Lord of the Silent - Elizabeth Peters [89]
“Ah,” said Emerson. “Hmph. Er—he was looking well, I hope?”
“Oh, yes. Well and happy. He smiled as he waved me on. What do you suppose it meant?”
I had pushed my amiable spouse too far. “The interpretation of dreams is your specialty, Amelia, not mine. What are we going to do about Ramses?”
“Nothing at present. I have a pre—I have a feeling that the business will settle itself.”
“How?” Emerson demanded.
“Either he will learn of Asad’s death from someone else, or Nefret will break down and tell him. The dear girl learned discretion in a hard school, but in this case we are pushing her too far, and, I suspect, putting something of a strain on their relationship. Their natures are so unalike—her quick temper and openness, and his reticence—”
“You said they were obviously very happy,” Emerson protested. “What are you reading between the lines now?”
“It is obvious that they love one another dearly, but that does not prevent them from having differences. I anticipated that they would.”
“What sort of differences?” Emerson asked anxiously.
“For one thing, I expect both of them will be ridiculously overprotective of one another—you know, the way you used to be with me. And Ramses isn’t as easy to deal with as you, my dear; he keeps his feelings to himself, and broods instead of bellowing. She will have to give a little, and so will he. It takes awhile to smooth out the wrinkles in a marriage. As you ought to know.”
“Hmph,” said Emerson. “Well, curse it, I would hate to think we are making it more difficult for them. You were the one who—”
“Recriminations also put a strain on a marriage, so I will not stress the fact that you were in full agreement with me.” I went on quickly, before Emerson could recriminate. “Nefret’s primary loyalty, after all, is to her husband. As the Scripture says, a married person should cleave only unto—”
“Don’t quote the bloo—blooming Bible, Amelia, you know how I hate that.”
“Certainly, my dear. Shall we be off, then? We will have to stop work early. You haven’t forgotten that the Vandergelts are arriving this afternoon?”
“Today? Oh. I suppose you will want us to meet them at the train station, though I don’t see the sense in it, when they will be coming on to us.”
“It is a courtesy, my dear. If I had followed my own inclinations, I would have gone to Alexandria to meet them.”
Katherine had said she did not want us to go to the trouble of meeting the boat, so I bowed to her wishes; but unbeknownst to Emerson, I had sent Daoud to Alexandria the night before. With the city in such chaos and an invalid in the party, I felt sure his strength and sympathy—for he had the kindest heart in the world—would be welcome. Emerson was bound to complain when he discovered Daoud’s absence, so after we had mounted our horses and set out toward Giza, I decided to distract him by tactfully reintroducing a subject I had raised before.
It really was the most logical next step. We had worked our way down the row of large mastabas parallel to the south face of the Great Pyramid, except for the one we were presently excavating. A pedant might have claimed we had not the right to proceed farther in any direction, since it was this part of his concession Herr Junker had asked us to take over. He had not set any limits, however, and how were we to consult his wishes when he was officially an enemy, cut off from us by the cruel laws of war? As for permission from the Antiquities Department, I did not see how they could possibly object to our extending our work, so long as we did not intrude on the areas given to Mr. Reisner. He had the lion’s share of the cemetery as it was.
My conscience being entirely at ease on this point, I saw no reason why I should not investigate the southernmost of the three queens’ pyramids, which was adjacent to our row of mastabas. It was the most complete of