Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,35

Grace asked me to help her out. She bought this book, you see-"

Much excited about the very notion of valuable antiques, Oscar insisted that Dana should take a tour of the castle with him. Besides the things she had already seen, she pointed out a Boulle cabinet, a Sevres vase, and a 19th century saddle-seat Windsor chair. "There may be other things that I'm not seeing,”she warned. "You really need to contact an expert."

They ended their tour back in the dining room, where they found that in the meantime lunch had been laid out with platters of sandwiches.

"This is getting scary,”exclaimed Henry. "Where are you keeping her, Oscar? We were just down here and there wasn't a sign of anyone. Now we have sandwiches."

"I need tell you, Oscar, you've got me scared to get on the scales when I get home,”Henry said cheerfully, patting his round belly. "You've been feeding us mighty well."

Rose patted Henry's belly, too. "I like a man who looks well fed. Besides," said added, patting it again, "isn't this supposed to be good luck?"

"That's Buddha,”Grace informed her.

"Whatever," Rose replied.

"Apparently,”Grace continued, ignoring the smitten looks being traded between Rose and Henry, "this is going to be a lazy afternoon. Tell us, Oscar, how did ladies spend their time when Raven Keep Castles was in its glory years?"

"When they could get outside, they spent a lot of time in the garden. Otherwise they did a lot of crocheting, embroidering or reading."

Grace was vastly disappointed. "How boring."

"Too bad you don't have your kit with you, Dana,”chuckled Noah. "You could paint the ladies' faces."

This caught Rose's attention. "What was that?"

"Dana used to do face-painting at fairs and carnivals to make some extra money."

"No fooling!" Josie jumped up and dashed from the room. Jack had the sinking feeling that his plans for the afternoon had just been ruined. In less than a minute she was back. "Here it is,”she said unnecessarily. "I got this for my birthday and have never used it." Still in the wrapper was a deluxe face-painting kit.

Grace was hanging over Dana's shoulder looking at the box. "Oh, can you make me a daisy? That's my favorite flower!"

"Hey, this Harlequin mask looks pretty cool." Rose pulled Dana up out of her chair. "Come on ladies. Let's go have some girl time."

Chapter 9

"This doesn't look too bad,”said Rose, admiring Dana's handiwork in the mirror. "Not bad at all. You must have been a popular attraction at those carnivals."

"I did all right," Dana said.

"I only hope I can show it to Henry before it sweats off."

The rain had fallen hard and fast and then moved out of the area quickly, leaving behind a heavy sultriness that pulled and dragged at them. Earlier, Josie had put a box fan in her window in a vain attempt to give them some relief. Grace fanned herself with a magazine. "I don't know how anyone can survive this heat wave,”Grace remarked crossly.

Dana shrugged as she began a new design on Josie's face.

Grace fanned harder. "I feel like I'm sitting in a swamp."

"Well, you're not far from one. Just south of here is the largest area of forested wetlands in the country."

Rose snorted. "I can't believe we're sitting around here talking about the weather and the local geography. Let's get to the good stuff." She settled herself on the bed and looked at Dana expectantly. "Let's talk about men."

Dana, filling in a circle around Josie's eye, turned the tables neatly. "Sure, Rose, tell us all about Henry."

Rose grinned in delight. "You hussy."

Josie giggled. "I was just thinking this seemed like a sleepover, only during the day," Josie said.

"I used to love those, only we called them pajama parties. They were fun. Why do women feel like they have to stop doing fun stuff when they stop being teenagers? Who says that grown-up women can't get together with their girlfriends, eat ice cream, play records and gossip about boys?" Rose asked.

Dana shook her head. "No reason I can think of."

"We do all kinds of stuff when we are younger just because it's fun. But then you hit twenty and suddenly it's not fun, it's immature. I've never understood that. I think that's why there are so many stressed out folks. They've forgotten how to play. They don't bother to do things like, like-"

"Like chasing fireflies in the backyard,”offered Dana, her eyes smiling at a kindred spirit.

"Or watching Saturday morning cartoons."

"Or creating a masterpiece with crayons."

"Or reading comic books."

"Or playing in the sprinkler on a summer afternoon."

Rose