Author's Note: Welcome back! I'm excited to be posting this a week earlier than I expected, but I've made so much progress on it so much faster than I expected that I decided not to keep you guys waiting any longer.

This is Part 2 of the trilogy that began with Curse of the Scottish Play. If you haven't read that one, don't worry. It would make a few things a little clearer and this story will have some spoilers for that one, but you should be able to follow the overall plotline reading this one first. If you like what you're reading and you're interested in reading Part 3 when I post it, however, you are going to want to make sure you read both of the first two parts. Besides some major spoilers, the storyline in Part 3 will be hard to follow without knowing what happened before it.

There is a lot of ground to cover in this story, so that's why I don't beat around the bush and I jump right in. These first few chapters feel like they have more exposition than they should, but rest assured, there will absolutely be mysteries that won't be solved until the end of this story, and even some that won't be solved until the next story.

Much of this story is told in the form of flashbacks. To be absolutely clear, the flashbacks all are written in italics and begin with a heading telling when they took place. Hopefully that won't get confusing.

There is a great deal of emotional trauma in this story, as well as some violence. I don't get graphic, though, other than stating things like that there is blood present.

Finally, thank you, readers, for all of the support you've given me since I started posting my fanfiction. In particular, thank you to everyone who read and followed Curse of the Scottish Play and all of you who will read this story. My especial thanks to everyone who posted reviews for the last story: Barb, BMSH, Cherylann Rivers, EvergreenDreamweaver, Iheartninjago2010, max2013, TinDog, and Guest. I appreciate your support so much, and for that, I am dedicating this story to you.

Chapter I

"Hannah! Hannah, help!" The desperate tones of eighteen-year-old Nancy Drew's voice reverberated through the Drew home.

Hannah Gruen, the Drews' long-time housekeeper, was just coming in the house from getting the mail when she heard Nancy's shout. At once, she dropped the mail on a stand near the door and ran for the staircase, where Nancy's voice was coming from. In Nancy's career as an amateur detective, she had run into danger more than a few times.

Because of that, Hannah was relieved to find that the only trouble Nancy was in at the moment was that she was struggling with a large box that she was trying to bring down from the attic. Nancy was balanced on the drop-down steps with the unwieldy box appearing to be in immediate danger of falling.

"What are you doing?" Hannah asked as she helped the girl balance the box.

"Thanks, Hannah," Nancy said, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "I didn't think I was going to make it for a minute there."

"Are those the Christmas decorations?" Hannah looked more closely at the box. "Nancy, it's only December first."

"I know," Nancy replied. "I just thought it would be nice to surprise Dad by starting to decorate. You know he loves Christmas, and he's been so preoccupied the last couple of months."

"Well, go ahead, then," Hannah said. "But you're not going to set up the tree, are you?"

"You can't decorate for Christmas without setting up the tree, Hannah." Nancy feigned reproach. "That has to be the first thing to go up. Why?"

"It's just I'll have to start wrapping presents, then," Hannah replied. "You can't have a Christmas tree with no present under it."

"I need to finish all my Christmas shopping," Nancy commented. "I'm having a little bit of a hard time thinking of the perfect presents for everyone this year."

"You have that problem every year," Hannah teased her.

Nancy grinned. "I can't argue with you there. Do you have any ideas?"

"For who?" Hannah asked.

"Anyone." Nancy shrugged. "I have some small things for Dad and Ned, but I definitely want to get them something bigger. And then I haven't even got an idea for Bess or George."

"Speaking of presents," Hannah said, "I think there's one for you in the mail. At any rate, it's addressed to you and it's postmarked Bayport. I don't know what else it would be."

"Ah, Frank and Joe." Nancy said it with a sigh. "They didn't have to go to the trouble. Of course, I was going to get them presents anyway. They're really early with it."

She and Hannah carried the box of decorations downstairs, and Nancy went to look at the mail. The package in question was small, and it didn't have a return address. The only indication that it had come from the Hardy boys' hometown was its postmark.

Using a letter opener that was sitting on the stand next to the mail, Nancy cut through the tape and opened the package. Inside was a second, gift-wrapped package with a note attached to it. The unsigned note had been printed from a computer and read:

Dear Nancy,

This might come in handy before Christmas. The New Year is always a good time to make changes and resolutions and become better. My resolution is to change my ways and become much better at what I do, especially after the way it turned out last time. Go ahead and open this package, and enjoy.

"Weird," Nancy commented.

"What is?" asked Hannah, who happened to be passing by at the moment.

Nancy handed the note over to her, saying, "This is. It doesn't even sound like Joe's sense of humor."

"Well, what's in the package?" Hannah gestured at the wrapped gift.

Shaking her head in confusion, Nancy slit the paper and slid a box out. Inside the box was a paperback copy of Le Morte d'Arthur.

"Okay." She turned the book over in her hands and flipped through the pages to see if there was any indication of why it would have been sent. "I'm obviously missing part of the joke. I'll have to call those guys later. They'll be in school right now, though."

Bewildered, Nancy began working on the decorating. Even so, half her mind was preoccupied with the odd gift. She always loved a good mystery, and she was usually successful in solving them. She wondered if maybe that was the whole point. Maybe Frank and Joe had decided to play a joke on her by sending her the most random thing they could think of with a cryptic note. Something still didn't fit.

As Nancy was hanging ornaments on the tree, the front door opened without anyone bothering to look. Nancy ducked her head around the corner to see who it was.

"Hey, Nan." One of her best friends, George Fayne, waved at her from the door. "What's going on with you? It has to be more exciting than Bess. She's just setting up their Christmas tree. I tried to tell her she's going to be tired of Christmas decorations by the time it actually gets to Christmas, but she –" George paused as she reached the living room and saw the half-decorated tree. "- wouldn't listen."

"Since when were you the Grinch?" Nancy teased her.

"It's just that the stores have had Christmas decorations up since October," George groaned. "And it was just Thanksgiving five days ago. Shouldn't we just have some normal time?"

"We get plenty of that in January and February," Nancy replied. "I just feel like going ahead and starting the celebrating this year."

"But if you're so busy celebrating, you won't have time to solve a mystery," George told her.

Nancy shrugged. "I can do both at the same time. In fact, I've got a mystery that I'm dying to figure out right now."

"Then I hope you've got time for two mysteries plus a celebration," George said, "because I've got one for you, too."

"Really?" Nancy asked. "What is it?"

George pulled her smartphone out of her pocket and opened an Internet page on it, which she showed to Nancy. It was a news story with the headline: "'Robin Hood' Strikes Another Charity."

"I've heard something about that," Nancy said. "It's a thief that dresses up as Robin Hood and steals from charities over in Baker, leaving an arrow behind as his signature. I think he got the story a little mixed up. Baker's a good hundred miles from River Heights; it's a long way."

"So?" George asked. "As if you haven't solved mysteries in Egypt and Japan and Australia. Those are all a little farther away than Baker. Besides, what a cool mystery and it would be for a good cause."

"Hey, I'm not saying I'm not interested," Nancy replied. "I'm just saying it would take some extra planning since we'd have to be away to work on it."

"Maybe not." George pulled up a map on her phone's screen. "I've been watching this story in the news. The last few robberies have been in other cities besides Baker, and each one has gotten closer to River Heights."

"So you're saying he might be headed here?" Nancy asked.

"Nobody said you have to be smart to be a crook," George replied. "What do you say, Nan? Come on. It's been so boring around here. We need something to keep us occupied."

"You know me, George. When it comes to a mystery, I'm always in." Nancy grinned. "What clues do we have?"

"Not many," George admitted. "He's a bold crook, that's for sure. He always holds people up, with a bow and arrow, no less. For the most part, he only robs charity functions. He takes both the cash donations and any cash or valuables the people attending happen to have on them. Never takes credit cards or anything like that."

"He's only been around for a couple of weeks, right?" When George affirmed that, Nancy went on, "I guess that would explain how he's getting into these places. They probably haven't had much time to think about security precautions."

"Some of them have," George said. "He always gets around them somehow, though. You'd think a guy with a bow and arrow would be easy to stop, but this guy seems to know what he's doing."

"Has any of the jewelry he's stolen turned up in pawn shops or anything?" Nancy asked.

"Not that any news outlets have reported," George told her. "I think that basically everything. Let's get Bess and drive over there this afternoon."

Nancy was about to agree, but then she thought better of it. "Let's wait till tomorrow. By the time we drive over there and then have to drive back, we won't have enough time to do much investigating tonight."

"True," George admitted. She frowned for a minute until another thought struck her. "What about that other mystery you told me you had? Can we work on that still today?"

"I can show it you and see if you can make anything out of it." Nancy led George to where she had left the mysterious message and the book.

George was just as puzzled by it as Nancy and Hannah had been. She also flipped through every page of the book, but it appeared to be brand new. There was no writing or creases or anything else that could possibly hold a secret message. George even held it up to her nose and smelled it.

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked in amusement.

"They could have written a message in lemon juice in it," George explained. "It doesn't smell like it, though."

Nancy shook her head, but she said, "It's a good guess. I'm just going to call Frank and Joe tonight and see if I can get one of them to 'fess up about sending it."

"I guess that's the only thing you can do." George pulled out her smartphone and glanced at the time. "I'll head back to my place. On the way, I'll stop and tell Bess about the plan for tomorrow. She'll probably pretend she doesn't want to go, but she'd throw a fit if we went without her."
Nancy laughed, but she had to agree. Bess was often less enthusiastic about mysteries than Nancy or even George, but she hated to be left out of them.

With two mysteries to think about, Nancy was too preoccupied to finish the decorating once she had finished hanging ornaments on the tree. She pulled out her laptop and began doing research on Robin Hood – both the original and his Baker imitator – and Le Morte d'Arthur. She was so busy reading about them that she didn't notice the time passing.

"Anyone home?" her dad, Carson Drew, called as he came in the front door. Carson was a prominent lawyer in their hometown of River Heights.

Nancy glanced at the clock in the corner of her computer screen with a start, surprised to see that it was already five-thirty and the winter sky was already growing dark.

"Hi, Dad," she called back as she got up to greet him. "Did you have a good day?"

"Not bad." Carson shrugged. "Nothing too exciting. How about you?"

Nancy's eyes sparkled. "Pretty good, actually. I started on the Christmas decorations and I have two mysteries to solve."

Carson chuckled. "Why am I not surprised? What is it this time? International spies? Organized crime?"

"Nothing quite that flashy," Nancy said. "One is a mystery package that I might be able to clear up in a few minutes, and the other is Robin Hood."

Carson's face took on a serious expression right away. "Do you mean the robber over around Baker?"

"Yeah. What's wrong?" Nancy asked.

"Did someone ask you to work on it?" Carson avoided the question.

"Sort of, I guess. It was just George, though," Nancy explained. "She's been following it in the news and she wants to look into it. I've got to admit, I'm pretty curious about it myself."

Carson looked a little relieved, but not very much. "What about the other mystery?"

"That one's a book," Nancy said. "It came in the mail with a very cryptic note."

"What?" Carson used the tone that he usually reserved for when Nancy was in trouble. "Where is it, Nancy? I want to see it."