"Just be careful."
Lord Herrington said as Jack was leaving the enormous house. Jack assured him, saying "I am sure everything will be fine, I will do my best." Lord Herrington seemed so concerned for him, he was the nicest person he had ever met from the upper class, definitely the nicest employer he had ever had. Jack walked out of the mansion and made his way down the sidewalk. Lord Herrington stood outside on his front porch for a moment watching him go. Then Lord Herrington sighed and shook his head, mumbling to himself,
"....I am not paying him enough… I hope this one can stay longer than the rest.."
Jack made his way through town to the cafe that Lord Herrington had recommended. 'That Lord Herrington seemed a bit odd, so friendly and kind. He also seemed a bit melodramatic, this should be fairly simple', Jack thought to himself, as he opened the door to the cafe and walked inside.
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Jack stood there holding his nose with one hand as blood continued to slowly trickle out, and clenching his sliced finger with his other hand.
"What on earth just happened.." he mumbled to himself dazedly. He stared towards the door where she had just exited the cafe. 'That was one of the strangest encounters I have ever had…" He thought, feeling a bit unusual, his head was in a whirlwind. His heart was pounding and he felt dizzy. 'Good grief!' He thought, 'No wonder her father is so worried about her…She has got to be, without a doubt, the most accident-prone person I have ever met in my life! That explains why her father was so anxious about all this.' Jack decided to head home to his apartment, to gather his thoughts and perhaps start packing. Maybe he would also stop by the library to see if there were any books on archeology. He at least wanted to know a little about the job he was pretending to be qualified for. Really he would just be keeping an eye on Miss Herrington but he wanted to be prepared as much as he could, he didn't have much time.
Darby walked up the sweeping cement steps of the museum. It was quite a climb to make multiple times a day, but it made coming into work all the more exhilarating. She pulled open the heavy door and walked into the main entrance of The Institute of Archeology & H.S Mortimer Museum. The air smelled of books and sunshine, just walking inside the huge building made Darby feel thrilled. She loved working here, it had been her dream for some time and now having finished college and officially starting, it felt so exhilarating, all her hard work over the years was finally paying off. She felt so happy every day, she was done with all the classes and lessons and now she could finally do whatever she liked, whenever she liked, without having to report or check in with anyone. She was just Darby now, no Lady Herrington, or lady lessons or being pulled back and forth between Papa and Mama or anything like that, she could finally be just Miss Darby. She wanted to protect her newly gained freedom at any cost. This was her life now, to do with as she choses.
Darby walked up to the front receptionist desk and greeted the tall and thin middle-aged woman sitting there.
"Good afternoon Ms Kenny!" Darby said with a genuinely pleasant smile on her face. Miss Kenny looked up from her paperwork and typing surprised and said "Ah! Miss Darby! Are you back from your break already? You could have taken a longer break than that, you know?" Darby smirked slightly and sighed
"Ah yes, normally I would but I saw something unpleasant, I didn't want to see, which caused me to lose my appetite and I also spilled my tea. The whole break was a bust..So I decided to just cut it short..and come back early."
"Oh I am sorry to hear that, Miss Darby, hopefully your next tea time is better." Ms Kenny said, really thinking that was too bad.
"Yes, I hope so too." Darby smiled and hummed. "Hmm. Say, Ms Kenny, do you happen to know if the museum is currently hiring?" Ms Kenny looked confused, and said "Hiring? No, not that I have heard, and I am in charge of that type of stuff." Darby scoffed lightly, "Yeah I thought so…Well, Director Mortimer will likely be receiving a call from my father soon." Ms Kenny looked puzzled "Oh, ok.." Darby smiled knowingly and said "Well I've got some archiving to finish! Ta-ta!" Ms Kenny shook her head, thinking Darby can be quite strange sometimes, she said "Yes, I'll see you later then, Miss Darby." And then went back to her typewriter and paperwork.
Darby entered into a huge room, filled with shelves and shelves of books on one side of the room and the other side was filled with tables and cases with many interesting artifacts and items inside. The room had just the right amount of book's smell, sunshine and dust. Each time Darby entered the archives room she felt like she was walking into some secret abandoned library that hadn't had anyone inside it for years and she had stumbled upon it as she explored in some old forgotten house. With all the interesting things to learn from history, artifacts and books, the air just smelled like knowledge and anticipation. Darby switched on a gramophone as she walked by, and a record softly started to play. She picked up her magnifying glass from where she had left it on the table and began studying pieces of stone and pottery from an ancient vase that had been found. From collecting and looking at the pieces she was hoping to be able to sketch what it once looked like when it was still intact. Darby hummed along softly to the music as she looked between reference books, papers and pottery.
Back at the reception desk, Ms Kenny answered the phone as it rang loudly, "Hello, Institute of Archaeology" she said, picking up with a friendly voice. On the other end, Lord Herrington spoke hurriedly, "Ah, hello Ms Kenny, I would like to speak with Director Mortimer please?" Ms Kenny in a slightly surprised tone said "Oh is that you Lord Herrington? Miss Darby just mentioned that you might be calling!" Lord Herrington gulped so loudly he might as well have said the word itself. In a shaky voice he said "Sh-she did?....Of course she did…I need to speak with Director Mortimer right away please!" "Yes, sir, one moment please." Ms Kenny chuckled as she put his call through to the director.
Lord Herrington in his study sighed exhaustedly, lulled his head back and said with exasperation "She already knows!" "Who already knows?" asked Director Mortimer as he picked up the other line. "Oh! Morty! I need a favor!" Lord Herrington said energetically, happy to be chatting with his old friend. "Let me guess, you and Darby are fighting again, aren't you Albie?" scoffed out Director Mortimer. "We are in between fights at the moment, I'll have you know!" Lord Herrington said in frustration and self defense, then added softly "But that probably won't be for much longer.." Director Mortimer laughed heartily "What do you need this time, Albie?"