“I thought you said it was a paper. Does Abed speak English?”
“No, but he will be watching for you.”
“And how do I know Abed won’t bop me on the head and relieve me of my credit cards and passport?”
“You must trust me, Ella.”
“This book have a name?”
“It does, my brave one. It is called the Book of the Dead.”
It was difficult to sleep that night. Ella had gone straight back to the hotel without attempting to acquire the book Yeena wanted so badly for her to have. She knew she had been gone too long as it was and Maddie would be worried. Besides, the woman scared her. She needed to think about everything the seer said before she did anything rash—like creep around the back end of a deserted alleyway in post-revolution Cairo. At night.
The next morning, her head was so full of questions that she decided to skip the whole life-and-death papyrus thing and go straight back to Yeena to find out how the seer knew what she did. It never occurred to Ella that she might find someone who knew about the time traveling. It meant she knew how it happened! Perhaps Ella could return and see Greta again. She could return with a backpack full of antibiotics and penicillin and the special coffee that Greta liked…
The seer could tell her if she and Rowan had just been wildly lucky to go and come back or if there was a way to control it.
Rowan! Wait until he heard this!
Maddie interrupted Ella’s thoughts by clicking her fingers. “Earth to Ella,” she said. “You about ready?”
Ella snapped out of her daze to find Maddie fully dressed and standing by the door with Ella’s carry-on bag beside her. Ella noticed that Maddie had a small bag, too.
“Where’d you get that? she asked.
“Now, don’t get mad, but I asked Gagan to bring me my purse last night and a few of my clothes, and my passport. He’ll send the rest on to me.”
“Are you totally shitting me?” Ella’s mouth fell open. She looked around the hotel room. “He was here?”
“No,” Maddie admitted. “I met him downstairs in the lobby. The very public lobby.”
“Where he could just drag you off and stuff you in the trunk of his car!”
“Which is why I didn’t tell you, Ella,” Maddie said, looking very tired and world-weary. “Because as you can see nobody dragged anybody. He has accepted that the wedding’s off. He was very decent about it.” She gave a deliberate pause. “As I knew he would be.”
“Yeah, he’s a real prince.”
“In any case, if you don’t mind, I’m very eager to get this part of my Egyptian experience over with and behind me. Come on, Ella, let’s go, please.”
“It’s a little early for our flight,” Ella said frowning at the clock on the bedside table. “Did you pack for me too?”
“I did. There wasn’t much. I really want to go early. The sooner I’m at the airport, the sooner I’m on the airplane and the sooner I’m out of this godforsaken country.”
“Sure, Maddie. No problem. Let’s go.”
In the elevator on the way to the lobby, Maddie took Ella’s hand. “I hope you know how grateful I am to you, Ella,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ve acted like it, but you saved my life and I know it. Some day, when there’s a little more distance between me and Cairo, I want to tell you all about it. Okay?”
Ella squeezed her hand. “You’re gonna be fine, Maddie,” she said. “You’re tough. You’ll look back one day and this will all just be a fleabite.”
Maddie took a long withering sigh and tried to smile. “I’m not sure it’ll ever be that,” she said. “But I’ll weather it.”
After they paid their bill and stood out in front of the hotel, Ella asked the doorman to hail two taxis for them.
Maddie frowned. “What’s going on?”
“There’s just something I need to do,” Ella said. “You’ll be fine. I will be right behind you, probably no more than thirty minutes and we’ve got plenty of time.”
“Where are you going?”
Ella could see Maddie was becoming agitated and she worried that all her brave talk was about to crumble and they would be pushing the flight back yet another day.
“I saw this thing yesterday at the bazaar that I want to get Rowan, you know, a souvenir.”
“What in the world?”
“It’s called the Book of the Dead. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”
Maddie stared at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Yeah, I know it’s kind of creepy. Personally, I was thinking more along the lines of a refrigerator magnet but when I saw this thing it just kind of called to me, you know?”
Maddie shook her head as she watched the doorman put all their bags in her taxi.
“Look, Maddie,” Ella said, shaking her friend’s arm to try to ground her, “if it looks like I’m going to cut it close, just go ahead and board the airplane, okay?”
“Do you expect to be that late?” Maddie looked panicked but there was a grim determination in her voice. Ella could see Maddie’s eagerness to leave Cairo was warring with her insecurity about being separated from Ella for an hour.
“No, not at all,” Ella said. “I’m just saying don’t worry if you don’t see me at first. I promise I’ll be there.”
Nine hours later when Maddie landed in Atlanta, she thought she had sufficiently recovered her nerves until she saw the look on Ella’s fiancé’s face as he approached her in the receiving line at the international terminal. Watching him look at her, and then look quickly behind her, knowing who he was hoping to see, knowing who he would not see…was enough to make anyone start weeping again.
Ready to read more about Ella’s adventures in 1920 Cairo?
Click here to go to Book 2, Carried Away.
And here for Book 3, Stolen Away.
[Tempus Fugitives 01.0] Swept Away Page 28