"Finally, we made it to the mall!" shouted Ida Topham throwing her arms up as if welcoming an old friend. Her twin sister Isabel, or Izzy for short, merely chuckled. The girls had come together with their friends, Helen Corning, Emily Crandall, and the owner and driver of the car, Nancy Drew. Nancy had finally found a parking spot and the girls were filing out of the car.

"Oh come on, Ida, we live here now, it's not like we would never come," quipped Izzy.

"And we are going to be bringing Katherine here as part of our tour of River Heights when she gets here," pointed out Helen, "so you definitely would have had plenty of chances to come before school starts up again."

"I know, but I would like to know a bit about River Heights before Katherine gets here!" said Ida as the girls walked towards the mall.

Helen scoffed as she patted Ida's shoulder. "Once she finds out that you've moved here recently, I'm sure she would understand that you don't know everything about River Heights yet."

Ida placed her hands on her hips. "I still would like to have some general knowledge about my new home town."

Helen laughed. "Fair point. Well then, let's go!"

Ida wrapped her arms around Helen's arm and pointed forward. "Onward!" The others laughed as they followed Helen and Ida into the mall. Nancy, Helen, and Emily were excited to show their new friends their favorite stores as they looked through them to find some good presents to get for Katherine. Though Nancy had a sneaking suspicion that they were using the chance to get presents for her as well. Her birthday was well on its way! Nancy grinned. She couldn't wait! George and Bess would be back in a couple of days, and her father got the call yesterday that her mother's family were heading that way. There was still no word from her father's sister, Eloise, but she hadn't missed it yet.

She pursed her lips as they dashed into another store, she did hope that Richard Matthews got the all right from his mother to let her solve his mystery. She so wanted to solve a third mystery by the time her grandparents arrived. Her grandfather always said that her grandmother was a magnet for adventure, to which her grandmother would just remind him that he was too. It was one reason why they got married. And it had apparently passed on to their children, and now Nancy hoped it had passed to her as well. Either way, something interesting always happened when her grandparents were in town, she figured this time would be no different.

"Ooh, look at this lovely stationery set!" Helen held up a set of cards, paper, and a pen, all marked with a watercolor of a ballerina. Ever since they had found out Katherine's mother and uncle ran a ballet school, their eyes were always drawn to ballet-related items. Nancy just hoped that wasn't going to be the majority of what they got. Katherine was sure to be interested in more than just ballet.

"It is lovely!" exclaimed Ida.

"But are we really going to get everything that's related to ballet?" Izzy asked. "I'm sure Katherine has other interests."

Nancy smiled. "I agree. Helen, is there anything else you can think of that she would like?"

"And what about her younger sister? I'm sure she would like to be included as well," said Emily. "She's not much younger than we are, right?"

"Right," said Helen, "she's only fourteen. I don't know if we know of many people that age."

"Doesn't Richard have a couple siblings that are about her age?" asked Nancy.

Emily rubbed her chin. "I think so. I'll ask the next time they come over."

"Thanks Emily! Now, since Izzy brought it up, yes, Katherine has other interests. As a matter of fact . . ." Helen walked over to another shelf and picked up a Sleeping Beauty figurine. "She does like Sleeping Beauty a lot. As well as flowers, parks, birds, fashion, and . . . oh!" Helen's eyes widened. "She likes scrapbooking! We should get her a scrapbook and paper and, oh, everything!"

"There you go!" cheered Nancy. "You do think of the best presents!"

"Only when I'm in the mall," said Helen with a wink.

Nancy laughed. "And when you actually stop to think instead of being dazzled by everything in here!"

"What? I can't help it. There are so many cool stores in here!" The others laughed. "Come on, I know the best place for scrapbooking supplies! Even if you aren't into scrapbooking, I swear this place will get you somewhat interested. There are a bunch of cool supplies and pretty papers!"

"Awesome!" said Izzy.

"Let's go!" said Ida.

"But what about Katherine's younger sister?" asked Emily.

Helen rubbed her chin. "Oh she's definitely into the ballet. Oh! Maybe a diary would work for her!"

"Where can we get those?" asked Ida.

Helen grinned. "In the exact same store."

"Perfect! Now let's go!" said Ida. The girls followed Helen out of the store.

Nancy's attention was drawn towards the opposite store, her eyes falling upon several signs advertising great presents for Father's Day. "Oh!"

The girls paused and Helen looked at her. "What is it, Nancy?"

"I want to go in here and look for a present for Dad. Still can't believe tomorrow is Father's day."

Helen patted her back. "Hey, you've been busy solving mysteries, it only makes sense that you weren't paying attention to that. But you go on in, you can meet us at Ames and Mardel when you're finished. Or, if we get finished before you -"

"Unlikely," said Emily and Izzy at the same time. They grinned at each other before turning that grin on Helen.

Helen rolled her eyes and sighed. "Anyways, if we get done before you, we'll wait for you in the food court."

Nancy chuckled. "Sounds like a plan. See you in a bit!"

"See you!" The girls waved at each other before going their separate ways. Nancy ducked into the department store. She perused the shelves. There were hundreds of exquisite trinkets, models, and the like, what one would expect to see when searching for a gift for fathers, but nothing seemed to stick out at her, nothing seemed like the perfect gift for her father. And she really wanted it to be perfect. After her father was rescued from the maze between Twin Elms and Lilac Inn, she just wanted to keep him at home and shower him with all the love she could muster. Though he did warn she would get tired of seeing his annoying face after a week, with Hannah following that up with a quip about it only taking until after Nancy's birthday before that happened. But Nancy felt she would never get tired of it. She had already lost one parent, she had no desire to lose the other.

She pursed her lips as she continued to browse the store, looking over each piece carefully, but her mind wandered to other things. How did the Hardys do it? Their father had been kidnapped in their very first mystery, in fact the reason why they had to step in and help their mother solve the case. Was it because Mr. Hardy was a detective and they were all used to the dangers surrounding that position? Carson was a lawyer, and while lawyers do get their fair share of threats and the like, it seemed like it was far less severe than that of a detective. At least, Nancy figured as such, based on her own recent experiences. Even though the most recent mystery she solved did include her father getting kidnapped. But she wondered if that was to be more of a recurrence for the Hardys than for her. She wasn't sure if she could handle that, not again.

"Excuse me, ma'am, is there anything I can help you with?" One of the sales associates had approached her and gave her a warm smile.

She smiled back. "Oh yes, unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything for my father. And unfortunately I do have an idea, but it's one of those things that I won't know for sure until I see it."

The sales associate chuckled. "I hear you. Did you see anything on the shelves?"

Nancy glanced around at those shelves, shaking her head. "No, I didn't."

"Well, if you will follow me to the front, there are a few more things at the counter I could show you."

Nancy beamed. "Thank you very much!"

"You're welcome!" The associate turned and led her to the front counter. It was covered in glass. Several more expensive items could be seen laid out artistically to attract eyes. Nancy bit her lip. Could she even afford any of these? Then again, nothing was popping out at her either.

The associate unlocked the doors behind the counter and took out a couple of pieces. One was a silver pen, the other a tie clasp. "No sophisticated man would ever be without one of these beauties," he said.

Nancy hid her wince behind a smile. "Oh, right, uh, thank you, but due to my father's profession, he has plenty of both."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I should have asked about that. Here, give me a second." He picked up the two pieces before walking to another part of the counter. He came back with an ornate case. He began to brighten when Nancy's eyes widened. "This is just the thing for your father to keep all those pens and tie clasps together." He handed it to Nancy.

"Well, it is lovely," said Nancy, her fingers gently touching each carved piece. The entire thing looked like it was made of silver with gold embellishments and jewels, depicting a forest with deer, rabbits, a fox, and a deer. She pursed her lips. "But it's really not my father's style. He'd prefer something less showy. A lot less showy."

The sales associate pursed his lips. Nancy could tell he was determined to get a sale. And unfortunately, she was determined not to buy, even more so now. "Well, this was stated to be a fairly rare piece from Europe, originally owned by a duke!"

Nancy snorted. "Oh, I'm sorry, but that's not something that my father really cares about. Nor do I, to be honest. Thank you for wanting to share its history, I'm sure it has a wonderful history. But it might be waiting around for the right person who will appreciate it for its history. My father's just not that kind of man, unfortunately. Thank you, though, for showing me all of this. I think it's helped me grasp a better idea of what I'm looking for. Thank you again, and have a great day!" Nancy quickly waved and walked out of the store, not wanting to give the young man another chance to try and sell her anything else. She let out a huff as she paused by the doors separating the store from the rest of the mall. She was pretty sure that they weren't finished at Ames and Mardel just yet, but she wanted a bit of alone time before meeting up with them. Plus, she wanted to get a quick drink from the fountain by the restrooms. So she went that way.

However, since it was a warm June day, there was a line of people at the fountain. Nancy glanced around the food court for a place to sit while she waited, and found an empty table near an elderly lady. Nancy chose the spot specifically because the woman was dressed rather elegantly, and somewhat old-fashioned. She held herself in a way that reminded Nancy of the Queen of England. Just her whole person seemed to give off an aura of royalty. Who was she? True, Nancy didn't know everyone in River Heights, but this woman definitely looked out of place here.

The next second, Nancy let out a startled gasp. The woman teetered in her seat, and fell forward!

(Author's Note! Hello my rosy readers, and happy St. Valentine's day! So grateful to all the love you've shown me as I continue to write these series! And Nancy's back! Duh, lol. ;P Oh man, this first chapter was giving me a few problems, but as you can tell, I finally made it through it. I'm wondering if the rest of the story is also going to give me problems, now that I'm rereading both the original text of this book and the revised text. There are some things I want to keep from the source, but obviously there are going to be changes. So, unlike the Hardy boys, this one might be a little longer in coming. Next two chapters definitely won't be though. Now that I've gotten through this one, the second and third chapter should be pretty quick to write. After that, well, that might get a little harder since I am also bringing in elements from The Scarlet Slipper and need to finish rereading that. We'll see. It could be just that the first chapter was the hardest one to write, after going through like three edits. Well, more like I started to write it, then stopped, trashed it, and started it again. But it's finally here, and I'm happy with it, for now. Now if only I can get through the rest of my projects quickly. Well, we've got a snow and it's not going to be any better for the rest of the week. That, and Lent is coming up, so I plan to get off social media and just write. Mainly Tumblr and Facebook though, I operate the Twitter account for one of the magazines I volunteer for. Anyways, hope you enjoy this first chapter, thank you so much for continuing to follow me and reading, and have a blessed week! God bless!)