Chapter 5

Marisa was pacing very impatiently on her neat and tidy side of the bedroom as she still waited for Merry and Seth to get back from their little outing last night.

"Where on this cursed Earth are they?" she asked aloud, stamping her foot on the floor in exasperation.

"My, my Marisa, I never thought I would ever hear you curse in my life time." Merry stated, climbing through the window. Marisa jumped and quickly ran over to help her twin into the room before she fell back out.

"Where were you?" she demanded, looking over her disoriented sister in front of her with a keen eye. Merry shrugged and tried to get away from her twin as Marisa tried to look at her very bruised cheek.

"Oh, here and there. Seth is downstairs trying to convince the witch that we had been here all night." Merry replied, finally getting away from Marisa. She walked over to her side of the room and started picking her clothes up off the floor, seeing what would be clean enough to wear that day. All the while pretending to listen to her sister rant about something or other.

"Merideth were you listening to a word I said?" Merry, who had just found some clean clothes on her chair, turned to Marisa and looked bored.

"Not a word, my dear sister." Marisa took a few calming breaths and glared at her twin. This conversation would have resulted in a very large argument if Seth had not interrupted them.

A knock came at the door. "Merry, Marisa?" the person on the other side asked.

"What!" the twins yelled in unison.

"Elizabeth sent me up here to tell the both of you to dress your best, as we are all going to the Cunningham's for brunch and all you the children are staying there while Elizabeth and I are in Egypt." The voice, Seth, replied. Merry and Marisa glanced at each other worriedly… those people were evil.

"Window?" Merry asked, ducking behind her changing screen with her cleaner clothes on hand.

"Quite a good idea," Marisa replied, brushing her dark blue skirt to try and rid it of whatever dust was on it to make herself more presentable when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. "Does that mean we actually have to jump out?" she managed to squeak out.

"Of course, did you believe that I meant that we were just to look out the window at the boring city we call London?" Merry replied, running out from behind the screen with just a pair of black trousers and a navy blue undershirt on (though it was highly inappropriate according to Marisa because it was just a tight shirt with no sleeves).

"You are not going to wear just that, are you?" Marisa asked, helping Merry put her shoulder-length brown hair up in just a single French braid, knowing that Merry would have just put it in a messy low bun.

"Of course not my dear sister, I was planning on wearing an over shirt too." Marisa breathed a sigh of relief as she tied off the braid with a piece of string.

"We shall go in different directions and meet up in St. James's park at noon, it will most likely confuse our dear step-sister." Merry snorted and shook her head as she tucked her hair up in a gray cap, much to her sister's displeasure.

"Merideth and Marisa DeLarké! Both of you get down here this instant, before I come up there and get you myself!" Elizabeth yelled from downstairs.

"It is very tempting to see her reaction to my choice of apparel, but I believe that is for another day when she is not hopping mad. Come Miss Marisa, the window calls to us." Merry stated bowing mockingly, as she opened the window up and held out her hand to help her twin out.

"I think you should go first, I insist." Merry rolled her eyes and jumped out of their second floor window.

"Come on now Marisa! I shall catch you, and I actually will this time!" Marisa looked skeptical still, but closed her eyes and quickly jumped out.

"Umph! You should really consider loosing a bit of weight Marisa, now get off before the witch finds us." Merry stated after catching Marisa and falling to the ground with the force of her fall.

"That is not a very proper topic Merideth…" Marisa started to remark, when suddenly the front door slammed open and closed.

"You two are going to get it!" Elizabeth yelled, coming into view as she turned the corner and headed towards them with her voluminous purple dress swishing rapidly.

"I shall see you at noon dear sister!" Merry yelled, taking off in one direction as Marisa headed off in the opposite. Elizabeth stopped and threw her dainty purple silk umbrella onto the ground in exasperation.

"Leave them be Elizabeth, Merry had enough of your anger let out on her last night." Seth stated, watching his little stepsisters run off and away from the house. Elizabeth turned around and picked her umbrella up, while fixing her perfect black hair and walking towards her carriage.

"That is quite alright, they can stay home alone for all I care. We are going to Egypt and that is final, with or without the twins. Come Seth, we do not want to miss our ride." Elizabeth stated, walking into the carriage with her footman's help. Seth sighed and got into the carriage too.

Merry…

As Merry ran around a corner away from Elizabeth, she cursed at herself for being dunce enough not to wear an overcoat of some sort.

"You would think I would learn after last night!" Merry stated out loud, shoving her hands into her pockets, trying to keep warm. She did not see any point of just walking around aimlessly in London so she decided to go straight to the park and wait around two hours before meeting up with her twin.

"Good morning Miss DeLarké, how are you doing today?" a dressmaker, Mrs. Dawson, asked, she stopped sweeping off the steps of her store as Merry walked by.

"Quite all right Mrs. Dawson," she replied, stopping just to be polite to the older woman. "And yourself?"

"What a polite young lady, I am doing rather well if I do say so myself. Are you and your sister going to come by soon and pick up Marisa's new skirt?" Merry did all she could to keep herself from rolling her eyes; Marisa would only buy her skirts and dresses at that store for some odd reason.

"But of course Mrs. Dawson, now if you shall excuse me, I must be off and meet Marisa in the park. Good day to you ma'am." Merry replied, tipping her cap slightly before continuing on her journey. Mrs. Dawson chuckled and continued to sweep off the front steps of her shop.

At the Emerson Estate…

Nefret looked out her window in pure boredom as she watched a few people and carriages pass by the house. She sighed and began to count the number of houses she could see.

"Twelve, thirteen, Merry… Merry!" Nefret exclaimed, looking down at the person passing the house. Wanting to get out of the house and actually do something while Amelia and the Professor were in Egypt, she bolted out of her room with her dark blue dress flowing behind her.

"Where, may I ask, are you going?" Ramses asked, from his spot on the sofa in the lounge as he looked up from the book he had been reading.

"Is that really any of your business Ramses?" Nefret countered, putting on her coat and opening up the door. "I think not very much. Tell Evelyn or Walter that I am just out for a small walk and I should be back for luncheon." And with that, she quickly walked out the door and to the right, after Merry. Ramses sighed and got up to follow Nefret, knowing that she would more than likely get into some sort of trouble.

"Tell my aunt and uncle that Nefret and I have gone out for a walk and we shall be back for lunch." Ramses told a passing servant, the young girl nodded and went to find them. Ramses quickly grabbed his coat and walked out of the door to the left… the complete opposite of where Nefret has gone.

About an hour later: Marisa…

Marisa had decided to kill some time by going to one of her favorite places, the Tower of London. As she walked over to it, she stopped and marveled at its beauty.

"What a splendid place of… oh what the devil is that word?" Marisa wondered out loud.

"Death, perhaps is your word?" a voice said behind her. Marisa jumped and spun around, wishing she had brought a parasol with her, luckily it was only Ramses.

"And who do you think you are, putting in your own words in my thoughts?" Marisa demanded, looking down slightly at a shorter Ramses. "Especially when I was stuck on a word."

"I am terribly sorry Merry, you just seemed like you needed some help with your own thoughts." Ramses replied. Marisa's right eye twitched as he called her Merry; but then again he would have thought she was extremely uncanny if she had corrected him, seeing as he probably had no idea that Merry had an identical twin.

"Have you ever been inside the Tower?" Marisa asked, changing the subject.

"I am not as interested in London's history as I am in Egypt's." Ramses replied. Marisa pretended to look shocked… though it wasn't that hard seeing as she was quite surprised.

"Well then you should get interested because you are going to take the ten o'clock tour with me and you are also going to like it!" Marisa stated, grabbing Ramses by the arm and dragging him towards the entrance.

I never should have gone after Nefret. Ramses mentally scolded himself as he was being dragged by who he thought was Merry.

Nefret…

Nefret had been wondering aimlessly around the small of London in search of her friend and she ended up walking into St. James Park.

"Oh I do hope Merry is in here, or I shall just have to give up my search." Nefret thought out loud, looking around in the nearly deserted park.

"'Ello there girly," a voice said behind Nefret, causing her to spin around quickly.

"What do you want?" Nefret demanded, trying not to look too frightened as a quite drunk man stumbled over to her and grabbed onto her arm. He was about to say something too when yet another voice cut into the conversation.

"Leave the girl alone. She be with me," the person said, walking over with clenched fists with a gray cap hiding part of their face. The man quickly let go and mumbled some sort of apology before stumbling away.

"Thank you good… Merry?" Nefret questioned, lifting the cap off her savior's head.

"The one and only," Merry replied, bowing at the waist mockingly. Nefret laughed and handed her back her cap.

"What are you doing here?" Nefret asked.

"I am meeting – er – I mean, I just wanted to go for a walk and perhaps a small swim too." Nefret looked at her strangely at the part about swimming.

"Where?" she asked.

"Just in the lake over there. Come and join me, the water is quite warm this time of year."

"But I did not bring any of my swimming clothes." Nefret protested, as she followed Merry through the park. "I was only following you because I was bored!"

"Who said anything about swimming clothes? I am talking about just swimming in my clothes right here." Nefret watched Merry sit on the ground near the edge of the water and start to unbutton her shirt and then take off her shoes, socks and set them down on the riverbank.

"Are you really going to –" Nefret began to ask when her question was answered by Merry jumping into the lake with a loud splash. Merry surfaced a few feet away from where she dove in a few moments later and laughed at the expression on Nefret's face.

"You are just like Marisa! Always so stuffy and proper – that is not a good thing by the way." Nefret looked around at the nearly empty park and quickly shed her dress, revealing her gray coloured slip before she took off her shoes and stockings too and jumped into the water after her friend.

Their fun lasted only a few minutes before a shrill shriek was heard and shouting thereafter that went like this: "Merideth Sekhmet DeLarké! What the devil do you think you are doing?"

Merry stopped dead in mid-splash and mentally began to cuss herself out. Both she and Nefret slowly got out of the water and looked over to the two approaching figures, known to them as Ramses and Marisa.

"Hold on one moment," Nefret said, looking from Merry to Marisa with a confused look on her face. Ramses had the exact same look written on his face too.

"If you must know, I am the real Merideth DeLarké. This imposter here is my identical twin sister, Marisa Maat DeLarké."

"Your, twin?" Ramses asked, looking from Merry to Marisa, whom he had just spent one of the most boring hours of his life with.

"Yes, and do not look so upset, Nefret. I would have introduced you to Marisa when I found the time to be right."

"When you found the time to be right my foot! Knowing your memory I would have had better luck introducing myself!" Marisa scoffed, throwing her coat at her twin. "Get dried off, we are going back to the house."

"What for? We have nothing left there, Seth and the witch are off in Egypt again and the other children are off at the evil people's house!" Merry stated. "You do know that you do not have to keep your head turned the other way, do you not Ramses? Nefret and I are still clothed."

Ramses, who had been turned around most of the time, turned back around to face Merry and Nefret. Both of who had managed to put more of their clothing. "Terribly sorry."

"Oh do not apologies, does he always make it a habit to do so?" Merry asked Nefret, who nodded in return.

"Well either way, we must go back and at least retrieve our things… then we can stay in a hotel for awhile I assume that is what you would like to do, Merideth?" Marisa asked, her twin nodding sadly as a reply.

"You two are just going to live in a hotel room for a few months?" Nefret asked.

"We usually do when Seth leaves." Merry explained.

"Well then, why do you and Marisa not come and stay at Walter and Evelyn's estate until they do return?" Nefret questioned, getting a twinkle in her pale blue eyes.

"We would have to ask my aunt and uncle first, but I am sure that they would not mind." Ramses agreed, looking at the twins. Merry and Marisa exchanged a silent conversation through their eyes before replying in unison:

"We would love to."

…………….

Took me forever to update, but I did! REVIEW please!