this is a ya book (like childrens, maybe 8-12 yo)? The cover is brown (like a bit more orange than a cigar brown) with a pic of a girl who has like short kind of curly (I always thought it looked like a curly mullet lol) and like maybe a closet in the background? I believe the main protagonists name is Francis (a young woman) who is sent to family (her aunts?)? There’s an undertone that maybe she’s a bit difficult, at least to the people in the house. She goes up a staircase behind this door in the Pantry and is transported to some garden or outside world (that’s not really outside etc). I want to say there’s some ghost story background but not sure.
Lost Classics of Teen Lit: Name That Book! 