Nancy Drew and the Secret of the White Magnolia

Chapter 1
The arrival

The slender and attractive Nancy Drew entered the large and beautiful plantation. She was quickly greeted by the owner of the White Magnolia Bed and Breakfast, Marshal Higgins. He was a short old man, with laugh wrinkles visible by his soft sympathetic eyes. He looked Nancy in her big blue eyes and said, "Ah, you must be Nancy Drew." A look of shock spread across Nancy's face and before she could ask how he knew who she was he answered her unspoken question.

"You're the last guest to arrive, and I'd know the face of the famous Nancy Drew anywhere." Before Nancy had a chance to speak he continued.

"I am in fact the owner of this fine establishment, Marshal Higgins. It is most definitely an honor to meet you, Miss Drew. Joshua here will take you and your luggage up to your room. The bride will be up shortly to greet you. Until then, you should rest or freshen up from your journey."

Nancy nodded in agreement and said, "Thank you Mr. Higgins, but I'd like to look around for a bit and explore the plantation for a while. After all I am here to solve a mystery."

Mr. Higgins shrugged "Suit yourself, but make sure you talk to the bride soon."

Nancy followed Joshua up the long staircase and to her room. Nancy saw that her room was very bright and cheerful. She noticed there were large white French doors leading out to a balcony. Nancy of course could not resist the urge to explore. She walked out onto the balcony to get a better look at the view around her and noticed something odd. Two trees near her balcony had grown and twisted around each other. The two trees were so twisted that at some points it was hard to tell where one ended and one began. To the right of the trees she saw two girls around her age arguing. One girl had bright red hair; while the other girl's was such a dark brown it was nearly black. The redhead was shaking her fist furiously at the brunette, and she looked like she was ready to hit her. Nancy turned to go down to help cool them down, and found a tall blonde standing behind her. Nancy gave a little yelp and jumped back.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry for frightening you! I just came up here to talk to you, and I guess I was a bit too quiet. I'm Katelyn by the way; I'm the one who hired you."

A look of understanding seemed to appear on Nancy's face. "Oh, you must be the bride that called about the accidents!"

"Why yes, I need your help Nancy, my wedding is in three days and strange things keep happening. First the bridesmaids' dresses fell to pieces after the last fitting. At first I thought it was just a bit of normal bad luck until all of the bouquets were replaced with thistles."

Nancy held her hand up to stop Katelyn from continuing, "Wait, thistles?"

Katelyn nodded, "I am highly allergic to thistles."

"This sounds like sabotage to me." Nancy remarked.

"My thoughts exactly, so please Nancy figure this out before anything else goes wrong."

"Don't worry Katelyn; I'll solve this mystery before you walk down that aisle."

"Thanks Nancy, I'm counting on you."

Katelyn left the room quickly. Nancy decided to explore the back lawn where she saw the two fighting girls. She walked out of the room, down the smooth wooden stairs, and out the back French doors in the lobby. The arguing girls were not by the tree anymore; in fact they were nowhere to be seen. She turned to the spiraling trees beside her and noticed something shining at the base. Nancy took a step closer and saw what seemed to be a broken locket. It was a faded gold with white and green gems that seemed to form a white magnolia. She put the locket in her bag of tools and went to find Katelyn. When she turned around she bumped into something and heard an "Ouch!"

"Oh! I am so sorry, I was just going to find Katelyn and I didn't know anyone was behind me."

The figure Nancy had run into was adjusting their clothes and looked up at her with a smile on their face. It was the red haired girl from earlier.

"Don't worry about it, I was the one who should've been looking where I was going," She held out a hand, "I'm Fallon McCarthy, Katelyn's Maid-of-Honor and best friend. May I ask who you are?"

"Nancy Drew, amateur detective hired by Katelyn, and it is nice to meet you Fallon. I think I saw you earlier outside my window arguing with another girl."

"That was just a little bickering is all, you see that was Mallory. She's still a little jealous that I got Maid-of-Honor over her."

"So Mallory is a little jealous and upset because you were chosen as maid-of-honor over her. Do you think she would sabotage the wedding just to get revenge?"

Fallon looked straight at Nancy, confusion in her eyes, "I uh, well I never thought of that. No, no I-I-I don't think she would be so crazy as to sabotage her friend's wedding over something so silly."

Nancy wasn't convinced by Fallon's stuttering words; as far as she was concerned Fallon and Mallory were both suspects.