Free The Haunted Showboat by Carolyn Keene Page A

was actually in love with Charles —only too proud to admit it.
    “You don’t mind if we accept?” Nancy asked.
    “Certainly not,” Donna Mae replied. “And please tell Mother for me.”
    Nancy hurried downstairs. She met Mrs. Haver in the hall and gave her Donna Mae’s message. The hostess forced a laugh and said, “Well, I’m glad that’s straightened out.”
    Just then, the telephone rang and she went to answer it. A few moments later Mrs. Haver came out to the patio where Nancy had rejoined her friends. Their hostess said that Mrs. Bartolome had called to confirm the dinner invitation.
    “She’ll expect you girls at seven.”
    Later, when Nancy was alone in her own room with Bess and George, she told them of her conversation with Donna Mae and added her own thought that the girl was still in love with her ex-fiancé.
    “Then let’s get them together again!” Bess declared.
    Nancy smiled. “But first, let’s solve the mystery. I want to show Mrs. Haver the lovely old hairpin I found.”
    Knowing that their hostess always rested before dinner, Nancy waited until a few minutes before seven, then went to Mrs. Haver’s bedroom, and tapped lightly on the door. “Come in!” the woman called.
    “Oh, how pretty you look!” she said, admiring Nancy’s powder-blue eyelet-embroidered dress.
    “Thank you. Mrs. Haver, I have something to show you,” Nancy said. She told the woman of her discovery and held up the hairpin.
    “Why, how strange—how very strange!” Without another word, Mrs. Haver rushed to her bureau, opened a drawer, and took out a jewel box. She rummaged through it and a few seconds later held up a hairpin very much like the one the young detective had found.
    “For a moment I thought the one you had was mine, Nancy,” she said. “These two are almost identical. I wonder who could have dropped the other one.”
    “So do I,” Nancy confided.
    For the next ten minutes Nancy discussed the strange affair with Mrs. Haver, but neither could come to any conclusion. Finally the two walked down the stairs to dinner.
    Donna Mae had completely recovered her composure. Her conversation was scintillating and the Northern girls were amazed that her attitude had changed so quickly and so completely.
    Toward the end of the meal, Donna Mae smiled gaily and announced, “I have a wonderful surprise for you girls. Alex has invited all of us to New Orleans for a gala time tomorrow.”
    Nancy, although she really would have preferred continuing her sleuthing, politely expressed her appreciation. She thought it advisable not to antagonize Donna Mae further. Bess said she was eager to see more of the city and eat at another famous restaurant.
    George, for her part, was suspicious of Donna Mae’s motives. Later, as the girls were getting ready for bed, she said, “Nancy, we’d better take your car. This trip to town may be a trick to keep us there so late that we won’t be back in time to go to the Bartolomes’ for dinner.”
    “You could be right, George,” Bess agreed. “But you know I just can’t figure out Donna Mae and the way she acts.”
    George remarked with a great yawn, “Donna Mae just isn’t herself since Alex came into her life. I think it’s a shame!” The girl’s voice rose as she added, “She used to be such a swell person. Now she’s a pain!”
    “S-sh!” Nancy warned. “She may hear you.”
    The following morning Nancy awakened to a sunny day and the twittering chorus of birds. Going to a window, she stood there, breathing in the balmy, fragrant air and admiring the lovely gardens. Pappy Cole, a huge basket over his arm, was cutting flowers near the house.
    As Nancy went into her friends’ room, the aroma of broiling ham and fresh-baked corncakes wafted upstairs. “Get up, you sleepyheads,” she said to Bess and George. “It’s simply heavenly outside! Let’s wear our skirt, blouse, and shorts sets today.”
    “Will do,” George replied, jumping out of bed and making