Children of the Storm - Elizabeth Peters [98]
“Amelia,” he said.
“More coffee for the Professor, Gargery, if you will be so good.”
“I don’t want any damned . . .” He did, however, so he neglected to finish the sentence. Gargery, who had been a fascinated listener, immediately obliged, and Emerson said, in the same ominously mild voice, “Thank you, Gargery. Ramses, why did you wait until breakfast to tell us about this?”
“We agreed—all of us—that there was no need to wake you,” Nefret said, emphasizing the phrase in a manner that made me suspect agreement had not been reached without a certain amount of disagreement. “There was nothing you—or Mother—could have done. We did search as thoroughly as was possible. It wasn’t easy, with so many people milling about and only torches for light, and—and . . . I’m sorry, Father.”
“Sorry,” Emerson repeated. He rose, magisterial as Jove, even without the beard. “Is anyone coming with me to the dig, Amelia, or have you made other plans for them? Not for all the world would I venture to interfere with your arrangements; I ask only out of curiosity.”
“Don’t you want to discuss the affair, Emerson?”
“No, Amelia, I do not.” Fixing me with a horrible scowl, he added, “I am motoring to the site. If anyone cares to join me, he or she must come at once.”
With long measured strides he left the room.
“Oh dear, he is angry,” Lia murmured.
“He’ll have got over it by midday,” I replied. At least I hoped he would; the fact that he had addressed me by my given name three times in a row indicated a degree of exasperation beyond his usual norm. “However, it might put him in a better humor if some of you went with him this morning. You will not have to risk your lives in the motorcar; it seems to have slipped his mind that he and Selim had one of the wheels off last night and did not replace it. Not you, Evelyn, or you, Walter.”
“Do you want me to go with the Professor, Aunt Amelia?” David asked.
“If you don’t mind, my dear. Just for a few hours.”
“Not at all.” He looked at Ramses, who nodded agreement. “We meant to have another look round in daylight anyhow.”
“I am going too,” Walter declared, squaring his jaw and settling his eyeglasses firmly on the bridge of his nose. I knew the signs; he was suffering from an attack of detective fever. I didn’t suppose he would discover anything useful, but he would enjoy himself puttering around and finding clues the others had already discovered. I got rid of Gargery by asking him to accompany Evelyn and Sennia to the Castle, and that left me alone except for Nefret.
“I’d like to talk to you, Mother,” she said.
“We are, as always, in rapport, my dear. I was about to request a chat with you.”
We found a secluded spot in the garden between our two houses, where no one could overhear. I was proud of that garden; though Egypt’s climate is salubrious, allowing for the cultivation of both tropical and temperate blooms, it had required a great deal of effort to keep the plants irrigated and fed. Once a barren stretch of ground, it was now shaded by young lebakh and tamarisk trees. Rose and hibiscus bushes flaunted their colorful blossoms, and beds of nasturtium and other homely flowers were nostalgic reminders of old England.
“Now,” I said, pinching off a dead rose with my nails. “Tell me everything. Ramses’s narrative was somewhat terse.”
“Of necessity,” said Nefret, with a faint smile. “He knew Father wouldn’t let him get more than a few sentences out.”
“From the beginning,” I urged. “Recall, if you please, every sight and sound and your reactions to them. One never knows what seemingly meaningless detail may be seen to be relevant.”
Her narrative was complete and detailed, though I felt certain she omitted a few things—such as the effect of moonlight and solitude on four young persons. I doubted that any of them had been in a proper state to respond with alacrity to the astonishing events of the evening. Of course I did not say this, or reproach her for not inviting me to be present.
“Curse it,” I remarked. “Just when I had everything under control, including Emerson! This new development