[hr][hr][center][h1][color=#00ccff]Nora Kingston[/color][/h1][img]http://68.media.tumblr.com/28577c336232aad3fb697adc8afb5c1a/tumblr_inline_miycemBe1B1qz4rgp.gif[/img][hr]Location: Egyptian Museum[/center][hr][hr]Nora nodded as the Lady Munn thanked her. It was no trouble for her, and she would have felt ashamed if she didn't help the Egyptologist out. While her sisters had accepted the notion that the idle rich should never lift a finger, the same could not be said for Nora. It was perhaps the only thing she had in common with her dreadful sister-in-law, an American of no standing. She was a experimental writer, Miss Frances Tate--now Mrs. Frances Kingston--and her efforts had come to largely nothing. As Nora's brother had explained to her, a woman by the name of Woolf overshadowed Fannie's works. 

Nora didn't have any sympathy for that. To write fantasy was a poor decision in her opinion. Reality was all that mattered, and in that vein, she found herself appreciating the Lady Munn's comment about preferring facts to gossip. Still, her sister-in-law's lack of notoriety in literature hardly endeared her to Nora. It was almost [i]worse[/i] that Fannie struggled with her craft. And as for Nora's own enjoyment of Penny Dreadfuls...She knew very well how hypocritical her guilty pleasure was. 

However, Nora's ear perked up at the odd turn of phrase the Lady Munn selected. [i]Ton.[/i] It reminded her of the Egyptologist's brief lapse from earlier, and she debated with herself as to whether or not it was just an odd accent, or another language entirely. But to save the Lady Munn any anguish, Nora refrained from jotting down the phrase in her journal, but she committed it to memory instead. Later, once she had privacy, she would record the odd phrases and sayings. 

At the talk of necklaces and rings, Nora let her eyes sweep over the group. She spotted a few pocket watches, as well as numerous pairs of earrings. However, it was then that she spotted what hinted at the beginnings of a pattern. Certain the answer could be no more difficult than a Taylor series, Nora opened up her journal again, recording in shorthand each person present, and what pieces of jewelry they donned. For the men present, only Mr. Walsh wore a ring, made of silver. And for the ladies, the Lady Munn, Miss Tarek, and Miss Ridgeway all had necklaces. Lauren broke the pattern. She glanced once more at the necklaces, before noticing the gold of Lady Munn's and Miss Tarek's, while Lauren's was a cheap seeming silver. Though, she supposed Aziza's necklace could have been made of bronze.

Unlike her mother, Nora did not spend quite enough time to identify the materials of a necklace with a simple glance. 

But there was little to substantiate her theory. It was merely a guess, and to test it, she would need to persuade Lauren to wear a golden necklace, rather than the silver charm she had donned that day. Her attention was summoned by the journalist and the starlet swooning over the fortune they would make over the story, once they released it to the public. Nora could only imagine that if the story was released, her family would follow through on their warnings, and remove any shred of independence Nora enjoyed. The news that she had went in the company of strangers to a cult site in the desert would hardly endear her to them. They had hardly been pleased with her certificate in mathematics--a cult, by comparison, would be akin to worshipping the Prince of Darkness or committing treason against the Crown. 

But on an entirely new note, Nora came to understand more the Lady Munn's standing. Some of the idle rich had wasted their fortune, forcing the nobility to search employment. It became more and more apparent to Nora that the Lady Munn worked for pleasure, rather than out of need to retain her social standing and certain comforts. The ability to finance an entire expedition was a testimony to that, and at the Lady Munn's mention of political arrangements, Nora could not help but be in awe of this woman. By some miracle, it seemed that the Lady Munn had escaped the clutches of society, in a manner altogether different and yet similar to Nora's own. 

She was most certainly someone that Nora would enjoy sitting down to have tea with.