It was October...

Chapter 9: You discover a new gemstone

"Have you checked this shelf, Miss McAllister?" William Gaunt's voice came from the other side of the study.
"I have, twice. But that is why I have asked your assistance: four eyes see more than two" she smiled at him as she turned back around.
Gaunt had been discharged from hospital two days after she had first visited him there, and another three days had passed since. During which she had divided her time between perusal of the archives of the Petrie museum and all but tearing the house on Portman square apart looking for more journals or diaries or anything that could help her search for and recover the two stolen seals.
The previous day she had exasperatedly sent Rob, the footman, over to Mr. Gaunt's residence with a note asking for his assistance.
Gaunt had sent a scratchy, hastily penned but enthusiastic note back to inform her he would be delighted to call on her the following day to assist in any way he could.
They had been combing through every square inch of the study since 9 o'clock with no luck.

"How did your uncle learn about the seals in the first place, though...?" Gaunt mused.
"I'm not fully certain, since he left no indication in his notes, but I suspect it may have been a similar encounter as the one I had..." Annabelle shook herself to stifle the memory.
The moment she had had  a grasp of her surroundings again the night she had dreamt about Heret-Kau she had leapt out of bed and scribbled down every detail she could remember about the dream. When she had put down the quill and leaned back in her chair she desperately wanted to talk to somebody about all that was happening, what she had learned from Samuel Wright, her uncle's journal.
What wouldn't she give to speak with uncle Roylan again...
The following day she had made her way back to the University College Hospital under the pretext of just wanting to see how Gaunt was doing - which was true enough - and had casually dropped in that she had found a reference to the goddess Heret-Kau in some documents in her uncle's old study.
Gaunt had immediately picked up on the name. Apparently Heret-Kau was not one of the better known deities, even among professionals, and not much was known about her in return other than that she was the was indeed the protector of the souls of the dead in the afterlife.
Annabelle had initially tried to deflect Gaunt's questioning about what the notes had been about, saying that they were rather tattered and illegible, but had folded finally as she felt like she really wanted an ally.
She had recounted her dream to him and he had been silent for a long moment.
"I have had a similar dream a while back, but did not put much store by it..." he had said.

Annabelle flicked through another of the countless books, put it down.
"If I at least knew what we are looking for" she said with exasperation.
Gaunt smiled at her.
"We'll know it when we find it, I suppose" he picked up another book.
She had convinced him to take a seat at her uncle's enormous desk and had piled up books for him to go through. 
The shot to his torso had very fortunately not caused as much damage as initially feared and was well on the mend. The wound to his leg, though, had been much more serious as the bullet had lodged itself in the femoral bone and had to be surgically removed. And having him stand at the shelves balancing on crutches had struck her as counter productive to his recovery.
"I suppose so..." Annabelle flicked through another book.
Just before she closed the back cover on it, she paused. 
At a glance it seemed like the inside of the back cover was glued on more sloppily, but on closer inspection it seemed to cover up something.
Annabelle took he book over to the desk and rummaged around for a letter opener with a very pointy tip.
"Have you found something?"
"I might have... Here, look at this" she pushed the book over.
Gaunt's eyebrows drew up "Oh"
"Here, may I" she took back the volume - a part of an old encyclopedia Britannica with thick lids and thick leather covers - and cut into the inner part of the lid around the irregularly dented part she had found.
She carefully lifted the paper away and revealed a tiny key underneath.
"My word...!" Gaunt seemed mystified.
"Miss McAllister, this is beginning to feel like a most extraordinary adventure!"
"Beginning?!" she said, flummoxed.
"My dear Mr. Gaunt, have you already forgotten that this adventure started with you getting shot at?"
He looked rather sheepish.
"Of course not... But in my profession, as a rule, we don't find hidden keys in ancient books" Annabelle smiled at him again.
"Well, while my uncle was an avid collector of books and art as well as interesting artifacts, he was not by any means a professional" she said as she carefully lifted the key out of its hiding place and carried it over to the window to look at it in better light.
Gaunt heaved himself out of the chair and hobbled over to join her.
"I think I've seen a lock that could fit this" he remarked as they studied the small silver key with a remarkable vine pattern on the handle.
"Oh really? Where is it?" Annabelle asked eagerly.
"I think... um... I think it was a very small silver box you said you had found on one of your earlier searches - it's on the mantle piece" Annabelle hurried over to the indicated location and returned to the desk with a small, intricately wrought silver box, no larger then 3 stacked up decks of playing cards.
"Let... me see..." she mumbled as she carefully inserted the key and gently turned it to unlock the box.
The lock clicked open, and as Annabelle opened the lid for them to peek in they looked upon a curious gem stone: Shaped like a four sided pyramid, clear but not clear with a pearlescent glimmer it shimmered in all kinds of colours depending on how the light hit it, much more than any moonstone or opal or any other gem Annabelle had ever seen. It's edges seemed to blur when they were looked at too closely.
"Have you ever seen anything like it?" Gaunt asked in a reverent whisper.
Annabelle shook her head.
"I have a friend over in Hatton Garden, master jeweler and gemologist, he might be able to tell us something about this..."