The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog - Elizabeth Peters [27]
The wine had left visible spots on my skirt. I replied gently, “You won’t have to wear evening kit to a fancy dress ball, my dear. I was thinking of something along Elizabethan lines. Those close-fitting hose would set off the handsome shape of your lower limbs.”
Emerson had removed his coat. For a moment I thought he would throw it at me. Eyes blazing, he said in a muted roar, “We are not going to a fancy dress ball, Amelia. I would as soon attend my own hanging.”
“It is in four days’ time. We can find something in the bazaar, I daresay. Please help me with my buttons, Emerson. These spots may come out if I sponge them at once.”
However, I was unable to tackle the spots that evening. By the time the buttons were undone I had other things on my mind.
Some time later, as a pleasant drowsiness wrapped around my weary frame, I reflected with pardonable complacency upon the events of the evening. Over the course of the succeeding months, as the story passed from speaker to listener, it would be altered and embroidered beyond recognition, but at least the original fiction had been accepted by those whose opinions counted most. How ironic, I thought, that it was Willoughby Forth’s reputation for eccentricity that was primarily responsible for saving his daughter from vulgar gossip and the Lost Oasis from discovery and exploitation.
I was about to remark on this to Emerson when his regular breathing assured me he had fallen into slumber. Turning on my side, I rested my head against his shoulder and emulated his example.
I have a methodical mind. Emerson does not. It required prolonged discussion to convince him we ought to sit down with a map of Egypt and make a neat list of prospective sites, instead of rushing around at random. The more I thought about it, the more his plan appealed to me. Although I had enjoyed our vagabond existence, never knowing from one year to the next where we would be the following season, and although no one accepts with greater equanimity the difficulties of setting up a new camp in a new location yearly, often in places where water and shelter were inadequate, insects and disease proliferated, and the chance of snatching a few moments alone with Emerson was slight, especially with Ramses always underfoot… Well, perhaps I had not enjoyed it as much as I thought I had! Certainly the idea of a permanent habitation had considerable attraction. I found myself picturing how it would be: spacious, comfortable living quarters, a photographic studio, an office for the keeping of records… perhaps even a writing machine and a person to operate it. I had mentally selected the pattern of the draperies for the sitting room by the time Emerson, brooding over the map, spoke for the first time.
“I don’t believe we want to go south of Luxor, do we? Unless there is some site between there and Assuan that you yearn for.”
“None that comes to mind. The Theban area offers a number of interesting possibilities, however.”
We had decided to breakfast in our room, for the sake of greater privacy and also because Emerson did not want to get dressed to go downstairs. His shirt was open at the throat and his sleeves had been pushed up to the elbows; the sight of him lounging at ease, long legs stretched out, a pipe in one hand and a pen in the other, almost distracted me from the matter at hand. Unaware of my affectionate regard, he shoved the map at me. “Have a look, Peabody. I have marked my choices; add or subtract as you like.”
“I think I had better subtract,” I said, looking at the emphatic crosses that marked the map. “We must narrow the possibilities down to half a dozen or less. Beni Hassan, for instance, would not be my first choice.”
Emerson groaned feelingly. “The tombs have deteriorated badly since I first saw them. They need to be copied.”
“That can be said of almost every site you have marked.”
So the discussion proceeded; after a refreshing hour or so we had reduced the list to three—Meidum, Amarna and western Thebes—and I had agreed to Emerson’s suggestion that we inspect the sites before making