He Shall Thunder in the Sky - Elizabeth Peters [205]
“He is less of a man than I believe him to be if that doesn’t rouse him,” Sethos remarked. “I assure you, Amelia, your kisses would bring me back from the dead.”
Nefret’s bowed head hid Ramses’s face, but I saw him raise one arm and place it over her shoulders. The ensuing conversation was extremely incoherent. Most conversations of that nature are. I do not believe Ramses was aware of where he was or why he was there, but I will say for him that he went straight to the point.
“I love you. I was a fool. Forgive me.”
“No, it was my fault, all of it! Tell me you love me.”
“I did. I do. I—”
Her voice rose. “So you went off, without a word, when you knew you might never come back?”
“That wasn’t how . . . I didn’t intend . . . Damn it, I left you a letter!”
“Telling me what? That you loved me and were sorry you were dead?”
“Yes, well, what about you? Coming here with that filthy—”
“Stop it at once!” I ordered. “There will be ample time for that sort of thing later. At least I hope there will. Nefret, did you hear me! Oh, curse it! Ramses!”
“Yes, Mother,” Ramses murmured. He looked round, blinking. “Good Lord. It is Mother. What’s going on? Is David—”
“He’ll be all right,” Nefret said. She kissed him, and for a time I was afraid I would have to shout at them again. However, Ramses seemed to have got a grip on reality at last. Leaning on Nefret, he got slowly to his feet.
“I need you to bind and gag this villain while I hold him at gunpoint,” I explained.
Sethos’s smile faded. “Amelia, you are on the verge of making a disastrous mistake. I came here to—”
“To murder my son, you villain,” I cried. “You have betrayed your country and broken your word to me.”
“Wrong as usual, my obstinate darling. But do you think this is an appropriate time for a discussion of my character?”
“Possibly not,” I admitted.
“Definitely not,” Ramses said. “Though I was not entirely myself at the time, I got the impression that my amiable host was dragged away by two large angry men. However—”
“However,” said a voice from the doorway, “he got away from them. You didn’t suppose I would allow someone else the pleasure of finishing you off, did you?”
•
Fifteen
•
His well-bred friends would have had some difficulty in recognizing him. His coat was torn and his shirtfront speckled with small drops of blood; the features I had once thought bore a slight resemblance to my own were dark and distorted with choler and his lips were drawn back over his teeth. “Put your little gun away, Aunt Amelia. Now be honest for once; you never suspected me, did you?”
Rapidly I appraised the situation. It was not promising. Percy’s gun was one of those large ugly German weapons and at such close range he could hardly have missed any target he selected. At the moment he appeared to have selected me. If I shot him, Sethos would overpower me before I could fire again, even supposing Percy did not kill me first.
“Not of this,” I said. “I had not believed that even you could stoop so low.”
Ramses straightened, with what effort I could only imagine. “Give it up, Percy. The game is over. You’ve lost.”
“To you?” His lips writhed. “No. Not to you, damn you! I’ll get out of this. No one would believe—”
“Russell knows,” Ramses said. “He knows about this place. My failure to report back to him will confirm my accusations.”
The words fell as quietly and deadly as stones piled on a grave. Another sort of man might have heeded them, but not Percy. His face was twitching uncontrollably and a look of cunning narrowed his eyes.
“Report back,” he repeated. “Not for a while, though, eh? Aunt Amelia and dear little Nefret are all the rescue party? Excellent. There’s plenty of time for me to get to the border. I can still be of use to them, and the reward they promised is waiting for me—a handsome villa in Constantinople, with everything I’ve ever wanted.
“Let me see now,” he mused. “How shall I go about this? One bullet for dear Aunt Amelia and one more for the lovers, so closely entwined? Or shall I shoot the gun out of her hand first? It will be extremely