AN: Well, chapter two is finally here! Our heroes spend some time on the ship and arrive in England. This was getting a bit long so I had to cut it short, but I'm hoping to get chapter three out a lot faster and we can get into more of the meatier parts of the story!

CHAPTER TWO

After two days of non-stop preparations, Evie, Jonathan, and Rick boarded the ship to London.

"Well, here's home for the next week or so," Jonathan announced as they walked up into the first of their adjoining staterooms. "I hear soon we'll be able to travel by plane between Cairo and London."

"That would be lovely," Evie replied. "We could justify shorter visits if that were the case."

Rick didn't say a word, just looked around the rather luxurious room they'd walked into. He was used to staterooms involving bunk-beds and shared lavatories. This looked like a fancy hotel suite.

"Something wrong, O'Connell?"

"Nope," Rick said, snapping out of it, and putting the bags down.

"Well, guessing this one's ours, as it has two beds," Jonathan commented.

"So, I'm through there," Evie said, taking her luggage through the bathroom into the second bedroom.

"So, ah, where are we keeping the..?" Jonathan began to ask, but stopped as soon as Rick and Evie both turned to him with exasperated looks.

"They're with my things and that's where they will stay until we take them to the British Museum," Evie said firmly.

"And it's probably better if no one on board knows we have priceless artifacts in here," Rick said with a warning look.

Jonathan simply nodded and that was the end of the discussion. After the three of the had settled, the boat had pulled away from the dock and Jonathan decided to scope out the bar.

After she heard Jonathan leave, Evie went through the lavatory and found Rick still in the room, sitting on one of the beds. She smiled and went to sit next to him.

"Treasure safely hidden?" Rick asked, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Neither Jonathan nor anyone else will know where it is," Evie promised.

"Hmm, what hiding place did you find in there?" Rick asked.

"Well if I told you I'd have to kill you, darling. Too dangerous if too many know," Evie joked.

"Oh come on, you know you can trust me," he said, pecking her lips again.

"Of course, but what if they captured you and tortured you for the information?" she replied with a grin.

"Me?" he asked. "What about you? All they'd have to do is tickle you for a while," he teased, starting to poke at her sides where he had discovered she was ticklish. In proving his point, she started giggling and tried to retaliate but he quickly had her pinned down on the bed and kissed her again.

"See?" he said. "All they have to do is tickle you."

Evie smiled a bit coyly, then reached up and gave him a longer kiss. She moved her hands lower, and he responded in kind, enjoying caressing her hips for a moment, before she broke the kiss and gave him a triumphant look.

"And apparently all they'd have to do to you is kiss you," she said, holding up the wallet that she'd nicked from his back pocket.

Rick stopped for a moment, stunned. Then he couldn't help but laugh.

"Are all the Carnahans pick pockets?" he asked.

"Well, you can ask Papa about that if you want," Evie suggested, giving him a light push off her so she could sit up. They sat next to each other for a moment, but the silence quickly turned awkward, so Rick broke it.

"This was nice of him. Your father."

"What was?"

Rick cocked his head at her, surprised she'd ask.

"Rooms like these cost a small fortune. I was expecting to sleep below deck."

"Oh," Evie said, surprised as she caught on to what he meant. "Yes, he is very generous."

"Must be," Rick said, but she sensed something else was on his mind.

She was proven right at his next question.

"Does he know? About us?"

And there it was, the very conversation she'd been nervously avoiding.

"No," she answered honestly, then rushed to explain. "Not yet at least. It's just, when I called him, you and I hadn't really discussed...well, I suppose we hadn't discussed anything really. And I wasn't sure what you wanted."

Rick didn't answer, he just looked and felt awkward in the silence. Things had never been this awkward between them, not even when he'd nervously bequeathed her the stolen tools, or when she'd been in her soaking wet nightgown after they escaped from the fire on the barge.

"Should I have told him?" Evie asked, mostly to break the awkward silence.

"No no, you probably made the right decision," Rick hastened to assure her. But she just looked confused by that statement.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I just..." he fumbled over his words, then sighed and tried again. "I'm just not normally the guy a girl brings home to her dad."

He was nervous too. She almost kicked herself for not realizing it, he had been rather quiet during the preparations for the journey now that she thought of it. But the man had battled a mummy and won for goodness sake!

And yet here he was, nervous about meeting her father. She couldn't help but smile a bit, as it was rather sweet.

"You don't have to worry," Evie said, taking his hand. "Papa's very eager to meet you, you know."

"As someone who helped you out on a dig," Rick reminded her. "Or maybe as a friend of yours and your brother's. Not as your, boyfriend, or lover..." his voice trailed off at that and Evie felt herself go slightly pink at the word lover.

"Lover? Is that what you are?" she asked, shyly but smiling.

"I mean, if you want me to be," he said, leaning in to kiss her again.

She responded eagerly, her heart beat quickening as he pulled her closer. As his hands lowered, she broke the kiss for a moment.

"Maybe, maybe not quite yet," she said a bit breathlessly. She knew she had to say it before she did something she wasn't sure she wanted just yet.

"Okay," Rick said softly back. She kissed him again to let him know that she was still enjoying that and he moved his hands back to her waist.

Evie let Rick kiss her for a few more minutes, and then moved her head down to rest it on his chest. His arms surrounded her body and she breathed in his scent. Her breathing slowed, and she felt so warm and safe that she began to drift off. And she must have because it felt like no time at all that the sound of her brother's exasperated voice startled her.

"Oh for heaven's sake!"

Evie felt Rick jump at the same time, so she thought he must have also drifted off or fallen asleep. She sat up, trying not to obviously yawn, in case that gave Jonathan any more reason to think something had happened. She and Rick were both fully clothed, and on top of the covers so she didn't feel too guilty about her defiant stare.

Jonathan just rolled his eyes and put his bottle of whisky on the table as he sat down on the opposite bed.

"Look you two, just get all this out of your system before we get to London okay? Because I guarantee indignation and defiant looks won't work on Papa or Granny. In fact, if anyone else walked in on this, there would be hell to pay."

"Oh for goodness' sake Jonathan!" Evie responded indignantly. "It's not like anything sordid is going on, we're fully clothed for one!"

Jonathan took a breath before he spoke again, knowing his baby sister didn't respond well to being scolded anyway.

"Do you really think Papa would see it that way? His only daughter in a bed with a man who isn't her husband? Not exactly going to make him warm up to you O'Connell, I'll tell you that much."

"He's probably right about that," Rick admitted.

Evie hated when her brother was right, as it always made the universe feel out of balance. And Rick agreeing with him nearly made her head spin.

"Did you tell Papa that you're bringing home a beau Evie, or is he under the impression that O'Connell is just a friend of ours?" Jonathan asked.

"Not yet," Evie said. "Rick and I had just been discussing whether we should, actually."

"Well, if you want any privacy to go off and do the amount of kissing you've been doing, I'd hold off," Jonathan warned. "Everyone will watch you both like a hawk. England may have moved forward a little since the war, but not that much. Especially as you two aren't exactly conventional," he continued.

"Neither were Papa and Mama. And Papa's favorite stories to tell are describing everyone's reactions when he brought home his native Egyptian wife, so I hardly think he'd begrudge my choices," Evie argued.

"Men don't usually see things the same way when it comes to their daughters though," Rick said. "They'd rather their daughters be conventional."

"I've never known Papa to be such a hypocrite," Evie defended her father. "And I've never known him to be a snob."

"Considering his background, he's definitely not nearly the English snob he could be," Jonathan agreed. "All I'm saying Evie, is that you'll both probably be happier in the long run if you give Papa a chance to know O'Connell as our friend first."

Rick nodded in agreement.

"He's probably right Evelyn," Rick said, surprising himself.

"The world really will turn upside down if you two keep agreeing with each other," Evie said. Looking at Rick's earnest face, she nodded. "But I suppose it does make sense. And I certainly don't fancy the scrutiny we'd be under otherwise."

"That bad?" Rick asked. "It's not like we're teenagers."

"The English upper class sees all young women as teenagers until they're married," Jonathan said with an eye roll.

"Too true," Evie said in agreement, and just hoped they were making the right decision.

The rest of the journey to England was fairly uneventful, aside from a few arguments between the two men over who snores vs who talks in their sleep. Nevertheless, they were all thrilled when the ship finally docked in London, and they could walk on land again.

It took some time to get through the immigration line, and meet Mr. Carnahan's chauffeur, but they were finally on their way through the city.

"Is this your first time in London, O'Connell?" Jonathan asked when he saw Rick mostly staring out the window of the automobile.

"No, I passed through once on my way to France, but that was going on nine years ago now," Rick said as he continued looking out the window. "Doesn't seem like much has changed."

"Well, if there's one thing England tends to resist, it's change," Jonathan joked.

As they drove through the city, Evie pointed out the British Museum, where they'd be going soon to talk to the curators and sell the artifacts. They went past it and drove past old buildings and residences for a while until he began to notice more trees and grass than city sites.

"The estate lies a bit outside Greater London," Jonathan explained when he saw Rick looking a bit confused. "We should be there soon. "Gilbert, old boy, how much longer would you say?" he asked the chauffeur. "I'd say another thirty minutes or so," Gilbert replied from the front.

Gilbert had clearly made the trip multiple times in the past as he was right on the nose about the time. He turned onto what looked like a deserted road just about half an hour later.

"Here we are," Evie said, smiling as they traveled up the road.

Rick stared out the window, and was unable to stop his eyes widening at the site of the large manor house they were approaching. It was built of stone and looked like it could be a fancy hotel. There were several people were waiting for them outside.

"Looks like the whole reception committee came out," Jonathan said as the car slowed to a stop.

"Looks like a few new faces too," Evie commented as Gilbert came around to open the door. She was closest to the door, so she stepped out first, and her brother scooted out from behind her. Rick watched for a moment as the older man stepped forward to embrace both of his children. After she broke away, Evie turned back to the car, smiling, and beckoned him to come down from the car. Remembering himself, Rick stepped down and forward. The older man smiled warmly as he approached and Rick heard Evie's voice.

"Papa, this is Mr. O'Connell," she said.

"It's such a pleasure to meet you," Mr. Carnahan said as he reached out to shake Rick's hand enthusiastically. "My daughter says your help was invaluable during that excavation."

"Oh, it was," Jonathan said. "Honestly I think O'Connell's the only reason we made it back across the desert."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Rick said, a bit surprised by Jonathan's statement although there was certainly truth in it.

"I would," Evie agreed with her brother with a smile.

"Well my children are actually in agreement, so it must be true," Mr. Carnahan said with a smile, and there was some laughing even from the staff, although Rick saw a rather stern looking man look over the at the giggling maids who stopped immediately.

"You must all be tired from your journey," Mr. Carnahan continued. "Tom and Joseph can take the luggage upstairs, and dinner should be served in..."

"About an hour, sir," said the stern looking man.

"Wonderful, thank you Wilson" he said.

Two young men in uniforms stepped forward and began collecting their bags from the car. Mr. Carnahan turned around and began walking inside. Rick walked in behind Jonathan and Evie. He looked around as they moved through the foyer into a large main room. Rick kept his eyes neutral, but couldn't help looking around and seeing just how grand a house it was. One of the sofas alone was probably worth more than the entire flat he used to rent when he was living in Paris. The house he'd been sharing with Evie and Jonathan had been nicer than what he'd been used to, but nothing that indicated this level of wealth. Even the staterooms hadn't been a clue to this type of house.

He realized he hadn't been listening at all when Mr. Carnahan's voice suddenly penetrated his brain.

"Wilson, could you show Mr. O'Connell to his room, please?"

"Of course, right this way, sir," Wilson said, leading the way up the stairs. Jonathan and Evie walked up with them, although their paths separated at the top of the stairs.

"Down this corridor sir," Wilson said, as Evie gave Rick a small wave as she continued towards her own room.

One of the footmen was leaving Rick's bag in the bedroom when Wilson opened the door.

"Thank you, Joseph, that will be all," Wilson said to the younger man.

Rick gave the footman a nod on the way out, and he gave the American a curious look on his way out of the room.

"Is everything to your liking sir?" Wilson asked as Rick walked further into the room.

The room was spacious, with a fire place, four poster bed, and what looked like very comfortable chairs. There was a door that presumably led to a bathroom.

"Um, yeah, everything looks great. Thanks," Rick said. He wasn't used to dealing with servants, or anyone caring whether or not he was comfortable. He was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to give the man a tip or anything like that, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

"The bell is over there, if you require anything, just ring and one of the staff will answer."

"Okay, thank you," Rick said as Wilson turned to leave the room.

He walked around the room and took a breath as he looked at everything from the nice furniture to the figurines on the mantel. Some looked like replicas of Egyptian artifacts, some looked like they were from other countries, maybe Greece.

Since it was likely that they would be in England for some time, Rick took his few clothes and belongings out of his bag and put them in a dresser after changing his shirt. He sat down on the large bed, and was staring into the fireplace when there was a knock on the door.

"Um, come in," he said, turning turns the door, expecting to see one of the servants again.

It was Evie. She came inside, in a different dress than she'd worn on the ship and her hair was mostly loose again.

"Settling in?" she asked, smiling, and sitting on the bed next to him.

"There's not much to settle, I don't have that much stuff. Did Jonathan manage to unpack yet?"

"I'm sure he had the poor footman do it for him. Is the room alright?"

"Uh, yeah, it's great," Rick said. "Very...spacious."

"Is that a bad thing?" Evie asked.

"No, no," Rick said, quickly. "Not at all."

"It's just, you seem a bit...overwhelmed, I guess."

Rick shrugged his shoulders, unable to deny it completely.

"This is all just a bit...more than I was expecting I guess."

Evie looked down, as if a bit embarrassed. But she recovered quickly and took a deep breath while squeezing his hand.

"Well, tonight should be a relaxing evening. It will just be the four of us for dinner, and afterwards we can all get some sleep. I even told Papa not to expect us for breakfast tomorrow morning in case we all wanted a lie in," she said.

"That does sounds nice," Rick said, leaning over to peck her lips. The kiss deepened after a minute as he brought his hand to her shoulder. Evie started to respond by putting her arm around his waist. The sound of footsteps reminded her of where she was and she broke the kiss with a gasp.

"What?" Rick started to ask as she turned toward the door. The footsteps had stopped.

"Seriously you two?" An exasperated voice asked.

The footsteps had belonged to Jonathan. Evie sighed in relief, and Rick felt the tension leave his shoulders.

"You two are lucky it was me," he said.

"Yes," Evie admitted. "I suppose we are."

"Remember, the walls in this house have a lot of ears and eyes," Jonathan said. "The servants talk."

With that, her brother left the room and Evie stood up from the bed.

"So...does this mean we never get to be alone?" Rick asked.

"No," Evie said, walking to the doorway and looking out. The corridor was deserted. "But we'll have to be a bit more discreet than we just were. I don't know what I was thinking, I shouldn't have come to your room at all," she continued. "But the coast is clear for now, so let's go down."

They walked down the empty corridor and down the stairs, speaking now in even lower voices.

"Maybe we shouldn't bother hiding it, if it's this much work?" Rick questioned.

"If you want to be alone at all while we're staying here, we definitely shouldn't tell them," Evie said. "They'll constantly watch us, we'll never have a moment's peace.

"Seriously? Like we're teenagers or something?"

"Yes," she said. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, her father came around the corner. He smiled as he greeted them.

"Hello my dear," he said, coming over and kissing his daughter's cheek. "Mr. O'Connell, I hope you're finding everything comfortable."

"Very, thank you."

"Is your room alright darling?" he asked Evie as he began leading them towards the dining room.

"Yes, just as I remembered it."

"Good, good," he said, turning to them again. "Now, I know I said it would just be the four of us tonight, but your grandmother invited herself over. I was intending to have her come tomorrow, but she showed up, so now she's here."

Rick noticed Evie stiffen as she walked.

"Well, I suppose I'd better prepare myself for lots of questions," she said, her voice still cheerful but Rick could tell by the way it heightened slightly that she wasn't happy about this news.

"It'll be fine. I've already told her you all just got in and are tired from the journey, but you know how she is."

"I do," Evie said, slowing her walk slightly. Rick followed suit, concerned about the sudden change in her demeanor.

"I'm sorry," she whispered once her father was a few steps ahead of them.

"Why?"

"Because I promised you tonight would be a quiet and relaxing night. With her here, it will be anything but. Well, let's get this over with."

She led Rick into the parlour with the air of someone walking to the gallows. And Rick knew firsthand what that was like.