The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog - Elizabeth Peters [182]
“Abdullah told me of the party of drunken young Americans who miraculously appeared on the scene in time to prevent you from being carried off the night Vincey snared me. It became apparent to me that there were two different parties interested in us. One was bent on taking one or both of us captive; he did not seem to care which. The other sought to ward off the attacker, but the fine timing of the incident in which I was taken prisoner indicated it was you alone the guardian angel cared about.
“We will never know the truth, but I feel certain my reconstruction of Sethos’s activities is fairly accurate. He had got wind of the Forth affair early on; as we both realized, he was the most likely person to have done so. He—curse it, I hate to give the fellow credit, but I must—he held his hand. He had promised you he would not interfere with you again, and he kept his promise (damn him!) until the moment when he realized that others were after Forth’s treasure and that you might be in danger from them. That gave him the excuse he wanted to break his sworn word.
“As soon as news of the attempted abduction at the ball reached him he was on the scene, organizing his men. In one guise or another he must have been watching you day and night. Mind you, he felt no obligation to protect ME. From his point of view the most desirable result of the business would be your survival and my demise; but he was (curse the swine!) honorable enough to refrain from direct action against me. All the attacks on us were instigated by Vincey. Sethos only intervened to protect you from harm. In order to do that he was forced to assist me as well, but he must have prayed to whatever gods he favors that Vincey would succeed in doing away with me.
“At last he got his wish. I was gone, and you, he hoped, were or soon would be a grieving widow. Cyrus Vandergelt, an old and trusted friend, appeared on the scene, overflowing with tender sympathy and very little else. It was due to the efforts of you, my dearest Peabody, and our devoted friend Abdullah, that I survived. I could almost feel sorry for Vandergelt-Sethos; what a blow it must have been to him when you dragged me back into the land of the living!
“He was quick to recover—damn his eyes—and with characteristic ingenuity found a means, as he hoped, to rid himself of me while remaining within the letter if not the spirit of his vow. I must admit Schadenfreude was a brilliant inspiration. There is such a man, I suppose? Yes, but surely it ought to have struck you as a strange coincidence that he happened to be, at that moment, in Luxor? Well, well, I understand; I would have been in the same state of perturbation had our positions been reversed.
“The Schadenfreude who visited me was another of Sethos’s confederates, well primed in his role. What an absurd concoction of lunatic theories he presented! The aim, of course, was to keep us apart and antagonistic to one another. Peabody, you adorable idiot, if you had had the sense to— er—force your attentions upon me, as you would probably express it… But I believe I understand the mixture of modesty and quixotic romanticism that prevented you from doing so. Though how you could ever have doubted …”
(A brief interlude interrupted the even course of the narrative.)
“So there we were at Amarna, with Vincey still on our heels and Vandergelt-Sethos wooing you with every device of luxury and devoted attention he could find. It was a pretty contrast to my behavior, I confess! Any sensible woman, my dear, would have given me up as a bad job and accepted the devoted attentions of a youngish, adoring American millionaire.