*
PART II
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| Eavesdropping in the nursery |
The morning after the Lords arrived felt like my whole world had changed. I was no longer just my parent's daughter I was now the girl who at some point would be officially engaged to one of the wealthiest boys in America. Needless to say, I slept uneasy that night with that future in floating around in my sleepless mind.
As I slipped out of bed just as the rising sun snuck through the center slit of my heavy bedroom drapes, I made my way to my 4-year-old brother Nikolas' nursery hoping to have a moment with him before his nanny came in.
Moments like those, just him and I in the early mornings, were frequent. They were quiet, and soft. Nikky was the sweetest child. There was something instinctive in him, I think, that made him aware of others' pain or anxiety. At least with me he knew how and when to cuddle my worries away.
When I got to Nikk'y nursey door, I wasn't the only person who had the same idea.
My aunt Marissa was inside the nursery. Her son, my baby cousin Roman, had been sharing the room with Nik overnight while he and Aunt Marissa's stay. I peeked through the opened door and saw my aunt sitting on the floor in a beautiful olive dress. She sat on the floor allowing the dress' skirt to overtake the room's floor like a giant lily pad in a pond and she flower blooming in the center.
She was cradling her little boy in her arms. Nikky was already out of his crib too and walking along the edge of my Aunt's dress giggling and playing a game only he knew the rules to.
As I watched the sweet morning moments with Aunt Marrissa and the boys, I heard a bedroom door open down the hall. The room was Jacob Lord's guest room. Instinctually, I thought to hide but he spotted me. Our eyes met and he slowly made his way to me. I moved away from the nursery door and back down the hall towards my room a bit but turned when I heard him speak.
"Well, young lady, good morning to you." Jacob said in a low voice.
I turned and did a shy curtsy and mouthed good morning not realizing my voice didn't come out. Jacob's eyes narrowed, my meekness would have been like blood in the water to shark, but from a child Jacob only saw it as a way in. He knew I was intimidated, who wouldn't be? He towered over me. His voice was strong and the sound of it hung in the air like a foghorn in the dark.
"No need to be so nervous." he said genuinely. "I was hoping I would bump into your aunt. Is she in there?"
I nodded.
"Thank you." He said with a smile.
I turned to go back into my room to dress for the day, but Jacob once again stopped me in my tracks.
"You know one day we'll be family. Isn't that something? You'll have such a wonderful life in Welshport. You must be incredibly excited."
"Welshport?" I asked, it was probably the first time I heard the name of the town they were from. We had always just said Maine, or America. "Is that your city?"
"City?!" He laughed. "It's nowhere near a city. Its a small village with hopes to someday being considered a town. But it's ours. It home. It's where we made ourselves. By the time you get there hopefully it'll be a bit larger. You'll see." He added
I smiled and went back towards my room as he turned to go into the nursey. But I didn't stay put. Something told me to go listen to what he my Aunt Marissa were going to discuss. It wasn't in my nature to be so curious about grown up conversations. Little did I know these growing instincts to know everything that was happening all around me was a tact I would need in the future to survive.
I would learn that to know one's enemy inside and out would be the only weapon I would ever need. This new world I was stepping into strangely set those instincts on fire. I quickly made my way back my bedroom door and over to the nursey and hid just outside again.
Inside, Marissa was not exactly pleased to be back in Jacob's private audience.
She held her baby close as my brother Nik sat up next to a giant doll house where he chose a soft bear stuffed into a tiny doorway to play with. Jacob squatted down so that he and Marissa were at eye level.
"What is it?" Marissa asked, thinking he'd come in with some kind of news.
"Is there something I need to know about him?" He asked, reaching for Roman's little warm head.
Marissa slightly pulled Roman away and narrowed her eyes. "What?" She replied in a whisper.
"The boy -- I'm not a doctor, Marissa, but I can count backwards a few months back to this past summer. When we were together."
Marissa scoffed and got up off the floor to take Roman as far away from Jacob as she could. "No, absolutely not." She said knowing quickly what he was implying.
"He's not mine then?" He replied, his tone painted with tones of relief.
She shook her head.
"Then who's is he?" Jacob wondered. "Were you with someone else?!?"
"Jacob, just go, the other's are downstairs already. The driver is taking you all on an excursion to town to see Queen Anne's Square. You'll enjoy it." Aunt Marissa said, hoping to get him out of her hair.
She then moved towards Nik, to place him back in his own crib, but Jacob intercepted and grabbed her arm. His tight grip pulled her back a step. She gasped as he pulled her close
"Who is the father?" He whispered forcefully.
"Jacob let go."
"Damn it, tell me. If not me then who? How could you have been with another man when we -- we -- I thought we had something." he said, the icy tone quickly sounding like a broken-hearted schoolboy.
"What are you talking about? Jacob, let go of me." She demanded, his arm tightened.
"Marissa..." He began before she cut him off.
"We had a night -- one. But you weren't the one I wanted. And to be honest, I wasn't who you wanted. Your mind has always been on other conquests. We were two ships passing in the night, Jacob, so rest assured, my son is not yours: he's mine. Just mine."
My heart was pounding as I watched, worried, and hoped nothing worse would happen in that room as my little brother walked over to our aunt and began to cry watching very tense conversation.
Jacob looked down at my brother. I could only see half of Jacob's face. It was cold, almost angry that she'd dilute their night together that summer to something so frivolous or out of the ordinary. My aunt, by all measures, was a free spirit. She was never the type of woman to conform to any kind of idea of what a woman should be. She was in control of her own destiny at all times even when the whispers and stares became heavy and distracting.
Jacob grabbed my brother who yelped like a frightened puppy.
My aunt gasped and took Nik from him.
"Get out." She growled.
The coldness from Jacob's face melted. "I was only going to put him in his crib." He said, his voice suddenly softened. I sensed truth, but still he was scary. Even Marissa, though stoic as usual, had a trembled in her hand.
"Just leave, they're waiting downstairs." She added.
"I'll find out one way or another if he's mine, you know? These are not the type of secrets people keep forever." He added.
"I already told you, he's not yours. If he was, I would have told you. I wouldn't have a problem telling you the truth." She said.
He stared at her, and for a split second he thought to counter her -- but then it dawned on him. She would have told him. Being the child of Jacob Lord, and a boy, would have set Roman for life. It would have made so much sense for her to legitimize him for a myriad of social and economic reasons no matter how modern minded my aunt was, she knew the world around her and how cruel it would be to Roman living the life of a bastard.
Jacob patted my little brother on the head and had one more look at Roman who dozed off to dream. I quickly rushed back to my room to dress and not be seen. Jacob made his way down the main staircase and my aunt placed Nikky back into his crib.
Her mind however, drifted back to the summer in question. Back to then night she conceived little Roman, and with who.
 |
| Cape Cod |
They spent hours together that night, talking laughing and then making love in his humble room his employer rented for him to stay in just outside the beach. As their bodies connected, skin to skin, lips to lips she remembered how the ocean waves outside the open window seemed in cadence with them.
It would only be on the fourth night when she encountered Jacob again at another summer social that she would learn the man she met on the beach was Jacob's valet. Jacob was crass and arrogant around all of the other rich snobs. He walked around the party as if he were the most important guest, he certainly was one of the wealthiest.
When he met Marissa, his eyes were locked on her, but not only because of her beauty but it seemed like she was some foreign land he could concur. As hard as she tried that night to avoid him, she couldn't and agreed to sharing a drink or two. Despite her best intentions to leave and find the handsome man she had met four nights before.
Later, when the man and Marissa realized who they had in common, their lips were sealed. He knew Jacob had eyes on a particular brunette that he could not stop talking about, but the man did not immediately know it was Marissa. She knew too that if she revealed her sudden attraction to Jacob's valet it would ruin the man's placement and employment. Jacob was clearly territorial and jealous.
To throw Jacob off any idea of the connection, she agreed again to have dinner with the wealthy heir.
After dinner Jacob did all he could to persuade her to bed. She resisted. She tried to do evade his ever advance but Jacob was relentless. He told her of his many accomplishments, his future endeavors, his hopes and dreams and how she'd fit right in to those ideas she should give herself to him. Everything was about him and he knew he could have anything in the world. He told her he wanted HER. No one, he warned, could stop him from achieving what he wanted. No one.
She told him no anyway, she tried to make it clear, but that night in her hotel room, Jacob took what he wanted and made it all seem like Marissa wanted it too.
She was confused. Broken. Unsure of what had happened and if she had allowed it to happen. Jacob kissed her goodbye truly believing the two of them had shared a wonderful, beautiful moment not realizing he had taken a part of her soul with him.
His arrogance and callousness, his position of wealth and privilege shielded him from all accountability that night.
The web was tangled and when Marissa learned she was pregnant with the valet's child, she quickly left America to be with her sister in London sure that she'd never to see either of them again. She could never put the man in Jacob's jealous gaze. It would be too dangerous for them all. She knew then she and Roman's father could never be together because of Jacob's dark side.
When the Lords arrived at our home in London, Jacob was gleeful when he realized who I was related to. Perhaps, he hoped he and Aunt Marissa would rekindle the warped one-sided romance from that summer past.
The man, however, moved on with his life. He eventually suffered a car accident while a drunk Jacob pulled the steering wheel and eventually left the job.
Roman's father would find love again; Aunt Marissa would recall hearing. With a woman he had loved for years -- her name was Celeste DeViana. The valet, Roman's father... was Filipe Braga.
 |
| The veiled woman meets Kadir |
Queen Anne's Square was a small four block area of London's Bloomsbury district with a reputation of having some of the most interesting and unique shops and cafes in London. I loved it there! My parents would often take me, even before Nikky was born, on strolls in the spring.
It was a highly visible area for locals like my family. For random visitors, this area was usually a surprise walk-and-find as tourists usually stuck to the regular sights of London.
As I would eventually learn, in one such small lower-level shop, a woman dressed in dark layers and a scarf over hear hair walked into a small parlor. There was a man sitting there. He was tall with skin the color of mocha and eyes like warm chestnuts. This was his home and shop; the woman was his guest had come from far away with a very particular and strange request of him -- and a hefty payment should he provide it.
The woman sat across from the man as he placed a small brown burlap pouch with a red string tied around it down on a table between them.
"I appreciate what you're doing." She said as she removed a local newspaper from inside of her shawl and placed it on the table next to the pouch. "Turn it over." She said.
The man arched a brow and did so only to find a small headline in a section that reported on London's social circles with a photo of Albert Lord. The small article mentioned the arrival of the American Publishing Giant on a visit to London on family affairs but left out the true reason: his grandson's introduction to his betrothed.
"This does not mention the boy. You said the boy was the bride of these two families." The man said.
The woman, dressed in scarves and veils nodded. "But it's true none the less."
The man, who was called Kadir, was a collector of rare and precious items from around the world. His shop was called a Spirt Shoppe and many of the items were connected to supposed powerful and healing entities. Books, potions, charms, statues, crystals -- all of it creating a lucrative practice for those searching for answers from what ailed them.
She carefully pulled the string opening the pouch and removed an Egyptian scarab in pure solid gold. It was the size of a large egg, shiny and heavy. She looked the scarab over -- it dazzled her. She couldn't believe she actually had it in her hand.
"Cleopatra's coleopteran. Its... its a wonder!" She said, her eyes a glowing gray as she stared down at the solid gold ancient scarab beetle though her shrouds.
"My contact at the museum must took great pains to switch this with a fake for you." Kadir replied. "Your payment will need to be increased to keep him silent."
She frowned but understood, then removed more money, clearly expecting him to ask for more and placed the extra payment on the table.
Then she grabbed the pouch. He grabbed her hand.
"You must be careful on your next steps; there are always dangers with the power of the coleopteran." Kadir warned.
"I'm unafraid of power, I welcome it." she said. "My intensions are for this scarab to place it's hold on everything that has harmed the world I am from."
"We know what we do." she confirmed.
"Then it is yours." Kadir said.
She reached back into her veils to remove payment for Kadir's work, separate from the payment she gave for his contact. But Kadir shook his head.
"No."
She was a storm in human form. A wildfire burning, raging, to seek the retribution for what she lost. The veiled woman could not hold off for a karmic hope to finally install itself as judge...no she had to put her hopes, her powers, her urgers into this solid gold Egyptian relic with it's cold history of long-lasting pain.
The mysterious veiled woman then walked over to another circle table where Kadir had placed a single candle in the center. The red tablecloth had distinct markings: the eye of Ra. Cleopatra's killer Asp slithering around a golden triangle. And the eye of Horus watching over everything.
The woman placed the scarab beetle also known as the golden coleopteran that was said to be once in the presence of Cleopatria herself, in the center of the table.
"Qui hoc tenet — quem ego decerno — a luce in tenebras transibit. Patiatur sicut ipse alios pati fecit. In aeternum. In aeternum."
The glass fixtures, the windows, the photos on the walls began to shake and rattle. The doors shook. The candle flickered again, the floorboards lifted and creaked, the plants swayed. Then the flickering candle flame began to burn brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter. The wax melted into a large white puddle. The woman's face took on the light, and she repeated her curse on the golden scarab two more times.
Her eyes closed and then, the candle flickered off in a puff of smoke....
 |
| Cleopatra and the golden scarab |
She rushed down the small marble corridor, dark and damp. There were more torches on the solid stone walls still burning with oils lighting her way deeper into an even darker chamber that was only brightened by large bronze cauldrons burning brightly around the perimeter. She relit her torch by dipping it into one of the cauldrons, its' fresh fire illuminated her beautiful face.
The young woman in the torch light dashed towards the voice and saw a third woman, queen's handmaids, reaching.
"Did you find it?" The second woman asked, her hair also a raven black wig of braids dripping in pearls.
The young woman nodded and handed her a satchel from around her waist.
The woman in the center had up her hands with an offering, the solid gold ring around her head shaped like a serpent with it's fanged mouth open just above her forehead sparkled in the fire's light. The crowned woman turned when the second woman entered the room in haste.
"Is it here?" She said in a low brittle voice, her eye make-up stained from crying.
The second woman nodded, as the younger woman cowered at the door in the presence of the Great Queen Cleopatra VII.
"Bring me the scarab."
Cleopatra's hair was long and thick black. Her face heart-shaped with a strong nose birthed to her by her Greek origin. Her skin was a deep rich bronze like the final moments of a setting sun over Alexandria and her eyes were a warm chestnut almond shaped above two full lips. Her soft hands grabbed the satchel and tore the heavy scarab out. She lifted it up in the air triumphantly as and took a deep breath lowering it at the feet of the statue of Isis.
The woman then all fell to their knees and began to chant as noise from a small square window off to the side seeped in. The younger woman went over and looked out and gasped.
"They approach?" Cleopatra asked, her forehead down on the floor as she crouched with her arms extended with the golden Scarab on the ground facing up to the statue of Isis.
"They do." the young woman said softly.
Cleopatra looked out of the window and saw Octavian's army approaching closer and closer to lavish Mausoleum she had locked herself and her maids in.
"Tonight, I die. I leave this world and live for the next."
"It is my destiny." She replied in her raspy voice. "Take this," She added bringing up the scarab and handing it back to Amonsei "bring it to my children where they hide and tell them it has been blessed by Isis; their mother. Give it to them and let them know it is the symbol of power that they now possesses for themselves and shall it be taken from them and this land -- Egypt-- let them know those who take it for themselves will fall into the pits of vipers and their mind lost to wolves."
 |
| The Golden Scarab |
**
 |
| The Jordan sisters |
At home, my aunt Marissa settled her little boy Roman up for the day in her adorable little sailor's set. The white fabric looked crisp and clean and contrasted beautifully with the baby's mocha skin as he played with the blue trimmed sailor's collar.
My mother walked in dressed for the day. She had her hair tied up and under a small hat.
"We're off soon." Mother said, as she buttoned the sides of her leather gloves.
Aunt Marissa turned and nodded her head but said nothing. She was never one to stay quiet for long.
"What?" My mother asked her sister. "What is it?"
"Nothing."
"Marissa? What's the matter?"
Aunt Marissa put Roman back down in the playpen that had several toys strewn about. She turned back and grabbed my mother's gloved hands.
"This -- all of this with the Lords -- its a mistake. We can't allow Evie to marry into that family." Aunt Marissa said.
"What are you talking about? Of course we can. We've all talked about this. Its the best thing for her future. I wouldn't let her go to just any family! Augusta assures me the Lords are what they say they are. Where is this coming from?" My mother wondered.
Marissa turned away, almost embarrassed to continue. "Marissa? Tell me."
"Jacob. He's... he's not who you think he is. I've know him before." Marissa confessed.
My mother took a breath. She knew what that meant but against her better judgments, she pressed.
"Exactly how have you known him before?"
"Last summer. When I was at The Cape. We met. Things became complicated, to say the least, and well..."
"Stop." My mother said. "Why didn't you tell me he was Roman's father?"
Marissa turned back "Because he's not."
"Then I don't understand."
"Jacob is cruel and cold, I've seen it with my own eyes. I was only with him once and it was really to protect Roman's father, the man I truly love. Jacob's a jealous person. There's nothing he won't do to get what he wants. That can be dangerous in a world where money and power rule. Think about Sebastian's place within that family and how it may play against Jacob at some point."
My mother felt as if she had not taken a single breath the entire time they were talking. She exhaled and went over to the playpen and watched little Roman crawl around with a toy bear. "It's too late." She said.
"It's not, we can say you and Richard had second thoughts."
"No." My mother replied. "We can't do that. It would ruin Evie's prospects for the future. No other family would trust that we would be serious any other engagement. We have too much invested. We have to go through with it."
"Is this about debt? I can help figure that out! We don't have to use Evie as collateral." my aunt said.
My mother turned to my aunt, her face showing a depth of hurt by her own sister thinking they'd only use me as a trade, it was true we had money issues but my parents truly believed in all of the other opportunities I'd gain being a Lord.
"Aurora -- I didn't mean that."
"Enough, Marissa. That's enough." My mother replied. "They won't be married for at least another 10 years. It'll give us time to hopefully rebuild our family's fortune, we'll have better sway over what happens then, as for now, the down payment the Lords have given us for agreeing to join families will sustain us. Now, I have to go."
Marissa couldn't, now or ever again, voice her opinion on my betrothal. She too was helped by the Lords funds. It had to be done.
Before she left the nursery, my mother turned and looked at her sister. There was worry all over her face but a worry that had to be pushed down forever.
Then it slipped out "Who's Roman's father?"
"Aurora, I -- "
"Who is it?"
A pregnant pause then Aunt Marissa revealed "His name is Filipe."
"Is he a married man?" My mother asked, assuming that was why he was kept so secret.
"No, not exactly. He and the woman he loves had been apart for a while up until last year. They've since reunited."
"Does he know?"
Marissa shook her head no. "He's also Jacob's former valet."
My mother said nothing more but the worry on her face quickly turned to disappointment in her baby sister. "Say nothing about this."
Marissa nodded.
"We'll be at the square for a good amount of time, while we are there, I want you to leave. Go back to your own flat. Just -- go. It's for the best." My mother said, then she left.
Aunt Marissa stood in the nursery and felt the heaviness of her affair fall on her like an anchor plunging deep into the sea. Her mistakes were now coming back to haunt her and the shame of it all strangled her hopes of ever getting Aurora's confidence again.
**
 |
| Welcome to the Spirit Shoppe |
The square was a bustling shopping all hoping to find their next treasure in any shop along the cobble stone paths. Our group chatted happily along as I skipped over cracks in the sidewalk holding my mother's hand. The stormy sky shifted into something that looked like a kaleidoscope of grays and blues swirling overhead. I looked up and the sky mirrored my own shade of irises. I blinked as the light shifted again and mother squeezed hand.
"Come." She said to me; her other hand holding on to Sebastian's.
Sebastian and I walked to nearby candy shop as the other's continued their stroll. The shop seemed like it was filled with endless glass jars topped to the brim with every imaginable sweet two 11-year-olds could dream up. Chocolates and peppermints, butterscotches and anything our little hands could grab.
As we picked out our favorites, I glanced out of the candy shop window and made eye contact with Jacob as I watched the other's walked by. I turned away to the other side and Sebastian held out a red lollipop to me. A blushed almost the same color and took it.
"Raspberry." he said softly.
"Thank you, Sebastian." I replied.
"And where exactly are we off too?" Rebecca asked outside, as she pulled her black umbrella closed.
"Well anywhere you'd like," Richard replied. "the square has just about any kind of shop. From gifts to clothes, to ---"
"That!" Augusta interrupted.
They all turned to see what she was pointing at. An open door right in front of them to a shop with a sign that read SPIRIT SHOPPE.
"Oh, those this is a silly one. They sell love potions and magic books, tarot cards and all the kinds of things to take your money and give nothing in return." Aurora said.
"A den of charlatans." Jacob added.
"Come in and see for yourself!" A woman's voice said from inside the shop.
They all turned to the open door. It was shadowed by the dimness from inside. She walked forward, her dark gray skit shifted over the ground and she stepped into the light at the door step. She wore a veil over her face, no one could see her featured. It was gray to match her dress, long sleeved that wrapped with a string that went around her middle finger on each hand.
Rebecca gasped at the woman's surprising appearance, shocked with her shrouded face.
"What is it you sell?" Albert asked.
"Dreams. Wishes. Hope. Love." The woman replied, her accent recognizably American.
"We have those." Jacob replied as he happily went into the shop.
The woman stepped aside allowing him in as the remaining members of the group slowly and somewhat reluctantly followed.
As the group entered inside the dimly candle lit shop, the noticed the wood walls painted a dark green with several apothecary cabinets around the perimeter of the front room. In the enter several tables of candles, books, crystals and trinkets to buy. All to ward off malevolent spirits, the evil eye or to bring good luck and fortune.
Jacob picked up a book and blew off some dust from the cover. "THE WAY TO FIND YOUR GOLDEN GOOSE" the title read.
The woman in her grim veils and gloved hands snatched it from his hand. "I doubt you need that, good sir."
"What does that mean?" He wondered.
"Oh, by the looks of you, you've got all the golden geese in the sky. You need something else." She said in a hushed tone. "Something special."
"Jacob..." Rebecca said from one of the candle tables, her voice sounding like a warning.
"Go on now, what have you got for me?" Jacob asked.
"Jacob!" Rebecca said, this time louder.
"Becca, let him see what she has for him." Albert replied annoyed his wife was being so stingy with her fun.
The woman, still shrouded in her veils clapped three times startling the room of visitors who all turned towards her. She walked back to a desk that was covered in potted gardenias that filled the air with their fresh floral scent. She opened a drawer, and removed a lily white box with a blood box tied with a blood red ribbon.
"This --- is for you." She said.
Augusta stepped closer to get a better look. Her curious, nosey nature took over, and she craned her neck in hopes to be the first to see whatever was in the box, but the woman would not open it -- it was for Jacob to open.
"What is it?" Rebecca could be heard from the front of the store still sorting through various candles.
Jacob approached, as he got closer, he could see the shape of her face, a slim outline under the veils. Her eyes, he could finally see were wide set, dark, but he could tell of the color blue. Pale, she might of been, but he could not make out the exact structure of her face. It was odd; however, he felt a sense of relief knowing there was someone actually under the veils and not some monstrous deformed creature waiting to bite off his hand.
Jacob reached for the box pulled the red ribbon. Inside was the golden scarab of Cleopatra. It sparkled in the dim light of the shop catching any glimmer of orange candlelight it could. Augusta, gasped at it's beauty.
"Queen Cleopatra's coleopteran. Straight from the desert sands of Alexandria to your hand. Buried over millennia and hidden from grave robbers only to finally find it's place here among my treasures." The woman explained.
"What's it for?" my father Richard wondered.
"He will know what to do with it." She replied as she looked over at Richard. She could sense his own desperate need for a safety net. He too needed hope, something she could give him in a good luck charm but not the scarab. This was for Jacob, and Jacob alone.
"Do you have another?" Augusta asked greedily. "I can pay too."
"You can have this one!" Jacob said handing her the box.
"NO!" The woman in veils shouted. "Don't you understand. The universe has sent you here to me. I have sensed the need to give this to someone special, and that someone is you. There is no way around this Jacob Lord."
The room suddenly fell silent, and every eye was on the mysterious shop keeper.
Rebecca even stepped closer with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"How did you know my last name?" Jacob wondered as they all did.
"We should go." my mother Aurora said.
"Yes." Augusta replied quickly feeling her skin crawl.
"The universe tells me everything. It's nothing to fear, none of you should fear how the universe speaks to souls like me. It's the way to connect to realms. Nothing is silent. Not the trees, the grass, not the seas -- not the dead. Go, take the coleopteran beetle. It's for you and your future."
"Take it? You don't want money?" Jacob asked.
The woman did not reply. She only shook her head and encouraged him again to take the box with Cleopatra's treasure.
Jacob snapped the box closed and turned back towards the door. "Let's go." He whispered to his father as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
"One last thing, but this is for the lady -- the lady Rebecca." The woman said, again chilling the group as to how she knew their names.
She retrieved a small deck of cards in an onyx box and handed it to Rebecca. Tarot Cards.
"Find the one that reads these and let them give you guidance." The woman said. "It'll free your mind of worry to know what comes."
"Let's go Becca." Albert ordered.
Rebecca kept silent and slipped the onyx box of tarot cards into her purse and the group, startled and shaken but the odd woman in gray veils, quickly left the shop. The woman, now alone, stood there in all her layers of gray and shadows knowing she'd just turned the key and opened the door to a very dark world. And she did it with a smile no one could see.
Outside they all peek into the red box as they walk along the cobble stone-street. It was an exquisite piece of history sitting in Jacob's hands. He didn't quite no what to do with it, but the general consensus was for Jacob to have it appraised and keep it as a part of the Lord's art collection.
"Art collection? That's not on my watch. Here." Jacob said as he handed it to his mother who didn't grab the box.
"Albert, would you take it? I have nowhere to put it." She said.
Albert took the box, opened it one more time and ran his hands over the golden amulet. His eyes lit up, it was truly a treasure that he'd keep for himself ---- along with it's treacherous curse.
***
 |
| Bess’s book |
Back at home I sat and played with my little brother Nikolas. He was so happy to see me (and the candy I brought him) after our outing at Queen Anne's Square. His nanny, a happy fat neighbor of ours named Elizabeth, was still there at our house as the grown-ups were in the study catching up after dinner. Elizabeth, or Bess as we called her, sat stoically in the nursery with Niky and me reading from an art book that she always carried around with her. She encouraged my own love of art.
I stood up from the nursery's plush carpet and stood next to Bess just as Sebastian walked in.
"Is there anything in there about a golden bug?" I asked.
Sebastian giggled. "A scare-cub." He replied incorrectly.
Bess looked up from her book totally confused. "A bug?! Whatever do you mean?"
"She's asking about an Egyptian scare-cub. My grandfather got it from the Spirit Shoppe at the Square." Sebastian explained as he knelt down to play with Niky and a red ball.
"A scare-cub? My boy there's no such -- OH! Scare-cub! You mean an Egyptian Scarab!" Bess said with a big belly laugh. "There is actually something here on Egyptian artifacts... lets see..."
Bess licked her chubby fingers and flicked through the pages of her art book that she'd read over 50 times. She knew it front to back and the ware and tare of it's covers was proof of it.
"THERE!" She exclaimed. "Is this what you're talking about?" She asked.
"That's it!!" I replied with glee. "Well not exactly the same but Mr. Lord got something just like that, look Sebastian."
Sebastian barley glanced and nodded; he was too busy with Niky and the red ball.
"Mr. Lord bought this at the shoppe, did he?" Bess wondered. "That's something odd, isn't it, to buy such a rare piece of history."
"Oh, he didn't buy it." Sebastian said. "When Evie and I came back from the candy shoppe, he told me the lady that works there gave it to my Uncle Jacob, Jacob then gave it to grandfather."
Bess frowned and looked at the book some more. She read a few of the pages that talked about the powerful and religious significance of the scarab in Egypt, and something jumped out at her. The words seemed to swirl in her eyes. The warning -- to beware, to be cautious: that Egyptian high priests held powerful rituals to care of everything that belonged and was or would be touched by the Pharaohs. For the Pharaohs were gods on earth . Anyone who dared touch - steal - remove those items would be cursed.
For all her modern attributes, Bess knew the ancient world well enough to heed those warnings. And she was superstitious enough to know never ever to possess a golden scarab - of any kind - in her own collection.
Little did anyone know that the woman at the shop had seized on this mythology and took the curse of protection over Cleopatra's coleopteran now in Albert's hot hands and worked her own magic over it for her own dark revenge.
"The scarab is here?" She asked.
We both nodded.
"In this house?"
We nodded again.
Bess quickly slammed her book closed and practically leaped out of her chair. He chubby frame had never moved so quickly in the years she was our occasional nanny. Bess went for the nursery door and turned back "Tell your mother no need for payment. This time."
Bess left and never ever again watched us at our home.
**
 |
| Cleopatra’s Scarab curse takes hold |
In the study, the golden coleopteran that once graced the hands of Egypt's greatest queen, sat open in its white box while my father and Jacob smoked in the corner of the room talking about business and the world around them. My mother, Rebecca and Augusta gossiped about the woman at the Spirit Shoppe. How my mother had never seen her before, how strange it was for her strut around completely covered in veils.
Albert sat alone on the leather sofa staring at the table where with the open red box and the scarab, the coleopteran twinkled in the golden light of the hearth at it's left. He felt it pulling him towards it but he resisted to get up from the sofa.
His eyes did not blink. His hands became to balls of bones, fists hiding under his legs that felt like stone to the touch. He could not move; he could not say a word. He only stared at the shining relic facing him. He saw flashes of chariots. Then flashes of golden shards slicing through bodies.
He did not understand what he was seeing, what he was experiencing in his mind. Was this a waking dream? He thought. Was he really asleep with his eyes open? Could he not wake from this?
The voices of the others speaking all around him were muffled. Nothing they were saying was making sense. He could not return conversation or even mouth words.
He was frozen solid in his seat.
He began to cry as the strange visions continued to fill his mind -- but they became worse. They became visions of those in his family. Specifically, Jacob on Bellmore Beach in Welshport standing over something -- Sabrina, Sebastian's mother -- Dead on the sand.
The horror of reliving his son's most vicious sin of murder took over and Albert let out a scream that startled the entire room. He crumpled down on the sofa and wrapped his stiff arms around his body as if something had stabbed him. The pain that came from seeing the truth of Sabrina's murder that he himself helped cover up came to him like the spears to the chest from men on the chariots in his mind.
Rebecca rushed over to Albert who had now fallen to the floor in the fetal position.
"Albert!! ALBERT! What is it!? What's the matter?!"
My mother saw Albert sweating profusely "He's burning up!" She said.
Albert could not speak. He could only moan and move around, writhing in pain.
"My god!" my father said. "We should call a doctor!"
"I'll go!" My mother said.
By this time. Sebastian and I had heard Albert's howl and came down the stairs. I carried my little brother who covered his ears from the horrible noises. "What is it?" He asked in his little voice.
My mother rushed past us and didn't even notice. Augusta burst through the study's doors and corralled up on the last few steps of the staircase.
"Everything is alright, go back up and get ready for bed." Augusta ordered.
Through the open doors we could see Rebecca slumped over Albert while Jacob and my father watched worried.
Albert. from the floor, turned his frozen face with an expression of on his face that can only be described as twisted in horror at what he saw, what he remembered of his on and how the golden scarab had shown him these horrors through a dark wave of power no one could see with their own eyes.
Albert's bulging eyes met Jacob's. The father lifted his stiff arm and managed to finally un-ball his first and pointed at Jacob and screamed a word no one understood "ISFET!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Over and over Albert screamed this is Jacob's direction from the depths of his chest this word filled the room. Rebecca begged Albert to explain, to tell her what was happening. She cried. She slapped his face to bring him out this bizarre trans.
To no avail.
Albert's fever intensified and he passed out.
Jacob looked up in horror at what his father had turned into and looked through the open study door and found his nephew Sebastastin staring back in shock.
"GO! GO!! Shoo!! GO!" Augusta said pushing us back up the stairs.
My father then closed the study door and everything went silent.
Up on the mezzanine of our staircase Sebastian was shaking. He could not stop. I grabbed his hand with my free one and squeezed it.
"He's sick." I said. "He'll be ok, come." I added.
Cleopatra's golden scarab, the cursed bejeweled coleopteran from the Spirit Shoppe in Queen Anne's Square meant for Jacob but given to Albert had set course to ravage the mind of someone it was not intended for.
The curse was real. And it was alive -- and it would only get worse from there.
FOR PART III
