Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,21

crisis. We were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off, yelling for a ladder. But she ran inside with Mark in tow and had him pull down the drapes from the front room."

Dana looked at her feet, noticing for the first time the thick brocade fabric they had used to catch them. It was now looking a little frayed around the edges where fists had gripped it.

"It was the closest thing around that looked strong enough to use as a makeshift net. There wasn't time for a ladder, assuming we could find one," Rose said.

Everyone jumped when, with a groan and a final shudder, the wrought iron railing of the widow's walk gave up its tenacious hold on the castle and crashed into the bushes beside them.

Looking at Rose with heartfelt gratitude, Dana pulled the older woman into a group hug with Josie, who had refused to give up her hold.

"Thank you," Dana whispered fervently. "Thank you."

"Hey, hey, let's not get mushy." Rose pulled away gruffly, clearly embarrassed. "You'd have done the same."

"Dana, what happened?" asked Grace.

Expectant, curious faces looked at Dana. "Why don't I tell you about it inside?" Dana tugged ineffectually at Josie's arms, the girl still clinging to her like a barnacle. She was afraid she'd have to be surgically removed. "Shouldn't it be about time for lunch?"

Seemingly the result of some kind of second-sight, a light and simple lunch had been laid out, consisting of steaming bowls of thick and buttery tomato bisque and lightly toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Chilled pitchers of fruit punch complimented the meal. After everyone was seated around the table, Oscar turned to his niece. "Josie, what were you doing up there? I know I told you, I didn't want anyone up there."

"Uncle Oscar, the door was open-”she began, but Dana interjected quickly.

"That was my fault," she insisted. "We saw the door was opened and that someone else had been up the stairs. I convinced Josie to do a little exploring. It seemed," she shrugged helplessly, "like fun."

"Yeah,”Josie shuddered, her eyes bright with remembering, "Until someone shut us up in there and began stalking us."

The already keen interest around the table sharpened at her words. "We thought it might have been one of you playing a gag." Dana decided not to mention the intuitive sense she'd had that whoever had followed them on the stairs had meant them real harm. She was aware that Josie had felt the same thing and hoped the girl would follow her lead. "I guess maybe we just overreacted."

"Overreacted!" Uncharacteristically silent for the past several minutes, Jack finally exploded. "Jeepers, you were almost killed!"

Josie's face blanched white and Dana cut Jack a warning glance.

Noah put a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down. "Hey, man, chill out, okay?" With a disgusted snort, Jack stormed out of the dining room. They all stared after him, everyone except Noah and Dana surprised by this unexpected display of temper. Noah shrugged an apology. "He had a bad scare. It makes him cranky."

"What about us?" Josie burst out uncharitably. "Someone tried to scare us to death and that was before we fell off the castle."

Everyone traded looks with everyone else and then looked back at Dana and Josie. Nobody admitted anything.

"I can't say for certain where everyone was just prior to the collapse of the widow's walk,”Oscar said, "but I do know that everyone participated in getting you down." He looked around the table. "We were all right there outside."

"Maybe," Brett, offered, strangely tentative, "you just imagined it?"

Dana stared at him incredulously. "Both of us?"

He shrugged. "Mass hysteria?"

"Could there be someone else in the castle?" Grace asked breathlessly.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Have you been reading those gothic romances again?"

"The only one here, besides all of us, is the Cook. She's an elderly lady that I highly doubt would be chasing young girls on darkened stairwells," Oscar said.

"A caretaker?" Grace continued stubbornly. "A handyman? The gardener?"

Oscar simply shook his head. "Josie and I have been doing all of the work ourselves. I haven't been able to afford part-time help since the contractors finished their repairs."

"What about a hobo or homeless man?" Grace said.

"With so many people constantly about? He would have been discovered by now."

"Maybe it was a ghost,”Noah said with a laugh, then subsided when no one else laughed, too.

"Oh, good God,”growled Austin.

"Hey, I was kidding."

The lunch conversation petered off after that with no satisfactory conclusions reached. Dana excused herself to her room.