Ramses ?
'It's the talk of Cairo, Your Highness. You may as well know now. My friends have been involved in a fair bit of trouble, but that's just it, they've nothing to do with it. They've only been associated with it. There . . . you see this man?'
Ramses. They are friends of Lawrence Stratford, the archaeologist, the one who dug up the mummy of Ramses the Damned.
' 'He's a dear friend of my father and of me. They're searching for him. Some foolishness about stealing a mummy from the Cairo Museum. It's all hogwash. It will soon blow over.' He broke off. 'Your Highness? Don't let this story frighten you. There's nothing to it, really.'
She stared at this 'picture,' not a drawing like the rest but a dense image, rather like a painting, yet it was all done in ink, undoubtedly. The ink even rubbed off on her fingers. And there he stood. Ramses, beside a camel and a camel driver, dressed in the curious heavy clothes of this age. The print beneath said 'Valley of the Kings.'
She almost laughed aloud; yet she did not move or say a word. It seemed the moment stretched into eternity. The young lord was talking, but she couldn't hear him. Was he saying that he must call his father, that his father must need him now?
In a trance, she watched him move away from her. He had laid the paper down. The picture. She looked at him. He was picking up a strange instrument from the table. He was talking into it. Asking for Lord Rutherford.
At once she was on her feet. Gently she took the thing away from him. She set it down.
'Don't leave me now, young lord,' she said. 'Your father can wait for you. I need you now.'
Baffled, he looked at her; he made no move to stop her as she embraced him.
'Don't bring the world to us just yet,' she whispered in his ear, kissing him. 'Let us have this time together.'
So completely he gave in. So quickly came the fire.
'Don't be timid,' she whispered. 'Caress me; let your hands do what they will as they did last night.'
Once again he belonged to her, enslaving her with his kisses, stroking her breasts through the blue frock.
'Have you come to me by magic?' he whispered. 'Just when I thought . . . when I thought ...' And then he was kissing her again, and she led him towards the bed.
She picked up the newspaper as they went into the bedroom. As they sank down on the sheets together, she showed it to him, just as he removed the robe.
'Tell me,' she said, pointing to the little group of figures standing by the camel in the sun. 'Who is that woman beside him?'
'Julie, Julie Stratford,' he said.
Then there were no words, only their frantic, hurried and delicious embraces; his hips grinding against her; his sex pumping into her again.
When it was all over, and he lay still, she ran her fingers through his hair.
'This woman; does he care for her?'
'Yes,' he said sleepily. 'And she loves him. But that doesn't matter now.''
'Why do you say this?'
'Because I have you,' he said.
* * *
Ramsey was at his best, evincing that easy charm mat had subdued everyone on the voyage out; he sat back, spotless and carelessly fashionable in the white linen suit, his hair tousled, blue eyes sparkling with a near boyish vigor,
'I tried to reason with him. When he broke the case and removed the mummy, I realized it was hopeless. I tried to get out on my own, but the guards, well, you know the story.'
'But they said they shot you, they-'
'Sir, these men are not the soldiers of ancient Egypt. They're hirelings who barely know how to fire their guns. They would not have beaten the Hittites.'
Winthrop laughed in spite of himself. Even Gerald was charmed. Elliott glanced at Samir, who dared not crack the smallest smile.
'Well, if only we could find Henry,' Miles said.
'No doubt his creditors are looking for him, too,' Ramsey said quickly.
'Well, let's get back to this question of the jail. It seems there was a doctor there when you-'' Gerald finally intervened:
'Winthrop,' he said, 'you know very well that this man's innocent. It's Henry. It's been Henry all along. Everything points to it. He broke into the Cairo Museum, stole the mummy, sold it for profit, went on a drunken rampage with the money. You found the wrappings in the belly dancer's house. Henry's name was found in the loan shark's book in London.' 'But the whole story is so . . .' Elliott motioned for silence.
'Ramsey has been subjected to enough, and so have we. He's already made the crucial statement that Henry confessed to the murder of his uncle. *'
'He made this very plain to me,' Ramsey said dryly. 'I want our passports returned immediately,' Elliott said. 'But the British Museum . . .' 'Young man,' Gerald began.
'Lawrence Stratford gave a fortune to the British Museum,' Elliott declared. Finally he could take no more. He had reached his limit with this farce. 'Listen, Miles,' he said, leaning forward. 'You clear this up, and now, unless you intend to become a social recluse. For I assure you that if my party, including Reginald Ramsey, is not on the noon train tomorrow for Port Said, you will never be received again by any family in Cairo or London which hopes to receive the seventeenth Earl of Rutherford. Do I make myself clear? '
Silence in the office. The young man blanched. This was excruciating.
'Yes, my lord,' he answered under his breath. At once he opened the desk drawer and produced the passports one by one, laying them down on the blotter before him.
Elliott managed to scoop them up with a neat quick gesture before Gerald could do it.
'I find this as disagreeable as you do,' he said. 'I've never said such words before to any human being in my life, but I want my son released so he can go back to England. Then I'll stay in mis bloody place as long as you want me here. I'll answer any question you like.'
'Yes, my lord, if I can tell the governor that you will stay - - •'
'I just told you that, didn't I? Do you want a blood oath?' Enough said. He felt Gerald's hand on his arm. He had what he wanted.
Samir helped him to his feet. They led the party out of the anteroom, through the hallway and onto the front veranda.
'Well done, Gerald,' he said. 'I'll call you if I need you. I appreciate your notifying Randolph about this. It's a little more than I can bear at the moment. But I'll write a long letter soon. ...'
'I'll soften everything. No need at all for him to know the details. When Henry's arrested, it's going to be dreadful enough.'
'Let's worry about that when it happens.'
Ramsey was clearly impatient. He started down the steps towards the waiting car. Elliott shook Gerald's hand and then followed.
'Are we quite finished with this little performance?' Ramsey said. 'I am wasting valuable time here!'
'Well, you have a lot of time, don't you?' Elliott said with a polite smile. He was a little light-headed suddenly. They had won. The children could get out. 'It's imperative that you come back to the hotel now,' he said, 'that you be seen there.'
'Foolishness! And the idea of the opera tonight is positively ludicrous.'
'Expediency!' said Elliott, climbing into the backseat of the car first. 'Get in,' he said.
Ramsey stood there, angry, dejected.
'Sue, what can we do until we have some further evidence of where she might be?' Samir asked. 'On our own, we cannot find her.'
* * *
