The Ape Who Guards the Balance - Elizabeth Peters [59]
For the first time in his life Ramses was tempted to throw something at an animal. Something hard and heavy.
:
“Where did this come from?” Emerson asked.
He spoke in the soft, purring voice his acquaintances had come to know and dread. Nefret met his keen blue eyes without flinching, but I saw her brace herself.
“It is the property of the Foundation,” she replied.
“Ah, yes. The Foundation for the Exploration and Preservation of Egyptian Antiquities.” Emerson sat back, fingering the cleft in his chin. In the same mild voice he added, “Your Foundation.”
“Ours,” Nefret corrected. “You are on the Board; so are Ramses and David and Aunt Amelia.”
“Good Gad,” Emerson exclaimed. “The fact must have slipped my mind. Or is it the fact that the Board gave its approval for this particular purchase? Dear me, I am getting old and forgetful.”
“Enough, Emerson,” I said sharply.
Emerson might have ignored my suggestion, for he really was in a considerable rage. It was the sight of Nefret’s face that stopped him. Her rounded chin was quivering and her eyes were luminous with tears. When one crystal drop overflowed the cornflower-blue depths and slid down her cheek, Emerson let out a roar.
“Stop that immediately, Nefret! You are taking unfair advantage, curse it.”
Nefret’s trembling lips curved into a broad, relieved smile. No one minded Emerson’s bellows. She sat down on the arm of his chair and ruffled his hair. “Professor darling, you let me set up the Foundation when I came into my money—in fact, you encouraged the idea—but you have never accepted a penny or allowed anyone else in the family to do so. It has hurt me deeply, though of course I have never complained.”
“You may as well give in, Father,” said Ramses. “If you don’t, she’ll start crying again.”
“Hmph,” said Emerson. “I see she has already got round you and David. If I remember correctly, any major expenditure requires the consent of a simple majority of the Board. You three are a majority. Amelia, why the devil didn’t you point this out to me when the papers were drawn up?”
“I didn’t think of it either,” I admitted. I had always considered his refusal to accept financial assistance from Nefret absurd—another example of masculine pride. Why shouldn’t she use her money as she liked? And what worthier recipient could there be than the greatest Egyptologist of this or any other age—Radcliffe Emerson, to be precise?
Tactfully I turned Emerson’s attention back to the papyrus. “It is one of the finest I have ever seen,” I said. “A worthy purchase for the Foundation, for if you had not acquired it—illegally, I suppose?—it would have been sold to a private collector and lost to science. Now, Emerson, don’t start ranting about the iniquities of buying from the dealers, we have all heard that lecture a thousand times. In this case it had to be done. You do grasp the subtler implications of this discovery, I suppose?”
Emerson glared at me. I was pleased to see that my question had taken his attention away from the children.
“Do you take me for a fool, Peabody? Of course I grasp them. However, I refuse to allow you to waste time in idle speculation until we have ascertained the facts. Pray allow me to conduct this interrogation. I repeat: Where did you get this?”
His ice-blue gaze swept over the three young persons. Nefret’s smile faded; David flinched; and both looked hopefully at Ramses, who was, as I had expected, not unwilling to do the talking.
“From Yussuf Mahmud in Cairo. David and I were—”
“Impossible,” Emerson said. “Yussuf Mahmud deals in forgeries and second-rate antiquities. How could he lay his hands on something like this?”
“It is a pertinent question,” said Ramses. “Father, if you will allow me to complete my narrative without interruption . . .”
Emerson folded his hands. “That goes for you too, Peabody. Proceed, Ramses.”
As Ramses’s narrative unfolded I found it difficult to repress exclamations of horror, surprise, and consternation. I must do Ramses the justice of believing that on