The Ape Who Guards the Balance - Elizabeth Peters [39]
“Possibly. All the same, I think we will have to risk it. David, how long would it take you to photograph the thing?”
David stared at him in consternation. “Hours! Days, if I do a proper job. What would I use for a darkroom? How do we keep Aunt Amelia from finding out? What if I damage it? How—”
“We’ll work out the details,” Nefret said, brushing these difficulties aside with her usual nonchalance. “I’ll help you. Where do you suppose it came from? Originally, I mean.”
“Thebes,” Ramses said. “She was a princess—one of the daughters of Ramses the Second. Precisely where in Thebes is the question.”
“The Royal Cache?” David suggested.
“Deir el Bahri?” Nefret stared at him. “But that tomb was cleared out years ago. The mummies and other objects are in the museum.”
“Not all of them.” David replaced the cover of the container. “You know the story, Nefret. Before they were caught, the Abd er Rassul family sold a number of objects to dealers and collectors. It’s possible not all of those objects were reported.”
“It’s a virtual certainty that some of them were not,” Ramses said.
There was a brief silence. Then Nefret said in exasperation, “Why don’t you say what you’re thinking? Sethos was in the business when the Abd er Rassuls were clandestinely marketing the objects from the Royal Cache. Let’s suppose one of the things he bought was the princess’s papyrus—”
“The possibility had occurred to me, of course,” said Ramses.
“Of course!” Nefret’s voice was rich with sarcasm. “Did you think I’d cower and scream at the mention of that dread name?”
“It was a possibility, nothing more. We’ve fahddled with every dealer in Cairo and found not the slightest hint that the Master, as they called him, has returned. Things like that can’t be kept secret; you may not know where the body is hidden, but you can’t miss the smell.”
“What an elegant metaphor,” Nefret remarked.
“We couldn’t have missed it,” Ramses insisted. “And yet there is the fact that the papyrus was used to lure us into a trap. If Sethos was responsible, that would mean we weren’t his main object. The one he wants is Mother. His attempt to abduct her in London failed, so he tried to get his hands on one or all of us as a means of reaching her.”
Nefret nodded. “That possibility had occurred to me, too, believe it or not. The Professor hasn’t let her out of his sight since the attack in London, and even she would have better sense than to go into the Old City alone at night.”
“Unlike us,” Ramses said wryly. “But she’d march into the fires of hell brandishing that parasol of hers if she thought one of us was in danger.”
“Yes,” David said softly. “She would.”
A sound outside the door made him start nervously. Nefret laughed and patted his hand. “It’s only the German count who has rooms farther along the corridor; he bellows like a hippopotamus. Were you afraid it was Aunt Amelia come back?”
“She will come back if we don’t hurry down,” Ramses said. “Here, Nefret, give me the box.”
“Put it under the bed. The suffragi never sweeps there.” Nefret went to the mirror and began tucking in strands of loosened hair.
“I’d rather not leave it with you. If someone comes looking for it—”
“They’d look for it in your room, or David’s,” Nefret said. “Even if they had identified you two, they couldn’t possibly have known I was your . . . What was that interesting word?”
“Little gazelle,” said Ramses, unable to repress a smile. “Never mind the other one.”
“Hmph. Need I change, do you think?”
She straightened her blouse and smoothed her skirt over her hips, frowning critically at her reflection in the mirror. After a moment Ramses said, “In my opinion you are properly attired.”
“Thank you. Where is your tie?”
They found it under the bed, when Ramses knelt to hide the papyrus there. He refused her offer to tie it for him, and after she had put on her hat David opened the door.
“When are you going to tell the Professor and Aunt Amelia?” he asked in a worried voice. “Strictly speaking, the papyrus is the property of