Teaser Time: Friends at the Museum

I actually wrote this last week and meant to post it before, but I suppose somewhere along the way I got more than a little distracted.

It's sort of a long story.

Anyway, here is a fun scene I wrote when feeling inspired. It's set before Eleanor goes to the Underlands or even meets Rory, and I wanted to incorporate more themes and information about the kind of woman she was before this all started to happen.

And if you're familiar with my Daphne Savoy series than you may notice some fun crossovers. Who said mythology and fairytales couldn't both be real in the same world?

Friends at the Museum

In which Eleanor has a hard day and makes a new friend. 

Eleanor’s day at work had not gone as planned.

She slumped on one of the benches in the staff room with an exhausted harrumph and let her handbag drop to the floor beside her feet.

There was something about the pocket watch that was distracting her enough that she was fumbling her words today and that was not something she particularly relished doing in front of a group of tourists. Especially when she had so many history buffs, like her, trying to trip her up with their knowledge.

“Rough day?”

Eleanor hadn’t paid enough attention to who was in the staff room when she’d first come in and was a little shocked to notice the bubbly redheaded Australian standing with a large paper cup in hand marked by the Starbuck’s label. The woman smiled down at her sympathy.

“I guess so – I’m just feeling a little jumbled. Maybe I should have stayed home today.”

The woman laughed a little and offered her a cookie out of the paper bag Eleanor hadn’t noticed was in her other hand.

The sugar was what she needed and she took a chocolate chip, thanked her new friend, and chewed it with relish.

“This is so what I needed, thank you so much,” Eleanor swallowed a bite of the heavenly biscuit before offering her hand to the other woman. “I’m not sure if we’ve ever officially met before, even though we work at the same place. So, hey, I’m Eleanor Price.”

The redhead took her hand and shook it heartily and with a smile. “Daphne Savoy – I work in Egyptology under Professor Frank Kensington.”

“Oh, I have heard of you,” Eleanor burst out in surprise. “You’re the one who got pulled through the ringer with that canopic jar business, right? I heard you were even shot at, right here in the museum! Shame about what happened to Sutton Hoo though.”

The epic shoot ‘em up showdown on the museum premises a couple of years ago hadn’t gone by without notice. The destruction alone had caused Professor Kensington’s a heck of a lot of problems in the after-math. Unfortunately Kensington had been confined to light duties for a number of months following the incident whilst he recovered from what was only ever released to the curious as a ‘serious injury’, but of course that never stopped the rumour mill from going haywire and suggesting all kinds of causes from meningococcal and whooping cough to a cobra bite or attack of an ancient mummy’s curse. What could you do, the guy was a world class Egyptologist and even Eleanor, who was sceptical about things like curses, had to admit that in that line of work it wasn’t as unlikely as people like to think.

Daphne, working closely under Kensington, would probably have known what really happened though and it took a great amount of effort on Eleanor’s part to tamp down her curiosity enough not to go right on up and ask her. Cursed are the curious, after all.

“Yeah it was a bit of a rough week for the whole team,” Daphne agreed with a grimace, probably at the memory of the situation. “Eric and Frank had all sorts of trouble just waiting for them when we got back from Cairo.”

Eleanor looked over as Daphne mentioned the illustrious American, and noticed the goofy smile that spread across her freckled features. Whilst Daphne Savoy was someone Eleanor had heard of but never really met, Eric Stanhope was someone she’d definitely noticed. Not only was he an incredible brain within the museum and managed to become both a liaison between the Metropolitan in New York and the British Museum, and research partner to Professor Kensington, but the guy was also a total babe. He was tall, dark, handsome and looked like Adonis when he smiled. The women of the British Museum had been fawning over him for the better part of the past five years; Eleanor would know she used to be one of them before his recent engagement had taken it off the table for everyone else.

But Daphne’s smile made Eleanor smile, and just like that her crappy day improved tenfold.

Eleanor believed in love even though she’d never been in the midst of it. Seeing how happy it made people like Daphne and her bride-to-be best friend, Jaz, never failed to render a little hope in her heart that maybe someday it was going to be her turn, too.

Daphne stayed beside Eleanor in the staff room for a while longer; neither of them were particularly busy that afternoon and they found each other’s company particularly endearing; Eleanor asked Daphne about life in the Egyptology department and Eleanor was asked to talk about the ins and outs of being a tour guide which sometimes required both a high level of patience and knowledge about a range of the museum’s exhibits.

By the time six o’clock came around, Eleanor realised that she and Daphne had been talking for over half an hour and both of them had places to be; Daphne mentioned she’d had dinner planned with her handsome fiancé and Eleanor herself had a coffee date with Jaz. So they exchanged numbers happily, strolled together out the main entrance, and parted ways leaving Eleanor satisfied to have made a new friend.

One that wasn’t a giant talking rabbit or any other unnatural or bizarre threat to her sanity.

Eleanor had a few minutes before she needed to go and took a moment to wrap her scarf a little better around her neck and adjusting the cap over her hair. The sun had set now and an oppressive darkness had started to creep into the Museum courtyard much more so than it usually did.

The pocket watch in Eleanor’s coat tingled a little and the hair on the back of her neck tingled a little in warning. Turning she glanced behind her in time to see someone disappearing out of sight around one of the large white pillars out the front of the Museum entrance. It was a sudden uncomfortable feeling and Eleanor did not feel right, opting to head over to the coffee shop earlier than she’d planned.

She gave the pocket watch a squeeze for comfort. 

Sam xox