The Serpent on the Crown - Elizabeth Peters [113]
“What about your friend Karnovsky?” he asked.
“Katchenovsky,” Ramses corrected. “I suppose I am possessive about those scraps. He’s competent and reliable, but I’d rather be here while he’s working on them.”
“And I would rather he were not working here alone,” I said. “It is for his own protection, really; he won’t be under suspicion if anything untoward occurs.”
“Something untoward such as attempted murder or theft?” Sethos hadn’t spoken for some time. Unlike Ramses, he was making an excellent breakfast.
“Something along those lines,” I agreed. “What are your plans?”
Sethos patted his mouth delicately with his napkin. “In my opinion I can be of more use here. If David is with him, Ramses will be amply protected.”
“I’m going to pack a few things,” Ramses said, pushing his chair back. “Nefret, will you help me?”
Silently, lips tight, she went with him. Sethos chuckled. “He takes my little jokes too much to heart. A pity he can’t get over his dislike of me.”
“You go out of your way to annoy him, that is why,” I said.
“Ambivalence,” Sethos explained. “Unconsciously I am really very fond of the boy.”
That was too much for Emerson. He jumped up and threw his napkin on the table. “Then you can take his place on the dig.”
“What dig?” I inquired. “KV55 or the West Valley or Deir el Medina?”
“The West Valley, of course.”
There was no “of course” about it. I had a glimmer of an idea of what Emerson was up to. If he had had the courtesy to tell me and ask for my assistance, I would have lent it. As it was, I simply sniffed meaningfully.
“I can’t help you there,” Sethos said. “I’m no excavator.”
“You excavated the best objects out of KV55,” Emerson retorted. An evil smile spread across his face. “You can help Peabody sift the fill.”
We saw the boys off for Luxor an hour later. (I would never give over thinking of them as boys, despite the fact that I had to stand on tiptoe to kiss them good-bye.) Nefret had herself under close control; only her responsibilities as a mother prevented her from insisting upon accompanying them, but her lined brow and anxious eyes betrayed her concern for her husband.
“Remember,” she said, when they were about to leave, “to approach him carefully. Anything that can be interpreted as a threat may set him off. And don’t count on her to stop him, she will—”
“I know. You told me.” He smiled reassuringly and gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t worry. It’s all right, you know.”
We watched them set off along the road, side by side as they had so often been, close as brothers and closely resembling each other in the length of their strides and the athletic grace of their tall frames. And their waving black hair.
“Put on your hats,” I shouted.
FROM MANUSCRIPT H
* * *
“You think I’ve gone off half-cocked, don’t you?” Ramses asked.
“I don’t understand all that talk about ambivalence and manic depression,” David admitted.
“You understand it, all right. You mean you don’t accept it. Like Father. One needn’t resort to psychological jargon to acknowledge a not uncommon human trait. Children love their parents, but they also resent their authority. In a way, Adrian is Harriet’s child. He’s all she’s got left. She’d fight for him like a mother tigress.”
They arrived early for the train, as Ramses had planned, in order to give them time to fahddle with the porters and clerks. Gossip, in other words. That leisurely, casual sort of exchange, at which they were both experienced, was more likely to yield information than interrogation, particularly by a police officer. Egyptians had a well-founded reluctance to confide in the police.
One of the porters remembered the Pethericks. He had told the police that, but he went on to add information he hadn’t bothered to give them. “They had only two small pieces of luggage. The gentleman did not speak. She did all the talking and held him always by his arm and pushed him into the carriage. What way is that for a woman to behave? She had the money. A woman in control of