He Shall Thunder in the Sky - Elizabeth Peters [98]
He did not finish the threat, since he could not think of one he would be able to carry out.
“Which word, ‘premonition’ or ‘foreboding’?” I inquired as softly.
“Neither, curse it!”
“You must have felt it too, or you would not—”
“Superstition is not one of my failings. I do wish you would get over your—”
“Now what are you quarreling about?” Nefret asked. “Can we join in?”
“Emerson is just being obstreperous,” I explained. “He always behaves this way when he wants his dinner or his tea or his breakfast or—”
“Hmph,” said Emerson. He stalked out of the room, leaving me to follow. Ramses lifted the cat onto his right shoulder and offered me his other arm.
“Do you go on, my dear,” I said. “Managing that cat is trouble enough. Nefret and I will follow, like obedient females. And try to prevent your father from driving the motorcar!”
“Not much chance of that,” said Nefret, as Ramses started for the door with the cat draped over his shoulder. “Aunt Amelia, does it ever occur to you that this family is a trifle eccentric?”
“Because we are taking the cat to dinner with us? I suppose some might consider it eccentric. But we always have done, you know; the cat Bastet went everywhere with Ramses.”
“She always rode on his shoulder too,” Nefret said reminiscently.
“He needed both shoulders then,” I said with a smile.
“Yes. He has changed quite a lot since those days.”
“So have you, my dear.”
“Yes.”
There was a note in her voice that made me stop and look searchingly at her. “Nefret, is something worrying you? Something you might wish to confide to me?”
Nefret looked away. When she spoke, her voice was so soft the words were barely audible. “What about you, Aunt Amelia? I would like to help—to help you—with whatever is worrying you—if you would let me.”
I did not at all like the direction the conversation had taken. Evidently my anxiety had not escaped her notice. Was my famed self-control failing? That must not happen!
“How kind of you, my dear,” I replied heartily. “If something of the sort does arise, I will certainly request your assistance.”
She did not reply, but hastened on. Intervention was called for; I could hear Emerson and Ramses arguing, more or less amiably, about who was to act as chauffeur. Nefret entered into the discussion with all her old zest; her laughter-bright face was so untroubled I wondered if I could have imagined that look of pain and appeal.
Nefret has her own ways of managing Emerson; this time she got round him by declaring that she meant to drive the motorcar. Though Emerson is a firm believer in the equality of the female sex, he has some secret reservations, and one of them involves the car. (There is something about these machines that makes men want to pound their chests and roar like gorillas. I speak figuratively, of course.)
In the end it was Emerson who proposed, as a compromise, that Ramses should drive. Nefret agreed with a grumble at Emerson and a look of triumph at her brother. He raised his hand to his brow in a surreptitious salute.
Nothing could have been more normal than that exchange, and it put everyone in a merry mood. Emerson thought he had won, and the rest of us knew we had.
Once we had traversed the Muski and its continuation, the Sikkeh el-Gedideh, our progress slowed, since the thoroughfares (bearing various names with which I will not burden the Reader) were narrower and crowded with people. The sun was setting and I was increasingly anxious to reach our destination but I did not urge Ramses to go faster. We made better progress than some might have done, since people tended to scamper briskly out of the way when they recognized the vehicle. Nodding from side to side, as regally as a monarch on progress, Emerson acknowledged the greetings of passersby. I wondered if there was anyone in Cairo he did not know. Most of them knew him, at any rate.
“Perhaps we ought to have come on foot,” I murmured in his ear. “Our presence certainly will be noted.”
“It would be noted in any case,” said Emerson. “Do you suppose we could go ten yards without being