“Not a canopied bed!”
“Reckon it was,” Mr. Cotton answered carelessly. “Well, see you tomorrow if I’m not called back to the monastery to do another rush job! So long!”
Before the startled Penny could ask another question, he hurried off down the darkening street.
CHAPTER
15
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
Jake Cotton’s careless remark about the canopied bed at the monastery filled Penny with deep excitement.
“Perhaps Old Julia isn’t as crazy as she seems!” she thought. “The place does have a canopied bed, and she may have been trying to tell me something about it!”
Now more than ever, Penny was determined to revisit the monastery that night. Many unanswered questions plagued her. Not only was she curious to witness a cult ceremony, but also she wished to learn the identity of the strange girl who lived on the premises. And she hoped to view the chapel room with the freight lift and if possible, to see the canopied bed of which Old Julia had prattled so unintelligibly.
Hastening into the house, Penny sought Mrs. Weems in the kitchen.
“Anything I can do to help with dinner?” she inquired.
The housekeeper, in the act of putting a kettle of potatoes on the fire to boil, eyed her with instant suspicion.