The Serpent on the Crown - Elizabeth Peters [19]
FROM MANUSCRIPT H
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Emerson deigned to have a few words with Ramses before he left for Luxor. He had refused his son’s offer to accompany him, which roused what Ramses’s mother would have called dire forebodings.
“You mustn’t give up your Friday visit with Selim and his family,” Emerson said. “The dear children enjoy them so much.”
“What am I supposed to tell Selim?” Ramses demanded. “He will expect to start work tomorrow.”
“That you will work, of course. But not at the site,” he added. “Get him and Daoud here and start going over last year’s notes and plans. I want to see a detailed summary of what we accomplished and what remains to be done.”
“But, sir—”
“My boy.” Emerson put his hand on Ramses’s shoulder. It was an unusual gesture, for him; equally unusual was the diffidence in his voice. “I know I am being arbitrary and dictatorial. It is not because I lack confidence in you. It is because I lack confidence in myself.”
“You, sir?”
“Well, no.” Emerson grinned with all his old assurance. “However, I am wrong now and then. I have an idea so vague and preposterous that I would be embarrassed to mention it. I may be on the wrong track, and I would rather not discuss my theory until after I have pursued several lines of inquiry. I will return on Sunday or Monday, and then we will reassess the situation. Just do me one favor: Try to keep your mother away from the Pethericks until I get back.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“That is all any man can do. Especially with your mother. Run along now, the children will be waiting.”
“Aren’t you going to say good-bye to them?”
“Er—hmmm—no,” mumbled Emerson. “Only be gone for two days.”
The truth was, he dreaded Carla’s reaction. She enjoyed drama and carried on like a juvenile Niobe when any of them went away. Her parents and grandmother had learned to ignore these demonstrations, but Emerson took them very much to heart, despite the fact that he had been assured the storm soon blew over. Was that why he was leaving several hours before the train departed? More likely he had business in Luxor he didn’t care to discuss with his son.
The twins always looked forward to their Friday visits with Selim and his children, who were their favorite playmates. Another attraction was that they were allowed to ride with their parents. Thus far their equestrian activities had been limited to little donkeys, but both of them admired the beautiful Arabians that were the pride of the Emerson stables. After considering the relative sizes of himself and his father’s stallion, Risha, David John had announced he would wait a year or two before attempting to mount the animal. Carla, whose temperament was more adventurous, had sneaked into Risha’s stall one day and had managed to climb the side of the enclosure far enough to launch herself onto the astonished stallion’s back. Risha let out one piercing whinny and then stood like a stone, ignoring the small hands that pulled at his mane and the small heels kicking his sides, until Ramses came running to see what had aroused the placid horse. It was one of the few times Ramses had ever spanked his daughter—not only, as he was careful to explain, because she had disobeyed his orders, but because she had hurt a gentle animal that was too well bred to defend himself.
That reproach had more effect than the spanking. Carla had been apologizing to Risha ever since, bringing him carrots and sugar lumps. Risha, who had probably found the whole performance fairly amusing, had been gracious enough to accept her effusive apologies, and when Ramses took Carla up with him on the stallion, Risha greeted her with a friendly nudge.
Anticipating their visit, several other members of the family had dropped in, including their assistant reis Daoud and his wife, Khadija. Ramses noted with a slight pang that there was more gray in Daoud’s beard than there had been the year before, but the big man’s hearty embrace