"Sorry, late night," Colby mumbled into the phone.
"Yeah, same here. What say we head out around 11:30 am? Eleanor says the restaurants in Chinatown don't open until noon anyway."
"Okay, meet you then." Colby groaned as he rolled back onto the bed. Hannah hadn't even stirred when the phone rang. They'd had an enthusiastically good time, especially after Hannah started giggling over Eleanor's scream. It was going to be tough waking Hannah after only five hours of sleep.
Still, they all managed to get to Harbor City Restaurant in Chinatown just before it got crowded. The restaurant served dim sum at that time of the day, but they didn't have the little steam carts of dim sum. Instead, they had picture menus, and order forms with little check boxes.
Eleanor raised an eyebrow as Colby began to check boxes. A lot of boxes. "I know they're small taste-sized servings, but that's still a lot of food you're ordering."
"Colby loves dim sum. Especially the shrimp dumplings, and shrimp in rice rolls," Hannah smiled at Eleanor's expression. "We go every weekend. Well, every weekend he's not working, anyway."
"Yes, it does look like you know what you want," Eleanor commented dryly.
"I always know what I want," Colby winked slyly.
Don laughed. "Are you just ordering for yourself? Don't forget the rest of us! I want some of the shark's fin dumplings, and taro puffs."
"Don't worry, there'll be plenty. And Hannah likes this beef tripe stuff," Colby made a face as he checked another box, "Oh hey! What are these? I've never seen these in LA."
These were shrimp wrapped in rice paper and fried, which turned out to be delicious. They relaxed and enjoyed their food with the chrysanthenum tea they ordered.
"Chinatown's small here, isn't it?" Don asked after some food took the edge of his hunger away.
Eleanor nodded, "Yes, just Gerrard Street here, and some side streets along Gerrard. Unlike, Los Angeles, I dare say."
"There are Chinese areas other than LA's Chinatown, like Alhambra, Monterey Park, even El Monte now." Hannah put in.
"And we go to different places each time, just to check them out." Colby picked up where Hannah left off.
Don looked amused, he'd never noticed Colby and Hannah finishing each other's sentences before. "Looks like the restaurants here serve it later though. They stop serving dim sum at 3pm in LA."
"Till 5pm here. Golden Dragon's pretty good too, we go there next time." Eleanor answered. "So what did you want to do today? Most tourist places close at 4pm. We'll only have about 3 hours after we get done here."
"Let's go to Westminster Abbey first. Then if we have time, we could head for St. Paul's Cathedral." Don suggested. He'd been looking forward to Westminster Abbey, partly because of the hype from the Da Vinci code.
-----
They weren't the only ones to think of going to Westminster Abbey.
"These don't look like the steps that Diana came up in her wedding gown," Hannah murmured thoughtfully, thinking of the beautiful wedding gown with the 22 foot train.
"Yeah, well, they probably have a different entrance for royalty," was Colby's wry comment.
"Oh, the rose window's beautiful from the inside," Hannah whispered softly. She had turned around to look at it after stepping into the Abbey from the visitor entrance at the North Transept.
Eleanor smiled at her awe, Hannah was often touched by beautiful things, and the rose window was certainly beautiful. "Eleven apostles, they left Judas off."
Colby curled his lip in amusement. Then he looked concerned as Hannah pressed closer to him. He'd expected her to start sketching as she did at Salisbury.
She smiled at him in some embarrassment, "It's a little spooky in here."
He smiled and hugged her close. "Don't worry, I'll be right here."
"It's always been a little spooky to me too. All the tombs and memorials. Elizabeth I and Mary I are both buried just over there in the North Ambulatory," Eleanor said softly.
"A lot of monarchs buried here, aren't there?" Don asked, curiously.
"Yes, including Mary, Queen of Scots."
They moved quietly along with the flow, stopping every so often to read the information signs and the memorials.
"Oh, look. Poets Corner. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Eliot, Dickens. Lewis Carroll. Wow." Colby was impressed as he read off the names on the memorials.
Don laughed, "I'm surprised you know who they are."
Colby grinned. "Even dumb jocks manage to learn a thing or two."
Eleanor smiled at Colby, pleasantly surprised at his enthusiasm, "This corner wasn't originally designated for writers, playrights and poets. Chaucer was buried here first, simply because he had been Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, not because he wrote Canterbury Tales. Then after Edmund Spenser was buried nearby, the tradition continued."
Colby paused to take in all the details at Poets Corner, while Hannah moved on to the next section.
Hannah's sudden intake of breath caught Colby's attention. Eleanor was startled at the transformation from easy-going humor to a warrior on alert. His hard green eyes made her uneasy. She watched as he moved quickly to Hannah's side, and was relieved to see him relax.
"Look at the quire and sanctuary, Colby, it's beautiful!" Hannah was murmuring to Colby, who was now smiling indulgently at her. He was happy to see her sketching excitedly again. He'd been worried about her subdued demeanour.
Don smiled at Eleanor's fascination. "He's more than he lets on. I think he puts on the dumb jock facade because it gets him further, especially in an investigation. He gets talked down to a lot, and they often give away more information doing that than interrogations sometimes yield." He glanced over to where Hannah and Colby had moved on to, and guided Eleanor towards them. He wanted to keep the group together.
"And this is where Diana's wedding and funeral were held," Hannah was saying a little sadly as they got there. "She might have married into royalty, but she wasn't happy." She moved further into Colby's arms.
"Sir Isaac Newton's tomb," Don murmured in fascination as they moved on to the scientists' tombs. "Charles Darwin."
Eleanor smiled. She'd found the two men fairly similar in demeanor, perhaps because they had the same job, but they had been fascinated by different things in the Abbey.
"And the grave of the unknown warrior." Colby murmured quietly. The memorial was set in the floor on the west end of the nave, and ringed with red poppies.
He seemed particularly touched by that memorial, and Eleanor wondered about it. "He served in the army," Don supplied quietly, smiling faintly as understanding dawned.
"Let's sit here for a while, Colby," Hannah took his hand.
He smiled at her, "Not spooky any more?"
She laughed softly, "No, not out here in the nave. It's tranquil here. I like it."
"We'll sit for as long as you like, Hannah," Don smiled at her. "We're not in a hurry."
They sat close to Hannah, and Eleanor's attention was captivated by Hannah's sketching. She looked up to point something out to Don and was chilled by the expressions on both mens' faces as they scanned the nave watchfully. She swallowed a lump in her throat. In her enjoyment of the Abbey, she'd forgotten that the men were also protecting her. She wondered how Hannah handled the different facets that Colby seemed to have. Eleanor herself was beginning to find these facets in Don highly unsettling. She looked back to Hannah's sketches and found Hannah watching her with a sympathetic smile on her face. Eleanor returned the smile with an uncertain smile of her own.
Hannah reached over and squeezed her hand, "You get used to it."