As she hastened out of the room she saw Felipe turn and look at her in surprise.
“He’s wondering where I’ve been—how I got into the office without his seeing me,” she thought. “Poor Jo’s in bad luck again, with both Dr. Blackwell and Felipe awake. I knew we were staying up there too long. I wonder how on earth Florence and I’ll ever manage to get both the doctor and Felipe away from the office long enough to give her a chance to get to her room.”
As she was crossing the hall she met Florence coming from the rear.
The moment they got inside their room Florence asked anxiously, “Where’s Jo—is she all right? I’ve been worried to death over you girls.”
“She’s caught up on the roof again. Your father’s in the office, and she’s scared to come down for fear he’ll ask her some embarrassing questions. Those knickers’d give her away. If I hadn’t had on a dress, I’d have been caught.”
Florence nodded understandingly. “I know he’d be shocked if he saw Jo in knickers. Girls never wear knickers in the city. He’d know she’d been up to something.”
“What’ll we do? We can’t let her stay up there all afternoon. Can’t you think of some plan to get your father and Felipe out of the way a few minutes?”
Florence wrinkled her brows in a thoughtful frown. “I don’t know what to say. Let’s see. The only thing I can think of is to make some coffee and invite Dad to our merienda in the dining room.”
“That’s fine, but what about Felipe?”
“We’ll have to decide that later. Come on; we’ll fix the coffee, and by the time it’s ready maybe we can think of something for him to do.”