by Pamela Kent
them, but Romilly had to be rescued by a young man she
had noticed on several occasions staring at her rather hope
fully, and she discovered he was a young American doing
a world tour. His name was Martin Allerton, and he begged her to call him Marty, which he assured her all his family
and all his friends did at home, and impressed her very
favourably once they had had a little conversation and
felt they were getting to know one another because, despite
a slightly one-sided smile and sandy eyelashes, he had a
most engaging manner and a permanent smile in his light
blue eyes which appealed to her enormously.
When they got back to the ship they had tea together, and that night, after dinner, they sat together in the ob- servation lounge, and she told him all about her late Aunt Romilly and the legacy of the .House of the Seven Stars together with contents, and she could tell that he was very much intrigued, and it was quite plain that he admired the look of her in one of her attractive new evening dresses.
She even told him about the missing statuette, and that seemed to interest him still more.
"You've obviously been robbed since your arrival in Cairo, or else your aunt was robbed without knowing it before she died," he commented, when she had finished telling him all that there was to tell. "I don't think I've met your Mrs. Mortimer, but of course I've heard of her.... She's quite a beauty, isn't she? And Crighton Bey is well known locally. He's a collector of objets d'art and that sort of thing. Ybu say he broke into your house?" looking very much surprised.
"Yes."
She wasn't at all certain that she ought to have told him 76
this, but it was no more than the truth, and she still thought
it was rather an extraordinary thing for a man in the Bey's
position to have been guilty of.
"But he said he only did so because he wanted to make
absolutely certain the statuette was safe," she defended the
Bey hastily.
Martin Allerton's eyebrows rose in a questioning arch.
"But the statuette wasn't safe, was it?" he pointed out.
"And how do you know it wasn't perfectly safe -?"'
She looked at him, and realised what he was going to
say before he said it.
"Before he broke, into the house that night?" she said
as if she rejected the idea entirely. "Oh, no, he couldn't
possibly have taken it!" she declared with conviction.
"How do you know? "
"I don't know. But having met Mr. Crighton I'd be pre
pared to swear he's utterly incapable of robbing anyone of
anything." And although she had some excuse for entertaining a few doubts she knew very well that she meant
what she said. "For one thing, he's not that sort of man ..." And that was the truth, the whole truth.... He wasn't that sort of man! "And for another, he didn't really have the opportunity."
"And your aunt said in her letter that she trusted him absolutely."
"Probably with good reason."
"Oh, quite. But one would like to know a little more about the particular kind of reason that caused her to trust him so implicitly."
Romilly felt it wisest to let the subject of Julius Crighton drop, and she was sorry that she had mentioned him at all, for an aura of doubt seemed to have been created and was : settling like a cloud about the Bey's arrogant head. But Martin, who watched her frowning slightly, raised the sub
77
Ject of Ancient Egypt as a means of getting away from the subject of the Bey, and half an hour later they were still talking with unflagging interest about the land that obviously fascinated Them both to a far greater extent than it fascinated the ordinary tourist, and as Martin was something of an expert on the subject Romilly learned many things that she had not known before about the long line of Pharaohs that began with the Kings of the First Dynasty and went on through four thousand years to be overtaken by the Roman Conquest.
For the following day a visit to the tomb of the reformer king Akhenaten was arranged, and in order that she should miss nothing of importance on this trip Martin talked to her until the moon waned about the sun-worshipping king who was succeeded by the far better known Tutankhamen. Sitting on deck in the splendour of the starshine, while the ship rode at anchor and a radiant Nile stretched like a silver ribbon on all sides of them, Romilly drank in eagerly the words that dropped from her new friend's lips, and when on the following afternoon they trotted side by side on a couple of donkeys while the rest of the party, and the guide, went ahead of them, she felt she was" well prepared for the expedition on which she was embarked.
The one thing she was not prepared for was the slight eeriness of this journey through a sun-baked valley, and when Martin seemed disposed to lag behind to avoid what he termed "the mob", by whom he meant their fellow passengers and the usual escort of donkey-boys and vociferous Arabs who refused to be dispersed, she immediately made it clear to him that she had no desire to do anything of the kind, and hurried on after the others.
The tomb contained little that could really interest her after all, for the remains of the man who had been Egypt's first Socialist were no longer there, and although the wall
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paintings were interesting the whole atmosphere of the place affected her in a way she had not expected to he affected by such things. She began to realise that she pre
ferred the strong sunlight outside to the dimness of the tomb, and that she had yet to get used to this kind of thing -which no doubt one did in time, if their guide's programme was faithfully adhered to. After anoAer two or three days of this kind of sightseeing she would probably be immune to the strange, sinister silence and the cold that made her teeth chatter, although people like Martin Allerton were too impressed by everything they saw to be capable of such weaknesses.
Martin would have detained her after the others were ready to leave, in order to explain in detail the wall paintings, but she succeeded in being amongst the first to leave the tomb behind her, and was still feeling rather unlike herself and aware of goose-pimples on the backs of her arms, left unprotected by her short-sleeved dress, when a voice behind her caused her to whip round in utter astonishment and forget that only a moment before she had been eager
only to escape.
"You didn't seem to enjoy yourself down there just now," the voice said. And when she turned and looked into the eyes of Julius Crighton, wearing shorts and an opennecked silk shirt of a light khaki colour, very much like all the other male tourists, she could hardly believe the evidence of either her eyes or her ears.
They had left the shadows before the gate of the tomb, and the sunlight was shining like a white light all about them, and in its warmth Romilly was no longer afraid, although she still looked distinctly pale, and the Bey sur
: veyed her quizzically.
| "You don't seem to have the stomach for this sort of
t thing," he commented. "Why on earth did you have to
I-79 ��
have to make a trip of this kind if you lack all the right
qualifications for making it?"
"I don't know what you mean by the right qualifications," she replied, resenting the way the brilliant sunlight edged each slight wave of his dark hair and gave it a kind of iridescence, while he looked so healthily bronzed and so infinitely more attractive than any of the other men she had been journeying with for two days and nights that she felt her resentment increase because he was so superior to them. "I suppose I have as much right as anyone else to go in for a little sightseeing if I want to. And as I don't remember seeing you on the ship perhaps you'll explain how you come to be mixed up with me and my party?"
He smiled. He had the leisurely air of one who was really very relaxed and thoroughly enjoying himself, quite unlike herself.
"Of course.
Only it so happens I'm not mixed up with you and your party. I'm what you might say enjoying a solo trip, without the advantages or disadvantages of that highly locquadous guide of yours. Do you suppose he spends all his leisure moments mugging it up in order to impress people like you?"
"I'm not impressed," she returned swiftly, resenting more than ever that amused, condescending air of his. "And if you really must know I prefer to do my own 'mugging up' -" which wasn't strictly true - "on any subject which really interests me, and Ancient Egypt doesjnterest me."
"But you get goose-pimples when you go down into the tombs, and you looked as if you suspected I was the disembodied spirit of the Pharaoh himself when I spoke to you just now. What would you have done if I'd been a ghost ?"
"Don't be silly," she said, and turned to walk ahead of him back to the place where they had left the donkeys.
He followed and caught up with her just as she was
struggling to remount her donkey. He stood looking up at
her as she sat perched in a somewhat awkward manner on
the back of the animal, and she felt annoyed because she
was certain he was entertained by the knowledge that he had caught her at a disadvantage, and even in a trim .linen dress with immaculate accessories and a very smart white shoulder bag draped across the top of her smooth goldenskinned shoulder she looked as if she would rather be anywhere than where she was, and preferably standing beside
him on terra firma would appeal to her more.... Always
provided she was not forced to stand too close to him.
"As a matter of interest," he said, as if he was genuinely keen to receive her reply, "do you honestly enjoy this sort of thing? I know archaeology is in the blood, but a trip up the Nile in company with a bunch of people all full of curiosity but with very little knowledge is hardly the best way in which to see Egypt." "Can you suggest a better way?" she inquired, looking down at him coldly. "I could.... But I'm not so sure it would be the best way for you. And you've probably got other plans."
"Try me," she invited, with a slight, derisive smile curving the corners of her softly reddened mouth. "It could be that I haven't any plans at all!"
"You mean when you get to Luxor?" His eyes regarded htr quizzically, and as if for some reason he was trying to make up his mind about her. "And they throw you off the boat? Well, I presume you'll put up at a hotel for a few days - the sale of a few of your aunt's trinkets will pay for that! - and look at a few antique shops, pay a vi"it to the Valley of the Kings, and then go home. First to Cairo and then England!"
"You sound as if you want to get rid of me."
. He shrugged his shoulders, and his obvious indifference
annoyed her.
"My dear Miss Styles," he told her coolly, "your decisions are your own affair, aren't they? You'd be the first to remind me of that if I made any suggestions."
"But still, I've a feeling Aat you could make a suggestion ..."
She saw Martin Allerton approaching them with quickened steps, and realising that he was annoyed because he had temporarily lost her and would almost certainly lay claim to her afresh as soon as he reached her, despite the presence of Julius Crighton, she spoke hurriedly to the Bey.
"You haven't answered my earlier question about how you come to be here," she reminded him. "If you're not actually following me around what are you doing."
"I'm not following you around." For an instant his eyes went very cold indeed, and a little bleak, as if she had actually trespassed. "And I don't make trips up the Nile in flat-bottomed boats! ... But I have a perfectly legitimate excuse for being where I am."
"Oh'"she said.
"I have a house not very far from here, and I'm on my way to it."
"Really?" she said. "Then you must be a kind of near neighbour of Mrs. Mortimer.... She has a house somewhere around here, too."
Crighton smiled contemptuously.
"We're not exactly on top of one another, if that's what you mean," he said. "In the desert travel is not as simple as it is in England, and we don't exactly bump into one another every time we do a round of our estates." He, too, had caught sight of Allerton hurrying along the track from the tomb, with a somewhat proprietorial eye on Romilly, and he spoke with slightly increased'speech, but no actual suggestion of urgency. "I'm rather inclined to suspect
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you've made a conquest on that boat! Is this chap coming to collect you? If he is, I'd better say what I want to say before he reaches us. Don't mention your aunt's affairs to anyone.... And if you're bored when you get to Luxor let me know. Just leave a message with the hall porter of your hotel and he will get it to me. Now I think I'll disappear before you have to introduce me to Aat fellow - almost certainly American by Ae look of him! - whoever he is."
He turned and disappeared between a couple of huge boulders, and by Ae time Allerton stood beside her, looking up at her wiA a mildly perplexed air, as well as a good deal of curiosity, Aere was no sign of him in Ae silent, deserted valley, or any suggestion Aat he had actually stood beside her in the flesh.
But Ae fact Aat he had stood beside her, and Aat he was real, was proved by Ae American's somewhat peevish question, as he struggled to mount his own donkey, which had been left tied up with hers beside the track.
"Who was Aat fellow I saw you wiA just now? And
why has he disappeared ? "
"I don't know why he disappeared, but his name is Julius
Crighton. I've mentioned him to you."
He looked astounded.
"That chap! What's he doing here?"
"Again, I don't know."
"But he looked as if he had a good deal to say' to you,
You seemed to be chattering away quite animatedly when I
first caught sight of you. Is he Ainking of boarding Ae
ship and finishing Ae trip wiA us ? "
At that Romilly had to laugh. For she found it quite
impossible to imagine Julius Crighton joining Ae Arong of
passengers aboard Ae river steamer. WiA his arrogance and
his air of contempt for all lesser creatures he would stick
out raAer like a sore thumb in the midst of Ae band of
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obvious tourists, most of whom were "doing" Egypt as they
were doing Ae rest of the world, for no particular reason
oAer Aan Aat it seemed a good idea to allow. Aemselves
to be separated from large sums of money - Ae larger Ae better when their bank-rolls were very swollen - in order
to impress their neighbours when they got back home.
Allerton looked as if he failed to understand why she was laughing, and was not at all pleased because she showed no sign of enlarging on what she had already said.
"Well, it seems pretty extraordinary to me Aat he should turn up in a place like Ais for no particular reason," he
exclaimed. "He looked extraordinarily immaculate, too, from the little I saw of him. How did he manage Aat, I wonder? There are no hotels oAer Aan a flea-bitten inn nearer Aan our next port of call down the river, to my certain knowledge.... Do you suppose he travels about wiA a personal valet and a kind of private safari outfit? If so, I don't see any sign of it," protecting his eyes with his hand against Ae glare and searching Ae barren desert Aat extended on all sides of Aem.
"Perhaps he's got a private hideaway amongst Ae rocks," she suggested flippantly, and concentrated on persuading her donkey to take a few steps forward instead of backwards, a tendency it seemed determined to develop
But despite Ais she felt extraordinarily lighAearted, as if her brief conversation wiA Crighton had done her a world of good after the sobering effect her visit to Ae nearby tomb had had on her. And not only had she felt depressed and even nervous after Ae visit to the tomb, but she had actually felt as if it had cast a shadow upon her.... Now fortunately lifted simply as a result of seeing Crighton!
She decided to change the subject of conversati
on and discussed instead Ae evening ahead of Aem. Somebody
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had told her Aat Aere was to be a dance on board that night, and she was quite looking forward to it. She would wear Ae dress she had worn for Leah Mortimer's fancydress party - minus, of course, Ae scarlet domino and Ae mask - and if Ae night was as perfect as it threatened to be it would be someAing quite exciting to remember.
Dandng once more under Ae Egyptian stars, wiA Ae palm-clad banks of Ae Nile dark and mysterious in Ae light of the rising slice of silver moon!
If only Martin Allerton refrained from making love to her, as he had tried to do on one or two occasions since Aey met, it would be quite memorable.
But Martin Allerton did try and make love to her, and it definitely spoiled her evening. She didn't quite know why, since he was really very personable, and a very pleasant person once one got to know him.... But perhaps Aat was Ae trouble. Having got to know him, she realised Aat he was likely to become very serious about her, and as she was never in Ae least likely to become serious about him it was as well that Ae affair should be treated lightly.
But still it puzzled her ... why she was so certain she could never become seriously interested in Martin.
It wasn't as if there was anyone else.... Only a pair of broodingly handsome dark eyes and an exdting and unusual masculine mouA and beautifully shaped jawline that were inclined to haunt her!
The rest of Ae trip to Luxor passed in a pleasant enough manner, wiA constant visits ashore to inspect remains and tombs and memorials, and a lot of information passed on to her by Ae, guide which she valued since he seemed to single her out as the most likely one amongst the passengers to be likely to remember it after Ae ship tied up at Luxor.
She had some difficulty in persuading Allerton to say good-bye to her when Ae moment arrived to say farewell 85
to all Ae oAer passengers, but as he was staying at Ae
great Winter Palace Hotel, and she simply couldn't afford a hotel of ,that class, it was reasonably easy when Ae mo
ment arrived at last.
"But I'll see you again ... don't you Aink I won't!" Martin warned her, as he hung on to her hand. "And very soon! I wish I could persuade you TO try Ae Palace.... It's Ae only decent hotel in Ae place."