The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog - Elizabeth Peters [10]
I sighed deeply. Evelyn looked at me in surprise. “You too, Amelia? What can you possibly regret? You have gained everything and lost nothing. I can hardly pick up a newspaper without finding an account of some new escapade—pardon me, adventure—of yours.”
“Oh, adventures.” I gestured dismissively. “It is only natural they should occur. Emerson attracts them.”
“Emerson?” Evelyn smiled.
“Only consider, Evelyn. It was to Emerson Lord Black-tower appealed for assistance in locating his missing son; Emerson who unmasked the criminal in the case of the British Museum mummy. To whom else would Lady Baskerville come when seeking a man to continue her husband’s excavations, but to Emerson, the most preeminent scholar of his time?”
“I never thought of it that way,” Evelyn admitted. “You have a point, Amelia. But you have only strengthened my argument. Your life is so full of the excitement and adventure mine lacks—”
“True. But it is not the same, Evelyn. Dare I confess it? I believe I do. Like you, I often dream of those long-gone days, when I was all-in-all to Emerson, the only, the supreme object of his devotion.”
“My dear Amelia—”
I sighed again. “He hardly ever calls me Amelia, Evelyn. How well, how tenderly, I remember his snarl when he addressed me by that name. It is always Peabody now—my dear Peabody, my darling Peabody …”
“He called you Peabody at Amarna,” Evelyn said.
“Yes, but in such a different tone! What began as a challenge has now become a term of complacent, lazy affection. He was so masterful then, so romantic—”
“Romantic?” Evelyn repeated doubtfully.
“You have your fond memories, Evelyn; I have mine. How well I remember the curl of his handsome lips when he said to me, ‘You are no fool, Peabody, if you are a woman’; how his blue eyes blazed on that never to be forgotten morning after I had nursed him through the crisis of his fever, and he growled, ‘Consider yourself thanked for saving my life. Now go away.’ “ I fumbled for a handkerchief. “Oh, dear. Forgive me, Evelyn. I had not meant to succumb to emotion.”
In sympathetic silence she patted one hand, while I applied the handkerchief to my eyes with the other. The mood was passing; a shriek from Willie and an answering shriek from his twin brother betokened one of the rough-and-tumble encounters that characterized their affectionate relationship. Raddie rushed to break up the fight and staggered back, holding a hand to his nose. Simultaneously Evelyn and I sighed.
“Never believe that I repine,” she said gently. “I would not exchange one curl on Willie’s head for a return to that life. I love my children dearly. Only—only, dear Amelia— there are so many of them!”
“Yes,” I said forlornly. “There are.”
Ramses had moved closer to Nefret. The image was irresistible and unnerving: the goddess and her high priest.
And they would be with me, day and night, summer and winter, in Egypt and in England, for years to come.
CHAPTER 2
“One may be determined to embrace martyrdom gracefully, but a day of reprieve is not to be sneezed at.”
I believe in the efficacy of prayer. As a Christian woman I am obliged to do so. As a rationalist as well as a Christian (the two are not necessarily incompatible, whatever Emerson may say), I do not believe that the Almighty takes a direct interest in my personal affairs. He has too many other people to worry about, most of them in far greater need of assistance than I.
Yet almost could I believe, on a certain afternoon a few months after the conversation I have described, that a benevolent Being had intervened to answer the prayer I had not dared frame even in my most secret thoughts.
I stood, as I had done so many times before, at the rail of the steamer, straining my eyes for the first glimpse of the Egyptian coast. Once again Emerson was at my side, as eager as I to begin another season of excavation. But for the first time in oh! so many years, we were alone.
Alone! I do not count the crew or the other passengers. We were ALONE. Ramses was not with us. Not risking life and limb trying to climb onto