The Adventure Girls at Happiness House by Clair Blank
The Adventure Girls at Happiness House by Clair Blank
With a final chug and screech of brakes the train slid to a halt before the two story frame building that did duty for a railway station in the little college town of Briarhurst.
A group of girls proceeded with much hilarity and little speed to transport themselves and their luggage from the railway coach to the station platform. From there they viewed the rusty bus that was to transport them up the hill to the college grounds.
"It will never hold all of us and our luggage," Carol Carter declared with firm conviction. "Perhaps we had better walk."
Janet Gordon looked at the dusty road winding up the hill behind the station and then at the bus. "You can walk," she said. "I'll take a chance on this antiquated vehicle."
"Are you the six young ladies goin' to Briarhurst?"
The girls turned to see a wizened old man approaching from the station. "If ye are, climb aboard. I'm the bus driver."
"I'll wager the bus is even older than he is," Madge Reynolds murmured to Valerie Wallace.
"Will the contraption hold together?" Carol wanted to know.
"It's been a-runnin' for nigh onto twenty years and ain't fell apart yet," the driver said, climbing into his seat and waiting for the girls to get aboard.
"That isn't saying it never will," Phyllis Elton commented.
After much dickering the girls got into the bus, their luggage for the most part piled on the roof, and the ancient vehicle with its ancient driver started with a roar.
"It reminds me of a peanut roaster," Carol murmured. "The way the radiator is steaming and the noise it makes."
"Everything but the peanuts," agreed Janet. "Which reminds me, I hope dinner is early."
"Dinner is at seven," the driver informed them conversationally.
The bus started the long tedious climb up the hillside and the driver settled back comfortably in his seat. He was in no hurry.
"I thought Briarhurst was a prosperous college," Phyllis Elton said to Gale Howard, "wouldn't you think they would have a more modern bus? This thing might scare new students."
The driver frowned on her with all the disgust possible to his wrinkled features.
"Lizzie, here, has belonged to the college since she was new. She's good enough for you yet. Even the new Dean can't junk old Lizzie." He patted the steering wheel with all the affection and prized possessiveness of a loving father.
"New Dean?" Gale questioned. "Isn't Professor Harris the Dean any more?"
"Nope," the driver said. "Professor Harris resigned an' this new one come up here about three weeks ago. She's been tryin' to make changes we old ones don't like."
The girls exchanged glances. They had heard so much about Professor Harris and her rule at Briarhurst. The Dean had been much beloved by the girls. The prospect of a new régime at the college did not particularly appeal to them.
"What's she like-the new Dean?" Janet asked interestedly.
"Young and purty," the sour old man said grudgingly. "But she got no business tryin' to change things that been goin' on all right for thirty years. She won't stay long," he added darkly.
"Why won't she stay?" Phyllis wanted to know.
"The old ones don't like her," he said firmly.
"By 'the old ones' I take it you mean the teachers and other members of the faculty," Gale said.
"That's right," he agreed.
"What has she done to make them dislike her?" Janet inquired.
The man shook his head. "We don't aim to make this a modern institooshun. She has newfangled notions about a new bus and sports for the young ladies. We old ones ain't goin' to stand for it," he repeated firmly. Evidently he considered himself an important part of the college personnel.
"The idea about a new bus is enough to prejudice him," Carol laughed to Janet. "Whoops!" She made a wild lunge for her handbag as the bus navigated a deep rut with a series of protesting groans from the framework. "However, it is enough to put me on her side. If she wants a new bus I am for the new Dean!"
The bus halted first in front of the registrar's office and the girls were assigned to their prospective quarters. Because of crowded conditions only Phyllis and Gale were fortunate enough to win a room in the sorority house of Omega Chi, and this was only through the efforts of their former High School teacher. The other four girls were assigned to the dormitory house on the east lawn of the campus. At first the separation rather put a damper on their spirits.
"You might get into the sorority house next year," consoled Phyllis.
"As it is," Janet commented, "we will leave you two to face the dragons of the sorority by yourselves."
The next stop of the bus was to let Gale and Phyllis off in front of the Omega Chi Sorority house. They surveyed their future home interestedly while standing in the midst of their baggage which the driver had dumped unceremoniously at their feet. The bus rattled away and the girls exchanged glances.
"We might as well go in," Phyllis said finally.
Several girls were on the veranda and these viewed with interest the new arrivals.
"We might as well," Gale agreed with a sigh. With a traveling bag in either hand she followed Phyllis up the steps and into the building that was to be their home for the next four years.
After two years of marriage, Sadie was finally pregnant. Filled with hope and joy, she was blindsided when Noah asked for a divorce. During a failed attempt on her life, Sadie found herself lying in a pool of blood, desperately calling Noah to ask him to save her and the baby. But her calls went unanswered. Shattered by his betrayal, she left the country. Time passed, and Sadie was about to be wed for a second time. Noah appeared in a frenzy and fell to his knees. "How dare you marry someone else after bearing my child?"
After five years of playing the perfect daughter, Rylie was exposed as a stand-in. Her fiancé bolted, friends scattered, and her adoptive brothers shoved her out, telling her to grovel back to her real family. Done with humiliation, she swore to claw back what was hers. Shock followed: her birth family ruled the town's wealth. Overnight, she became their precious girl. The boardroom brother canceled meetings, the genius brother ditched his lab, the musician brother postponed a tour. As those who spurned her begged forgiveness, Admiral Brad Morgan calmly declared, "She's already taken."
Vesper's marriage to Julian Sterling was a gilded cage. One morning, she woke naked beside Damon Sterling, Julian's terrifying brother, then found a text: Julian's mistress was pregnant. Her world shattered, but the real nightmare had just begun. Julian's abuse escalated, gaslighting Vesper, funding his secret life. Damon, a germaphobic billionaire, became her unsettling anchor amidst his chaos. As "Iris," Vesper exposed Julian's mistress, Serena Sharp, sparking brutal war: poisoned drinks, a broken leg, and the horrifying truth-Julian murdered her parents, trapping Vesper in marriage. The man she married was a killer. Broken and betrayed, Vesper was caught between monstrous brothers, burning with injustice. Refusing victimhood, Vesper reclaimed her identity. Fueled by vengeance, she allied with Damon, who vowed to burn his empire for her. Julian faced justice, but matriarch Eleanor's counterattack forced Vesper's choice as a hitman aimed for her.
For eight years, Cecilia Moore was the perfect Luna, loyal, and unmarked. Until the day she found her Alpha mate with a younger, purebred she-wolf in his bed. In a world ruled by bloodlines and mating bonds, Cecilia was always the outsider. But now, she's done playing by wolf rules. She smiles as she hands Xavier the quarterly financials-divorce papers clipped neatly beneath the final page. "You're angry?" he growls. "Angry enough to commit murder," she replies, voice cold as frost. A silent war brews under the roof they once called home. Xavier thinks he still holds the power-but Cecilia has already begun her quiet rebellion. With every cold glance and calculated step, she's preparing to disappear from his world-as the mate he never deserved. And when he finally understands the strength of the heart he broke... It may be far too late to win it back.
Kathryn was the true daughter, but Jolene stole her life and set her up for ruin. After a brutal kidnapping scheme, Kathryn's loyalty to her brothers and fiancé was met with cruel betrayal. Narrowly escaping, she chose to cut all ties and never forgive them. Then she shocked the world: the miracle doctor for the elite, a top-tier hacker, a financial mastermind, and now the untouchable star her family could only watch from afar. Her brothers begged, her parents pleaded, her ex wanted her back-Kathryn exposed them all. The world gasped as the richest man confessed his love for her.
I had been a wife for exactly six hours when I woke up to the sound of my husband’s heavy breathing. In the dim moonlight of our bridal suite, I watched Hardin, the man I had adored for years, intertwined with my sister Carissa on the chaise lounge. The betrayal didn't come with an apology. Hardin stood up, unashamed, and sneered at me. "You're awake? Get out, you frumpy mute." Carissa huddled under a throw, her fake tears already welling up as she played the victim. They didn't just want me gone; they wanted me erased to protect their reputations. When I refused to move, my world collapsed. My father didn't offer a shoulder to cry on; he threatened to have me committed to a mental asylum to save his business merger. "You're a disgrace," he bellowed, while the guards stood ready to drag me away. They had spent my life treating me like a stuttering, submissive pawn, and now they were done with me. I felt a blinding pain in my skull, a fracture that should have broken me. But instead of tears, something dormant and lethal flickered to life. The terrified girl who walked down the aisle earlier that day simply ceased to exist. In her place, a clinical system—the Valkyrie Protocol—booted up. My racing heart plummeted to a steady sixty beats per minute. I didn't scream. I stood up, my spine straightening for the first time in twenty years, and looked at Hardin with the detachment of a surgeon looking at a tumor. "Correction," I said, my voice stripped of its stutter. "You're in my light." By dawn, I had drained my father's accounts, vanished into a storm, and found a bleeding Crown Prince in a hidden safehouse. They thought they had broken a mute girl. They didn't realize they had just activated their own destruction.
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