Nile Dusk

by Pamela Kent

  Romilly was quite taken aback by what she could only consider his effrontery at believing her capable of entirely overlooking his unorthodox method of entering her house in the early hours of the morning, and she could only continue to stare at him without finding any words to reply to him. He turned his attention to the array of expensive confectionery which had been claiming her recent interest.

  "Ah, so you have a sweet tooth, have you, Miss Styles'?" he said. "You were about to indulge yourself by buying a box of your favourites?"

  "On the contrary," she returned, "I was simply feeling

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  amazed because there are so many varieties."

  "And your tooth is not really in the least sweet?"

  "Oh, yes, as a matter of fact I love sweets." She was annoyed because he was smiling at her with an air of quizzicalness. "And i don't have to bother about my figure, or anything like that, if I feel like indulging myself, as you put it just now," she added with a faint air of defiance.

  "Splendid!" he declared. His eyes roved over her in a way that she considered insolent. "Certainly, one must agree there is nothing in the least wrong with your figure, and indeed there is a very great deal that is right with it! But young women nowadays seem to make a habit of counting the calories, and I thought perhaps you were no exception." He glanced at a nearby table, and indicated it with his hand. "I don't know whether you have lunched, but if you have a cup of coffee will not upset the balance. And if you have not, I know of somewhere much more interesting where it is not yet too late to be served with an excellent meal -"

  "Thank you, but I have already lunched," she told him bleakly.

  �He looked as if he was prepared for that. "Ah, well, we will content ourselves with coffee, then. I was afraid it was asking too much to expect you to lunch with me."

  She followed him over to the comer table without being .quite certain why she didn't turn down his invitation out of hand, and when they were seated she watched him light a cigarette and summon a waiter with a lift of his eyebrow

  which intrigued her, and wondered why he hadn't offered

  her his cigarette-case, and decided that it was because per

  haps he didn't approve of women smoking. Later, she was

  to make the discovery that he had very strong views on

  women smoking, but at that early stage of their acquaint

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  anceship she knew very little about him, and was not particularly impressed by what she did know.

  Nevertheless, the waiter seemed to consider he was not a customer to be kept waiting, and their coffee arrived very quickly. Romilly was sipping hers almost cautiously, as he happened to be paying for it, when he asked her with sudden bluntness how much satisfaction she derived from her meeting with Mr. Yusuf that morning.

  Romilly looked up at him in astonishment. "How on earth do you know I saw my aunt's solicitor this morning?"

  He made a slight gesture with his shoulders, as if how he knew was quite unimportant, but the result of the meeting had a certain interest for him.

  "I know Mohammed Yusuf quite well," he told her. "And I think I made it clear to you last night that at one time I knew your aunt quite well."

  She stared at him as if for the first time she admitted

  to herself that he fascinated her.

  "If you knew my aunt so well," she said to him, "then you must have some idea where she put the statuette you were searching for last night."

  "Not last night, early this morning," he corrected her

  half smilingly. "I had other things on hand last night!"

  She recollected that he had been wearing a dinner-jacket, and was very well turned out, and wondered what 'other things' had engaged his attention before she saw him at the

  Pyramids.

  "Please tell me," she insisted, "have you any idea where

  the statuette is likely to be found ? "

  He shook his head.

  "No, otherwise I wouldn't have wasted so much time

  looking for it while you were still asleep."

  She frowned suddenly.

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  "It was a most unorthodox thing to do to break into my house. Do you normally go around breaking into o&er people's houses?"

  He gave her a solemn assurance, while his handsome eyes twinkled.

  "On my word of honour, no! It would use up far too much of my time, for one thing; and for another I would have to have a particular reason for doing so. My reason, as I have already told you, for disturbing you in the early hours of this morning was very much in your own interests. ... I wished to make absolutely certain that no one deprives you of a thing of great value! You can believe me or not as you wish."

  "But if it is of such great value surely Mr. Yusuf would have gone out of his way to mention it to me," she pointed out to him, leaning towards him across the table as she spoke because she thought that this omission on the part of Mr. Yusuf was a clear indication that no such statuette existed, and his reason for breaking into the villa had nothing whatsoever to do with a statuette. If she could make him admit this then perhaps she might also make him admit what it was that he was really looking for while he was blundering about in a distinctly clumsy manner which terminated in her catching him red-handed, as it were.

  The dark eyes confronting her remained quite unabashed.

  "He did not, then, make any special mention of anything your aunt acquired during her lifetime which could be of very great value?"

  "No, except that there are quite a few items of value inside the villa, and when they're' sold they should fetch quite a reasonable sum of money. He even offered to make me a small advance on the sale of the villa and its contents if I was really in need of some money."

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  I.-. "Oh, he did, did he!" g; "But he said nothing about your statuette. I'm inclined iti-. to believe it was sold long ago, if my aunt ever really did

  ^possess it." $'. "You can take it from me that the statuette was not

  l^soldl" ig, She looked at him very hard once again. &: "You seem to be very certain of your facts, for some jg 'reason which I can't quite fathom. My aunt must have I" ? known you very well, and trusted you very much, for you

  i to be so knowledgeable about what she did, or did not, .. do with her possessions." "As a matter of fact, she did," he assured her com

  posedly. "And yet I don't even know your name!" "You can call me Julius." He smiled at her. "It does

  I? happen to be my name." I1' "Mr. Julius?" | "If you like."

  I She frowned swiftly.

  I, "Why can't you tell me the truth? What your full name |; really is, what was your connection with my aunt, and her j; father before her, and why you are so passionately inter-

  s ested in my statuette? And I'm tired of referring to it as| a statuette.... What did it represent? I think you 'said it | was made of gold. What was it called ? " I-"The Eye of Love.". I "The Eye of -?" She coloured suddenly, and rather de| liciously, the soft pink flush rising up over her creamy skin 1; as he regarded her with that disturbing and oddly con- I fusing twinkle in his eyes. She looked down hurriedly into

  fe her coffee cup. "That doesn't sound very Egyptian. I ^ thought you said it was discovered in a tomb." | "I didn't say anything of the kind. I said your great"

  I:' 39

  uncle acquired it in an antique shop, and I certainly said I it was made of gold. I think I also mentioned that it was one of a pair. There are - I say 'are' because I know they

  still both exist - an exquisite pair of lovers somewhere

  carefully hidden away in this country, and if it were pos"

  sible for you to contemplate the craftsmanship you would

  agree with not only me, but everyone who has seen thema that as figurines they are quite out of this world. One of them - the boy - is known as The Eye of Love; the girl

  is known as The Conquest of Love. They should always be together. From a purely aesthetic point of view it is a,
<
br />   crime that they should be apart."

  All at once she felt that she had the capacity for being immensely shrewd. "Arid you," she said to him, although of course she was only guessing, "are the possessor of either The Eye of Love

  -in which case you will not be happy until you also possess The Conquest of Love. Or else it is The Eye of Love you suspect is concealed somewhere inside my villa -" She paused when she saw his eyes flash with extraordinary coldness, and she was amazed at the change in his voice as he interrupted her curtly:

  "If you think that, then there is very little point In our continuing this discussion at all," he told her, crushing out his cigarette in the ash-tray and thrusting his coffee cup away from him as if the amiable interlude between them had lasted long enough. "I wanted to be of some asistance to you, but it is becoming very clear to me that you would rather be without that assistance. I don't know where you get your dramatic notions from, but -"

  "If they are dramatic, it is because you chose to be

  �dramatic at a very early hour this morning," she replied to him swiftly. "And since you are not even prepared to tell me your full name, or give me any other information about

  yourself, I certainly would prefer it if you ceased display

  ing such decidedly suspect interest in my affairs."

  She reached for her handbag, which was on the chair be

  side her, and stood up.

  "Thank you for the coffee, Mr. Julius. I hope you're

  not planning to continue your search for this mythical

  statuette in the early hours of tomorrow morning, and just

  in case I think I ought to warn the police that I'd like a

  special watch put on the House of the Seven Stars for the

  next few nights, as I dislike having my slumbers interrupted in the way that they were this morning. So if you do another spot of breaking and entering you might find yourself marched off to the police station."

  "I don't think that is at all likely," she heard him say very quietly, and as he stood up and watched her depart she had the feeling that, in addition to his surprise, there was a quality of ice-cold contempt and displeasure in the eyes that watched her. She was afraid she had sounded a trifle crude, but she wasn't quite sure what it was about him - and particularly about his refusal to tell her exactly who he was, and why he was taking such an" interest inkier and her affairs if it wasn't to deprive her of some of her valuables - that upset her so much, to the point of making, her long to be very rude to him indeed. Which was absurd because, even if he was no better and no worse than she believed him to be, she could always do as she threatened and go to the police and lodge a complaint about him, which would be more dignified than entering into somewhat spiteful arguments with him - and allowing him to buy her coffee I

  She saw all this very clearly by the time she was half way home, but by that time it was too late to do anything about it. She had behaved in a way she deplored, and it annoyed her. But she made up her mind that if she met him

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  "Naturally. But you didn't have to accept it."

  "Is there any reason that I don't know of why I should

  not have accepted Mrs. Mortimer's invitation?" she asked

  him more steadily, resentment banishing her feeling of con

  fusion.

  He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "There could be.... But that's not the point. I understood you were here to settle your aunt's affairs, not to get to know the district." "By which you mean enter into the district's social activi

  ties?"

  "Of course."

  She began to feel bewildered again. There was no doubt

  about his hostility, and she wondered whether it was because he had not fully accepted the apology she sent him. She started to apologise to him afresh, and for the first time verbally. "I'm so sorry I behaved rathe? badly and said some rather crude things that last time we met. But you must realise I hadn't the least idea who you were -"

  "As to that, forget it," he advised, and took her by the arm and piloted her towards the head of the flight of steps that led down from the. roof. "And as that mask doesn't really offer you any concealment I'd take it off if I were you. I knew you the instant I set eyes on you.tonight."

  "Then, in that case, why didn't you do the polite thing and come and speak to me?" she asked.

  "Because I seldom if ever do the polite thing just for the sake of being polite. And I preferred to watch you, if you want the truth. That outfit becomes you very much indeed, and in point of fact you're very eye-catching tonight. But then you were very eye-catching in that kimono thing the first night I saw you!"

  The flush burning faintly in her cheeks deepened. She

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  again she would behave differently,

  And, in any case, she didn't believe for one moment all

  his talk of a statuette that was apparently next door to be

  ing priceless. If such a statuette existed, and was somewhere inside the villa, Mr. Yusuf would have mentioned it to her.

  It was much later in the day that she remembered her aunt's letter, and she extracted it from her handbag and read it. She felt a sudden surge of intense curiosity and interest as she cast her eye over the closely-written sheets that were contained inside the envelope; and by the time she was half-way through reading them she was feeling quite different. She was feeling amazed and slightly stunned.

  "My dear, unknown niece," the letter began. "It seems

  strange to me that we have never met, and you probably

  don't even know of my existence. It is even more strange because one day this house and all that it contains will be yours. You are a member of my family, and despite the fact that I have lived abroad for so long I am really very family-minded, and I feel strongly that everything must

  come to you.

  "When I say 'everything' I exclude what little money I have, for that must go elsewhere. I have made various promises in the past, and these must be honoured. But the house is full of things I'm sure you will enjoy, and I do hope you will not rush to sell them just because, sold in the right quarter, they will bring you in quite a lot of

  money "Stay in Egypt for at least a little while, and grow to love it as 1 have loved it all my life, and then sell up if you must "My father's collection of scarabs is almost, if not quite, unique. There are one or two items of jewellery, too, that are very fine. The adorable little Eye of Love is hidden 42

  away in an old trunk in the attics. I wrapped it up in one of

  my old ballgowns, surrounded it with mothballs, and then

  closed the lid on it. I felt I was being very clever because

  quite a lot of people would like to possess it and short of

  troubling the bank and getting them to take charge of it I

  couldn't think what to do with it. Now, once you have read

  this letter, only you and I know where it is ' �

  "If you are in any difficulty or require expert advice at any time, on almost any problem, you cannot do better than contact my very dear friend, Julius Crighton. He is known locally as Crighton Bey, but I knew his grandmother - the Countess of Dorian - when she was a girl, and he has only a very little Egyptian blood in his veins. But the little he has is good - his mother was the Princess Shaif, a great beauty who married Roger Crighton. Such a pity he doesn't remember either his fattier or his mother, because they died when he was quite young."

  The letter concluded by recommending her to "discover Egypt" before settling down to live her own life, urged her to remember that you get from life precisely as much as you put into it, and expressed regret that they had never met. It was signed Romilly Styles, and gave Romilly a quite extraordinary feeling because the signature, although cramped, was almost a faithful copy of her own. In fact hers might have been modelled on her great-aunt's.

  She re-read the letter several times before getting into bed. She had only remembered that Mr. Yusuf had handed it
to her when she was undressed and ready for bed, and now she sat on the side of the bed nearest the window, through which she could see the stars sparkling like gems in a tiara away up in the dark canopy of the sky, and wondered what perverse trick of fate was responsible for her not having an opportunity to read it before she blotted her copybook, almost certainly once and for all, where Mr.

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  Julius Crighton - or Crighton Bey as he was known locally

  -was concerned. If only he had had the sense to make it quite clear to her who he was then she wouldn't have been quite so rude to him! Grandson of a countess and son of a princess! No wonder he had such an air of being completely sure of himself. ... And no wonder, when she saw him for the first time at the feet of the Sphinx, she thought the two of them had a sort of affinity. She went to bed at last determined to send him a short note of apology once she had found out where he lived, but she didn't expect he would acknowledge it. But not merely did he acknowledge it " Kalim having overcome his reluctance to so much as discuss him and supplied her with his Cairo address - it was accompanied by a huge box of the highly expensive chocolates she had been gazing at when he surprised her in the patisserie where he also bought her a cup of coffee. When she had untied the ribbon and studied the contents with pleasure-filled eyes (for how was it possible he had guessed that she disliked hard centres and had a positive weakness for violet and rose creams, with a sprinkling of lime, lemon and orange to provide variety?) she felt extraordinarily gratified. It was plain that he had accepted her apology, and when next they met it would be without the embarrassment of their last meeting to hinder the establishment of a more friendly relationship. And if it was true that he was always willing to be of some sort of assistance she might consult him about the ultimate disposal of the Eye of Love - once she had tracked it to its hiding-place, which she had not so far done. And about the sale of so many of the things inside the villa which she would ultimately have to part 44

  gwith, although constant re-reading of the great-aunt's letter