[b]"None of this makes any sense, Thierry. These symbols aren't adding up. The age of what you found is way before Cleopatra and Marc Antony were assimilating Rome and Egypt together."[/b] The calm but confused woman sighed in frustration between her notes and sketch pad.

Sabrina Lennox-de Villers was a woman of simplicity. The light tapping of her pencil on her sketch pad calmed Sabrina's nerves on the drive from the airport. Her long brunette hair was twisted in a bun, and pieces of her bangs were loose to frame her face. Sabrina's honey-colored eyes stared down at the sketch pad in her lap. She wore comfortable leggings and a cream-colored camisole under a lavender knit, off-the-shoulder sweater. She was trying to decipher the symbols that Thierry had found at the last dig sight they had been on. 

The figures she had drawn were a mash of Roman and Egyptian. Something wasn't right about this whole trip. Sabrina felt it in her gut. She glanced to the back of the bus, where Theo and Auri were teasing one another. A soft smile grew at the corners of her lips, as it was crazy to think all three were old enough to go on a dig site with her and Thierry. It seemed like yesterday that Sabrina was still carrying an infant Cosette in her body wrap while six-year-old Theo chased seven-year-old Auri around the kitchen with a frog he found in the garden, his attempts to slip said frog down the back of her shirt. 

Sabrina's attention was brought back to the present with a gentle hand that patted her knee. She smiled at Cosette as the girl eagerly asked her question. [b]"We are very close, mon petit amour,"[/b] the mother replied as she laid her hand softly over the top of her youngest daughter. She gazed out the window to see they were nearing the Great Pyramid. [b]"Now, remember, Cosy. You mustn't touch anything with the special chalk lines on the ground, tape, or rope. I know it will be hard not to touch. However, Momma's and Papa's work with others is important."[/b] She reminded her youngest, but her words were a warning to all three de Viller children.

[b]"That goes double for you, Theo,"[/b] Sabrina quipped with a wink at her son, although half the glint in her eyes was serious about him not touching anything. 

This trip was important for the de Viller children. She just hoped that Thierry understood that. They had been married for two decades, and the man was still a mystery to her since the day they met. Sabrina glimpsed down at the dainty ring resting on her left fourth finger. The gold band was the nest for the black diamond and its smaller white diamond companions. She hoped that this trip would help everyone's moods. The school year would be resuming soon, and the routine of working from home would start all over again as she managed the trio's schedules while Thierry disappeared to who knows where on end.