Winter Jones & King Arthurs Ghost -- pt. 2 (in progress)

The Quest1

Professor Leavey’s Mansion2

It had started to rain on the drive from the train station and as the valet pulled up to the old gloomy English mansion, Jackson, the butler, came out carrying an umbrella. He opened the door for winter and escorted her into the mansion as the valet brought the bags in.3

Winter shot an inquiring glance at Jackson as he took her coat and he pointed to the study. Nodding, Winter walked up the stairs. She pushed open the door of the study to find Professor Leavey sitting in front of a roaring fire. His glasses were perched on the tip of his nose and he looked at her from over the top of them.4

“Henrietta! I’m so glad you could make it,” Leavey motioned Winter into the room. “Forgive me if I do not get up but I have seemed to have lost the use of my legs.”5

Winter shook her head as she took a seat next to the old professor, “how many times must I ask you to call me Winter, Professor?”6

“Call me old fashioned, but I prefer your birth name to your chosen one,” Leavey chuckled which quickly turned into a cough. The hacking racked his frail frame for several moments until it quieted enough for him to take a sip of water. 7

“Professor! Are you ok?”8

“It’s nothing, just a little cough. Nothing for you to worry about,” Leavey took several more sips of water.9

Winter continued to look worried but she let the matter drop. Leavey, meanwhile, pulled out a stack of papers and handed them to his former pupil. Winter skimmed through the pages of notes until she came to a rubbing, which showed the emblem of Camelot. Professor Leavey watched as Winter traced the seal with her finger, she then shuffled back a few pages and read the detailed notes. When she had finished with the page, Winter looked back up at the Professor, “is this for real?”10

The professor nodded and a smile danced around his eyes.11

Winter looked dumbfounded as she read through the pages again, “where did you get this?”12

A shadow crossed the professor’s face as he reached over a picked up a scrap of paper, “it arrived three weeks ago with no return address, just this note,” he handed the scrap to Winter.13

The paper was worn and torn, but the hand writing could be plainly seen:14

To find that which is hidden15

You must look beneath these lines16

And there my fate will be reveled17

“So, what’s this supposed to mean?”18

“The handwriting looks to be Susan Hackney’s.”19

Winter’s eyebrows shot up, “the Susan Hackney? The leading expert on the Camelot myth?”20

“That’s her,” Leakey pulled out an envelope from his breast pocket. “The last I heard, she was fighting Castle Industries over the rights for her dig,” he handed over the letter. 21

Winter opened the letter and skimmed its contents. Hackney, it seemed, had been working for a dig that Castle Industries had funded. They had told her that she would have exclusive rights to anything that she uncovered, but when she found an old manuscript the company had shut her out.22

“Someone from Castle Industries approached me today,” Winter pulled Castle’s card from her pocket and handed it to the professor. “He had me look an old manuscript pertaining to the location of Avalon.”23