait until this Pitts comes. I've got to find Tessie right away and see for myself if she's all right.”
”We'll find her,” promised Joe, as he had promised a hundred times since Tessie had disappeared. ”And we know she's all right. She'll call us again soon. Sure she will! She's still a little afraid. She'll call us again,” he repeated.
Granny whimpered softly. It was such a relief to hear from Tessie. ”I'm not going to wait here!” she said with a sudden determination. ”I don't like it here without Tessie. I don't feel I have any right here without her. I'm not the queen. I'm going home with Johnny and wait for Tessie there!” She had a quick dislike to the luxury of the hotel. She wanted her little cottage where there was work for her to do while she waited, and where she had always had Tessie.
”Tessie won't like that,” objected Joe.
”I don't care! I shan't stay here without her!”
”Let her go,” whispered Norah. ”It will be better for her to be where she can be busy. She has nothing to do here but think.”
Norah helped Granny pack a bag, and Mr. Bill drove them to the cottage.
They were very quiet, and Mr. Bill remembered the traffic laws and did not dash up the street as he had the night before. They were very quiet when they stopped in front of the shabby little house. Granny murmured a wish that they had never left it as she hurried up the walk and up the steps, but at the door she paused.
”Tessie always had the key,” she faltered.
Joe had a key and unlocked the door. When they went in, Granny raised her head. It was as if she sensed a presence. Her nostrils twitched, and her ears strained. She sent a swift glance around the shabby living-room and went on to the kitchen. There was a coffee pot on the stove and an opened package of cereal on the table while in the sink was a cup and saucer and a bowl.
”Tessie's been here!” cried Granny, and she sat down suddenly on a chair. ”She's been here! Thank heaven I didn't give away that coffee and breakfast food when we left. Even if we were queens I kept it. Tessie came here when she ran away from that wicked man.” She waved her hand to show them her proof.
”Well I'll be darned!” muttered Mr. Bill, and he sat down suddenly on the kitchen table.
”Why the d.i.c.kens didn't I come home last night?” demanded Joe in disgust. ”If I had come home I would have found her.”
”Perhaps she's upstairs asleep?” suggested Norah. ”She said she was tired.”
They trooped up the narrow stairs--Granny first. It was Granny who went into the bedroom alone, and at her disappointed exclamation the others ran in, although Granny's disappointed exclamation had told them that Tessie was not there.
”She's gone!” wailed Granny. ”She's gone! And look!” She pointed to Tessie's royal raiment on a chair. ”She took off her queen clothes!” She pulled the closet door open, and searched among the shabby dresses which had belonged to Tessie Gilfooly. There was something pathetic and ghostlike about the little frocks. Mr. Bill tenderly stroked a sleeve.
”She's taken her old black sateen,” announced Granny from the closet.
”The dress she used to wear to the store. She's left her queen clothes and gone off in her old working clothes! Can you believe it? Deary me!”
She sat down on the bed and looked from one to the other. ”I'd like to know what it all means?” she said helplessly.
”I bet I know!” Mr. Bill's downcast face had been growing brighter and brighter. If Mr. Bill had been a barometer you would have seen at a glance that he promised fair weather. ”I bet I know the hunch that made her change her clothes! You just wait, Granny! I'll find her now!”
”Just a minute!” Joe put a forceful hand on Mr. Bill's arm as he would have dashed away. ”Tessie's safe now. We know that if we don't know where she is. But before you follow your hunch you'll take me to your father!”
”Father!” Mr. Bill stared at Joe. Had Joe lost his mind? ”Sure,” he said soothingly. ”That's on my way. Come on!”
XXIII
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