Chapter One: On the Way

“Can you believe it, Honey? A whole week with Jim and Brian!” Fifteen-year-old Trixie Belden tossed her sandy curls, blue eyes sparkling with anticipation. “That teachers’ conference in White Plains was sure good luck.”
    Her best friend Honey Wheeler, also fifteen, nodded vigorously, her golden brown hair sweeping across her slender shoulders. “I know. Oh, Trix, I’ve missed them so much.”
     The two teenagers were on their way to visit their older brothers who were in their first semester at Graystone College in Carrington, a small town some three hours drive from Sleepyside.

    From the moment Honey’s family had moved to the small Westchester town of Sleepyside, the two girls had been the best of friends. When she had first arrived, Honey had been a pale and timid only child, lonely and insecure, but a friendship quickly sprang up between the two girls, and boisterous Trixie soon helped Honey overcome her fears and her shyness. Now, Honey was a picture of youthful health and happiness.
It was late on a sunny October afternoon, and the bus on which the girls were traveling seemed terribly slow to its young occupants, who were eager to see their brothers.
     “I sure hope they haven’t gone all sensible and sophisticated on us,” exclaimed Trixie suddenly.
Honey giggled. “They’ve always been sensible, Trix, but as for sophisticated…” Honey’s brow creased slightly as she tried to imagine Jim and Brian, normally attired in jeans and t-shirts, decked out in fancy suits. “I don’t think they’ve been gone that long.”
    “It seems like forever since they left. After all, they were only home a few days after their trip,” Trixie remarked. “We gave them quite a send off. Didn’t we?
     Honey nodded, smiling at the memory. The Bob-Whites had certainly thrown a terrific party for their departing members.
    The Bob-Whites of the Glen was a semi-secret club formed by Trixie, her older brothers, Brian and Mart, and Honey and her newly adopted brother, Jim, not long after the Wheelers moved to Sleepyside. When pretty dark-haired Diana Lynch was struggling to adapt to her family’s new-found wealth, she too had been invited to join. Soon after, Dan Mangan, orphaned nephew of the Wheelers’ groom Regan, brought their number up to seven.
    Together the teenagers worked and played, striving to be both self-sufficient and a help to others less fortunate than themselves.  They were a loyal and devoted group, and it had taken some time for them to adjust to the continuing absence of their two eldest and most responsible members, whom they all looked up to.

     As far as Trixie and Honey were concerned, it was the most natural thing in the world to be proud of their older brothers. They had worked and studied extremely hard and deserved their scholarships. They were determined to gain the knowledge they needed to realize their ambitions for the future. Jim planned to use the inheritance left to him by his great uncle to start a school for orphans whilst Brian was preparing for a career in medicine. The two young men enjoyed each others company and valued their friendship highly. It didn’t seem to hurt that their younger sisters were also the very best of friends and that both Jim and Brian were able to love and appreciate each others sister as much as they did their own. The going away party had been the last real time they had all been together. The girls smiled at one another as they recalled that mid August afternoon.

Wanting to do something extra special, the group had commandeered the Belden’s cozy farmhouse, and with Peter and Helen Belden agreeing to take young Bobby out for the afternoon and evening, the Bob Whites had set to work. Mart and Dan had blown up balloons, hung banners and streamers, and rearranged the furniture to decorate the living room. Di had made a magnificent, rich chocolate cake and decorated it beautifully, while Honey carefully followed Helen Belden’s famous fried chicken recipe. Trixie, meanwhile, prepared a healthy fruit salad and concocted a tasty punch.
    When Dan and Mart re-emerged from the decorating chores, they were set to work chopping ingredients for a coleslaw and mixed salad.
    “Should we have fries, mashed potatoes or potato salad?” Honey asked anxiously.
    “Fries,” said Dan.    
    “Mashed potatoes,” said Mart.
    “Potato salad,” Di said simultaneously.
    Honey looked horrified and Trixie rolled her eyes. “Just tell ‘em what you want them to fix it’ll be easier that way.”
    Honey had been declared unofficially in charge of the get-together, and so far everything had gone smoothly. “Potato salad,” she said finally, “because that way we can fix it now, and later, when we want to eat, I’ll just have to heat the chicken,”
    “Makes sense,” Mart said agreeably. “I’ll get the potatoes ready”
    “And I’ll make the dressing,” Di offered. “My cake is looking pretty good, if I say so myself”.
    Trixie looked up from the fruit she was cutting, while Honey stopped fretting about the potato salad for a moment.  Together with the boys, they admired Di’s cake.
    “Maybe we should sample it,” Mart suggested innocently. “Looks can be deceiving, you know.”
This remark was greeted with a series of hoots, and Trixie poked her brother playfully in the arm.
    “I suppose you’re volunteering to be the taste tester,” she quipped.
    Mart fixed a serious expression to his freckled face. “It’s a time-honored tradition actually, Roman Emperors and Egyptian Pharaohs both employed taste testers to guard against the possibility of rival power factions...” He broke off as Trixie poked him again, this time sharply.
     “No history lessons today, thanks,” she said with a grimace.
    “He can’t help knowing so much,” Di protested, winning a grateful smile from Mart.
    “Well, he can help sharing his enormous vat of knowledge,” Trixie returned swiftly.
    Sensing that a full scale Belden argument was about to erupt, Honey interjected. “Trixie, that fruit salad needs to go in the refrigerator, and Mart, I thought you were preparing the potatoes.” She waved a piece of seasoned chicken, pointing each Belden back to their respective task.
    “Yes, chief,” Mart replied, smothering a grin. It was fun to see Honey take charge like that.
    As they resumed their duties, Honey anxiously approached Dan, lowering her voice. “I wasn’t too bossy was I?”
    Dan shook his head and smiled “No, Honey, you were spot on I’d say.”
    Honey nodded, satisfied, and went to the stove to commence frying her coated chicken pieces.

All was quiet when Brian and Jim, who had been into the city to pick up the remaining text-books that they needed for school, finally returned.
    “We’re back,” Brian called as the boys entered via the back door. The Belden kitchen was neat and sparkling clean, and Brian scratched his head. “I know Moms and Dad were taking Bobby to the movies and then out for pizza afterward, but I figured somebody would be here.”
    Jim laughed. “Yeah, I at least expected to find Mart foraging in the refrigerator complaining about hunger pangs.”
    “Trix, Mart, are you here?” Brian raised his voice and receiving no reply, shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they’re up at your house.”
    Jim grinned. “Mmm, Mart’s probably trying to convince cook to prepare some exotic delicacy like hot dogs or burgers. Dump your stuff in your room and we’ll go and see.”
    “Sure. Do you want to grab that copy of the psych text I picked up in White Plains yesterday?” Brian asked
    His friend nodded and followed Brian through into the dining room. He didn’t get far, as Brian had stopped mid-doorway, surveying a room in total darkness.
     “What’s going on?” Jim strained to see over Brian’s shoulder.
    Suddenly, cries of, ‘Surprise’, ‘Surprise’, and ‘Good luck’ filled the air as the light snapped on, and the Bob-Whites emerged from their various hiding places.
    The two older boys took in the festive decorations and the heavily laden table, warm smiles lighting their handsome young faces. Dan began pulling back the drapes, allowing the afternoon’s dying light to filter through.
    “Honey insisted we close the curtains,” he explained. “She said it wasn’t a proper surprise party unless the room was really dark.”
    “She was right, as usual.” Jim walked across to give his sister a hug, and Brian shook his dark head in amazement.
    “I had no idea,” he breathed.
    “It wouldn’t have been much of a surprise party if you had,” Trixie observed with a grin.
    “Too true,” Mart agreed with a smile of his own.
    “You guys are terrific.” Jim looked around him appreciatively.
    Di smiled and moved across to the table. “Can I get anyone some punch?” she asked, picking up the ladle.
There were nods all round. Bob-Whites were soon clustered around the table, and the party began in earnest.

      “It sure seems a long time ago.” Trixie yawned and stretched, trying to get comfortable. Although the trip only took a little over three hours, the girls were not used to sitting still for that long, and the enforced inactivity, coupled with their eagerness to see their brothers, was making them a little restless.
    Honey glanced at her wristwatch. “Less than half-an-hour to go,” she reported, smiling. She waved her arm under Trixie’s nose.
     Trixie was about to retort good-naturedly when she grabbed her friends lightly tanned wrist in surprise. “Why, Honey Wheeler! That’s your best dress-up watch. The one your grandmother gave your mother when she graduated…” Trixie frowned.
    “Finishing school,” Honey finished with a grin. “I couldn’t help it, Trix. It’s such a special day and I just wanted to look…” She hesitated and shrugged her slim shoulders. “Extra special, you know.”
    Trixie did know. But in spite of the fact that she had shampooed and dried her sandy curls with care the night before and chosen a knit sweater of a becoming sky blue that she knew to be flattering, she still felt that a mirror would reveal that her clothes were now rumpled and her face flushed. A glance at her friend indicated that Honey’s light green sweater and jeans were not in the least creased and that the golden hair framing her pretty face was shining and neat. Honey was taller and slimmer than her friend, and Trixie sometimes felt a little frumpy beside her. The warmth and love she saw reflected in Honey’s face at that moment reminded her that Honey, at least, never made those comparisons.
    “I notice you’re also wearing a certain necklace you received for your last birthday,” she added, grinning.
    Honey blushed and played with the tiny teardrop topaz that hung on a fine silver chain. “I almost always wear it. Just like you almost always wear a certain ID bracelet.”
    Trixie turned the said bracelet around on her wrist. “Well, it’s comfortable.”

    The two girls giggled, and then Honey frowned slightly and tapped her friend on the arm. “I hope we won’t be a nuisance to Jim and Brian”. Seeing Trixie’s startled expression she hurried on. “I mean, they’ve been at college a while now. They’ll have friends, new friends I mean, other friends apart from us, though I suppose technically speaking we’re actually family rather than friends. Well, at least I’m Jim’s family and you’re Brian’s family...” She broke off mid-stream as she caught sight of Trixie’s face. “Uh oh, I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” she exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth. “Rambling on...not making sense.”
    Trixie laughed ruefully. “The trouble is, Honey, that you were making perfectly perfect sense, as far as I’m concerned, but I doubt our esteemed brothers would agree. For that matter,” she lowered her voice and bent her sandy head closer to her friend’s golden one, “from the looks of some our fellow passengers, I don’t think they’d agree either.” Slowly the two girls raised their heads and made as casual a survey of the coach as they could manage.

    Some people were engaged in deep conversation, others dozed fitfully, and some met the girl’s glances with friendly smiles. One man’s response distinguished him from those around him. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties and had dark brown, slightly wavy hair. His startlingly blue eyes locked briefly with Trixie’s and Honey’s. Then, unsmilingly he lowered his gaze and picked up a newspaper from the empty seat next to his own. He proceeded to unfold it then opened it out to conceal his face. Trixie and Honey regarded one another steadily.
    “From the moment he got on the bus I’ve thought he was kind of mysterious,” Trixie hissed behind her hand. Honey nodded seriously, her hazel eyes like saucers, then without warning she compressed her lips and hunched over, her shoulders shaking.
    “What’s the matter?” Trixie demanded, half worried, half annoyed.
     Honey turned to face her friend valiantly trying to regain her composure. “I don’t know, I was just imagining you and I arriving and pointing him out to Jim and Brian and telling them we think he’s myster…” Another snort of laughter escaped and Trixie giggled too.
    “Okay,” she admitted grudgingly. “I know they think we suffer from mysteritis.”
    Honey raised her well-shaped brows and Trixie giggled again.
     “And maybe they have a point. But what can they expect? It is going to be our life’s work.”
    The two teenagers had been solving mysteries together since they had first met.

    Their first case had given Jim a new family and a half-million-dollar inheritance. Since then, they’d worked on numerous cases and had been instrumental in catching jewel thieves, gunrunners, sheep rustlers and counterfeiters. They’d also located missing treasure and even found Jim a cousin he’d never known existed. Their exploits weren’t just confined to Sleepyside either. Their mysteries had taken them, or in some cases followed them, to nearby New York, picturesque Williamsburg, Virginia, the Ozarks and even England. It hadn’t taken the two long to realize that they made a good team and solving mysteries soon became second nature. It was only natural that they were looking forward to the day they could open the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency.

      “So, we won’t even mention the word mysterious when we arrive. Deal?” Trixie held out her hand and Honey shook it gravely.
    “Deal.”
    “Still,” Trixie mused.
    Honey rolled her eyes in mock horror.
    “Honestly,” Trixie continued. “I’m sure I’ve seen that guy some place before. I just can’t remember where.”
    The bus slowed, easing to a stop to allow several passengers to alight.

    “It can’t be long now,” Honey breathed. “Oh, Trix, Carrington is such a pretty town. I’m glad this is where Jim and Brian chose to go to college.”
    Noting the wide streets lined with sweeping trees and the well-tended gardens of the gracious frame houses,         Trixie nodded in agreement. “It’s certainly every bit as nice as Jim and Brian said it was. And wasn’t it terrific that they got a student unit too?”
    Some years earlier, a college benefactor had purchased a block of apartments located only ten minutes from the campus itself. They were offered to students at very reasonable rates. Unusually, the benefactor decreed that these apartments were for first years and Jim and Brian as scholarship winners were amongst those eligible; the extra money they had put aside the previous summer allowed them to take advantage of that opportunity.
    “Trixie, don’t you think it will be fun to cook our own meals and look after ourselves kind of like we did when we went off in the Silver Swan?”
     Trixie looked doubtful. “I don’t know if I’ll ever consider domestic chores fun, but it will be great to be together and on our own.”

    The bus turned, leaving the quiet residential streets and heading through what must have once been a hive of industry. Disused factories lined the road, obviously empty, signs of neglect apparent. The road itself, however, was neatly edged and not at all overgrown.
    “This isn’t quite so picturesque,” Trixie observed.
    Overhearing her, the woman in the next row turned to face the girls. “No, it isn’t very pretty is it? All of this land was once owned by one family, but they fell on hard times and now…well…” She smiled, “The buses have to take this route. Recently, town planning has introduced a lot of small islands and bushes throughout the residential area. It’s good for the environment, pleasant to look at and slows down the traffic. So although this way is longer, it is more practical for larger vehicles.”
    “Thank you for explaining,” Honey said politely. “We’re on our way to visit our brothers who are attending college here.”    
    “Well, I hope you both have a wonderful time.”
    Whilst they had been talking, the bus had entered a busy commercial district and was now pulling into the depot.
     “Honey, look!” Trixie shouted pointing excitedly. “There’s Brian’s jalopy and Jim and Brian.” Honey followed Trixie’s eager gesturing and saw her brother and Brian getting out of the jalopy parked on the other side of the road. They turned to one another eyes dancing.
     “We’re finally here.” Trixie beamed.
    “Oh, I’m so looking forward to a lovely peaceful vacation,” Honey sighed contentedly. “Aren’t you?”
     In spite of herself, Trixie shot a surreptitious glance at the still-open paper covering the face of her mysterious stranger. “Well,” she allowed. “I’m sure it’ll be an interesting vacation anyway.”

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Author's notes: Many, many thanks to Dana for her generous and wonderful editing. I need lots of help and she has been so patient. This was my first ever Trixie Fan Fic, though it took me almost a decade to write—starting and stopping  at random intervals. It all started after re-reading my Trixie's and being so frustrated by the last few books, that I decided I would write my own. Discovering Jix quite a few years ago inspired me to complete it. Trixie Belden et al belong to Random House and not to me. No profit is being made from these scribblings.