As a bolt of lightning ripped through the London sky, soft rain began pattering on the spires of the O'Connell mansion. A cold gust blew through the open window in the study, fluffing the edges of the scroll Evy was reading. Using two pencils to keep the scroll from rolling closed; Evy left her desk to close the window. Rain streaked down the glass as the last rays of sun were swallowed up by dark and heavy clouds. "We could use the rain," Evy commented to no one before returning to her desk and taking up the scroll once more.
"Still working on that?" Rick teased, leaning in the doorway. How long he'd been there one couldn't say, but his elbow rested against the frame as though he'd made himself comfortable for a while.
"Yes." Evy looked over the top of her spectacles, a smile playing on her lips. "My quarterly report is due soon, and wouldn't the museum be oh-so-disappointed if they funded a rather dangerous expedition into Nubia for this scroll and received nothing in return?" Her eyes strayed back to the hieroglyphs littering the papyrus. "Imagine if it were to disintegrate before I finished. It would be awful."
"Good point." Rick crossed to his wife as she began immersing herself in the ancient paper once more. His fingers slowly danced up her shoulders and came to rest on the either side of her neck, slowly beginning to rub as he spoke. "I just thought that maybe after Alex is in bed we could, you know," Leaning down, the husband kissed his wife on the ear before coyly whispering, "take a break from this and spend some time together."
Try as she might to keep a stern and scholarly expression, Evy couldn't help but smile as her husband's warm breath tickled her ear. Oh, history is in trouble when you are around Mr. O'Connell. "That does sound nice." She admitted, taking off her spectacles and turning to look up at her husband.
"Yeah?" Rick bent down and placed a kiss on her nose.
Evy giggled and let out a sigh of joyous defeat. "Yes." She craned her neck up and returned her husband's kiss with one on the lips. "Just let me put this scroll back."
Once the scroll was carefully rolled and replaced in its box, the couple left the darkened study, arms around each other's waist. "Alex's school called." Rick began as they meandered past the shelves of books and artifacts and walls hung with paintings. "They want to move him up a level."
"Do they?" Evy asked, her voice full of pleasure.
"Yes. Something about exceeding expectations in all fields – except maybe math."
"I can't say I blame him." Evy laughed. "What do you think?"
"He goes up a level, he has to make new friends and – Well, don't you think he's already had to do some growing up before his time with—" Rick simply nodded with his head. They both knew what he was talking about.
"We'll ask him." Evy decided. "If he wants to, I see no reason why he shouldn't." Rick nodded and the couple walked in silence for a moment before Evy softly said, "Rick… I've had more dreams these past few weeks."
Rick stopped in his tracks, his arm tightening slightly around her waist. "Great." His blue eyes narrowed and his voice lowered. "What… what are they about?"
"They aren't bad dreams." Evy said quickly, doing her best to soothe him. Since she died, Rick was understandably more protective of her. She regretted saying it immediately, but she thought touching the subject of the Bracelet of Anubis had opened the door of opportunity. There was nothing to do for it now but to soldier on. "They don't feel like the others. These ones are… happy."
"Happy?" Rick echoed.
Evy nodded. "They have a person in them. I can't tell you what they look like, but I'm usually… chasing them. Playing tag or something of the like."
Rick's brow furrowed but they began walking again. He sighed a little and as they descended the stairs he intoned, "If they don't take us to a place where you get incredible déjà vu like last time, you can have as many dreams as you want. But," They paused at the foot of the stairs and Rick spun Evy to him, "You have to promise I'm the only exceptionally attractive man in them."
Evy laughed. "Deal." She leaned in and gave him a kiss that lasted perhaps a bit too long.
"Mum, Dad, I am right here." The couple pulled away to see Alex sitting in one of the cushioned armchairs tucked beside a bookcase, a large book open on his knees. His eight year-old face was wrinkled in disgust.
Evy muffled a giggle and gave her husband's hands a squeeze. "Sorry, love. But it's almost time for bed." A loud thunderclap muffled her last word and the pitter-patter of rain turned into a louder drumming noise.
"And now you are going to send me upstairs, alone, while there's a raging storm going on outside?" Alex asked, his eyebrow arching.
"Sounds scary, doesn't it?" Rick asked, approaching his son. But not as scary as…THE KRAKEN!" His hands shot out and grabbed his son under the arms, pulling him out of his seat into the air. Alex's book fell to the floor as Rick raised the boy over his head, letting out roaring and screeching noises as he wobbled his son in the air for a few moments before they both collapsed onto the sofa in a peal of laughter.
"No, not as scary I guess." Alex chortled, propping himself up by the elbows on his father's chest.
"Didn't think so." Rick ruffled his son's hair. "Now go wash up."
"Ok." Alex picked up his book and carefully replaced it before giving his mother a kiss. He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared upstairs.
"Did you see the reverence with which he put that book away?" Rick asked, arching an eyebrow. "More like you. Every. Single. Day."
"Not if 'the Kraken' has anything to do with it, I bet." Evy rebutted, slipping over the back of the couch and coming to rest in Rick's arms. "And that book—" Rick silenced his wife with a kiss. They may have stayed that way for quite some time if a harsh rapping hadn't sounded from the door. "Who on earth could that be in this weather?"
Rick groaned. "Jonathan…" Evy poked him.
"I'll get it." Just in case it was Jonathan. She slipped from Rick (though he bade her to linger a moment longer by hanging onto her fingertips). Through the front door's glass she could see a thin shadowy figure. It didn't look like Jonathan. Evy opened the door and was astonished because, whomever she was expecting to see, she didn't expect to see a woman, years younger than herself, shivering in the drizzling rain. Her dark brown hair was clumped together from the rain, beads of water dripping off the ends. The gown she was wearing was so threadbare and worn that there was no distinguishable color to it. The worn leather strap of a satchel hung around her skeletal shoulders, and the only lively thing about this wretched-looking creature was her striking blue eyes.
Whether this woman was a transient or, perhaps a stranded motorist, Evelyn wasn't going to make her stay out in this weather. "Oh dear, come in, come in out of the rain!"
The woman shuffled in meekly, both of her hands clapped to her shoulders as though she were determined to stop them from shivering. She dripped onto the rug as Evy opened the coat closet, pulling out one of Jonathan's wayward overcoats and covering the woman's shoulders with it. "Thank you." She murmured, bony fingers clutching the lapels. Rick had righted himself on the couch at her entrance, and he stood awkwardly, as though unsure what else to do.
"Now what can we help you—" Evy began, but at the sight of Rick, the woman left the rug and walked toward Rick, leaving drops of water on the wooden floor.
"Are – Are you Richard O'Connell?" The woman asked.
The man looked to his wife, concern widening his eyes. "I am. I'm sorry. Do I know you?"
The hair on the back of Evy's neck stood up as the girl stopped in her tracks, trembling from cold or nerves. "I know this must seem crazy but… But…" The woman stuttered, almost unable to speak. Finally, she proclaimed, "I'm your sister."
The rain seemed deafening in the silence that followed. Evy eyed the girl critically and turned her gaze to her husband. She had never before heard him mention having a sister. He barely mentioned his parents, for that matter, but they had passed away long ago. How could he not mention a living sister?
Rick's lips were drawn into a line. "Do you have proof?"
"Of course." She pulled the beaten leather satchel from under the overcoat. "I just –" She fumbled with the latch for a moment before Evy intervened.
"Well let's not stand out here and let you catch your death of cold." Evy placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. She flinched slightly. "Rick, go get our guest a towel. I'll take her into the kitchen and fix us all something hot to drink."
Rick nodded, looking as though he were in a daze, and stumbled off to the downstairs lavatory. By the time he ventured into the kitchen with a large, fluffy towel in hand, Evy had settled the woman into a chair at the small dining table the O'Connell's preferred to the large one in the formal dining room. The kettle was already boiling, and Evy poured them each a cup of hot tea as the woman shucked off the overcoat for the towel. "My name is Kit… O'Connell." She introduced herself as she brought her satchel forward. From inside she drew out several old pieces of paper. As her hands dipped in and out, Evy spied a worn shawl that had once been bright red and gold inside. It cushioned a hairbrush. The woman wondered if that was all Kit owned.
Kit spoke as she smoothed out the papers with her towel-dried hands. "You know that when you were seven, Richard, our parents died in a car crash. You were sent to Cairo Orphanage, and I was put into a foster family of an English couple who couldn't have children. They also had misfortune fall upon them, and by the time I was five, I was sent to an orphanage in Sudan. It—" Her voice faltered for a second and she coughed. "Pardon me." After a sip of tea, her voice worked once more. "It had administrative problems and the kids were turned out into the streets. I ran with some of the orphanage kids – I guess you could call us a gang, but we were just surviving – through most of Africa. Once I matured, I made my way back to Sudan. The orphanage had reopened and I wanted to find you."
"Pardon my asking, but if you were a street kid, how are you so well spoken?" Evy asked. She would be critical of the situation unless Kit's evidence was concrete. So far, Rick hadn't objected to anything, but one never knew.
"When we got into South Africa around the time I was twelve, I was seized by a school for girls there since I was white and English was my native language." Kit replied. "They kept me until I became a woman and, if you listen to my orphan friends, ruined me." The thin woman shrugged. "It was a place with a bed and three hot meals away. I think they were jealous."
"But…" Rick hadn't touched his tea and his hands clenched together the entire time. "I remember… I remember a little sister born just before the accident. They never told me anything when they took me to the orphanage. I assumed she had…" Rick became silent and then asked, "These papers are all the proof you have?"
Kit reached into the bodice of her gown. Tucked away on a scrap of ribbon that looked ancient was a tarnished oval locket made of silver. She reverently pulled the ribbon over her head and opened it. "This was Mother's." She scooted the open locket to Rick. Inside was a small black and white photograph with a family of four. The husband had the same nose and strong jaw as Rick did. The wife's hair was pinned expertly on her head and in her arms was a tiny baby swaddled all in white. The boy stood at attention next to his father, a newsboy's cap on his head.
"That's us. And these papers," Her bony fingers pointed to and traced over words as she spoke. "I got them all from the Sudanese orphanage. Look here – Madeline and James O'Connell, date of death... Son: Richard O'Connell – There's your thumb-print – Daughter: Katharine O'Connell – There's mine." From the inside of her satchel, she pulled out a small round tin and a scrap of paper. Opening the tin, she pressed her thumb into the fine charcoal dust within. When it was thoroughly blackened, Kit rolled the thumb on the paper and placed the thumb-print next to the worn record of the baby. Rick's fingers clutched at both pieces of paper. One was bigger than the other, but they were the same.
"And, see under distinguishing marks for Katharine?" Kit added, pointing to it. "'Jagged scar on back of neck due to shattered glass from automobile accident.'" She leaned forward, setting her forehead on the table as she pulled her hair up. Running up into her neckline, a faint scar jagged like lightning on the flesh of her neck.
Rick had blanched. He looked to Evy and back to the papers as Kit sat back up. This seemed unreal – he barely remembered having a little sister at all and always thought she was taken in the same collision that claimed his parents. But here she was, proof plainly provided that she was his sister. He had spent so many years thinking himself to be last O'Connell and now… he wasn't.
Rick reached for Kit's small work-worn hands and squeezed them together. "I thought you had died." He croaked.
Kit shook her head. "I came to find you." Ignoring the table between them, they both rose and embraced. Under Rick's hands, he could feel how frail and thin his little sister was. What kind of life had she been living?
When they broke their embrace, Rick turned to see his wife dabbing at wet eyes. He laughed, the color immediately returning to his face. "Well, Kit, no more calling me Richard. It's Rick." He took his wife by the hand. "And this is Evelyn, my wife. Or Evy. Everyone calls her Evy."
A trembling smile curled Kit's lips. "It's a pleasure."
"It is." Evy replied, sniffing once to rid her of her tears. "We'll get to know each other much more over the coming weeks, surely! But first thing's first – we need to get you out of those clothes. And you'll stay with us, won't you?"
"I –" Kit began.
"It's no trouble at all. And we could call to your hotel for your things." Evy promised.
Kit looked shell shocked. "That won't be necessary, but, um… If you don't mind me staying –"
"Of course we don't." Rick assured her. "I – I've spent my entire life without you. I don't want to keep it that way."
Kit seemed overwhelmed. She shuffled her feet slightly and nodded. "Thank you, Rick."
After Kit had gathered up the papers, Evy led her upstairs toward their guest bedroom. They passed Alex's room. The door was slightly open and Evy could hear her son humming in his personal bathroom. How surprised would he be to learn he had an aunt!
"We also have a son." Evy informed her new sister-in-law. "But I think you'll meet your nephew tomorrow."
"Nephew!" Kit exclaimed. "How old is he?"
"Ten. His name is Alex. But he's already preparing for bed and you look absolutely freezing. In fact…" Evy changed course. "I'm not putting you to bed wet and shivering."
"Don't bother yourself –"
"I am unbothered." Evy said with a smile. "Come."
She led Kit to the bedroom she shared with Rick and began drawing a hot bath for the woman in their master bathroom. They went through Evelyn's wardrobe and found two gowns, older in fashion and from before Evy had become pregnant with Alex. Some stockings and shoes were also found, and there were some new chemises Evy had just laundered that would do until they could get something else for Kit. And finally, a warm woolen nightgown was found for the woman.
After Kit had washed and been settled in the guest room, Evy returned to the kitchen and found Rick sitting at the table, head in his hands as he gazed at the locket Kit had left. Without saying a word, his wife sat beside him.
"I can't believe I didn't know. I didn't ask. I never thought –" He began.
"It isn't your fault, darling." Evy murmured, reaching over and squeezing his arm. "What matters is that you know now. And you can both be there for each other." She squeezed his arm again. "And now she has a sister-in-law, a nephew – think of that. Yesterday she had no family, and tomorrow… who knows what that will bring."
"Yeah. You're right." Rick chewed on his lip for a moment before asking, "You get the feeling that all she has was in that satchel?" His wife nodded. "If she has nowhere else, would you mind if she –"
"She can stay here as long as she likes." Evy replied, kissing him on the cheek. "You've let Jon weather his storms here how many times? She's family, after all."
Rick took one of Evy's hands and squeezed it between his own. "Thanks, hon. Now where's the rest of dinner? I bet she's starving."
Evy helped Rick load up a tray with several pieces of bread, a few slices of beef, chateau potatoes, and the rest of the tea. He knocked on the door before entering to find Kit braiding her damp hair for the night. "Hungry?" Her brother asked.
"Oh, that's very kind… Thank you." Kit replied, letting her braid loose as Rick sat the tray on her bedside table.
"Mind if I stay? Maybe we could… Talk?"
Sure." Kit said, motioning to the armchair next to the window. She sat on her bed and, at first, ate slowly and politely, but as the pair spoke her tempo picked up and she began bolting down food.
Rick began their conversation by asking a question. "How did you find us? I mean, the papers and whatnot of course… But they wouldn't have our address on them, obviously."
"They didn't." Kit tore off a hunk of beef and washed it down with her tea. "I kept my eyes open and one day, they mentioned the famous archaeological team of Mr. and Mrs. Richard O'Connell. I can't remember what you'd excavated." She took a bite of bread and added a slice of potato. "It mentioned you both had returned home to England. Didn't have the money, but I knew where to go."
Rick nodded. "How long have you been here?"
"Couple weeks. Worked as a maid aboard a steamer from Spain headed north. Wasn't bad, I guess." She shrugged and took a sip of tea. "Headed to London, had to look up a couple investigatory firms and then the postal service and here I am."
"You could have written –" Rick offered.
His sister gave another shrug. "If it had been me and I hadn't been looking, I wouldn't have trusted a letter."
A smile twitched Rick's lips. "I'm glad you found me. If I had known – Well, I'm glad you're more enterprising than I am."
"Or stubborn at least." Kit said with a smile. In their conversation, she had devoured the beef, bolted down the pieces of bread, chowed away the potatoes, and drained most of the tea. Rick spotted a crust of bread left on the plate and nothing more.
"Was that enough? I can go raid the pantry for more." Rick offered.
She laughed. "I've had plenty, I promise. Thank you. You and your wife… you're so kind."
Rick smiled. "Evy and I talked and… if you don't have anywhere else to go – or even if you do – we'd like you to stay with us as long as you like."
"I'd hate to presume –"
"You wouldn't be at all. I want to get to know my little sister."
Kit's smile was small and sincere. "I'd love to get to know you."
Rick left the room a few moments later with Kit turning in for the night and the tray upon his hip. He closed the door slightly as she turned out the light and lingered for a moment, watching his sister settle in to sleep. His sister. The world was so lonely before he had met Evy. Perhaps if he had known Kit was out there – What could they have done? He could have gone and got her when he was old enough, or found her. Maybe they could have done something better for both of them together… But that might have meant he would have never met Evy, would have never been Alex's father. Evy was right. There was no helping yesterday, but tomorrow… tomorrow was something he could change.