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The Duchessa’s Secret






 

As Nancy slid forward, the passengers gasped in horror. Luckily, however, the girl had managed to grab the chain, keeping herself from falling into the canal!

“Nancy! ” Bess cried, she and her cousin diving to help her. The stranger, meanwhile, had edged past them and lost himself in the crowd of onlookers.

" Just pull me, ” Nancy said hoarsely. “I can make it.”

But her fingers were bone-white and threatening to give way any second.

“Lean back as far as you can, ” George told her, putting her arms under Nancy’s and tugging her upward.

“That’s it. More, more, ” Bess urged. She watched the girl’s feet grope for a toehold.

The ticket collector, who had been at one end of the vaporetto, now hurried forward muttering in Italian.

“Che cosa sta succedendo qui? What’s going on here? " he asked as the young detective finally managed to swing her weight onto the boat and stood up.

“Someone pushed me, ” she said.

“Non capisco. Che cosa dice? I don’t understand. What is she saying? ” the young man replied. He looked at George for an explanation.

“My friend says someone pushed her, ” Bess answered. “Like this.” She motioned with her hands. “You understand now? ”

But the ticket man shook his head.

“Give up. Obviously, no one saw it because it’s so crowded in here, ” Nancy said to the girls as the boat approached its first stop. She glanced through the passengers, most of whom where local people who spoke little or no English and quickly lost interest in the rescue once it was over. Which one of them, she wondered, had tried to push her overboard and why?

No answer came, though, as everyone hurried onto the landing stage.

“Do you suppose it was deliberate? ” Bess asked Nancy after they debarked. “It seems to me there was very little standing room and someone could have bumped against you accidentally.”

“It was deliberate all right, ” Nancy said, describing precisely what had happened.

“But who would want to hurt you? ”

“And for what reason I’d like to know? ” George added.

“That’s what I keep saying to myself, ” Nancy remarked, as they ducked down an alley and walked to the fondamenta, the street that ran parallel with the canal.

When they reached the glass shop, however, they were surprised to find a sign on the door.

“‘Chiuso, ’” Nancy said. “How do you like that? It’s closed.”

She peered inside at the array of stemware glistening on the shelves that swept past elaborate mirrors to the chandeliers in the back.

Suddenly, Nancy’s eyes fastened on someone’s reflection in a mirror.

“Look! ” she said, but Bess and George had already seen him. “It’s Andreoli! ”

Nancy tapped on the window, hoping the gondolier would respond, but he had already slipped out of sight.

“This is getting to be very frustrating, ” Bess said as an overhead window slid open.

“Prego. Can you come up? ” A voice drifted down, causing the girls to step back from the building. The handsome elderly woman who had addressed them was probably in her seventies.

“Who are you? ” Nancy asked.

“I will tell you when you come upstairs. There is a door to the right.”

Without giving the girls another chance to speak, she closed the window.

“I wonder why she wants to see us, ” Bess said, following Nancy and her cousin to the second-floor apartment.

“She probably wants to kidnap us.” George laughed, as the door swung open.

“Please come in, young ladies, ” the woman said graciously.

She gestured to a beautiful silk sofa that sprawled in front of a marble fireplace in the living room.

“I am the Duchessa Maria Dandolo. Perhaps you have heard of the Doge, Enrico Dandolo. I am a distant relative.”

Nancy gulped excitedly, as she remembered Antonio’s story about the Doge who had brought the bronze horses from Constantinople. “Did you, by any chance, send a message to me—Nancy Drew—this morning? ” she asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“But how did you know who Nancy was? ” Bess inquired, incredulous.

“A friend of mine told me. Professor Bagley. He called to say hello before his college tour left Europe. When I told him I had a problem, he informed me that a very bright young detective was on her way to Venice. ‘She’s the person to help you, ’ he said.”

“Oh, my goodness, ” Nancy responded, flattered by the professor’s glowing recommendation.

“He also mentioned your friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin, ” the woman continued, lighting her eyes on them. “He described you all so vividly that I immediately recognized you when I saw you standing downstairs. So... I take it you received my little note? ”

“We did, but we could hardly read it, ” Nancy said. “It was washed out by the rain.”

“Then, how did you know where to find me!? ”

“As you said, Duchessa, Nancy’s a first-rate detective, ” George said, chuckling.

With that, there was a knock at the door, and the woman rose to answer it. To the girls’ astonishment, it was Andreoli.

“You almost got us into a heap of trouble! ” George accused him. “If you hadn’t told the night clerk about our trip across the canal, we wouldn’t have had to explain ourselves to the police, who, by the way, warned us not to do any more detective work! ”

The gondolier looked crestfallen. “I not know who you were then, ” he said haltingly.

“Poor Andreoli. Don’t be so hard on him, ” the duchessa said in his defense. “He told me about your conversation with Captain Dona- tone. I believe his restrictions concern only police matters. I am asking you as a private citizen to help me on a matter in which I do not wish to involve the authorities.”

“Yes? ” Nancy asked, her curiosity rising.

“I have a nephew who is quite brilliant, an artist like his father, and he—” She paused as if unsure whether to continue.

“And he? ” George prompted her.

“Well, he has been kidnapped—taken away from Venice, his family, his work, everything.” “Why didn’t you tell the police? ” Bess asked. “Because I did not want the publicity. If I reported the kidnapping, there would be stories in the newspaper. My family would be very upset.”

Gazing at the elegant appointments in the room, the fine brocade, the crystal and marble, the girls concluded there was great wealth hidden between the lines of Maria Dandolo’s story. Throughout, Andreoli had remained quiet.

“I want you to find my nephew, ” the woman went on. “I will pay you well.”

“I never take money, and I am not sure I can accept the assignment anyway, ” Nancy said, surprising her companions.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard Nancy Drew turn down a chance to solve a mystery! ” Bess exclaimed.

“Well, as Andreoli knows, ” the girl replied, “our friends are in trouble.”

“They’re in jail, ” George stated flatly.

“Yes, I know all about it, ” the duchessa said, “but what does that—”

“I’m afraid I have to devote my time to them until they are free. I’m sure you can understand that.”

“Of course, but perhaps I can help you in that regard, ” Nancy’s listener replied, causing a flutter of excitement among the girls. “I cannot promise, but I can certainly try.”

She said something in Italian to Andreoli whose head bobbed up and down at every syllable. “Si, si, ” he replied.

“But signora, ” Nancy started to say. “Duchessa, ” the woman corrected her. “Then, duchessa, ” Nancy continued, “please tell me how it is you can help my American friends when you fear going to the police about your own relative? ”

“That is an easy question to answer. You see, I have many friends in high government positions who can—how you say—move things

along for you. But Filippo. Well, he would be in even greater danger if I revealed his disappearance to them. I do not trust anyone now— except you.”

The woman lowered her eyes, tracing a thin crack in a black marble table. “It’s pathetic how old things break and fall apart with time, ” she said. “I’m trying hard not to let it happen to me, especially now. Please, you must find Filippo. It is your duty as a detective! ”

 






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