Amanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting

by Darlene Foster

  Amanda in Spain

  The Girl in the Painting

  Darlene Foster

  ireadiwrite Publishing

  2011

  ireadiwrite Publishing

  Copyright © 2011 ireadiwrite Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This ireadiwrite Publishing edition is published by

  arrangement with Darlene Foster.

  ireadiwrite Publishing – www.ireadiwrite.com

  First Digital Edition

  Amanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting

  ISBN 978–1–926760–50-6

  Published in Canada with international distribution.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design: Michelle Halket

  Cover Photography: © Darlene Foster © Paula Gent courtesy of PhotoXpress © Anyka courtesy of CanStockPhoto

  La Infanta Margarita painted by Diego Velázquez: 1599-1660

  I would like to dedicate this book to Linda, who believed in dreams.

  Map of Spain

  Chapter 1

  Amanda smiled at the young girl across the room. She looked back at Amanda with unblinking, round eyes from a pale face framed with chestnut ringlets that tumbled past her shoulders. Her elaborate red and silver dress was much too big and too grown up for someone her age.

  “Amanda, hurry up. Mom and Dad are going into the next room,” shouted Leah.

  “I’m coming,” answered Amanda, as she gave the mysterious girl one last glance. She was about nine or ten; younger than Amanda. She looked friendly and Amanda had an urge to wave good-bye, but that would look just plain silly. The person smiling at her was part of a painting in the middle of Madrid’s Prado Museum.

  When the email arrived from Leah in England inviting her to spend a holiday in Spain with her and her parents, Amanda Jane Ross jumped at the chance to visit another country. She looked up all kinds of information about Spain on the internet. Now that she was actually there, the massive buildings and the gigantic, marble sculptures in the middle of the streets seemed much older and larger than she imagined. She felt like she had gone back to the time of the Crusades and expected, at any minute, a knight to come charging around a corner on his white stallion.

  The melodious sound of Spanish spoken by the friendly citizens made her feel welcome. They would often shout “Hola!” which Amanda knew meant, “Hello.”

  Leah and Amanda walked through the marble hallways and galleries of the museum, looking at the paintings and sculptures. Happy to be together again, they had so much to talk about. Like what they had been doing since they last saw each other, how they first met in the United Arab Emirates and their adventures in the desert.

  “This will be a quieter holiday,” reported Amanda.

  Leah laughed, “Yes, I remember how you got us both into trouble last time, my crazy Canadian friend.”

  That night when Amanda went to bed in the hotel room, her head full of the many wonderful things she had seen and done that day, her mind kept going back to the girl in the painting. Amanda had a keen desire to get to know her, but since she had been painted over three hundred years ago, that was quite impossible. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she remembered the sign underneath the painting read Doña Margarite. She decided to look up some information about her on the internet when she got a chance.

  The next morning after breakfast, Amanda, Leah and her parents went shopping. The warm smell of coffee greeted Amanda as they walked down a street lined with outdoor tables and chairs, occupied with people sipping coffee and reading newspapers.

  Amanda looked up. Above the shops, people stood on balconies looking down at them. They looked real, except they were dressed in old-fashioned clothes with hair piled up high on top of their heads. Similar to the paintings she saw yesterday. They also didn’t move. One of the figures smiled at Amanda, turned around, and went inside. Definitely not a statue – but a real girl wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt. The strange thing was, her face, and her smile, looked exactly like the girl in the painting.

  “Come along Amanda. Why are you so interested in all these old buildings and things? Wait until you see the lovely shop over here. You will just go mad over the fashions.” Leah grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

  Amanda wasn’t sure she actually saw what she thought she saw – a modern day girl, who looked exactly like Doña Margarite.

  After some shopping, they had a drink and a snack at an outdoor cafe. Amanda and Leah drank descafeinado con leche, coffee with milk and no caffeine. Amanda loved the smooth, milky, coffee flavour and knew she would want another while she was in Spain.

  ♔ ♔ ♔

  That afternoon they boarded a bus and left the city of Madrid behind. The bus twisted and turned its way through the rocky hills traveling higher and higher into the mountains. Amanda and Leah took little notice of the treeless, barren countryside. They were just too busy catching up.

  After some time, Amanda looked out the window and asked Leah’s mom, “Where are we going? It doesn’t look like anyone lives around here.”

  “We are going to Hotel Cueva Del Fraile for the night.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means the Cave of Friars. It used to be a monastery,” explained Mrs. Anderson. “Years ago, they often built monasteries in remote areas away from other people so the friars, or monks, could live a life of silence and solitude.”

  “I don’t think I would have liked that. I like being around people too much and I like to talk.”

  “We gathered that,” said Leah’s dad with a smile.

  Leah’s dad was an engineer who worked in different parts of the world. Often Leah and her mother traveled with him. Amanda hadn’t met him before this trip.

  “Why does your dad have a different accent than you and your mom?”

  Amanda loved to listen to Leah and her mom speak with their crisp, British accent. Every word pronounced clearly.

  “Oh, that’s because he comes from Glasgow. That’s in Scotland you know and they speak funny there.” Leah laughed and ducked as her dad pretended to smack her.

  “You’ll have a wee kick around the backside if you’re not careful lassie,” he said, making his Scottish accent more pronounced.

  They arrived at the Cave of Friars in the dark so the outside wasn’t very visible. Inside, the dark-wood covered walls made it warm, cozy, and just a little spooky.

  “Wow! This is way cool!” exclaimed Amanda.

  In the middle of the main room stood a large stone fireplace; with an even larger bellows in front of it. An enormous dented copper pot rested beside it.

  “Do you think they cooked their dinner in that pot?” asked Amanda.

  “Maybe they cooked people in it!” Leah’s dad was such a joker.

  Chapter 2

  The narrow, dark hallway to the room Leah and Amanda shared was scary, but cool. It took them up and down short stairs and they never knew what to expect around the many dark and creepy corners. For part of the way they even walked outside along a balcony overlooking a garden in the centre courtyard. Rusty old trunks, pottery jugs, vases, paintings and heavy wooden deacon’s benches, with high straight backs that didn’t look very comfortable, lined the hallway.

  “I love it,” cri
ed Amanda when they opened the door to their room. She fell backwards on the fluffy quilt covering a wooden bed and stared at the oak-beamed ceiling.

  “I have a feeling the Friar’s beds wouldn’t have been this comfy.”

  She opened one of the shuttered windows and looked down into the mysterious dark garden. “I want to explore this place tomorrow.”

  Leah groaned. “I am so tired, what with all the walking around the museum, sightseeing and shopping. How can you even think of exploring a stupid old hotel?”

  “But this isn’t just any old hotel. It used to be a monastery – with a ghost!”

  “How do you know there is a ghost here?”

  “A lady on the bus said there was a hotel spook.”

  Leah shook her head. “Well, I don’t believe it. Let’s get something to eat and forget about ghosts and spooks or whatever. I’m starving.”

  “Look at this wonderful old wardrobe. It is just like the one in The Chronicles of Narnia, isn’t it? Let’s look inside.”

  “Not now Amanda, Mom and Dad will be waiting.”

  On the way to the dining area, they passed through many hallways and stairs again.

  “You could easily get lost in here – and maybe see a ghost or a spook.” Leah giggled as she hooked her arm around Amanda’s.

  “My camera! I must have forgotten it in the room. I just have to take some pictures.”

  Leah stared at her as Amanda said, “Go ahead and meet your parents in the dining room. They’ll be waiting. I’ll be right back.”

  Amanda turned around and ran back toward the room.

  She found her way to the room without any problem. She recognized a clay pot in a corner where she needed to turn, a floral display at another corner and an ornate wooden trunk at the end of the hallway where she turned into the passageway that led her to the room. The big old key moaned as she turned it in the lock.

  She dug into her backpack for her camera.

  “Take lots of pictures to show us when you get back,” her parents told her when they handed her a brand new digital camera as a parting gift.

  Her parents never went on holidays. They were just too busy with their jobs. Heck, it seemed as though they were too busy to talk to her. They were even too busy to have another kid so she would have someone to do things with. She would have loved a little brother or sister.

  She glanced at the elaborately carved, dark wood wardrobe in the corner. Wondering how old it was, she reached out to stroke the wood and noticed the door slightly ajar. She pulled it open. The empty metal clothes hangers made a tinkling sound as they danced against each other.

  Amanda gasped and jumped back. Curled up on the bottom, a young girl with wide, frightened eyes and curly, chestnut hair, looked up at her.

  The girl from the balcony in Madrid.

  The girl from the picture!

  Chapter 3

  “Wh – What are you d-doing here?” stammered Amanda, as she tried to catch her breath. “How did you get here?”

  The young girl’s lips trembled as she held her finger to them. She appeared to be on the verge of tears. Amanda lowered her voice and reached out her hand to the frightened girl.

  “Don’t cry. Come out of the closet. I won’t hurt you.”

  The young girl allowed herself to be helped out of the wardrobe while Amanda tried to stay calm. “What’s your name? What are you doing hiding in my closet?”

  “My name is Dona,” the girl said in careful English with a Spanish accent. “I am hiding from some people who are looking for me. I have not done anything wrong but I cannot be found. I came in the room when the cleaning lady left the door open and I hid in the closet. I am sorry for the bother.”

  She looked at Amanda and relaxed a little. “I saw you in Madrid. I knew you would be kind to me.”

  “You can’t stay in the closet, someone will discover you.”

  “I know. I must escape tonight. Will you help me?”

  Amanda couldn’t resist the pleading eyes that made the younger girl look like a helpless bunny.

  “Look, I have to go. My friends are waiting for me in the dining room. Stay here until I get back. When you hear the sound of the key in the lock, go back in the closet. After my friend falls asleep I will help you leave.”

  “Muchas gracias, Senorita.”

  Amanda knew that meant, ‘thank you’.

  Just as she was about to open the door, she turned around, “You’re probably hungry. I’ll try to bring some food back.”

  Dona smiled but said nothing.

  Amanda tried to be cautious as she quickly made her way back to the dining room on the first floor. Or was it the basement? Or the mezzanine? It was so hard to tell in this place. On the way, she thought about how she might deal with the situation she had gotten herself into. It probably wouldn’t be a big problem. Leah already said she was tired so she should be able to slip Dona out after Leah fell asleep. Everyone else would be asleep too so she could easily whisk her down the hallway and outside. Geez, she didn’t even know where the girl planned to go and if there would be someone waiting for her. Well, that really wasn’t her problem. All she needed to do was get her out of the hotel. Then she could return to her wonderful holiday and no one would even know.

  Where was she? She had stopped paying attention and took a wrong turn. Darn, now she would be really late. She turned a corner and – bang – her face hit the belly of a large man. She looked up as he peered down at her with small, close-set eyes.

  “Sorry dear,” he said with a scowl. “Where do you think you are going?”

  “I was going down to dinner but got lost. Can you tell me how to get to the dining room? Please?”

  The man grabbed her arm and turned her around. His hand felt rough like sandpaper. “Go back to the end of this hall, turn left, walk to the stairs, go up one flight of stairs and then turn right. Follow that hallway until you get to another flight of stairs. Go down them and turn left. At the end of that hallway is the dining room. Did you get that?”

  “Yes, thank you.” Why did he sound so threatening? As if she would be punished if she didn’t follow his instructions. His accent sounded like Leah’s dad but somewhat different.

  As it happened, the man’s instructions were dead on. Out of breath, she rushed into the dining room as the first course was being served.

  “Where were you? Why did it take you so long?” asked a concerned Leah.

  “I took a wrong turn and got lost in this labyrinth. Fortunately, I bumped into a man who directed me to the dining room. What are we eating? I’m starved.”

  Chapter 4

  Just as Amanda thought, Leah fell asleep almost immediately. When she heard her gentle snoring, she got out of bed and crept over to the wardrobe. She opened the door, put her finger to her lips and held out her other hand to the younger girl sitting in the corner. Dona produced a small smile and willingly took the outstretched hand.

  The heavy bedroom door opened with a low groan. Amanda looked back at Leah, and was pleased to see her still in dreamland. The girls looked both ways down the dimly lit hallway and found it empty. They started to walk, quickly but quietly. They were about to make the first turn when Dona gasped and pulled Amanda back. A few seconds later, a large man with a ponytail wearing a trench coat walked past. He was so close they could hear his heavy breathing, but he didn’t see the girls trembling in the shadows. Amanda recognized him as the unpleasant man she bumped into on her way to dinner.

  Dona’s eyes were wide with fear. ‘This must be who she’s running from?’ Amanda thought with an uneasy feeling. When they could no longer hear footsteps, Amanda took hold of Dona’s trembling hand and pulled her towards what she thought was the way outside. Suddenly they heard heavy footsteps coming behind them.

  ‘Oh no, not that guy again!’

  The two girls started to run – down hallways, up stairs, around corners, down stairs, more hallways – there seemed to be no end. No matter how fast they ran the footsteps
got louder and closer. They spotted an open door, ran through it and found themselves in a dark room, lit with only one candle. The light flickered under a painting of a monk. Amanda moved closer to take a better look at the painting. The monk’s heavy, brown hood shrouded his face and he held something in his hands.

  She narrowed her eyes to make out what he held. She jumped back. A skull! Was she having a nightmare? She looked over at Dona. Her beautiful face was crushed with fear. Amanda put her arm around her trembling young friend, as the dreaded footsteps went past the room.

  They couldn’t get out of the spooky chamber fast enough. They ran the opposite way of the footsteps, along more corridors – each one promising a way out but only leading to another dark hallway. ‘This is what it must be like to be lost in a maze,’ thought Amanda. Then they heard footsteps again. This time two sets, one from each direction. They were trapped like bugs in a jar.

  They stood in front of a partly open window. Amanda pushed it open as far as it would go. She looked at Dona, who nodded, and then pushed the young girl through the window onto a terracotta clay tiled roof. Dona then grabbed Amanda’s hand and pulled her through the small opening.

  “There – over there – that’s them,” shouted a man’s voice.

  Although the girls knew the man wouldn’t fit through the window, they still ran across the damp tiles. Amanda slipped, fell and rolled to the edge. Dona tried to stop her from rolling off but she slipped too. Amanda grabbed at the edge of the roof. Her fingers couldn’t fit around the thick clay tiles and she soon landed with a thud on the ground in the courtyard. Lucky it was not a long way down. Dona landed beside her.

  “Are you okay?” whispered Amanda.

  Dona nodded, “Si.”

  Two round lights from a car shone by a nearby gate. Dona jumped up.