The Twins secret

Ch 2 WHAT?

Lily stayed Listening avidly to everything Lady Ariadne said. Her eyes were bright and her smile wide. She could almost taste the air of some long forgotten tomb or feel the sweat dripping down her back as she tracked through a jungle somewhere. .

Lady Ariadne kept talking and talking, story after story, she couldn't stop. Lily was there and something about her cornflower blue eyes filled with wonder and joy at her tales made her continue long after she should have moved on from this group and made her rounds of the room talking to everyone and thanking them for their donations and support, she was the hostess tonight after all.

There was suddenly a man up on the podium.

*Clink Clink* went the knife against the wineglass in the man's hand.

"excuse me Ladies and Gentlemen it is that time of night, time for the jewel in the Neronian exhibit to be unveiled. If you will join me Lady Ariadne ?"

"Of course" She replied loudly and under her breath said " you mumblecrust mother fucker have the worst timing"

Coughing suddenly Lily looked sharply at Lady Ariadne who simply smiled and winked at her before heading to the stage.

Slapping her back Mr. Winters asked if she was alright. After getting herself under control, Lily dismissed his worry by telling him she simple inhaled instead of swallowed her wine.

Blushing profusely Lily looked everywhere but at the grinning face of Lady Ariadne, watching her from the podium with twinkling eyes.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, to my right is the crown jewel of our expedition. Found in the lost temple of Neronia, Its purpose is unknown as no records of the temple or its purpose have been found. We know nothing about the builders. Did they have a written language? is this why none of their writings have been found? or is this from a secret place that was so secret they never put pen to paper or chisel to rock as the case may have been"

To Lady Ariadne's right was a giant object shrouded in red velvet, a man standing beside it ready to pull the cord that would unveil the object to everyone. It must have been over 12 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter.

"The object which we have named the pillar of life has been estimated to be worth over 4 billion pounds"

A woman on the far side of the room gasped and dropped her wineglass. Even to the richest men and women in the country a billion pounds was an ungodly sum. Here Lady Ariadne was saying this one object from her collection was worth more than every person in the room.

"we named it the pillar of life due to its colour, which to us represented wild growing things, the colour of the jungle and because it has been engraved with symbols that seem to all have the same or similar meaning, Growth and life. Due to this we suspect the temple was devoted to a earth goddess,  the goddess who they believed created life like Gaia or maybe a goddess of harvest like Demeter from the Greek pantheon."

Pointing to the object she exclaimed "I present to you The Pillar or Life" as the man pulled the golden cord, the red velvet fell away and snaked to the floor.

Before everyone was a pillar made from one giant cut and polished emerald the shade of an ancient evergreen forest, Deep and glittering with symbols etched across its surface.

Lady Ariadne continued " The Pillar has been inspected and has been verified to be made out of one large emerald. Six different jewel experts were brought in to verify its authenticity and value, none could find a single flaw. "

She went on for another 10 minutes about the Pillar but Lily was not listening, instead she was trying to figure out how 4 or 5 people managed to bring this back all by themselves.

The Arvenal twins were widely known to only ever take 2 or 3 loyal retainers with them on their expeditions. More often than not heading out on their own leaving only a note for family saying they were going off on another adventure after the fact.

When  a loud applause broke out Lily came out of her contemplation with a slight jump. Looking up at Lady Ariadne she found herself being watched. Lady Ariadne had been watching Lily's face the entire time as she spoke. Watching the way she chewed her bottom lip as she thought. Wondering if Lily had put something together in her mind that would destroy her and her brother and secretly hoping that she had.

She wanted to do something reckless, something risqué, something that would get her banned from polite society and possibly sentence to jail.

Thoughts of Orion and how her actions would effect her brother was the only thing holding her back.

The room was abuzz, everyone exclaiming over the pillar. No one except Lily noticed that Lady Ariadne was no longer on the podium, nor was she mingling. She had slipped out of the room and had headed deeper into the museum. To an area off limits to the guests.

Ariadne had her own office and workrooms at the back of the museum . Lily figured that was where she was headed. The urge to follow her and speak alone to her overcame Lily. She wanted to talk to her idol candidly, without the watchful and judgemental eyes of society. Where she didn't have to choose her words carefully and only show the 'right' amount of interest in such activities. for showing to much interest in 'masculine' activities would start damning rumours especially if the woman was yet to be wed.

Making a decision she curtsied to her father who had joined them moments before and Mr. Winters, making an excuses she hurried after Ariadne. Stopping only for a moment to check no one was looking before slipping past the cordon and into the off limit area.

Lily had been to the museum many times and even been to Ariadne's office 3 times before. This time though there was little lighting. Only 1 in every 5 or 6 lights were lit giving the normally bright and polished marble corridors and glass displays an eerie presence.

Steeling her resolve and determination she headed in what she thought was the right direction to Ariadne's office. Having been there before unfortunately did not help her in the dark and she became turned around and a little lost.

Lily was about to give up hope and try to find her way back when she heard the murmur of voices. Concluding that it must be Lady Ariadne as no one else should be back here, she followed the sound until she could make out two voices a male and female.

"oh No" Lily thought " she cant be having a secret assignation" all  the rumours about Ariadne came to Lily's mind. How she was an ungodly woman who lay with men out of wedlock. How she preformed despicable acts with them involving her mouth. Things a Lady would never do. Fit only for back ally w****s and fallen women.

Every time these rumours had been uttered in her presence Lily had staunchly defended her idol and berated the speaker for spreading such gossip about a lady from such a prominent family.

Now, Now Lily was terrified to find out the truth. Terrified of what she would find. Her heart was beating so hard and so fast that should couldn't understand how they couldn't hear her approach from the sound of her heartbeat.

Treading as quite as she could Lily continued to follow the sound of voices until she pinpointed in origin. It was coming from behind a door to her right, about 20 paces away.

The door looked to be made from solid wood. The voices shouldn't be able to carry through it unless they were shouting.

When she was about 2 paces from the door Lily noticed it wasn't fully closed. The slight gap was why the voices were able to be heard. That and the fact they were indeed raising their voices.

It sounded like they were arguing over something. Pressing her eye up to the gap she was relieved to not find Ariadne in a compromising position but couldn't see the second speaking.

"I dont give a flying f**k what you want," Ariadne exclaimed

"oh what language" the unidentified male voice said

" don't give me that codswallop you have heard me swear in 14 different languages and colourfully enough to make a pirate blush, quite literally I might add. I don't think your dear friends Charles will ever think of a 'Lady' the same way again"

A deep chuckled emanated from the man

"I think you stole his heart dear sister. I received a letter from him just a month past, asking if there was anything he could do to change your mind about his proposal"

The man must be Lady Ariadne's twin brother Lord Orion Arvenal.

Lily had never met Lord Arvenal despite being at nearly every event held by the Arvenal twins. Orion was rarely in attendance or seen in public with his sister at all. They were inseparable when it came to their adventures. Where one went the other surely followed. Yet on home soil they were never seen together.

In numerous interviews Lady Ariadne had expressed he brothers dislike of crowds and especially women who would fawn all over him as the most eligible bachelor in the country.

29 years old, wealthy, smart, handsome and a Lord.

She had seen him from a distance once or twice, Lily would admit he cut a striking figure.

"I made it abundantly clear he was NOT my type. I hope you reminded him of as much in your response"

"Oh, I did, dear sister. Though I think he is hoping he could buy you a mansion or change his profession and become respectable and you would change your mind"

"He knows that his profession has nothing to do with him not being my type, he was aware of my, ah, 'friendship' with a certain pirate he introduced us to wasn't he? I didn't think he was that oblivious to what was going on around him"

"Of course he knew, I think that is half the appeal"

Ariadne muttered something Lily couldn't quite hear, something about Zeus and blue-balls.

"Your still not getting her" Ariadne dead-panned.

"But we have tested nearly everyone else, none of them will work. What if she is the only one"

"I don't care Ori, I am not giving her up until someone makes me. Every time you want something you get it. Every woman you smile at, high or low born they spread their legs for you and beg you to f**k them. Your not getting this one. You stay the hell away from her you hear me"

"You love me don't you Ari, you want me to find her and break the curse don't you?  You don't want me to stay like this forever right?" Orion whined.

" ANYTHING else Ori, anything, i'll do it. But if its a choice between being stuck this way or letting you seduce her, you better get comfortable because I am NEVER and I repeat NEVER letting you f**k Lily"