EXTRACT FOR
The Mansion Book One
(Author Unknown)

      Suddenly, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, behind the fence, something in the distance. As she peered through the fog she thought she saw a small figure silhouetted on a hill, but it had disappeared. Thinking the fog was playing tricks on her she continued on, but deliberately slowed her pace. Once again, she turned and looked and suddenly stopped. She had seen something.  An apparition began to take the form of a figure awkwardly running toward her, appearing and disappearing in the fog in a billowing cape. She could make out the figure of a girl, her almost comical awkwardness caused by what looked to Nancy, extremely high heeled boots. The cape flapped against her knees further hampering her running. Fascinated, Nancy drew closer to the fence. 

      "Straight out of a Victorian novel!" she thought.

      The girl was definitely in a hurry and as she came closer Nancy could see she wore a ski-mask under the hood of the cape.

      "Well it's cold," thought Nancy, "but why doesn't she unbutton that damn cape, if she's in such a hurry?"

      But, as she thought this, the girl suddenly reached the fence, almost colliding into it. The whole thing would have been amusing, had Nancy not seen the fright in the girl's eyes. The girl was gasping for air through her nose as if she had trouble breathing. The only thing that Nancy could think of, was that there was something wrong at the Mansion.  Perhaps someone had a heart attack and the phone was out of order, and the girl had just run for help.  Nancy was desperate trying to reason out what was wrong.

       "What is it?" she shouted at the girl.  The girl was still panting furiously through her nose and making ungodly grunting, snorting sounds behind the mask that framed her eyes and nose in an oval, but covered her mouth. She seemed frustrated in trying to communicate. Then, startling Nancy, she spun around presenting her back to Nancy and bending forward, repeatedly jerked her arms up and down.  Nancy could see the outline her arms made beneath the cape. From what she could tell her arms were tied or caught somehow behind her.   The girl now turned, her eyes pleading, and in exasperation lunged at the fence thrusting her face hard between the fence gratings, as if she could, by magic, walk through the fence head first.  This action so unnerved Nancy she took a step forward to help the girl wondering if she was demented.  By rubbing her face back and forth against the fence, the girl managed to catch part of the ski mask below her nose revealing something black across her mouth.  Shocked, Nancy tentatively took hold of the mask as the girl nodded her head up and down frantically in a "yes" motion. Gingerly, she pulled down the girl's mask revealing a cruel looking leather strap across her mouth, so tight her cheeks bulged out over it, her whole face now framed in the oval of wool as Nancy tucked it beneath her chin.

      "My God!" Nancy whispered in awe. "Why are you gagged?" and she realised the foolishness of the question as soon as she asked it. Wishing for a knife, she tried to pull the gag away from her mouth, but she couldn't budge it, strapped as tight as it was; besides she was hurting the girl. Her fingers tore at the hood placing, unfastening it and pulling it down around the girl`s shoulders.  It was a little difficult with her hands thrust between the bars of the fence.  She reached for the ski mask and slowly worked it over her head, revealing blond curls cascading to her shoulders.

      "Turn around so I can see how this thing is fastened." Nancy said to the girl pointing at the gag.

      The girl tried to say something, realised it was useless and obediently turned her back to Nancy and lowered her head.  Nancy hunted through the girl's hair, carefully parting it so she could find the buckle to the gag, and was amazed to find a small padlock through an eyelet on the buckle, preventing anyone from tampering with it. 

      "Who in....who would do such a thing" 

      She grabbed the girl by shoulders and spun her round once again, and looked into the girl's eyes.

      "Listen, there's nothing I can do for you until I can get over this fence. I saw a tree back there. I'm going to see if I can get over somehow - when I do, I'll figure out a way to get you loose, okay?"

      The girl nodded her head gratefully.  Nancy gave her a reassuring wink and then ran back down the path along the fence, the girl following her, trying to keep up on the other side.

      "What I should do is just go to the front gate and demand to know what is going on. Who would do such a thing to that girl?" She thought as she ran towards the tree. But something told her not to, a sense of foreboding. She felt she must talk to the girl first, alone.  She'd already surmised that she was the Charrington's daughter.  She reached the tree, looked up at its branches tentatively, sighed, took a deep breath and slowly began to climb.  The cold bark of the tree stuck to her jogging suit as she began to inch up its girth, grasping for any type of handhold. She finally reached the first limb and rested, looking down at the girl who was looking up at her and then behind her in desperation.  Nancy sat there catching her breath, wondering what she was doing there.

      "Why don't I just go into town and tell the police?"