After the store closed for the day, the Aldens hurried back to their cabin. Nancy had agreed to come for dinner, and they wanted to get a headstart on it before she arrived.
“I’m starving,” Benny said as they walked along the path. “Let’s have spaghetti. And salad. And bread. And—”
“Isn’t that enough?” Henry interrupted, laughing.
“No, we have to have dessert, too,” Benny said.
“I bought some of Mr. Taylor’s oatmeal cookies,” Violet said. “Do you think Nancy will like those, Benny?”
Just as Benny was about to answer, the Aldens heard footsteps behind them. When they looked, they saw Mrs. Edwards, the woman who was staying in the last cabin. She walked up to them and stopped.
“Hello,” she said. “When I went by the store earlier, I saw that the four of you are working there.”
“Yes, we are,” Henry said. “For a few days, anyway.”
“Then you must have met the girl who’s employed there, too,” Mrs. Edwards said. “Isn’t her name Nancy?”
The Aldens nodded.
“She’s so young to be on her own,” Mrs. Edwards said. “She must have family nearby.”
“No,” Benny said. “She told us her family lives far away.”
“Oh, really?” Mrs. Edwards smiled at Benny. “What else did she tell you about herself?”
Benny started to answer, but Jessie nudged him in the arm. Why was Mrs. Edwards so interested in Nancy? “She didn’t tell us very much,” Jessie said. “Excuse us, but we have to go in now.”
As the Aldens went into their cabin, Jessie looked back. Mrs. Edwards was watching them. She wasn’t smiling anymore. Jessie noticed something else. She was carrying a big white shopping bag with green lettering that spelled The Elmford Shopping Center.
“Did you see Mrs. Edwards’s shopping bag?” Jessie said when the Aldens had gone into their cabin. “It was from the Elmford Shopping Center.”
“I wonder why she doesn’t buy her things at Mr. Taylor’s store,” Henry said. “It’s much closer.”
“And I wonder why she was asking us about Nancy,” Jessie said. “It was strange.”
“I guess it’s another mystery,” Violet said. “Jessie has discovered a mystery,” she told Henry and Benny.
“What?” Benny asked eagerly. “Is it a scary one?”
Jessie smiled. “No,” she answered. “And it might not even be a mystery. Let’s start dinner and I’ll tell you about it.”
Henry put a big pot of water on the stove to boil for the spaghetti. Violet made a salad, and Benny set the table. While Jessie cooked some ground beef and tomato sauce, she told them her thoughts about Nancy Baldwin.
“Nancy told us she has had a lot of jobs,” Jessie said, stirring the spaghetti sauce. “But I was telling Violet that she has so much trouble doing things, like working the cash register and measuring material. She even got Benny to weigh the potatoes. Maybe she can’t work the scale, either.”
“I remember something else,” Benny said. “This morning, she thought you could scramble eggs in a saucepan.”
Violet put the salad bowl on the table. “But if she hasn’t worked in many stores, I wonder why Mr. Taylor hasn’t noticed,” she said.
“He’s probably too busy,” Henry said. “And Nancy is so nice, none of the customers would complain to him about her.”
“That’s right, she is nice,” Benny agreed. “I like her a lot.”
“We all like her,” Violet said.
“Yes,” Jessie agreed. “But I can’t help wondering about her. I noticed something else, too. She got so nervous when we asked about her jobs and her family.”
Henry said, “She acted like she was afraid to talk about them. Or embarrassed or something.”
Violet opened a package of spaghetti. “What do you think we should do, Jessie?”
“Nothing, right now,” Jessie said. “We might be completely wrong about this. I think we should just wait and see.”
Benny agreed. “But there’s one thing we should do the minute Nancy gets here.”
“What’s that?” Henry asked.
“Eat!” Benny said. “I’m . . .”
“Hungry!” the others all finished for him.
When Nancy arrived, Henry put the spaghetti into the boiling water, and Violet buttered a loaf of crusty bread. The evening was warm, and Nancy was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, just like the Aldens. But on her right hand, she also wore a ring with a dark green stone in it.
“That’s a beautiful ring, Nancy,” Violet said as they all sat down at the table.
Nancy looked at her ring and her face got pink. “Thank you, Violet,” she said.
“It’s an emerald, isn’t it?” Jessie asked.
Nancy shook her head. Then she twisted the ring around so the stone didn’t show. “No, it’s just a cheap trinket,” she said with an embarrassed smile.
Jessie and Violet looked at each other. They knew they were thinking the same thing. The ring didn’t look like a cheap trinket at all.
“This is a great dinner,” Nancy said enthusiastically, after they began to eat. She helped herself to a piece of bread. “I haven’t eaten such good food in a long time.”
“We like to cook,” Jessie told her. “When we lived in the boxcar, we cooked all our own food.”
“At Grandfather’s, Mrs. McGregor does most of the cooking,” Violet said. “But we still like to help.”
“I like eating better than cooking,” Benny said.
“So do I, Benny,” Nancy laughed. “Who is Mrs. McGregor?” she asked.
“Grandfather’s housekeeper,” Henry answered.
“Really?” Nancy shook her head. “My family’s housekeep . . . ” She stopped and blushed again. Then she cleared her throat. “I mean,” she continued, “My family’s housekeeper is my mother. She does all the cooking.”
“Did she teach you how to cook?” Benny asked.
“Oh, she was always too busy,” Nancy said. Then she quickly changed the subject. “Tell me more about your boxcar days,” she said. “It sounds so interesting.”
So the Aldens told Nancy about the boxcar —how they found it and made it into a home. Nancy was fascinated and asked a lot of questions. “It sounds like you had a lot of fun,” she said. “But I guess it was kind of scary sometimes, wasn’t it?”
“Sometimes it was,” Jessie said. “But we had each other, and that made everything all right.”
“I know you’re older, Nancy,” Violet said. “But I still think you’re very brave to be by yourself, so far away from your family.”
“Far away?” Nancy looked confused.
Violet nodded. “You said they lived in another state.”
“That’s right, I did!” Nancy said. “I mean, they do.” She quickly reached for another piece of bread. “This is great bread,” she said. “Where did you get it?”
“At Mr. Taylor’s store,” Jessie said. She looked at Violet. It was clear to both of them that Nancy wanted to change the subject.
“Oh, no wonder it’s so good,” Nancy said. For the rest of the dinner, she talked about the general store, and she didn’t tell them anything more about herself.
By the time dinner was over, Benny was yawning. “Working in the store made me tired,” he said.
“It makes me tired, too,” Nancy said. She got up and walked to the door. “Thank you for inviting me,” she told the Aldens. “I had such a good time. It’s so nice to be with friends, especially at dinner.”
“Eat with us tomorrow, too,” Jessie said warmly. “Maybe we’ll pack a picnic and eat outside.”
“That will be great!” Nancy opened the door and stepped into the warm night air. “Good night!” she called back over her shoulder.
The Aldens said good night, and Henry shut the door. When he turned around, he said, “I think you’re right, Jessie. I think something strange is going on. Nancy doesn’t want to answer any questions about herself. And she got confused when Violet talked about her family.”
“Right,” Jessie agreed. “This morning she told us they lived far away. But tonight, she sounded like she had forgotten what she said about them.”
“I noticed that, too,” Violet said. “But maybe she has family in different places.”
“Maybe,” Jessie said. “But why would she get so nervous when we asked her? It’s almost like she’s trying to hide things about herself.”
“You’re right,” Henry agreed, frowning. “One thing’s for sure. Nancy Baldwin is a real mystery.”
The next morning, the Aldens got up early. Mr. Taylor’s store opened at eight o’clock and they didn’t want to be late.
“No time for pancakes again,” Benny said. He sounded disappointed. “Do you think we will ever have a day off, so we can make a big breakfast?”
Henry sliced a banana into Benny’s bowl of cereal. “We’ve only worked half a day,” he said. “It’s too soon to take time off.”
“But don’t worry,” Violet said to Benny. “We can have pancakes at night.”
“Breakfast for dinner?” Benny said. “That sounds good.” He ate a big spoonful of cereal.
Violet started to eat. Then she put her spoon down. “I couldn’t stop wondering about Nancy last night,” she said.
“I don’t think her ring is a ‘trinket,’ ” Jessie said. “I’m almost sure it was a real emerald.”
“I am, too,” Violet said. “But I think Nancy must have a good reason for telling these stories.”
“Maybe,” Jessie agreed. “Should we tell Aunt Jane?”
The others thought about this. Then Henry said, “Let’s wait. Nancy likes us. She knows we’re her friends. Maybe she will trust us enough to tell us what’s going on.”
“That’s what I think, too,” Jessie said. She washed the cereal bowls and Henry dried them.
“Me too,” Benny agreed.
“Good.” Violet looked relieved. “We might scare her by telling other people about her.”
“I just thought of something,” Jessie said. “Remember when Benny told Nancy that the four of us are always having adventures?”
“I remember,” Benny said.
“Well,” Jessie said. “Wouldn’t Nancy be surprised if she knew she was our mystery?”
It was another busy day at the general store. Mr. Taylor was glad to see so many customers. But he still hadn’t found anyone to work for him.
“It’s the new shopping center,” he said to Jessie and Henry, who were hanging up some new leather belts. “Two of the people I interviewed decided to go to work there.”
“I bet they’ll be sorry,” Henry said. “This is a great place to work.”
“I wish I could hire you full time,” Mr. Taylor said with a laugh. “Well, I’ll find someone. And I should stop feeling sorry for myself. I have you Aldens to help. And I have Nancy.” He patted them both on the shoulder and went into his office.
Jessie and Henry smiled at each other. On the way to the store that morning, all the Aldens had decided to help Nancy whenever they could. That way, Mr. Taylor wouldn’t suspect that she wasn’t sure what she was doing.
“I think it’s working,” Jessie said to Henry. “I weighed everything that people have bought so far. And now I think Nancy knows how to use the scale.”
“I’m pretty sure she can run the cash register now, too,” Henry said. “I made sure she was watching whenever I did it.” He pointed to the counter. “Look, she’s about to do it now.”
Sure enough, Nancy was standing behind the cash register. She looked around nervously and bit her lip. Then she took a deep breath and hit a button. The drawer popped open, and Nancy put some money inside.
“I was right!” Henry whispered excitedly. “She does know how to do it!”
Henry smiled at Jessie, but she didn’t smile back. She looked confused. “Yes, Nancy just worked the cash register,” she said. “But Henry, there isn’t any customer. Whose money was she putting inside?”
Henry looked around the store. Jessie was right. There weren’t any customers at the moment. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe Nancy just found the money.”
“Then how does she know it belongs in the cash register?” Jessie asked. “Someone might have dropped it.”
“If they did, then they’ll probably come back for it,” Henry said. “Maybe Nancy wants to keep it safe.”
“I guess that could be it,” Jessie said. But for the rest of the day, no one came back for the money.
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