Read Online The Mystery of the Missing Heiress by Julie Campbell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Julie Campbell
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other stockings in the laundry basket,” Mrs. Belden answered, stopping in the doorway. “The stockings and socks you were supposed to sort and put away.”
“Oh, Moms, I did forget. I’ve had a million things to think about lately. Moms—”
“Yes?”
“Jim’s cousin is one of the most beautiful girls I ever saw, and so nice. No wonder Mrs. Schimmel was fond of her, especially when she practically raised her. She wears her hair straight back from her forehead, like this.” Trixie struggled to straighten her unruly short curls. “I wish I had been born with straight hair. The only place curly hair looks good is on poodles.”
T like your hair the way it is. Here are your stockings. I’ll ask Bobby to sort the rest of them. You’d better run now. Honey will be waiting for you.”
“We’re taking our bikes. I’ll probably stop at Honey’s house on the way back, that is if the other Bob-Whites are there. ’Bye, Moms!”
It was a lovely, crisp, sunny morning in late summer. Sumac was just beginning to redden around the edges—the first reminder, Trixie thought, that summer was waning and soon junior-senior high would begin its fall semester.
Her thoughts raced on as she pedaled her way along Glen Road. At the turn near Manor House, she met Jim just leaving in the station wagon. He was going to pick up Juliana, she knew. They would go on to the courthouse to look after his cousin’s business.
There wasn’t another person in the world like Jim. He never once even thought of the large sum of money that would have been his if Juliana hadn’t shown up. Trixie was sure of this. Money didn’t seem to mean a thing to him. He’d even forgotten the half million dollars his great-uncle had left him. Well, maybe he hadn’t forgotten it, but certainly he never thought of using it for anything except the school for runaway boys he planned for the future, when he had finished college.
Trixie thought of the frightened runaway Jim himself had been when she and Honey first found him hiding in the old abandoned mansion that had belonged to his great-uncle. He was hiding from that Jones man, his stepfather. It was terrible that anyone could have been as mean as his stepfather had been to Jim— especially Jim. He was just the greatest.
So engrossed was Trixie in the memory of that unhappy time that she bumped her bike into the veranda step at Manor House and almost fell.
Honey, waiting in her Candy Striper uniform, ran to help her. “Did you hurt yourself?” she asked. “Weren’t you watching where you were going?”
“Huh-uh.” Trixie shook her head. “I was thinking of so many things. My mind was miles away. Don’t you wish that the Bob-Whites could just go on and on as we are now, just the same age we are now?”
“Heavens! What makes you so serious? It isn’t like you, Trixie, especially on such a pretty day. Did you meet Jim as he drove away?”
“Yes. I guess I was thinking about him and about Juliana and about... oh, just everything. I’m to take the book cart around today, Honey. What are you going to do?”
“Scrub up, I guess. I always get to do some scrubbing. I don’t mind.”
Chatting, planning, and sometimes silent, the two girls rode down Glen Road into the little town of Sleepyside and around a comer to where the hospital stood.
The morning was to be far from routine.
Trixie didn’t take the book cart around, and Honey didn’t do any scrubbing up. Instead something happened that was to affect their lives profoundly for a long time to come.
All the way home they said little; there was so much to tell, but it could wait until the Bob-Whites all got together.
“Stay for lunch,” Honey begged Trixie as, flushed and excited, they parked their bikes in the driveway at Manor House. “Jim’s back; the Bob-White station wagon is here. Maybe Mart and Brian are here, too. Not one of them will believe what we have to tell them!”
As it turned out, their news would have to wait
“Oh, Moms, I did forget. I’ve had a million things to think about lately. Moms—”
“Yes?”
“Jim’s cousin is one of the most beautiful girls I ever saw, and so nice. No wonder Mrs. Schimmel was fond of her, especially when she practically raised her. She wears her hair straight back from her forehead, like this.” Trixie struggled to straighten her unruly short curls. “I wish I had been born with straight hair. The only place curly hair looks good is on poodles.”
T like your hair the way it is. Here are your stockings. I’ll ask Bobby to sort the rest of them. You’d better run now. Honey will be waiting for you.”
“We’re taking our bikes. I’ll probably stop at Honey’s house on the way back, that is if the other Bob-Whites are there. ’Bye, Moms!”
It was a lovely, crisp, sunny morning in late summer. Sumac was just beginning to redden around the edges—the first reminder, Trixie thought, that summer was waning and soon junior-senior high would begin its fall semester.
Her thoughts raced on as she pedaled her way along Glen Road. At the turn near Manor House, she met Jim just leaving in the station wagon. He was going to pick up Juliana, she knew. They would go on to the courthouse to look after his cousin’s business.
There wasn’t another person in the world like Jim. He never once even thought of the large sum of money that would have been his if Juliana hadn’t shown up. Trixie was sure of this. Money didn’t seem to mean a thing to him. He’d even forgotten the half million dollars his great-uncle had left him. Well, maybe he hadn’t forgotten it, but certainly he never thought of using it for anything except the school for runaway boys he planned for the future, when he had finished college.
Trixie thought of the frightened runaway Jim himself had been when she and Honey first found him hiding in the old abandoned mansion that had belonged to his great-uncle. He was hiding from that Jones man, his stepfather. It was terrible that anyone could have been as mean as his stepfather had been to Jim— especially Jim. He was just the greatest.
So engrossed was Trixie in the memory of that unhappy time that she bumped her bike into the veranda step at Manor House and almost fell.
Honey, waiting in her Candy Striper uniform, ran to help her. “Did you hurt yourself?” she asked. “Weren’t you watching where you were going?”
“Huh-uh.” Trixie shook her head. “I was thinking of so many things. My mind was miles away. Don’t you wish that the Bob-Whites could just go on and on as we are now, just the same age we are now?”
“Heavens! What makes you so serious? It isn’t like you, Trixie, especially on such a pretty day. Did you meet Jim as he drove away?”
“Yes. I guess I was thinking about him and about Juliana and about... oh, just everything. I’m to take the book cart around today, Honey. What are you going to do?”
“Scrub up, I guess. I always get to do some scrubbing. I don’t mind.”
Chatting, planning, and sometimes silent, the two girls rode down Glen Road into the little town of Sleepyside and around a comer to where the hospital stood.
The morning was to be far from routine.
Trixie didn’t take the book cart around, and Honey didn’t do any scrubbing up. Instead something happened that was to affect their lives profoundly for a long time to come.
All the way home they said little; there was so much to tell, but it could wait until the Bob-Whites all got together.
“Stay for lunch,” Honey begged Trixie as, flushed and excited, they parked their bikes in the driveway at Manor House. “Jim’s back; the Bob-White station wagon is here. Maybe Mart and Brian are here, too. Not one of them will believe what we have to tell them!”
As it turned out, their news would have to wait
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