The Secret of the Elms — Daniel P. Mannix

Her future, and a vast fortune, rode with a ghost who loved horses…

When Mary Ellen arrives at her grandmother's castle, she learns that she must never mention horses and that the nursery is haunted.

Twelve year old Mary Ellen has been expelled from St. Agatha's for smoking pot ― although she swears she was not ― and is subsequently whisked off by her half-sozzled father and vain stepmother to spend an extended Easter vacation at the Elms ― a gigantic Victorian-Gothic mansion belonging to her Grandmother. No mansion the size of a castle is complete without a screeching peacock, marble fireplaces, an ancient housekeeper, and a haunted nursery ― and the Elms come fully stocked.


As they drop her off at the stone porte cochére big enough to contain a small house, Mary Ellen's parents also inform her that she will be joined by Grandmother's other two granddaughters ― a get together deliberately contrived in order to decide which deserving heir will be left the family fortune.