A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, Caranath, Jackie, max2013, Lady Emily, ILoveMom, Guest, zenfrodo, catlover1033, Kenna, Stork Hardy, Vinsmouse, Leya and bhar! They are very much appreciated! Back to the monastery, and thank you to those reading!

Chapter 15

As they approached the monastery, Joe noticed that all the windows were dark. Clearly these monks were the "early to bed" type. He hurried to the entry and pulled the bell chain several times. He followed that up by pounding his fist hard against the wooden door.

After a few moments, a light came on above their heads and the door opened. Joe found himself staring into the eyes of a startled priest. The man was older, white haired, and looked as though he'd been jarred out of a sound sleep.

"Goodness gracious!" the priest exclaimed as he hastily pulled on a black cassock over his long, old-fashioned, night shirt. "What on earth is the matter?"

Bess pushed her way past Joe. "Father Bertrand, we need your help."

"Mademoiselle Marvin. Is there something wrong?"

"Yes. Nancy and Emily are missing."

The priest opened the door wide, and Bess, followed by Frank and Joe, hurried inside.

"Missing?" Father Bertrand seemed puzzled.

"We think they've been abducted," Joe said. "And we're pretty sure it has something to do with your monastery."

He didn't have time to waste, and he was fairly sure this monk was going to want a long and detailed explanation. Joe wasn't going to give it to him. He needed to find Emily.

Frank extended his hand toward the priest, who shook it gently. "I'm Frank Hardy and this is my brother, Joe."

"They're Nancy and Emily's boyfriends," Bess explained. "They're detectives, too. Although they're here on a different case."

"Why don't we all have a seat?" Father Bertrand suggested, his brow furrowed.

Joe sighed. This was not going the way he wanted it to go. At all.

OOOoooOOO

"Emily, stay awake." Nancy pushed her hard with her shoulder. She knew that if either one of them fell asleep, it would kill them.

"I can't. I'm s-so cold," Emily replied through chattering teeth.

"I know," Nancy said, shuddering so violently that she almost toppled over. "Talk to me."

"A-about what?"

"Joe. Is everything okay with him now?"

"Yes." Emily paused. "I can't talk about Joe. It'll make me cry. Tell me about you and Frank."

"What do you want to know?"

Emily smiled. "How about when you two are getting married?"

Nancy's voice was strained. "Maybe Frank isn't such a good subject either."

She shook her head to clear away the tears that sprung unexpectedly to her eyes as she thought of her boyfriend. "How about the c-case?"

"Okay." Emily yawned. "What else did we discover that got us tossed down here? I mean, besides the article on the monstrance belonging somewhere else."

Nancy's head was starting to feel fuzzy, but one thought burned through clearly. "Emily, whoever did this to us is on the inside."

"What do you mean?" Emily shivered again.

"It's someone in the monastery." Nancy sat up straight for a moment. "No one else knows what we're doing."

OOOoooOOO

Frank could see that Father Bertrand's face was etched with worry as he sat behind his desk, trying to process all that he and Joe had just told him.

The priest looked at Frank. "Why do you think the girls might be here?"

"We don't know that they are," Frank said. "But we don't have anything else to go on. All we know is that they were doing research here. Nancy brought some papers about your artifacts back to the hotel, and now the papers are gone, along with the girls."

He was trying to be patient, but it was becoming difficult. Father Bertrand seemed to be having trouble understanding the situation.

"We wanted to see if maybe we could pick up a clue here." Joe leaned forward in his chair, opposite Father Bertrand's desk. "And quite frankly, this conversation is wasting valuable time."

Frank rested his hand on Joe's arm in an effort to restrain him. He didn't want his brother to tick off the one person in a position to help them.

"I'm sorry. My brother didn't mean to be rude. We're just very worried about the girls."

"Of course you are." Father Bertrand smiled. "No offense taken. Where would you like to begin your search?"

"Where have Nancy and Emily been investigating?" Joe asked.

"Emily has spent most of her time in the library with Guillaume. Nancy has been in the cathedral."

"Then that's where we'd like to go, too," Frank stated, encouraged that they finally seemed to be getting somewhere.

Father Betrand pushed a button on his desk. Presently a rather sleepy looking monk showed up at his door. "Brother Dominic? Will you please have Guillaume meet us in the library immediately?"

"Of course," the man said, turning to exit.

"Now, if you will follow me?" Father Bertrand rose from his chair.

OOOoooOOO

By the time they arrived in the library, Guillaume was already waiting for them. Joe eyed him curiously, noting the fact that he was young and good looking.

"You're a monk?"

"Je suis un candidat," Guillaume replied softly, his heavy French accent much more evident from his fatigue at being roused from a deep sleep.

"What does that mean?" Joe continued.

"Je n'ai pas pris mes voeux finaux."

Bess nudged Joe in the back. "He's almost a full-fledged monk. He just has one more set of vows to take."

In Joe's book, that meant he wasn't a monk.

Guillaume looked to Father Bertrand, seemingly awaiting an explanation as to why he was summoned at this late hour.

Father Bertrand spoke to him in French. Joe noticed that Guillaume's eyes widened, and he appeared to very distressed at whatever the priest said.

"Mon Dieu!" he exclaimed.

Bess whispered behind Joe. "I think he just said that Nan and Emily are missing, and then Guillaume took the Lord's name in vain…which I didn't think monks were allowed to do."

"He's not a monk."

Father Bertrand continued in French, and Guillaume shook his head. "Nous étudiions l'histoire du monstrance. Où il est venu d'et les choses comme ça."

Joe noticed that Guillaume turned and stared at him, then spoke to the priest.

"Pourquoi quelqu'un les prendrait-elles?"

"I'm sorry," Joe interrupted. "But I don't speak French, and I can't afford to miss any clues."

"No, I'm sorry," Father Bertrand said. "Guillaume's English is weak. I only wanted to make sure that I got the most information possible from him. Unfortunately, he doesn't know anything. They've only been learning about the missing monstrance."

"La cathédrale," Guillaume spoke up.

"What about the cathedral?" Frank asked.

"Les filles ont pensé il y avait un indice dans la cathédrale." Guillaume's eyes turned to Father Bertrand.

"A clue? What sort of clue did they think they would find?" Father Bertrand wanted to know.

Guillaume shook his head. "Je ne sais pas. J'ai dû le retour à mon travail."

"I think we should check out the cathedral," Frank said.

"Of course," Father Bertrand turned, but paused as Guillaume touched his cloak.

"Qui sont ces hommes?"

Joe crossed his arms in front of him. The non-monk was giving him the stink eye.

"Oh wait, let me try," Bess spoke up. "Um, ils sont les amants de Nancy et Emily."

Guillaume blanched.

"Geez, Bess, what did you say?" Joe asked as they followed Father Bertrand down the hall.

"I told him you were Nancy and Emily's boyfriends." She looked back at Guillaume who seemed distressed. "At least I hope that's what I said."

"You said we were their lovers," Frank inserted.

"Oh, crap. No more trying to speak French for me," Bess said firmly.

Father Bertrand unlocked the cathedral through a side door leading from the monastery.

"Is this always kept locked?" Joe asked, as the priest stepped through the door.

"The entire cathedral is locked up at nine o'clock each night," he replied.

Joe waited just inside the church as Father Bertrand allowed everyone to go past him, then closed the door behind them. Candlelight from the various side altars around the church danced and reflected off the interior walls, giving an eerie feeling to the place. Bess shivered.

"Wow, I can't seem to get over how different this place looks at night," she murmured.

"Where did Nancy and Emily spend their time when they were here?" Frank asked.

Father Bertrand pointed to the main altar. They all walked forward, stopping at the altar gate. Father Bertrand reached into a pocket tucked away inside his cassock. He brought out a large key ring and unlocked the gate.

"So this area is always kept locked?" Joe asked.

"It is locked to the public, but Mademoiselle Drew was given a key if she needed access for her investigation."

"May we look around?" Frank asked.

This seemed like a dead end to Joe. The cathedral was wide open here, and there weren't very many places anyone could hide. Not to mention, it was almost completely dark.

"I don't know how we're going to see anything," Joe complained. "Don't you have any lights in this place?"

"This building predates electricity by many hundreds of years," the abbot reminded him. "We have no electric lights in the main part of the cathedral."

He reached over to the wall and grabbed something, then stepped to a side altar. In a moment he was back with a lighted torch. "This should help." He placed it in a wall bracket.

"Not much," Joe said. He backed up to get a better look at his surroundings and crashed into three large, free standing, gold candle holders, almost knocking them over.

"Be careful," Frank hissed.

OOOoooOOO

Emily felt drugged. Her eyes were heavy and drooping, and she couldn't seem to focus anymore. She knew Nancy was speaking to her, but she couldn't quite make out what she was saying. She did realize there was a note of urgency in her friend's voice, and she tried harder to pay attention.

Nancy nudged her. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Emily mumbled.

"Th-that noise," Nancy said, through chattering teeth.

"Noise?"

Emily tried hard to understand what Nancy was asking, but her thoughts weren't connecting.

"It was right above us."

Emily startled as Nancy pushed her hard.

"Come on, wake up. Someone is up there."

Emily felt alarm, but couldn't get her body to respond. Just forming words with her mouth took effort, and she spoke much more slowly than she wanted to.

"It might be the person who put us here. M-maybe he's coming back."

"Well, that's a chance we'll just have to take."

Nancy pressed against Emily's back. "Come on, we need to stand. We have to get over to the door."

Emily didn't have enough strength to stand.

"We have to shout. Can you scream?"

"No."

"Emily, what if it's Joe?"

At the mention of her boyfriend's name, Emily felt a little boost of energy, and turned to Nancy, who was looking at her intently.

"Scream. Scream as loudly as you can," Nancy ordered.