Guardian of the Horizon - Elizabeth Peters [87]
“What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee,” he mumbled. “I dreamed I could smell it.”
“So did I,” I said, and so strong was the power of imagination, I fancied I still could. “I have some tea and sugar left, though, and as soon as I have sorted out our baggage I will instruct the servants how to brew it. Where are the others?”
“Coming.” One of the servants offered him a bowl of fruit, and another presented a platter of little cakes, sticky with honey. “Urgh,” said Emerson. “I swear to you, Peabody, I can still smell—” He broke off, his eyes widening, as with great empressement another servant poured a dark, fragrant liquid into our handleless earthenware cups. Emerson snatched his up and drank.
“Good Gad,” I exclaimed, after sampling mine. “It is coffee. Where do you suppose they got it?”
“I don’t give a curse where they got it,” said Emerson, motioning the servant to refill his cup.
Ramses came in, followed by Selim and Daoud. “Good morning, Mother. Good morning, Father. My olfactory sense must be out of order; I thought I smelled—”
“You did,” Emerson exclaimed, beaming. “A delicate attention on the part of Tarek, I expect. He must have gone to considerable trouble to obtain it for us.”
Ramses’s expressive black brows tilted, but he accepted the cup the servant handed him without comment.
“It is good,” said Daoud, unsurprised. “But not strong enough. Or sweet enough.”
“They use honey as a sweetener here,” I explained. “However, I have some sugar left. I will get it, and waken Nefret and Daria.”
“They must have been very tired to sleep through this racket,” said Emerson, whose voice had been the loudest. He went on sipping his coffee with a look of utter bliss. Ramses put his cup down.
“Mother. Did you look in on them this morning?”
“Why, no. I thought it best not to disturb—”
He moved so quickly I had to trot in order to catch him up. He parted the curtains with a single sweep of his arms.
Nefret and Daria had vanished, along with the bags and bundles that contained their personal belongings. The tumbled coverings on the two beds were the only sign that anyone had been there.
“One of them must have called out in the night,” I exclaimed. “I took it for the cry of a bird.”
We had searched the entire house, including the dark rock-cut storage chambers at the back, looking for some indication of how the girls had been carried off. Their disappearance could not have been voluntary; Nefret would never play such a trick, leaving us to wonder and worry. There was no doubt in my mind that the wine had contained a sleeping potion of some sort.
If there was a back door, we did not find it. The servants were nowhere to be seen. Emerson’s fury and frustration rose to such a pitch that he kept flinging himself against the wooden door in the sitting room. He succeeded only in bruising his shoulder. He was finally distracted by Selim, who dragged out two of the menservants whom he had found trying to hide under the low bed in his room. Daoud took one of them by the shoulder and began shaking him, while Emerson shouted at them both in a mixture of English and Arabic.
“There is no use going on with this, Father,” said Ramses, who had managed to interpose a few questions in Meroitic. “They dare not admit knowledge even if they possess it. Selim, sheathe your knife. Daoud, stop shaking that poor fellow, you will snap his neck.”
“Yes, we must keep our wits about us,” I cried.
“Quite right, Mother.” Outwardly he was the coolest of us all. Only a keen observer like myself would have noticed the unnatural calm of his voice. “May I suggest you leave off brandishing that jug before you hit yourself on the head? I don’t believe the girls are in imminent danger, and until we learn what and who are behind their abduction we cannot take the proper action. The only person who can help us is Tarek himself.”
With a wordless snarl Emerson rushed back to the door and began beating on it with his fists. The result was instantaneous and so unexpected that Emerson stumbled forward through the opening straight into