“I was just having a look in here for um… for a…”
“School project,” Jack said swiftly. “We’re working on it together. Mr. Fry said we might be able to find something in here.”
“Indeed,” Milton said. It was obvious he didn’t believe us, but for some reason, he gave me a stiff, curt nod and backed up toward the door. “Miss Fry, I don’t think I need to warn you again, about the consequences of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”
“No sir,” I said swiftly, pushing the box back onto the shelf. “I’ll take Jack right out and we’ll go and wait for my dad.”
Milton gave a stiff nod, then stared at Jack again for another moment. He finally shook his head and opened the door. “Don’t let me catch you snooping around again.”
The moment the door shut, Jack and I let out a huge breath, and with a laugh, he threw his arm around me. “Now that was brilliant,” he said pulling the door open once we were sure Milton was gone. “That’s the kind of adventure I’m talking about. What were you looking for, anyway?”
We went out into the hall and nearly bumped into my dad head-on, saving me from answering Jack’s question. He had a huge box in his hands and nearly dropped it. In fact, he would have if it hadn’t been for Jack’s quick reflexes. I’d never seen anything like it. When my dad stumbled and started to lose his grip, Jack jumped forward, landing on one foot, and balanced the box in the crook of his arm. He almost looked like a circus performer, and I realized I was staring at him with an open mouth.
“Whoa,” my dad said, breaking the silence. He steadied the box in his arms, and then said, “Good reflexes.”
“Yeah, really good reflexes” I said, slightly suspicious. No one was that quick without training.
“I’m glad you’re here, kiddo, but who’s your friend? And is there a reason Mr. Barnes just shouted at me about hooligans running wild in the museum?” My dad shifted the box down near his waist so he could size Jack up. My dad always made a show about sizing boys up. Not that I ever brought boys around, but Amanda had plenty of times, and I’d watched him go through his routine. My dad was probably the least scary between both of my parents. My mom was the one with the death glare and the vocabulary of huge legal words that usually sent Amanda’s boys running in the other direction. Still, my dad was good at embarrassing me if I let him, so I quickly stepped in to introduce them before he could give any lame ‘protective dad’ speeches.
“Dad, this is Jack, Jack, my dad. I was showing Jack the storage room and Mr. Barnes saw us. But we didn’t do anything we weren’t supposed to, I swear. We were just on our way out,” I said in a rush.
“Were we?” Jack asked with a half-smile. He shook his head and turned his attention to my dad. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Fry.” He stuck out his hand and shook my dad’s free one.
“Manners. Don’t see that very often in boys your age,” my dad said with a grin at me. “Why don’t you two come inside the office for a few minutes?”
I rolled my eyes and tried to steer Jack back towards the elevator, but to my horror, my dad opened his office door and Jack followed him inside. I followed quickly, squeezing myself into the small space. The office was cramped with me and my dad alone, so adding Jack to the mix made it downright tiny.
I could see the discomfort on Jack’s face, too, and remembered he didn’t like confined spaces. He had pressed himself against one of the shelves, almost knocking down a figurine, but caught it at the last second, and shot me a terrified glance.
I thought quickly on my feet, and came up with a way to get Jack out of here without making a big scene about his closed-spaces phobia. “Uh… we were actually going to grab a snack from the break room. Mind if we head over there?” I cut in as my dad began to unload the box onto his already cluttered desk.
“That’s just fine, guys. I’ll be done with this in a couple of hours, and then we can go grab something for dinner and head home. It was nice to meet you, Jack.”
“You, too, sir,” Jack said as I moved around my dad’s desk.
I grabbed the sleeve at Jack’s elbow and hurried him out of the office. He didn’t say anything until we reached the open space of the break room, and then he let out a huge breath. “Thanks,” he muttered. He was clearly embarrassed, and I felt bad.
“It’s fine. Trust me, I’m the girl who talks to herself, remember?”
He grinned and the redness in his cheeks faded almost instantly. “Oh right. What’s up with that, anyway? You just like to hear yourself talk?”
I went over to the fridge and grabbed a couple sodas and we sat at the long table. I always liked the break room. It felt like the only modern, human place in the building and sometimes it was nice to get away from the musty artifacts and books. Especially when I spent all summer in the building. This was the only room with fluorescent lights, plastic chairs, and a TV high up in the corner, though it only ever played the history network.
“Uh… it’s a habit,” I finally muttered when I realized he was still waiting for an answer. “I’m just weird, okay?”
“It’s cool, I dig it. I really do,” he defended, holding his hands up.
I sipped on my soda, trying to stare at him without looking like I was staring. Truth was, I was trying to figure him out. He seemed like a normal kid, but with freaky cat-like reflexes. He was also really relaxed, and normally a guy like him, all broody with his skateboard and hoodie, wouldn’t look twice at some nerd-girl like me.
My previous suspicions about him and his motives began to flare up again as we sat there at the table. What if he was trying to get close to me because I’d helped solve those robberies? I mean, what better way to ensure a clean get-away than to befriend the one who could stop you? I had a little shiver run down my spine at the thought, but when I looked at him, I just didn’t see it. He looked so totally and completely normal.
We sat in a pretty awkward silence for a while, interrupted after a few minutes when his phone buzzed. He checked it and groaned. “Well that’s my cue. You gonna to be round tomorrow?”
“Oh probably. My dad likes to force me to stay bored here all weekend,” I said with a sigh. It was a phony sigh, not wanting to seem too eager to see him. “You?”
“Actually, my uncle’s not going to be at home tomorrow. He’s got some business at his office all afternoon and I was planning on sitting at the pool and soaking up the sun while it’s still warm enough. You wanna come over and hang out?” he offered.
Bingo! Just the invite I’d been hoping for. I knew if I bothered my dad about it long enough, he’d let me go. If I could get Jack to agree to have Penelope over, too, I’d feel safe and comfortable investigating. “Well Penelope was coming by…”
“Great, it’ll be a party. She’s one of the few girls in the school that don’t make me want to tear out my eyeballs,” he said, and I had to laugh. “See you then?” We exchanged numbers and then he grabbed his stuff, ready to go.
I rode with him down to the lobby and watched as he waved at Amos. The moment he was on the pavement, he threw down his skateboard and jumped it down the stairs. It was really cool, and I caught myself smiling a little as he disappeared out of sight.
“Never thought I’d see the day where Alexandra Fry was mooning over a boy,” Amos said.
My face went tomato red and I turned to him. “I’m not mooning over anything,” I snapped, and hurried away before he could tease me any further. I went back to my dad’s office where he was packing his things into his briefcase. I was happy he was making an early night of it, and even happier when he didn’t seem annoyed about that.
“You just meet that boy?” he asked. “What was his name, again?”
“His name is Jack Collins, and yeah we met at school,” I said, trying to avoid getting into a discussion about him. I grabbed my bag and shut down his computer while he crammed as many papers as he could into the box he’d been carrying.
“Seems like a nice kid,” was all he said, and with my muttered re
ply, that’s all the subject was mentioned.
We stopped at my favorite Chinese food place on the way back to my dad’s apartment to grab some food, and then headed home with our bag of delicious take-out. I’d always liked staying my dad’s place, even though he was usually too busy to spend time with me. He lived on the second to top floor of the tallest building downtown and it had the most amazing view. The building came with this incredibly massive garage that had a glass walk-way to the building, and a fancy elevator that spoke to you when you pushed the buttons.
The apartment itself was bigger than it looked from the outside, with a long hallway, four bedrooms, and a wide living room that led right into the kitchen. He had a balcony, or terrace, as he told me a bunch of times, that overlooked the city, and when it rained, sometimes it looked like we were above the clouds.
My room was pretty cool there, too, though I didn’t spend a lot of time in it. I had a tall loft bed with a desk underneath where I kept my laptop and books. I hadn’t ever really decorated, since I didn’t spend a lot of time at my dad’s, and there were still posters of kittens and puppies on the walls from when I was seven years old. But it was my second home, a place I could go to when my mom was just being too pushy, or when Jeff and Amanda were fighting.
I dropped my bag on the kitchen table and flopped down on my dad’s super comfy couch. He had a huge TV that he almost never watched, since he spent most of his nights locked away in his library room reading old books and picking apart little bits of history from pieces of pottery. He grabbed some plates while I turned on the food channel.
After eating, my dad went into his room and I put my feet up on the table. It took a little while, but I finally started to unwind and after watching a few episodes of the guy who travels around tasting food from all over the country, I felt relaxed. I forgot about Jack for a while, and Elizabeth. I forgot about Ainsworth, and the locket, and I just let myself feel normal. Yeah, my life wasn’t great, but it wasn’t always half-bad.
Chapter Eleven
Jack’s House
“I’m just going to be in your way,” I argued with my dad over the breakfast table. He was cooking the one thing he could cook—scrambled eggs—and being extremely hesitant about me going over to Jack’s. I’d already confirmed with Penelope that she could come over. Her mom would be dropping her at the museum, and since Jack lived around the corner, we planned on walking there during the afternoon.
“He seems like a nice kid but I haven’t even met his parents,” my dad complained as he moved the eggs around the pan.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes in frustration. “He doesn’t have parents. He lives with his sister and his uncle right around the corner from the museum.”
My dad sighed and stabbed at the eggs roughly. “Alexandra, I just don’t think it’s…”
“Dad,” I interrupted, “have I ever done anything really irresponsible? Have I ever even failed a class at school? Have you ever caught me breaking any of the major rules, or being in any way a bad child?”
“Well are we counting all those times over the last few years where you’ve broken into the University and the museum…” he started.
“But I was fine, and it was for a good cause, if you recall,” I said, a little anger coloring my tone. “I mean, this is just a friend from school, and Penelope is coming with me. And you met him yesterday and you said yourself he was a nice kid.”
“I’m not going to base my judgment of a boy on the fact that he appeared polite in conversation, Alexandra,” he said, showing he was serious by using my full name. “I’ve learned my lesson from the stuff your sister pulled at your age.”
That instantly angered me, and I half-rose from my chair. Sure, I’d done some dumb things in the past, and I had broken rules, but I wasn’t stupid enough to pull the stuff my sister had. “I’m not Amanda, okay? I’m not going to get caught drinking at fourteen, and I’m not going to sneak out and get my face pierced or tattoos before I’m allowed to. I just want to hang out with my friends on a Saturday afternoon. Right around the corner from your work.” I hoped that I’d stressed my point. I could see him breaking, too, and it was one of those moments where I loved being a smart kid. I knew exactly what he was looking for.
“Oh… oh fine, but can I at least talk to Penelope’s mother before you two go gallivanting off to a boy’s house. At least make sure she’s okay with this kid?” he said with a small frown.
I rolled my eyes a little, but said, “Yeah, that’s fine,” as I accepted the plate of only slightly burnt, cheesy eggs. He could talk to Kate all he wanted. I was pretty sure Jack was an exemplary student, and Kate could verify that as his teacher. I tried to contain my triumph as I wolfed down my breakfast and ran to my room to pack my stuff. I had to pack for swimming, and I wasn’t really the bathing-suit type of girl, but I had one that still fit. I shoved it into my bag as I called Penelope.
“My dad said okay,” I said as I shoved my towel on top of the rest of my stuff. “He kind of flipped about not meeting Jack’s uncle first, but I convinced him we’d be fine. Your mom okay with it?”
“Yeah. She met Jack’s uncle a few times last year during conferences. She gave me some long lecture about not breaking her trust in me and blah blah blah, but she didn’t argue too much. I’ve always been a pretty good kid, so I guess it’s paying off now,” she said with a small laugh.
“She can probably calm my dad down about all this, too. This isn’t just some swimming party with Jack. We have some serious work to do before the end of the day.”
“Oh, I know. Believe me, if he’s the thief, we’re going to figure it out.”
We arranged the time she’d be at the museum one last time, and then I hung up. I was ready to go, and I heard my dad’s shower so I knew I still had a half hour to waste. Flopping down into my bean bag chair, I fired up my laptop and went back on the net, searching again for the Ainsworth thieves.
“That’s him,” came a voice from behind me, and I jumped. You’d think I’d be used to the ghosts popping in and out by now, but I doubted it would ever be something totally expected and familiar. I cleared my throat and went back to the screen.
“I figured as much,” I said, tapping on the portrait of Hamish. “You knew him, right?”
“He tried to steal the locket from me when I was twelve,” Elizabeth said with a huff. “He was courting one of my ladies and managed to get it out of the house, but I confronted him and demanded it back. I offered him my silence, in return for the locket. Little good it did, in the end. He went after my sister’s jewels and burned for it.”
My stomach did a flop at the thought of old English executions, and I shook my head. “Well, I think he’s related to Jack,” I said. “Penelope and I are going to his house today to investigate.”
“Do you think it wise to involve your peasant friend?” Elizabeth asked.
I turned to look at her with a frown. “Uh… peasant friend?”
“The commoners. Obviously you’re not one of them. You live in a palace yourself, and with your gifts, I imagine you’re at least a Lady of the land.”
I laughed at the ridiculous idea of being some sort of Lady of Downtown, and shook my head. “Yeah no, we don’t have those here in this country. And this… this is just an apartment my dad bought since it was close to his work. It’s definitely not a palace. But anyway, it’s fine to involve Penelope. She’s really smart and even if she can’t see you, she can help.”
“I trust your judgment,” Elizabeth finally said, and I realized it was the nicest thing she’d said to me since she had appeared.
“Uh, thanks,” I said, but realized I was, yet again, talking to thin air.
With a sigh, I shut down my computer and went to the living room to wait. My dad was done soon after and since it was a nice day, we decided to walk. Downtown was a totally different experience on the weekends, and it was one of the reasons I loved staying with my dad on those days. Instead of business men in suits on cell phones,
there were people dressed in bright clothes, tents all over the place with arts and crafts for sale. There were food vendors on every available spot of pavement, selling things from Falafels to Sonoran hot dogs. People who lived in the rural areas came by to sell their home-grown fruits and vegetables from their small farms, and there was even a lady who sold fresh honey from her very own bees that had a small corner booth. This had been going on for as long as I could remember, going back as far as when my parents were still married.
As we walked through the grass, I smiled and waved at the people I’d been walking by and talking to since I was a kid, always happy to see them, and they were always happy to see me. The Honey Lady even gave me a couple of her flavored honey sticks as we passed by her to cross the street.
I called back my thanks and ripped one open as we climbed the steps to the museum. It wasn’t open yet, Saturdays were the late mornings, but there was already a line of people waiting to get in. Most of them were regulars and waved at me as we slipped into the side door, and I smiled back before we went upstairs.
Penelope would be there in two hours, and I’d already gotten a text from Jack who said he’d be by at eleven to pick us up. I was anxious and ready to get out of the museum, but that all changed when I saw a man in a security uniform walking up to my dad. He was carrying a small box, and I had a feeling in my gut that this was going to be important.
“Lex, hon, come over here,” my dad called. “Remember when you were asking about that locket? Well this is it.”
A wave of excitement shot up my spine as I walked over, trying to contain my nerves. My dad took the box from the delivery man and signed the form the man was carrying. I kept my hands in tight fists at my sides to hide that they were shaking, and I stopped when my dad held the box down so I could see it. Was it going to be empty? What if it was? Would he freak out? My heart was racing.
He pulled the piece of tape off the sides and flipped open the lid. Inside was a smaller box, deep, royal purple in color, and extremely beautiful. There was a gold latch holding it shut, and I watched as my dad took it gingerly in his hands and flipped open the seal.
The Curse of the Lion's Heart Page 10