Chapter 1 Amanda smiled at the young girl across the room She looked back at Amanda with unblinking round eyes from a pale face framed with chestnut ringlets tumbling past her shoulders Her elaborate red and silver dress was much too big and too grown up for someone her age Amanda hurry up Mom and Dad are going into the next room shouted
IT m coming answered Amanda She gave the mysterious girl one last glance She was about nine or ten younger than Amanda and looked friendly Amanda had an urge to wave good bye but that would look just plain silly The person smiling at her was part of a painting in the middle of Madrid's Prado Museum When the email arrived from Leah in England inviting her to spend a holiday in Spain with her and her parents Amanda Jane Ross jumped at the chance to visit another country She looked up all kinds of information about Spain on the internet Now that she was actually there the massive buildings and the gigantic marble sculptures in the middle of the streets seemed much older and larger than she imag ined She felt like she had gone back to the time of the Crusades and expected at any minute a knight to come charging around a corner on his white stal lion The melodious sound of Spanish spoken by the friendly citizens made her feel welcome They shout ed Hola which Amanda knew meant Hello
Leah and Amanda walked through the marble hall ways and galleries of the museum viewing the paint ings and sculptures Happy to be together again they had so much to talk about Like what they had been doing since they last saw each other how they first met in the United Arab Emirates and their adven tures in the desert This will be a quieter holiday reported Amanda Leah laughed Yes I remember how you got us both into trouble last time my crazy Canadian friend That night when Amanda went to bed in the hotel room her head full of the many wonderful things she had seen and done that day her mind kept going back to the girl in the painting Amanda had a keen desire to get to know her but since she had been painted over three hundred years ago that was quite impossible Just as she was about to fall asleep she remembered the sign underneath the painting read Doña Margarite She decided to look up some informa tion about her on the internet when she had a
