Uncle Edward stood beside the desk.
“Ah, there you are, Master Jake,” his uncle said. He turned on a heel. His back was straight, his manner stiff, but his eyes were never cold, even now, when pinched with some slight concern. A pair of small reading glasses rested at the tip of his nose. He held a large yellow envelope in his hand. “This arrived today. Mailed from England. From London’s Blackfriars district.”
“Blackfriars?”
A nod answered him. “One of London’s oldest financial districts. Banks and whatnot.”
Uncle Edward should know. He had grown up in London. In fact, Edward and Matilda were not truly Jake’s aunt and uncle. Their family name was Batchelder. They’d been friends of Jake’s grandfather and had managed Ravensgate Manor for three generations. It was whispered that Edward had once saved Jake’s grandfather’s life during World War II, somewhere in Africa. But no one would ever tell the whole story.
With no surviving relatives to look after Jake and Kady, Uncle Edward and Aunt Matilda had become the children’s guardians, while continuing to oversee the estate. The pair were as doting as any parents and sometimes as stern. But mostly the entire household seemed to be waiting, holding its breath for the manor’s true masters to return.
Uncle Edward crossed to Jake and held out the sealed envelope.
Jake accepted it and stared down at the top name.
Master Jacob Bartholomew Ransom.
Below it was his sister’s full name.
Jake felt a chill. The last time he had seen his name written in full, it had been on the package with his father’s handwriting, a parcel that still carried a tinge of doom about it.
Now here the name was again, only typed neatly and coldly.
Uncle Edward cleared his throat. “I didn’t know if you would like to wait until your sister returns to—”
Jake ripped the tab and peeled open the envelope. No telling when Kady would return.
Jake heard a low growl behind him. He turned and found Watson stalking into the room. The dog’s hackles were raised and his nose was in the air. Plainly Watson had been scolded out of the kitchen and had come to find Jake for consolation. But his keen nose must have caught wind of the mail, perhaps smelling something only the dog’s keen sense could pick up. Watson approached no closer. He circled slowly with a low growl of warning.
“Hush, Watson…it’s all right.”
Jake shook out the contents. A colorful brochure and a few other items slipped between his fingers and fluttered to the hardwood floor. Watson skittered back a step. Jake did manage to catch the largest sheet of stiff linen paper. It was yellowish and embossed deeply with the blackest ink.
Uncle Edward had knelt down and gathered the loose papers, including a cover letter. He glanced through them as Jake read over the invitation twice.
“There are airline tickets,” his uncle added. “Two. For you and your sister. First class. And what looks like room reservations at the Savoy. A very expensive hotel.”
Jake scrunched his brows and read the most intriguing line. “‘Mayan Treasures of the New World.’”
Uncle Edward unfolded the brochure. Photos of gold and jade objects adorned what appeared to be a museum advertisement for the exhibit. “It’s from the British Museum,” he said. “How very strange. The flight tickets are for the day after tomorrow. Monday. And according to the brochure, the first day of the exhibit is on that Tuesday.”
* * *
We kindly extend a Gracious and Grand
Invitation to
Master Jacob Bartholomew Ransom
and
Mistress Katherine Edwina Ransom
To Attend the Auspicious Opening of an
Exciting New Exhibit at
The British Museum
London, England
Mayan Treasures of the New World
Humbly and Sincerely sponsored by
Bledsworth Sundries and Industries, Inc.
* * *
“Tuesday?” Jake said, noting another oddity. He remembered his talk at school yesterday about the Mayan calendar—and the Mayan prediction for that day. “That’s the day of the solar eclipse. In London, it will be a total eclipse.”
He couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice.
“I don’t like this,” Uncle Edward said, deepening the lines across his forehead. “Such short notice. Only two tickets. For you and your sister.”
“Kady and I are old enough to travel by ourselves. And aren’t you always telling me I should see the British Museum one day?”
Uncle Edward’s frown only grew larger. “Before we even consider it, I must make some calls. There are a thousand details to attend. We must address…”
Jake grew deaf to his uncle’s words. Instead his eyes fixed on one of the pictures on the unfolded brochure. He reached and slipped it from his uncle’s fingers. In the center of the page was a photograph of a gold snake decorated with jade and rubies. It was bunched up into a figure-eight, but at each end was sculpted a head, one with its jaws open, bearing fangs, and a second that was closed with a small forked tongue protruding.
Jake stared at the image. He felt the room tilt under his feet, and his breath grew shallow and fast.
He recognized the two-headed snake.
He had seen a drawing of it in his mother’s sketchbook, even read a detailed description of it in his father’s field notebook. Both books—two halves of their joint diary—had arrived with the broken gold coin. All were contained in the parcel addressed in his father’s handwriting. But the package had come with no note, no further explanation.
Jake finally lifted the brochure and pointed. “This is one of the artifacts from Mom and Dad’s dig.” He glanced through the brochure. Other items also looked familiar, but he wanted to compare them to the sketches in his mother’s sketchbook.
Uncle Edward moved closer. “I thought the artifacts were all locked up in some vault in Mexico City.”
Jake nodded. Shortly after the bandits had attacked his parents’ camp, the Mexican military had flown in and locked down the site. It was unknown how many items were stolen or what became of the bodies of Jake’s mother and father. Another colleague had also gone missing. Dr. Henry Bethel.
But the military did recover most of the Mayan artifacts. Due to their value as national treasures, they had never left Mexico.
Until now.
The London museum had them on loan for this exhibit.
“Mayan Treasures of the New World.”
“No wonder they invited you,” his uncle said at his side as he read over Jake’s shoulder. “The son and daughter of the team who discovered the artifacts.”