"You're not worried about the audition at all, are you," I said.

"Nope."

"Just the kids?"

"Yup."

There was a moment of silence. Then the four of us began to laugh.

"Get through the audition first," said Mrs. Walter.

"Yes, Mom," Quint replied politely.

"Hey, Ma!" yelled Tyler from somewhere in the back of the apartment. "Can we come out now? We can hear you guys laughing."

Tyler and Morgan were allowed back in the living room.

I looked at my watch. "Oh! I have to go!" I exclaimed.

"I'll walk you home," said Quint. He turned to his family. "See you later. I'll be back soon."

Quint and I left the Walters' apartment. We stepped into the hallway. "Will I see you tomorrow?" I asked as we waited for the elevator. "I have to go back to Connecticut on Sat.u.r.day morning."

"Sat.u.r.day morning?" Quint looked dismayed. "I don't believe it. We're going to visit my grandparents tomorrow. We won't come home until Sat.u.r.day afternoon. Or maybe even Sunday."

"That means we have to say good-bye now/' I whispered.

"Yeah."

The elevator had not arrived yet. Quint and I were leaning against the wall, our shoulders touching. Slowly, Quint turned to face me. He took my hands in his. Then he tipped my chin up ... and kissed me gently.

My first kiss.

"We'll keep in touch, won't we?" I asked.

"We better," Quint replied.

Stacey.

Chapter 22.

Our Friday outing with Alistaire and Rowena turned into quite an affair. First, Laine and the rest of my friends decided to come along with us. Mal and Claudia were finished with their art cla.s.ses and, after all, it was our last day together in New York. This was not the morning surprise, though.

The morning surprise began when Mary Anne and I entered the Harringtons' apartment to pick up Alistaire and Rowena. (The two of us went by ourselves. We thought we would overwhelm the kids if all eight of us showed up. Also, we wanted Mr. and Mrs. Harrington's permission for our friends to spend the day with us.) As you might imagine, Mary Anne and I were pretty nervous. We had to have "the talk" with Alistaire and Rowena's parents. We knew we did. Rowena and Alistaire were being followed, and the Harringtons should be aware of it. What if the guy followed them back to England?

"Let's just hope Mr. and Mrs. Harrington are at home," I said to Mary Anne as we waited for someone to answer the doorbell.

"Do we have to hope?" asked Mary Anne. "I don't want to give them this news. It's too weird."

"We already decided," I said. "We're going to do it."

At that moment, the door was unlocked and opened.

In front of us stood Mr. Harrington.

"Hullo!" he said cheerfully.

I stiffened. Mary Anne took a step back.

Poor, poor Mr. Harrington, I thought. This could be his last happy moment. In a few seconds, he would find out that his beloved children were in mortal danger, being followed by a kidnapper, a dastardly criminal, possibly an international spy.

"Hi," I said in a small voice.

Mary Anne and I entered the apartment. We stood rigidly by the door.

"Well, now. What's on the docket for today?" asked Mr. Harrington.

Mary Anne just stood stock-still. So I answered, "Oh, a lot of things. But Mr. Harrington?"

"Yes?"

"Mary Anne and I need to talk to you about something."

"Is it your pay?" asked Mrs. Harrington. She bustled into the living room, fastening her earrings as she spoke.

"Oh, no," I said. "I mean, we do need to be paid today, since we leave tomorrow, but the amount you mentioned is fine. See, it's . . . There's a little problem," I said, faltering, and wishing that Mary Anne would speak up. I knew she wouldn't, though.

"With the children?" asked Mr. Harrington, frowning.

"Well, yes - "

"Are they misbehaving?"

"Oh, no! They're wonderful. The problem is ... well, it sounds sort of hard to believe. ... I guess the best thing is just to come out and tell you." I paused. "Someone is following Rowena and Alistaire."

The Harringtons glanced at each other. I knew it. They thought I was crazy. If only Mary Anne would open her mouth, then they'd think she was crazy, too. I wouldn't be the only one. Oh, well. I'd started this and I had to finish it.

"It's a man," I went on. "We see him everywhere. But only when the children are with us. That's how we know he's following them and not us." (The Harringtons were smiling by this time, but I continued anyway.) "The guy wears sungla.s.ses and a rain hat, no matter what the weather. He's never done a thing to the kids - he hasn't even come near them - he's just always around. I know we should have told you about him sooner, and we were going to. Honest. But we weren't sure we were being followed, and we didn't want to accuse anyone of something awful like that if it might not be true." I was rushing on, talking like a record playing at fast speed. Frankly, I was blabbering. "Maybe we should have told you, but we just weren't sure. I'm sorry if we put the children in any danger, and I hope you aren't mad at us. See, it wasn't until Monday that we thought about the microfilm and the diamonds and the airplane and stuff. And we were going to tell you that afternoon, but you weren't home and you didn't need us again until today and I guess we could have called you but we didn't because we thought we should tell you in person so - "

"Stacey!" exclaimed Mrs. Harrington. Laughing, she held up one hand. "Slow down. You and Mary Anne didn't do anything wrong." She turned toward the hallway that led to the back of the apartment. "Bill?" she called.

Bill? Who was Bill?

This man walked into the living room. I had never seen him before. He must be an over- night guest, I thought. ... Or a spy. Oh, no. Maybe the Harringtons were the bad guys. They were spies and this man was their agent and now the three of them were going to hold Mary Anne and me captive. Probably the housekeeper was in on the plot, too.

I looked at Mary Anne. She looked at me and shrugged.

"Don't you recognize him?" asked Mrs. Harrington.

Mary Anne shook her head.

I said, "Who? Bill? No. Should we recognize him?"

Mr. Harrington nodded to Bill, who nodded back, and left the room. When he returned, he was carrying a rain hat and a pair of dark gla.s.ses. He put them on.

"Aughhh!" screamed Mary Anne. "There's that guy!"

"Mary Anne, that's Bill," I said. I turned to the Harringtons and asked, "Who's Bill? I don't get it." And please don't kidnap us, I added silently.

"Bill is our bodyguard," replied Mr. Harrington.

"Your bodyguard?" said Mary Anne with a gasp.

"Yes. You girls were right in thinking that Rowena and Alistaire should be watched," Mr. Harrington continued. "It's unfortunate that they must be, but thaf s the state of our affairs. In England, we are very much in the public eye. And here in the United States, Mrs. Harrington and I are involved in international politics. We can't take chances. So Bill is the bodyguard for Alistaire and Rowena."

"Why - why didn't you tell us about him?" asked Mary Anne, who apparently was recovering from a great shock.

"Or why didn't the kids tell us about him?" I asked. "They know who Bill is, don't they? They must recognize him."

"Oh, they know Bill," replied Mrs. Harrington. "They know him all too well. And, they like him, but he makes them feel self-conscious. They're very aware of him when they're out in public. Having a bodyguard reminds them that they're in a different situation than most children are."

"So we thought we would try to give Rowena and Alistaire a real vacation," continued Mr. Harrington. "They know Bill is here with us, of course, but they don't know he's been following you around. And they would have recognized him, which is why he wore the hat and the gla.s.ses."

"But why didn't you tell MS about Bill?" Mary Anne asked again.

"Because we thought you'd be nervous, that you'd overprotect the children, and we just wanted them to have a good time."

Mary Anne turned to Bill. "Will you be following us today?"

"Yes," replied Bill. He smiled. I could tell that he liked Alistaire and Rowena, which is why these thoughts began clicking along in my mind, and suddenly I cried, "Bill! Did you do something with the balloons that Alistaire and Rowena got at the street fair and then tied to the bike rack at the museum?"

Bill looked sheepish. "Well," he said, "I didn't want the children to be disappointed, and I knew they would be if they left the museum and found that their balloons had gone missing. So I checked on the balloons once, saw that they were gone, and ran back to the fair. I bought two more, but I think I got the wrong colors."

"One wrong color," said Mary Anne, laughing.

She looked as relieved as I felt. I began to laugh, too, and was soon joined by the Har-ringtons and Bill.

"Hullo! You're here!" cried Rowena, running into the living room.

She was followed by Alistaire, calling, "Brilliant! Is it time to go?"

"Yup," I replied. "We planned a big day."

I asked the Harringtons if they minded if our friends came along, and they said it would be fine. So we set off.

" 'Bye, Bill!" called Rowena and Alistaire as the door closed behind us.

I think we walked about twenty miles that day. Our first stop (well, we took cabs there) was FAO Schwarz. Rowena said she could not wait one more moment to see it. "And," she added, "I need a toy."

"Well, you're in luck," I told her. "Your mother and father said that you and Alistaire could each buy one toy, as long as the toys aren't too expensive."

"They did? Brilliant!" exclaimed Rowena.

As soon as we entered the store, Rowena's eyes lit up. "Ohhh," was all she said.

And Alistaire whispered, "So many animals." (He meant stuffed ones.) I thought for sure we were in trouble as we roamed the store and the kids kept examining things that were priced at hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But when Mary Anne finally said, "Okay, guys. What do you want to buy?" Alistaire chose a small stuffed dinosaur and Rowena chose a Skipper doll. Whew.

As we were leaving the store, I caught sight of Bill stepping off the escalator. I waved to him and he waved back. Then he straightened his rain hat and tried to look inconspicuous but official.

We wandered through Bloomingdale's. While Rowena sampled perfume, Bill hovered over a cosmetics counter, pretending to look interested in some lipstick.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It wasn't easy, but a waitress managed to seat the ten of us together. Bill sat by himself at a little table across the room. He looked pretty odd wearing his hat while he ate, and especially wearing his sungla.s.ses, because the inside of the Hard Rock Cafe is on the dark side. A few people stared at him, but at least Alistaire and Rowena didn't recognize him. (I waved to him again. I couldn't help it.) After a long day of shopping and sightsee- ing, we returned the Harrington kids to their apartment. Mr. Harrington was home, and he gave Mary Anne and me our pay.

Then we said good-bye to Alistaire and Rowena.

And on our way out, we said good-bye to Bill, who was on his way in.

Claudia.

Chapter 23.

My friends and I (plus Laine) ended our vacation with a terrific evening. First we got all dressed up, and then Stacey, Dawn, and I went to the c.u.mmingses' apartment. The eight of us looked like models or something. Even Kristy. She was wearing a long cotton sweater, black leggings, and black shoes. (She had borrowed everything from Laine.) The rest of us were wearing short skirts or dresses, leggings - you know, the layered look. A lot of our clothes were new, bought while we were on vacation.

"Where are you girls off to?" asked Mr. c.u.mmings. As if he didn't know.

"Our night on the town," replied Laine.

Mr. c.u.mmings dapped his hand to his head. "You know? I completely forgot!"

"Dad, you didn't. What about the limo?" cried Laine.

"Laine, I think he's kidding," I whispered.

"Are you kidding?" she asked.

"Of course," said Mr. c.u.mmings. "The limo is waiting outside. It's at your disposal from now until the play is over. The driver knows he's supposed to bring you directly here from the theater."