The Restless Pen: Sleeping Beauty, Part 2

Buying more time friends, but you get mystery and intrigue, so I hope you don't mind. Enjoy!

Sleeping Beauty, Part 2


“What a curious piece, Mera,” Mrs. Gryce leaned forward in her chair and examined something at her neck.
            She raised questioning fingers, touched the scarab pendant hanging from a fine chain. “Oh, my scarab. It is, isn’t it?” She struggled to retain her thoughts, mindful of her grandmother’s stiff disapproval of her and the risk of shaming herself before her grandmother’s guests. “It was my mother’s.” Was it?
            “It’s very pretty, isn’t it Luceille?” Mrs. Gryce looked at her daughter.
Luceille, slightly older than herself, nodded, but there was no friendliness in her eyes. “Have you been to Egypt, then, Mera?”
“No…” had she? She couldn’t recall. She felt a vague panic. Across the tea table her grandmother’s face stiffened. Beside her grandmother Doctor Wayne smiled his encouragement. “I believe my parents went before I was born,” she stammered. “I have no recollection of it at all, though I should like to travel there someday.”
Luceille sniffed her obvious opinion of her simplemindedness and turned to address Doctor Wayne, who was regarding Mera thoughtfully.
“Oh, travel to the East is delightful,” Mrs. Gryce said eagerly. “Eight years ago Mr. Gryce and I visited Japan. How delightful it was!”
Mrs. Gryce chattered on about her trip as Luceille tried her best to captivate Doctor Wayne and her grandmother continued to eye her with animosity so thick it nearly choked her.
As he listened to Luceille Gryce with half a mind, nodding occasionally, David Wayne watched Mera examine her scarab with a fond smile before tucking it into her bodice. What would she do, he thought, if she were to learn that her parents died in Egypt?
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Copyright Nicole E Perkins, 2018
Image from jewelrysupply.com

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