The Falcon at the Portal - Elizabeth Peters [0]
AT THE PORTAL
ELIZABETH
PETERS
To Ray
A thousand of every good and pure thing…
Tabe of Contents
PREFACE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
About the Author
Books by Elizabeth Peters
Copyright
About the Publisher
PREFACE
The Reader will note that there is a gap of several years between the date of the last published volume of Mrs. Emerson’s memoirs and the present book. Thus far the search for the missing manuscripts has proven vain, but the Editor has not abandoned hope of finding them. As in the previous volume, she has inserted sections of Manuscript H and letters from Collection B at appropriate intervals.
The quotations at the head of each chapter were taken from A Captive of the Arabs, by Percival Peabody, Esquire. (Privately printed, London, 1911.) We were fortunate to be able to obtain a copy of this exceedingly rare volume through the good offices of a friend in London who found it on a barrow in Covent Garden (price 50 p.). The text is an astonishing blend of the worst of two literary forms: the swashbuckling romances popular at the time and the memoirs of travelers and officials of the period. The views expressed by Mr. Peabody are no more bigoted and ignorant than those of many of his contemporaries; however, the parallels between his work and other memoirs are so exact as to suggest he borrowed freely and directly from them. The word plagiarism might be actionable, so this Editor will not use it.
As always, I am indebted to friends in the Egyptology game for advice, suggestions, and hard-to-find material. Dennis Forbes (whose magnum opus, Tombs. Treasures. Mummies. is now available), George B. Johnson, W. Raymond Johnson, Director of Chicago House, Luxor, and especially Peter Dorman of the Oriental Institute, who read the entire bulky manuscript and corrected a number of errors.
I am also indebted to the genial, efficient, and enthusiastic group of people at Avon Books who have taken the Emersons under their collective wing: Mike Greenstein and Lou Aronica, President and Publisher; Joan Schulhafer and Linda Johns, super publicists; and especially my favorite editor of all time, Trish Grader. Thanks, guys. You could make Amelia reconsider her rude remarks about “publishing persons.”
A note on the rendering of Arabic and ancient Egyptian words may be in order here. Both written languages omit the vowels, and certain consonants have no precise English equivalent, so transliterations into English may vary. A long i may be rendered as i or ee; the long u sound may be u, with or without a circumflex, or oo; the name of the pharaoh Zoser begins with a consonant that is sometimes written as Dj. This gives only a faint idea of the variants, which also changed with time. Mrs. Emerson is inclined to stick to the spelling current in her youth, but she also uses more modern variants of certain words, such as Dahshur and Giza. This is, the Editor believes, a fairly common failing, so she is not about to apologize for inconsistencies.
ONE
They attacked at dawn. I woke instantly at the sound of pounding hooves, for I knew what it meant. The Beduin were on the warpath!
What is it you find so amusing, my dear?” I inquired.
Nefret looked up from her book. “I am sorry if I disturbed you, Aunt Amelia, but I couldn’t help laughing. Did you know that Beduins go on the warpath? Wearing feathered headdresses and waving tomahawks, no doubt!”
The library of our house in Kent is supposed to be my husband’s private sanctum, but it is such a pleasant room that all the members of the family tend to congregate there, especially in fine weather. Except for my son Ramses we were all there that lovely autumn morning; a cool breeze wafted through the wide windows that opened onto the rose garden, and sunlight brightened Nefret’s gold-red hair.
Reclining comfortably upon the sofa, Nefret wore a sensible divided skirt and shirtwaist instead of a proper frock. She had become as dear as a daughter to us since we rescued her