Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) (18 page)

           
Julia
covered her face with her hands and Ella could see her shoulders shaking.

           
“Because
I’m even more afraid of my father,” she said through her tears.

           
“God
almighty,” Ella muttered. “Are you serious? Does every man in your life make
you jump through flaming hoops?”

           
Julia
wiped her face and looked at Ella. “I often don’t understand you,” she said.

           
Ella
handed her in handkerchief. “I know,” she said wearily.

           
And
then there was the other thing.

           
As
Ella stared into the fire, she thought about her discovery from that morning. She
was determined that she would say nothing, especially if, upon further
research, it turned out to be nothing. But the more she thought about it, the
more she knew it
was
true and once
she started down
that
road, she couldn’t
ignore it or push it to the back of her mind anymore. She had probably known,
at least on some level, for at least a good week but had called it something
else or explained it away in light of all her other new experiences—the
different food, the fresh air and exercise which, frankly, she wasn’t used to.

           
She
picked up a twig and tossed it into the fire and then watched as one of the
camp dogs nosed it back out and began to gnaw on it. She glanced at Julia who
was still looking fearfully over her shoulder and Ella felt her mouth shut in a
firm line of determination. They
had
to leave soon. It was one thing to be running around having adventures and
soaking up history and what not but she needed to get back to Cairo and back to
her own time and back to Rowan.

           
Like
now
.

           
Ella
looked into the fire as it spit and jumped. The fact was, she was almost
absolutely positive that she was more than a little bit pregnant.

Chapter Thirteen

Later, Ella would
have plenty of time to reflect on the old adage about a journey of a thousand
steps beginning with a single step. For her, it would begin with taking a
shortcut back from the bathing tent in an attempt to avoid the one person she
knew she was going to have to confront sooner or later anyway.
 

She and Julia took
their bath one night after dinner, escorted by a lackluster guard who spoke no
English. Afterwards, as they hurried down the path to return to their tent, Digby
stepped out of the bushes and blocked their way. Julia’s scream brought the two
Egyptian guards bolting from the interior of the camp where they had been
loitering.

 
“Really, you are making this much more
than it is, my dear,” Digby said to her.

Ella could see
his eyes rake his wife’s body while a sneer played on his lips. She felt Julia
trembling beside her, but she was obviously trying to face her husband instead
of cowering behind Ella.

“You are a pig,”
Julia said, breathlessly, her voice shaking but her fists clenched at her sides
as if she might use them. “Miss Stevens and I will be leaving at first light.”

Although happy to
hear that Julia had changed her mind about leaving, Ella wasn’t thrilled to be
hearing it for the first time along with Digby.
It didn’t do to give some people advance warning.

“That is not
possible,” Digby said easily. Ella watched Abdullah materialize from the
shadows and stand behind him. While Abdullaha’s arms hung limply at his sides,
his very presence was threat enough. “I have spoken with Carter and we will be
extending our stay.”

“You haven’t
spoken to him,” Ella said. “You’re lying.”

Digby turned his
attention to her as if just seeing her.

“The luscious
Miss Stevens,” he said slowly, a smile creeping across his face. “It appears we
will have the pleasure of your company a little longer.” He looked back at
Julia and his face hardened. “We will stay until Lord Carnarvon arrives,” he
said.

“That’s…that’s a
month from now!” Julia said. “I am ready to go
now
!”

“And that, my
dear, is of no consequence to me.” Digby leaned in toward Julia but whatever he
had intended to do or say was thwarted by the sounds of Josh Spenser coming
down the path towards them. Without another word, Digby turned on his heel and
disappeared into the bush as silently as he had come.

        
Ella grabbed
Julia’s hand to give her strength. “Now we
have
to go, Julia,” she said
as she pulled her toward their tent. “He’s capable of devising any kind of ruse
to force you to stay. We’ve got to go
now
.
Tonight
.” Ella tried
to tamp down her growing panic that Digby could somehow prevent her from
returning as soon as possible to Cairo—and Rowan.

           
Three
hours later, after riding silently in the dark with only the waning moon to
light their way, Julia—who had been so badly shaken by their encounter
with Digby that she had allowed Ella to pack her up and lead her—began to
show signs of getting some of her old spirit back.
  
“Did
you even think to bring food?” she asked querulously.

           
“Well,
since the river is only a two hour ride from camp, and the boats are all fully
furnished with cooks and kitchens, I didn’t think it was necessary.”

           
“Not
even
water
?”

           
Ella
had to admit that not bringing water had been a serious oversight. “Let’s get
up higher,” she said. “Maybe we’ll be able to see something. We should have
reached the river by now.”

           
“Are
you saying we’re lost? I never would have done this ridiculous escape if I
thought you didn’t know where you were going.”

           
“Why
would
I
know where we were going,
Julia?” Ella responded hotly. “I have not been in this godforsaken desert five
minutes longer than you have. What possible reason would you have for thinking
I
knew where we were going?”

           
“We
can’t get lost in the desert, Ella!” Julia wailed. “People
die
in deserts!”

           
“Okay,
just calm down. Nobody’s going to die.” Ella squeezed her horse with her legs
to prompt him up a nearby hill. “Let’s get up here and see where we are. Come
on.”

           
Ella
drove her horse up the steep hill, sending a wake of large clods of crumbling
rock behind her. She prayed the crest would reveal the sight she so desperately
longed to see.

           
Surely,
the damn river was right over this hill?

           
When
she reached the top, she felt the new day’s sun strike her full in the face.
She shaded her eyes and strained to see the serpentine shape of the Nile.
       

           
Julia
called to her from the base of the hill. “Well? Do you see it? Do you see the
river?”

           
Damn it!
Ella felt her shoulders sag
with the stupidity and deadly failure of this enterprise. Ahead was an endless
vista of desert and undulating sands unbroken by the river that she so longed
to see.
How had they gotten so turned
around?
They must have headed away from the river. They had ridden three
hours full west.
How could she be so
stupid?
The sun had been rising steadily
behind
them as they rode and it hadn’t even occurred to her to
think that that wasn’t right?

           
“No,”
she admitted. “We have to turn around. We’re going further into the desert this
way.”

           
Julia
stopped climbing before she reached Ella. “So we
are
lost?”

           
“No.
We’re just turned around. Now that I know where the river
isn’t
, I’m pretty sure I know where it must be.”

           
“The
way we just came from.”
          

           
“I’m
afraid so.”

           
“I’m
really thirsty, Ella.”

           
Ella
looked at her. In the whole time she had known Julia, she had never seen her
flushed or with a hair or button out of place. Even with her huge hat on against
the sun, Julia was looking decidedly wilted.

           
“There
will be water to drink on the boat,” Ella said, trying to sound encouraging.

           
“Three
hours the other way.”

           
Actually,
it was more like
five
hours when you
counted the additional time to get to the river, but Ella didn’t mention that. “Unfortunately,
yes,” she said. “Talking about it won’t make it less. Let’s go.”

           
“Was
this a mistake?” Julia asked suddenly. “Should we have stayed after all?”

           
“
I
couldn’t stay,” Ella said firmly as
she rode down the hill. Without thinking, her hand dropped for the briefest of
moments to touch her abdomen.

She had to get back
.

           
The
facts were clear and unassailable. As pleasant and determined to be helpful as
the people at Carter’s camp were, they were knee deep in a very big—
monumentally
big—historic
enterprise. And the uncomfortable shenanigans of a misbehaving British Viscount
and his wife, not to mention their equally troublesome American traveling
companion, was just one big pain in the excavation site. Carter had made it
clear to Spenser in no uncertain terms that, Lord Carnarvon’s friends or not,
the Digbys had worn out their welcome and needed to be encouraged to move on
down the road. “
Lord Bingham has a
smashing good hole dug on the other side of the Valley. Why not encourage them
to go see what he’s up to?”

           
Spenser
had already broken the bastard’s nose and was only too happy to be the bearer
of get-up-and-get-gone news if it meant he could stop babysitting and get back
to running the camp. Unfortunately, it seemed the limey bastard’s evening with Carter,
his fellow countryman, had bought him a reprieve—at least as long as he
was willing to see the back of his wife and her friend. Digby had agreed to
escort the women back to Cairo (let them be the boat captain’s problem for
awhile) before rejoining the dig at the end of the month when Carnarvon was
expected to be in the country.

           
Spenser
didn’t care. He just wanted them
gone
.
Without the women to distract him, he didn’t expect any more trouble from
Digby. Which is why it was all so annoying to stand in front of Digby’s
tent—to actually be
shown into
his tent by that ape Abdullah—and be informed that the women (
goddamn them!)
had taken two of the
horses in the middle of the night and decamped.

           
“Where
did they go?” he asked with a stunned expression on his face.

           
Digby
shrugged. “I have no earthly idea,” he said. “Women.”

           
“Are
they going to the river? Do you think they intend to get on a boat bound for
Cairo? Are they trying to get back to the city?”
 

           
“My
good man,” Digby said patiently. “I am not a confidant of either one of the
ladies in question. I had no hint that they were planning to leave abruptly in
the middle of the night.”

           
“How
do you know they went on their own steam?”

           
“Beg
pardon?”

           
Spenser
slapped his pith helmet against his leg. “Were they taken, man?” he said
impatiently.

           
“As
in
stolen away
? I hardly think so.
Abdullah saw both of them untie the horses and lead them on foot from the
camp.”

           
Spenser
looked at the tall implacable Egyptian. “And he did nothing to stop them?”

           
“Surely
you are not suggesting he lay hands on a white woman? Even an American? That
would not be his place, sir.”

           
“Would
it be his place to inform someone of what he saw?”

           
“That
was perhaps a lapse in judgment on Abdullah’s behalf, I agree,” Digby said,
eyeing the Egyptian as if trying to decide.

           
Spenser
turned on his heel in disgust. “Mount up,” he said.

           
“Excuse
me?”

           
“Get
mounted, man!” Spenser shouted. “There’s a lot that can happen between here and
the river assuming that’s the direction they went in. We need to go
now
!” As he left the tent, Spenser ran
into a small Egyptian boy who had come running down the hill to the tent, his
robes flapping in the dusty, constant breeze.

           
“
Effendi
Spenser!” he yelled. “
Effendi
!”

           
Spenser
grabbed the boy and forced him to stand still. “What is it? What’s happened?”

           
“Men
come,
effendi
!”

           
“From
the village?” Spenser asked, shielding his eyes to look in the direction the
boy was pointing.

           
“No,
effendi
. From the river.”

           
As
Spenser stood looking, his hands on his hips, he saw a group on horseback
growing larger as they approached. A woman with thick dark red curls bounced
along on a horse in front of the group, her large bosom seeming to keep time
with the rocking chair cadence of her mount. There were at least six people in
her group, all of them mounted. At one point, he thought he heard
singing
.

           
Good
God, now what?
he
thought with resignation.

           
Rowan
tried to digest the information over the deafening roar of his disappointment.

           
He
had missed her by a few hours.

           
He
stood in Ella’s tent trying to get any feel at all that she had been here. He
saw no personal effects that reminded him of her. The dresses looked like they
belonged in a museum, even the scent in the tent was obliterated by a musk that
hung in the air like an unseen fog. He picked up the silk slippers from under
the bed and held them in his hands.