En Garde (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 17)

No one “foils” Nancy Drew . . .

“This is DeLyn and Damon Brittany,” George went on. “Nancy, Ned, and my cousin Bess.”

“Glad to meet you,” Damon said with a smile and a hearty handshake.

DeLyn stuck out her hand too, but she didn’t speak, and her smile struck me as pretty forced. Why? I wondered. Pre-match nerves, maybe.

We stood there for a minute, chatting about the tournament. I noticed DeLyn’s distracted gaze sliding away, scanning the parking lot. I looked around too.

That’s when I spotted him, lingering behind a parked car two rows away, like he was waiting for someone. A guy with shaggy, shoulder-length brown hair and a restless way of moving that raised my radar.

girl detective™

#1 Without a Trace

#2 A Race Against Time

#3 False Notes

#4 High Risk

#5 Lights, Camera . . .

#6 Action!

#7 The Stolen Relic

#8 The Scarlet Macaw Scandal

#9 Secret of the Spa

#10 Uncivil Acts

#11 Riverboat Ruse

#12 Stop the Clock

#13 Trade Wind Danger

#14 Bad Times, Big Crimes

#15 Framed

#16 Dangerous Plays

#17 En Garde

Available from Aladdin Paperbacks

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright © 2006 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right of

reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

NANCY DREW is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, NANCY DREW: GIRL DETECTIVE, and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition May 2006

Library of Congress Control Number 2005929098

ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-0603-2

ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-1349-3 (eBook)

ISBN-10: 1-4169-0603-7

1
Tournament Time

2
The Rivals

3
The Gauntlet Is Down

4
Bad News

5
The Setup

6
Sabotage!

7
A Whiff of Danger

8
The Other Side

9
Suspected

10
A Stalker Lurks

11
More Than a Threat

12
Find the Motive

En Garde

L
et me tell you
about George Fayne. To start with, she’s my best friend—one of them, at least. And she’s a she, no matter what her name says. (Her real name is Georgia, but don’t tell her I told you.)

Oh, my name? I’m Nancy Drew. Maybe you’ve heard of me. I’ve solved a few mysteries around River Heights, but it’s no big deal. Seriously. It’s not like I even go looking for cases. They just sort of . . . find me.

Besides, I don’t do it alone. And one of the people who helps me out the most is my friend George. She’s always there for me when I need her. So when George does something on her own, I support her. Even if I don’t entirely understand her. Like right now, for instance.

“So you think she’s going to stick with this fencing thing?” I asked Bess as we got out of my car.

(Oh, yeah, Bess Marvin is my other best friend/partner in crime solving. She’s George’s cousin, and the three of us go way back.)

“I actually think she will,” Bess said, flipping her wavy golden hair out of her jacket collar. “This just may be her sport.”

“George is good at every sport she tries,” said my boyfriend, Ned Nickerson. “Basketball, cycling, rock climbing, skiing, scuba diving, you name it.”

“This is different,” said Bess. “Her coach says she’s really good at fencing, and it sounds so intense. He says once you commit to it, it’s got to be a full-time thing. That’s all you hear from her these days—it’s ‘Bela says this’ and ‘Bela says that.’”

“That’s what I don’t get,” Ned said. “That coach. Who’d want to spend so much time with that guy?”