The Serpent on the Crown - Elizabeth Peters [58]
“So you see,” said Ramses, looking in the door, “it is wrong to torment animals.”
“Particularly when they are animals that can spit venom,” his mother added.
Carla leaped up with a scream of delight. “Have you all come to say good night again? Mr. Katchenovsky too!”
“You have met the gentleman?” Emerson asked, returning Carla’s hug.
“I have had that pleasure,” Katchenovsky said. “At tea.”
“And Carla didn’t try to bite you?”
“Why, no. She is a sweet little girl.”
Carla giggled.
“Well done, Carla,” said her grandmother. “Now, David John. What did you do with the statuette?”
David John’s great blue eyes were as calm as a pool of still water. “It is in my toy chest, Grandmama.”
She fished around among the stuffed animals and miniature trains and rocks of various sizes and shapes, and drew out the painted box. Handing it to Emerson, who was staring openmouthed at his grandson, she said sternly, “David John, you are guilty of deliberate disobedience. I told you you were not to go looking for it.”
“Yes, Grandmama, those were your precise words. I did not have to go looking for it, since I knew where it was.”
Ingenious little beggar, isn’t he?” said Emerson with a fond chuckle. “To think of getting into the locked drawer by removing the one above it.”
“‘Ingenious’ is certainly one word for him,” said his wife grimly. “However, I believe I have now composed an order that will thwart future attempts.”
Ramses certainly hoped so. His mother had carefully avoided looking at him while she lectured her grandson, but he knew she was remembering his youthful exercises in ingenuity. Had he really been that devious? One or two examples came to his mind, and they moved him to take his mother’s arm and give it a little squeeze as they walked back to the main house. She looked up at him and gave him a knowing smile.
Emerson has a frightful temper, but he is at heart a just and kindly man. As if to make up for his suspicions of Mr. Katchenovsky, he was excessively polite to the Russian during dinner, urging him to take second helpings of everything and even inviting him to talk about his work. Under the spell of his geniality the Russian gradually relaxed. Emerson listened with a glazed but benevolent eye while Ramses and Katchenovsky carried on a conversation of which none of us understood more than two sentences.
“You restore dmd.n at the beginning of the column, but there is not sufficient room for the full spelling of the word, and the final sign does not appear to me to be the bookroll, but rather…”
That was not one of the sentences I understood.
It did my heart good, however, to see Ramses enjoy himself so much. I determined to have a little talk with Emerson that very night. The dear fellow was getting out of hand. His plan of working at two different sites simultaneously increased the difficulties I had considered earlier. The plain truth of the matter was that we had not enough staff.
I made it up to him afterward.
Emerson said nothing of the alteration in our plans at breakfast. When we reached Deir el Medina, and he had inspected the area where we had worked the previous day, he called the others to him.
“Another two hours will finish here,” he announced. “Cyrus, what about you?”
Cyrus stroked his goatee. “We’ve filled in the entrances to the tombs that don’t have protective gates. I was planning to go over to the West Valley later today.”
“Very good,” said Emerson. “David’s boat got in this morning, so he will be here tonight—”
“You can’t count on that, my dear,” I said. “He may not have disembarked in time to catch the morning train. Boat schedules are erratic, and—”
“Or tomorrow morning,” Emerson said loudly. “At which time I will open KV55. My staff will consist of—”
“Excuse me for a moment, Emerson, while I get pen and notepaper. I know you keep your notes in your head, or claim to, but the rest of us require—”
“Excuse me, Mother,” Nefret broke in. “I have writing materials. Please take them.”
It sounded like an order, not a suggestion. I accepted and nodded a silent acknowledgment,