Nancy POV.
Reluctantly I pulled myself out of bed and made my way to my desk. Melody had put the days newspaper on it for me, I glanced at the headline expecting some tosh about a viscountess' tea party or something. How wrong I was, DUTCHESS OF YORK MISSING, I stared in shock at the headline, the dutchess of York was a nice girl, I'd met her a few years ago on an adventure. She was about the same age as me too.

"Melody Dear!" I yelled, "Bring me my green dress!"
Melody came running into my room green silk in her arms.
"thanks, love. Go ask James to get everyone. We're going to York and there's a case to solve."
Melody ran off to send James with the message.

I began to get dressed just as melody came back.
"here let me help,"melody took the ribbons of my corset that I was trying and failing to lace up.
"thanks, love," I grinned pulling the green silk skirt over my head

Me and Melody are married, illegally, of course. And so in order not to be arrested for it we pretend she's my maid, she often runs little jobs for me round the house too.

I pulled out my bag and began to put supplies in to it. Notebook, pen, copy of the newspaper, sandwiches, money and other things we'd need. York was a good hour away and we were probably spending the day there. I'd just buttoned my boots when  the rest of the 'gang' arrived. Matilda, Anne and Jenny, our partners. We'd solved six cases together and really we should be as famous as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson however we were female and most people think men are better than women. Personally men are disgusting.

The carriage came and all five of us piled in, four of us were wearing bright coloured silk gown (green, pink, blue and yellow) however to make our story seem plausible Melody was wearing a lovely black dress and white apron with her curly blonde hair pinned back from her face.

The journey to york was long and we'd finished the sandwiches only ten minutes after leaving Leeds. We were all sat, heads together, staring at the newspaper.
"well I hope that questioning the residents and staff will shine more light on this case," Anne huffed, pushing red hair behind her ears.
"it probably will, and don't worry Anne. Remember we are at least ten times better than Mr. Holmes. He didn't solve three murders in a day, did he?" Jenny smiled,she always knew how to cheer Anne up when she was fretting over a case.

We arrived at the house an hour later and Matilda rang the big door bell. A few minutes later a well-dressed butler opened the door.
"hello, we're here to speak to the Mistress about her daughters disappearance," I said politely.
Nodding slowly he pulled the doors open and let us in.
"she's in her room ma'am."
I nodded before running upstairs as fast as I could in my fancy, heeled boots and crinoline skirt.

"Mistress Miller, may we come in?" Anne asked knocking in the door.
"yes, you may." Jennifer Millers voice came through the wood. Melody pushed open the door and the five of us crowded in.
"we'd like to ask a few questions about your daughters disappearance if you don't mind," Jenny spoke softly and kindly.
Misses Miller made a noise in consent.
"alright first, did you have any visitors last night?" Matilda asked.
"yes, we had a dinner party."
I reached into my bag and pulled out melody's notebook and pencil, she took them and quickly began jotting down notes.
"do you have the guest list still?" Anne asked.
"yes, I think that hetty will have it, she was marking people off it last night when they came," she said thinking carefully.
"thank you ma'am," I said, "you don't mind if we take a look around and make a copy of the list do you?"
"No, do what ever you need to get my dear Emmeline back."

Jenny led us down stairs where we stopped, "where do we go now?" melody asked.
"I honestly don't know love."
"oh my goodness, why don't we just ask?" Anne pointed out.
"brilliant idea! Excuse me sir, where would we find hetty?"I asked a passing servant.
" she'll be in 'er room, won' she ma'am."
" where is her room? "melody asked.
"along 'ere an to th' left. 'er names on th' door."
"thank you very much sir!" Matilda said.

I set off along the corridor, when we turned left we were met with another corridor with about 50 doors off it, all of them containing a different name. Along with the vast amount of doors there were at least five corridors off the main one.

"split up, we'll never find it if we stick together. Whistle if you find her room," I said everyone nodded and we all ran off along the tangle of the servants quarters. I could hear everyone's footsteps clattering along the bare stone floor as we ran up and down searching for a door labeled 'hetty'.

Ten minutes later, a shrill whistle - Matilda's - sounded. Four pairs of feet including my own echoed in the direction of the noise.

I arrived, gasping, shortly after Jenny. When melody and Anne arrived Matilda raised a fist and knocked on the closed door.
"come in," a girls voice with a hint of a cockney accent called out.
We all came in.
"hello, I'm Nancy, this is melody, Matilda, Jane and Anne. We're looking into the disappearance of the dutchess and we need to see the guest list from last night."  I perched myself(I say perched more like dropped) on the edge of her bed.
"sure thing miss."
Hetty got up and pulled a pice of paper from her desk and handed it to Matilda.
"thank you very much, I think that this list is going to be incredibly useful," Matilda said handing the sheet of names to melody.