Day 3.- Home Sweet Home
Lara Croft is having yet another practice session in Manor Croft's gym. Formerly a dance ball hall, now it has been equipped with the elements required for Lara to practice old and new moves. She's practicing flips, as she wants to become more acrobatic. However, backflipping seems a hard move to master. And she falls once again. "Not quite yet…" she thinks as she rises from the floor the umpteenth time.
"Your scheduled visit has just arrived, Ms Croft," informs the now rehired butler, Winston Smith. "Serve her with something, please," Lara orders. "I need to take a bath." And so, twenty minutes elapse. A quick shower, some deodorant, a black dress and shoes, and a quick hair drying and combing, is all she requires to be ready to spend some time with her new visitor.
"Lady Minerva," Lara says. "I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I was soaked in sweat. I was trying to increase my moveset." Minerva smiles. "You are quite physical indeed," she says. By her side, there's a Jamaican newspaper. "Got news from Jamaica?" Lara asks. "Your short-lived friend, Bob," Minerva answers. "He's been arrested on the grounds of murder. I had to press charges to keep my estate in order, and it's easier to have a black man arrested than a white girl."
"You haven't come across the Atlantic to talk to me about a random guide, haven't you?" Lara asks, a bit annoyed. "Not at all, Ms. Croft," Minerva answers. "I wanted to see your place of comfort. The estate of a true British Lady… And hand you this over." Minerva gives Lara a book - handwritten. "Not an original, a copy made by a scribe," Minerva explains. "We didn't know how much paper would endure then, and we didn't know whom to commission a translation."
A book fully written in Ge'ez, the language of Ethiopia, probably by Father Egwale, the black Orthodox priest, sold as a slave by some Portuguese traders, and bought by the Harris estate. "What would the commission consist of?" Lara asks. "Not a full translation, but the findings," Minerva says. "One thing is to translate it, another is being capable of discovering something new out of it." Lara reads the book, and is instantly drawn into it. "I'll keep you posted," Lara says. "Leave me a phone number or an email."
"I think I'll be leaving," Minerva says. "There's a lot of interesting stuff to do in Surrey." Lara smiles, and calls Winston. "He'll guide you properly," Lara says. "I have a big book to read." Lady Minerva bows to her. "I thank you for your hospitality, Lara," she says. "I really loved your estate. Made me want to expand mine to even further limits." For a second, Lara looks at her in the eye, hoping Minerva's not being corrupted by a Mayan artifact retrieved in an old Church in Peru. "I like your ambition," Lara compliments her.