Lord of the Silent - Elizabeth Peters [4]
“So,” said Nefret briskly, “what was it you were saying, Father? I am as bad as . . . shall I guess who?”
“I only meant . . .” Emerson began.
“We know what you meant,” Ramses said. “Stop teasing him, Nefret. If you are worried about me, Father, you needn’t be. I’ve no intention of getting involved with that lot again. This is going to be a purely archaeological season, with no distractions of any kind.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Emerson said darkly. “We can only hope, I suppose. So you two were planning to come out with us?”
“Of course,” Nefret said. “We never considered anything else.”
Emerson shook his head. “You must weigh the danger, Nefret. Do you know how many ships we’ve lost to German submarines since the beginning of the year?”
“No, and neither do you,” Ramses said. “The Admiralty is trying to keep that information under wraps. I’m not arguing with you, Father, I’m only considering the alternatives logically. Are you planning to spend the rest of the war here in England?” He didn’t wait for an answer, there was no need. “The Germans have agreed to spare passenger liners, especially neutrals—”
“That’s what they agreed before the Lusitania,” I murmured.
“If you are waiting for a guarantee, you won’t get it,” my son said, in a hard flat voice. I saw the fingers that rested on Nefret’s shoulder tighten, and I knew they had argued this same issue before. It had been a waste of breath, as I could have told him. Ramses was as dedicated to Egyptology as was his father, and he knew how much Emerson depended on him. As for leaving her behind, safe in England, she wouldn’t have stood for that, any more than I would.
“Ah, well,” I said cheerfully. “Looking at the situation logically, as you proposed, it is not as if we are strangers to danger. I expect the risk of being torpedoed is less than other risks we have faced, and if it should occur—”
“We’ll get out of it someway,” Nefret said with a grin. “We always do.”
“That is the spirit,” I exclaimed. “So it is agreed? The four of us and—who else? You will have to do without Seshat this year; the kittens are not due for several more weeks. What about David?”
“He’s staying here,” Ramses said.
“Have you talked with him?” Emerson asked.
“Yes.” His lips closed on the word, but Emerson’s piercing look forced him to elaborate. “In the eyes of all but a few people in Cairo, David is still under suspicion as a rabid nationalist and a member of Wardani’s former organization. He’d be subject to arrest and imprisonment if he returned, and the War Office wouldn’t lift a finger to save him. That’s the chance you take when you play the Great Game,” he added, giving the last two words the ironic inflection with which he always pronounced them. “If anything goes wrong, you are expendable.”
Nefret’s blue eyes were troubled. “I’m glad he realizes that. He has other responsibilities now. Lia and the baby couldn’t come out this year anyhow. Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Walter won’t want to leave their first grandchild, or be away from England while Willy is in France.”
“No, of course not,” I said. Evelyn and Walter had already lost one son, Willy’s twin, a loss still keenly felt by all of us who had known and loved the lad. So far Willy had led a charmed life, but if he were wounded and sent home to recuperate, his mother would want to nurse him. “What about Sennia?”
Emerson groaned. He adored the little girl, and had missed her desperately the previous year, but the dead children of the Lusitania still haunted him.
“She’ll be better off here,” Ramses said.
Nefret turned her head and looked up at him. “You will have to be the one to tell her, then. I simply suggested the possibility last week and she went into one of her tantrums.”
“The way you women let that child bully you is a disgrace.” Ramses’s heavy dark brows drew together. “She can control her temper perfectly well when she wants to. She only uses it to get her own way.”
“Are you volunteering to break the news?” his wife inquired sweetly.