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Show - 5b - down the staircase. Dixie had left her little basket and was standing on the other side of the door whimpering, as she always did when there was the slightest sound anywhere in the house. Penny looked apprehensively up the stairway, half expecting to see her father standing on the landing, but all was clear, so she went into the living room and opened the French doors to the garden. She had not been mistaken, for the beautiful ghost was there. The dres3 she wore was the same one pictured in the portrait. Again, the fragrance of gardenias emanated from the wreath around her neck. "Come, Penelope," she said. "It is time for you to learn about my love. Who he is and what he is doing." The soft, musical voice was low and Vibrant, not at all how one would expect a ghost to speak, and the accent was quite pronounced tonight. "I will help you, if I can," When she said these words, the young girl realized that she was committed from this moment on to do everything in her power to assist Claudine. The bond between them would never be broken until the mystery was solved. Surprisingly, she was not frightened at being haunted by the ghost. There was, also, a practical streak in her, as she felt that the sooner they went about resolving the problem, the quicker everyone at Gaven House would get back to normal living. "Follow me, Madamoiselle," and she started toward the little gate at the back of the house. The very same one that the sisters had opened when they first went down to the truck gardens. The gate that Dirk Vallone always came through when he and Claudine played as children. She followed the ghost, who seemed to be floating just above the ground, past the Eucalyptus grove and down the hill. All around them was stillnessexcept for Penny's crackling footsteps on the autumn leaves. She had to walk carefully in order not to stumble in the dark. Everything seemed the same, yet it was different and this time she instantly recognized |