Nancy Drew: 2 . The Hidden Staircase

Searching Lilac Inn

When they woke up the next morning, the day seemed to dawn clear and joyful. Nancy rolled over and slowly peeled open her eyes. The sunlight was just peeking through her window and she could hear the faint chirping of birds. She stretched and got out of bed. The first thing was she checked her phone. She saw she had gotten a message from Frank. She opened it and read it to herself.

"Sorry for not replying earlier, it's been crazy. We have solved our mystery, but it was connected, in a way, to Dad's case, and we've been having to give our testimony several times. Will text you once we're finished to see if you have time to talk about it. Hope you're on a mystery as well. Aunt Trudy, Joe, Mom, and Dad send their love. Talk to you soon. Frank." She bit her lip. He didn't send his love as well? Or was Helen right, that he did love her and he was too shy to say it, especially if he wasn't sure she liked him back? She huffed. And she was only going out with Don just to hopefully prove to him that she wasn't the one for him, that they were better off as friends. Just like she knew Frank was going out with Callie to keep Adam Mason off her back. Though, she had a feeling Callie did like him. How could she not? Frank was a swell guy.

"Who texted you?" asked Helen. Nancy turned to look at her. She had her head propped up on her arm, but she was fighting to keep her eyelids open.

Nancy sighed. "Frank sent me a text. They've solved their mystery, but they're in court right now, so they still can't talk. He said he'll text me once it's over so we can talk about it."

Hearing that, Helen sat straight up, her eyes wide open. "Really? Frank texted you?" She bounced off her bed and leaped onto Nancy's "Let me see!" Before Nancy could reply, she had taken the phone out of her hands and was reading the text. "Oh, oh, he doesn't send you his love . . ." began Helen slowly.

"See? He could just think of me as his sister."

"But Joe sends it, so why not Frank?" asked Helen, a smirk growing. "He definitely likes you, and is too shy to admit it to you. Plus, Joe's probably teasing him about it, the poor guy."

Nancy snatched back her phone. "Well, poor me right now. You're teasing me!"

"It's only natural. Since you two won't admit it to each other, Joe, Bess, and I have to do it for you."

Nancy scoffed. "Sure you do. And it's not worth doing it during a mystery."

Helen let out a huff. "Alright, alright, fair enough. We are here to help Grandma and Aunt Flora. But we haven't found anything yet!"

"I know, I was thinking before I fell asleep last night that it's high time we checked Lilac Inn for the secret tunnels."

"That's if we can find them," said Helen. "Aunt Gloria did quite a bit of work on it."

"Yes, but apparently the workers never found the secret tunnels, so maybe they aren't in the areas that were worked on." Nancy stood up. "We need to talk to Emily as soon as possible. Knowing which areas were renovated could help us narrow it down to where they could be."

"That's a great idea!" exclaimed Helen as she bounded off the bed and began dressing. "That way, we've got it narrowed down so it will make our search a little easier."

Nancy smiled as she too dressed. "Exactly." They quickly finished getting dressed and hurried downstairs. Rosemary, Flora and Emily were already up, cooking breakfast. A few minutes later, Ida and Izzy came downstairs. Ida was the only one still in her pajamas. She yawned as she sat down and rubbed her eyes.

Rosemary chuckled. "Did we wake you from your beauty sleep?"

"Nuh-uh," said Ida, "I just couldn't get to sleep."