nancy sees helen corning at a social gathering of some sort. helen says her family's ward claudette has been staying at a local manor with a rather reclusive gentleman and she fears for claudette's safety. she received a letter or something, and hasn't heard from her since. nancy decides to investigate. after she and bess see the man with bloodstained hands, bess is convinced the man is a vampire and is preying on young girls. nancy joins the staff of the manor as a lower chambermaid or something, and during a slack time sneaks away with a bag full of vampire-hunting devices, garlic and holy water and the like. after hearing unearthly screams coming from the attic she has george teach her how to use a pistol, and the next day the servants carry a large bundle out to the back hill and a pale, bloodless(?) hand falls out. when bess hears about this she begs nancy to stop the farce of being a maid and leave the place. nancy goes to helen and describes what she saw of the corpse, and helen, relieved, says the body was not that of claudette. at dinner a few days later, while carson is discussing the impending visit of his new clients, he also mentions that a dance is to be held at the manor in about a week. nancy decides that the opportunity is too good to be passed up and asks her father or don cameron to escort her to the dance, and has bess and george ask their good friends the hardy brothers to invite them. nancy manages to cram her pistol, armed with a silver bullet, and a few cloves of rather aromatic garlic into her purse, and overhears the master of the house, whom she has seen only a few times, talking to another well-known man about a girl he can have sent over in the next week. maybe she can only glimpse the cloak and a cane, or something, but nothing to identify the man. she goes out into the garden to discuss what she heard with bess and george, and in the process manages to leave her all important handbag out on a stone seat. a mysterious young man she has never met before returns the bag to her, but before she can discover whether he is the other suspected vampire or not, he fades into the crowd. nancy decides he could have ditched the cloak and cane so he is not above suspicion, but she finds him intriguing. nancy has bess arrange a distraction while frank sneaks into the man's study, and finds a letter which indicates that claudette is nearly ready and should be passed on for his friend's amusement within the week.

frank and joe leave on a business trip with their father, and don cameron returns from the country where he is supervising the improvements on his family's country house, in time for nancy to use him as an excuse to get into the house again, since her bridges as an under maid were burned. don, upon hearing nancy's suspicions about the man, laughs and says that he runs a training school for house-servants out in the country and is doubtless saying that claudette is ready to be sent out as a maid. nancy pretends to agree with him, and once don gets her out there, she makes an excuse and goes upstairs to check out the attic. there she finds a bed with straps on and various metal tools, and the remains of blood, and fears that girls are taken there to be bled. she keeps her suspicions from all but george.

nancy and george decide they have to take action, since the deadline is fast approaching. they sneak into the house and begin searching, but nancy knows she's been over the entire house, and still hasn't found any trace of claudette. but the man said he'd send her from here, so nancy wanders out onto the grounds and the thick woods bordering the property. she finds a high old-fashioned stable which used to house the jockeys and horse groomers, but she detects no hint of actual horse occupancy. she shrugs under her cloak and finds claudette in the stable. nancy slips a note to the girl to leave a window open with a candle lit, and she will come to her after she sends for assistance. nancy goes back to the house and meets george coming down a hallway, and tells her to run to the nearest house and call for the police, since claudette is being held against her will in the stables outside. george escapes, but the man catches nancy when she goes back to the stables to tell claudette that help is on the way. nancy is chained up and gets to hear of the horrors the girls will face once they leave the stable, not of being bled to death, but being sold to high-class men as mistresses. the more time passes, nancy is hopeful because george has not also been thrown into the dungeon, but hopes she does not get lost in the woods or get hurt. after a few hours of fitful sleep she is awakened by helen corning's cries of relief when she is reunited with claudette. george tells nancy that she ran into the mysterious man who had retrieved her bag during the dance, and he had immediately set off for help without questioning her story or calling her insane, so she guesses he is not a vampire after all. nancy and her father are reunited, and the evil guy led away for questioning.

--

a month later nancy and her father are making preparations for the visit of her father's new clients. carson says he is meeting with a man who has spent a number of years in the caribbean investigating pirates and piracy, and so the man may be a little bit unusual, but he is returning to the estate a day's ride down the river from them. nancy jokes with her father as to his client's eligibility, but carson says the man is happily married and perhaps his only child, a son, would be more to nancy's liking. nancy, who is having an argument with don over her most recent adventure and the widely held rumor that a dashing rake named mick devlin holds a precious lock of her hair, says that perhaps he would be, but the son of some stuffy insurance investigator secretly holds no pleasure for her.

bess and george come over the next day, to stay with nancy for a month. bess met a boy named charles during the same dance where nancy met mick's acquaintance, and is full of nothing but praise for him. during the carriage ride up to london to find a few last things for the visit, she can't stop talking about him. he had insisted upon having some remembrance of hers, so she gave him a rose-quartz ring which he swore he would hold close to his heart, one of unusual size with a faint scratch on the inner band. nancy finds a new white tablecloth and a container of bath-salts for the client's wife, and when they pass a pawn-shop george says she wants to go inside and see if she can find a pocketwatch for her brother, who lost his. bess does not want to go inside, and the crafty stare of the shopwoman does not help her unease, but she finds the rose-quartz ring in the shop and demands to know where the woman got it. the woman is obviously frightened and suddenly declares that the shop is closed, forcing the three girls out. (or not, if there is no gambling ring.)

nancy palmed the ring and tells bess to hold onto it, then ask charles if she can have it back, by claiming she'd like to give him a lock of her hair with it. bess agrees, and the three return to river heights.

the following day bess meets charles while nancy finishes preparing for the arrival of her father's clients. she is wearing her best dress when she is introduced to sir james nickerson, his wife edith, and his son, ned. ned, she is surprised to discover, is the mysterious man who recovered her bag the month before. this lightens her mood considerably, as she thought he would be a rather dull and boring individual. ned keeps his distance, however, which is good because after dinner bess tearfully reports that charles and mick took an 'important trip' to london and will be gone a few days, and he had no satisfactory answer to where her ring could be.

the following morning the nickerson butler brings over a letter for ned, who is delighted to discover that his friend from college, michael o'shea, will be in london for a week on business starting that very day. james gives his blessing for ned to travel to the city to visit his friend, and she and ned have a flirtatious exchange before he leaves. nancy ponders the problem for a moment. charles is in london, and ned will be in london, and london is where bess's ring was found; therefore, london is the logical place to investigate. but nancy still has an understanding with don cameron, despite their tiff, and she is not so close to ned as to be able to wrangle an invitation out of him. so she consults with hannah gruen, their german cook and head housekeeper, and asks for her assistance.

the next afternoon shortly after lunch nancy has bess write a letter to her aunt sylvia in london, taking her up on a halfhearted invitation to visit her for a few days before the heat of the summer season set in, also ostensibly to attend a dance which will be held near london. don cameron calls on the house and says he's heard nancy gave a lock of her hair to mick (or something of similar import), and when he hears that she is planning on going to london for the week-end his suspicions are confirmed. he tells her that he is going down to france for the season and if she desires to see him again, she can call on him at his family's villa, and leaves.

nancy wakes refreshed and carefree, and leaves in the morning with bess and george, ostensibly to attend some ball or another, having forged herself a letter of introduction from her father to ned, presenting her as a distant cousin of the family named percy who will only be in the city a few days. once she, bess, and george are installed, she changes into a suit of fine clothes hannah lifted for her from carson's castoffs, ties her hair back, gives herself a moustache, and sets off to leave the letter of introduction at ned's hotel. she finds ned in a local tea-room and is given a hearty greeting by him and his friend michael. michael leaves for a few hours to pay a visit to his friend jan, and nancy accompanies ned on some minor errands. while there she manages to pump him about whether he currently has a girlfriend (no) and his plans for the evening (a poker game with friends). she mentions having heard that he spent a while in the caribbean, and he talks about it in glowing terms, sailing and chasing pirates from port to port, the excitement and freedom of that life. but, he says, casting a sidelong glance at her (or similar), his parents are worried that he will never settle down, and he would like to have a son to raise, a family to return to.

while they are on their way back to the hotel nancy glimpses an open carriage (open due to the unseasonably warm weather, perhaps) with with mick devlin and brenda carleton inside. brenda is wearing the latest in tiny hats and tight-fitting fashion, laughing uproariously at something mick has said, and ned is watching her carefully when she sets her expression and makes some comment about the fickle affections--of women, she is quick to correct herself, having heard that her distant relative nancy was in some way entangled with that bounder. ned makes some comment that he hopes not, and that the bounder will most likely be at the poker game nancy has wrangled an invitation to.

they part at dinnertime, and nancy goes back to bess's aunt sylvia's, for a quick supper and strategy meeting with her friends. george says that nancy should go, because if mick will be there, perhaps charles will be as well, and she could find some clue as to why he would have pawned the ring. bess says nancy should approach ned as herself, take him into her confidence as a spy, and see if he can discover anything. but nancy, unwilling to delegate this task to anyone, disguises herself again and returns to the pub where ned told her the game would be held.

the back rooms are labyrinthine, and when nancy hears a scared voice her ears perk and, forgetting herself, she listens to the conversation. charles is promising someone he will have compensation by later in the evening, and when he and nancy reach the table, he is visibly ill at ease. nancy has a drink with the guys, a bit stronger than her usual after-dinner cordial or whatever, and charles begins to lose. when he excuses himself from the table for a moment nancy leaves for another drink but follows him, and hears the same voice from before say that if he does "another job" that the men will hold off another week on collection. she returns to the table to find michael pulling in a stack of chips, and ned has just bought another round for the entire table. he tells nancy that she doesn't need to drink but, feeling the eyes of the other people on her, especially those of mick whom she has been avoiding the entire night, she forces down half the drink and is relieved when ned announces he is tired and will be returning to the hotel with michael, giving nancy a chance to duck out. michael says he's going to try his luck for a few more hands, and nancy offers to leave with ned. ned takes a detour through the park and says even though he's known percy for barely a day, he feels like he has known [her] half his life, and says that he lied earlier in the day, he is missing a particular girl indeed. nancy, on top of having to face mick all night and the alcohol and feeling like she did not achieve that much clue-wise, feels rather saddened by this and makes her excuses to leave.

so, when nancy returns to the aunt's house a time later, she tosses rocks at the bedroom window until bess and george let her inside. once there she prepares for bed and tells the cousins that she has a 'date' with ned for lunch the next day, and that he is intrigued by her, but she doesn't mention this mysterious girl she fears captured his heart before she had a chance. the cousins inform her that they accepted an invitation for the next night, to a dance out of town, as it was their last in the city and they had tired of listening to their aunt's complaints about her health. they had thought it a good idea since nancy would be getting away from mick, whom they had heard was seen with brenda carleton of late.

since they have to leave early, nancy sends ned a note apologizing for percy's failure to show at their luncheon, and proceeds with a heavy heart to the dance with bess and george. helen corning is overjoyed to see them at the dance, and tells nancy she is sorry that mick has been widely seen around with brenda, but that brenda has told her friends about the theft of an exquisite ruby, and because she "borrowed" it from her mother she cannot have the police involved, but desperately wants to recover it.

after a few days there, nancy, bess, and george return to river heights, to find that ned has already returned, and they have new guests as well: frazier carleton, his wife, and brenda. brenda seems rather enamored with ned, and flirts with him at dinner. carson says to make the carleton visit up to nancy, since he knows she cannot stand brenda, he will hold a dance the last night of their visit, just before the carletons leave for the south of france.

george comes to nancy and expresses concern that charles has returned and is trying to induce her to elope with him. nancy says that bess is deeply involved in the plans for the party and probably has no intention of leaving before then, but george's fears cannot be allayed. nancy promises to go talk with her and find out whether this is true.

during lunch nancy finds an excuse to talk to ned's mother alone and finds out that while they were living in the caribbean, ned was rather enamored with a dancing girl, but his parents had found her unsuitable and she had betrayed him by allowing herself to be escorted around the town by another man. after lunch nancy goes out on the lawn and finds bess painting, her face somewhat flushed, and the bushes moving slightly as though someone has just come through them. nancy asks bess how she's doing, whether she is still looking forward to the dance, and finally confronts her with george's worries. bess says that charles is staying near river heights, that he has come to her to talk about eloping, but she hasn't given him a firm answer as yet; and, if she does, he has asked that she bring some jewels her aunt left her to help them out while his father is working to set him up at business. nancy makes bess promise that she will entertain no more talk of leaving with charles until after the dance, and bess takes some convincing but finally agrees.

during the afternoon mick comes to call on nancy, and nancy asks him if he knows anything about his charles's intentions toward bess. mick says he doesn't know what his friend's intentions, honorable or otherwise, are, but he can understand his friend's feelings towards bess, as she is a beautiful girl, though he says rather meaningfully that his own affections lie elsewhere. he asks, quite smoothly, about the dance he has heard her father is throwing at the end of the week, and nancy invites him to come. mick takes her hand, and sees ned watching through the window.

nancy discusses this new development with bess and george, and says that if mick had approached brenda, she would have invited him, so this is a good sign. george is still suspicious, but bess thinks he's great because he's friends with charles.

on the night of the dance, mick approaches nancy and while they are dancing, compliments her on the diamond necklace she is wearing, and says his sister had a similar set done in rubies. a bell goes off in nancy's head, and she says that though she has no rubies, she does rather like the necklace, and has a pair of emerald earrings which exactly match his eyes, and perhaps he will see them one day. he asks if they are well guarded, and she says they are as well guarded as her heart, and her bedroom. he mentions having heard the rumor everyone is repeating about him holding a lock of her hair, and asks whether she would like to give any credence to the rumors. nancy asks if he doesn't want her hair twined around some small keepsake to increase its value, but mick says the value of her hair alone is more than enough for him. puzzled, nancy releases him without having given an answer.

mick excuses himself and ned asks nancy for a dance, during which she is rather preoccupied. he makes a few comments about her and how lovely she looks, and she tries to dismiss her thoughts for a while. she asks whether he shall be indulging in any vices tonight, and he says that a card game is being held in their stables if her father does not protest. she makes some comment which tips her hand, perhaps about a hand he played while she was with him as percy, and when he calls her on it she says that she is rather close to percy, and ned says he is very fond of percy. nancy says that perhaps they will meet again, since she has heard percy might be arriving for the party that night, and when she takes her leave of him she goes up to her room and changes back into the clothes she wore as percy.

once they are out in the stables ned introduces nancy as percy, and mick and charles are out there playing with them. nancy watches mick carefully, and though she had found him charming earlier that evening, his manner during the game scares her. charles loses again, ned makes some moderate winnings, and once some guys at the table start exchanging meaningful glances with mick he pulls charles aside, and nancy makes an excuse to follow. she hears mick saying that he will distract her by dancing with her and taking her out into the garden in three quarters of an hour, that the coast is clear and the emerald earrings shouldn't be that hard to find.

nancy makes her excuses for leaving rather suddenly and goes back to the house, changes quickly back into her dress, and tells george to keep a watch on her room. she takes all her good jewelry and hides it in her father's safe, leaving a pair of false emerald earrings in place of her real ones. she slips a note to hannah to have ned meet her in the house at the same time mick said he would be dancing with her, and ned responds to the note and finds nancy.

meanwhile, brenda, alone and resenting not being the center of attention anymore, follows charles upstairs and watches him go into nancy's room. she hides herself and does not see him leave, and when she hears voices in the hallway she assumes that nancy is meeting him in there. as nancy and ned approach, brenda flings open the door of her chambers and points, in full view of ned, at the masculine garments thrown across nancy's chaise lounge. ned unobtrusively leaves the scene, and nancy tells brenda that if she wants to get her ruby back, she will keep her mouth shut about the clothes in nancy's chamber, and give her some money. brenda agrees to an hour of silence in return for the ruby. nancy asks george, who has emerged from her hiding place, where ned is, and george said he left after seeing that there were male clothes in nancy's room.

nancy, feeling badly that ned probably now believes her a ho, rushes down and confronts mick, since she believes him to be the ringmaster, with charles as the thief. mick takes her out to the lawn and tells her that charles has been his friend for a long time, and he plays cards far too much. when he gets into that situation, he will steal and pawn just about anything he can find to keep his creditors off his back for a few more days. mick has tried to dissuade him many times, but when he no longer can, he will scout out good victims for his scheme, never anyone who can't afford the theft of a gem or two, and besides it was brenda's fault for being so openmouthed about the ruby. nancy asks about bess's ring and mick says that despite charles's genuine feeling for her, he has done this before, (and if they do elope he will find himself in another scrape and leave bess to find some other girl to con.) mick says their major problem is that some of those creditors followed them to the game tonight and are expecting payment. nancy demands the return of her earrings and brenda's ring, and when mick says he can't help her, nancy passes over the money brenda gave her. mick looks at her and says that will be enough, to meet him in the garden in twenty minutes and he will have the jewels to return to her. nancy asks him to have charles no longer bother bess until he has cleaned up his act, and mick says he'll see what he can do.

when they meet in the garden mick does return the ruby and nancy's costume jewelry earrings, and says that he has talked to charles, who believes that they should take a trip to the springs, then find his father, negotiate a payment of his debts, and he wants nancy to join them. unbeknownst to them both, ned is watching. nancy tells him that she is glad he and charles will start living a respectable life, but to come back and talk to her once he could present his intentions without breaking bess's heart. he asks again if she won't come away with them that night, as they have bought off the creditors but not for long, and nancy shakes her head. he asks if he might have a lock of her hair and she begs him again to come back when they are finished. he says he will wait another two hours for her, in case she does change her mind, but he must leave at that time, to get away from the guys following them.

nancy returns the ruby to brenda, who says that she has kept her mouth shut but the damage has probably already been done. ned has retired, so nancy cannot see him the rest of the night; knowing that the nickersons and the carletons are leaving the next day, and that bess is probably in some tearful heartbroken state, she wonders if perhaps mick was right and the love of bess might set his friend straight, and she does find mick devilishly attractive, but she goes to bed that night without having met him, and so the opportunity passes.

the next morning bess is disconsolate because charles has left, and nancy has a consultation with her friends over what she can possibly say. there are no plausible explanations for the clothing, and if ned recognized it as percy's, all the worse, because she made the relation so distant that she could legitimately be involved with the guy. bess suggests that nancy throw herself on ned's mercy, george says to try the "it was my relative's" approach, and nancy leaves, not having made up her mind one way or the other.

at breakfast ned seems utterly preoccupied with his own thoughts, and nancy finds no opportunity to catch his eye and gauge his mood. her father draws her aside after the meal and asks if she has talked to ned. she says that she has not, and fears that he may think rather badly of her due to some things he may have misinterpreted. carson says to disabuse him of any wrong-headed notions, as he and his parents are set to leave after lunch. nancy asks her father whether she would have found mick a proper son in law, and carson, taken aback, comments that despite his exotic mannerisms and charms, he found him no more qualified than, say, the count de marquis, whose advances nancy had refused, or the banker from under-grifton whom nancy had found an unsuitable mate. he found nothing objectionable about don cameron, other than that nancy did not love him, and in all actuality found him a rather dull companion. or, not that, she found nothing wrong with him, it was just that she didn't feel any affection for him, other than that for a cousin or something. she also spent a glorious week in monte carlo, during which daryl gray proposed to her, but she did not accept his advances, either. her father reminds her that he is sure when she actually does fall in love, that he will find the man she has selected suitable, and nancy replies that she hopes he is right, though she may have botched things horribly.

ned approaches the two of them and nancy, quite nervous, asks if ned would care to join her for a walk out on the grounds before he leaves. he accepts her invitation gravely, and the two of them walk a path down to the lake on the property, down to the gazebo where bess had been painting. nancy says she can barely believe he would give her an audience, after what he saw the night before; a smile twitches at the corner of his mouth, but he nods. she says that percy had used her room to change clothes; ned says he noticed that after his hasty departure from the game, he did not see percy again. nancy says she cannot expect him to believe what she is about to say, but he has no cause for concern over those clothes, since she has absolutely no intentions toward percy, but she trips over her words and falls silent. ned tells her that he is not angry with her, and he recognized those clothes as soon as he saw them. she asks why he is not angry, then, and ned says that since he first saw her, even in her disguise, he has found himself in love for the first time; that because he loves her, no amount of disguise could have hidden her from him, and every time he saw her as percy he knew it was her; that when she had asked him if he felt anything toward anyone he had known it was her and was therefore unable to speak. she asks why he fled the night before, if he had known those clothes were hers; he says that the utter relief he felt upon realizing that she had not, as brenda had thought, taken up with another man, was enough to make him realize that he would do nearly anything to prevent that eventuality, and he had approached carson with his intentions, but before he could come to her and talk to her about how he felt he had spotted her out on the lawn with mick and hoped he was not too late, but since she was here now, he was sure her refusal of him had been adamant enough to resist his charms. nancy reflects on how close she came to going with mick, given that she thought ned felt nothing for her. she asks what answer her father gave, and ned says that everything rests upon her answer, since his parents and her father have said they will do nothing to oppose the match.

so she gives her consent, and at the party announcing their engagement, bess falls for a new guy.