The Will O Wisp (Amazing Gracie Mysteries, #8)

Gracie Evans is going back to her Three Oaks farm again to farm sit for a month. After the problems she had the last time she farm sit, the Moser Mansion family is worried about her staying in the country alone. So this time she offers to take the Lang's daughter, Shana, with her. The girl needs to work off some excess energy now that school is out, and this will give Molly and Orie Lang a break from worrying about Shana wondering around town by herself. The last straw to their consenting to Shana's stay with Gracie was when Shana invited a hobo to Sunday dinner. Her parents fear Shana is going to wind up in serious trouble like some of Maude Brown's children. When Melinda worries about what might happen at the farm, Madeline talks Melinda into letting her do a tea leaf reading to see Gracie's future. According to Madeline's predictions, this visit to the farm isn't going to be any safer for Gracie than the last time. Someone with a level head needs to go along to keep her and Shana out of trouble. So Melinda invites herself along to watch out for Gracie and Shana. One evening on the farm, they are all nervous when they see lights flickering in Gracie's timber, headed for the Evan's family cemetery. In the dark, they hike to the cemetery and find a woman dressed in white, leaning down next to Gracie's baby brother's grave. She was patting the ground. Gracie yells at the woman, and she disappears into the darkness. A few days later, Gracie and Shana explore the woods for mushrooms. What they find is a small rectangular area of freshly dug dirt with wilting wild flowers planted on the spot. Off in the distance, the filmy, wispy figure of a small child flits into their sight and ducks behind the trees to disappear. Shana is scared and wants no part of being in the timber. She tells Gracie they saw the elusive spirit of a Will O Wisp haunting Gracie's timber.