Strange Inheritance — Lorena Ann Olmstead

“Dear Miss Easton: We have reason to believe you are the person we have been searching for… “This began a letter that was to change the lives of lovely young Carol Easton and her best friend and roommate, Anita Barrows. The two girls had been raised in a New York orphanage and had few ties. They could use the check the attorney, Chester Bradley, sent for plane fare to California to see if Carol was truly the last remaining relative of John Phillips, Jr., and thus the inheritor of a Victorian mansion chock full of antiques.

Arriving in California, they were met at the airport by Chester Bradley, who, contrary to Anita's mental picture of him, was tall, young, and strikingly handsome. And he was charming -- far too so for Carol, who soon lost her heart.

But managing a household and running a mansion were new to both the girls, and they could hardly believe the amount of money involved in its day-to-day upkeep. And Carol had been left only limited funds.

One possible source of income would be to sell some of the antiques. Many antique dealers were eager to be allowed into the mansion, to make a deal with the naïve girls who knew nothing of the value of the pieces. But in Carol's mind the most promising source of money was the treasure -- who ever heard of a mansion without one? And Carol had written proof of its existence. Now, if only she could succeed where so many others had failed…