Whispers In The Sand Part 12

Louisa turned to Ha.s.san. 'Tomorrow,' she whispered.

He bowed again. 'Naharak sa'id, Sitt Louisa. May thy day be happy.'

Augusta ushered Louisa towards the table. 'I trust Ha.s.san is ashamed of himself. Allowing anyone to reach your cabin like that!' She seemed irritated by the incident of the night before rather than sympathetic. 'I hope he will see that it does not happen again!'

'Ha.s.san is my dragoman,' Louisa put in gently. 'Not my keeper. But I am sure that he, like all the crew, would die to keep us safe.' She paused a moment to allow the rebuke to sink in, then she went on. 'Tomorrow I shall go out with him again. I want to make a trip to see the temple at Philae. I should like to do a series of paintings of the ruins there. I believe they are very special and truly beautiful, set as they are on an island.'

Augusta shuddered. 'I know these places are much admired. But really, they are so large and so vulgar!' She sniffed. 'Nasty heathen 154.

G.o.ds!' She saw Louisa's expression and shrugged. 'I am sorry, my dear. I know you don't agree. You will have to allow me my sensitive nature.' She helped herself to a large portion of bread and cut a slice of crumbly white cheese. 'Anyway, I am glad you are not proposing to go anywhere today. Sir John has sent a message for the consul to come to the boat to hear our complaint about the thief last night.'

'But Augusta!' Louisa was horrified. 'We have no clues as to who they were, no evidence -'

'We have the evidence of your eyes, my dear. That is sufficient!' Augusta glanced up and raised an imperious eyebrow as Ha.s.san appeared in the doorway. 'What is it?' She put a lump of bread in her mouth.

'Lord Carstairs, Sitt Forrester. He wishes to speak with you and with Sitt Louisa.' They could see the tall figure of their visitor behind Ha.s.san in the doorway. Augusta swallowed her mouthful hastily and, fl.u.s.tered, raised her napkin to her lips. 'Oh dear! And here we are, not properly dressed to receive guests and Sir John still in bed!' She glanced at Louisa's shawl and then down at her own simple skirt and pale blouse.

There was no time to demur. Lord Carstairs was already bowing to them, dismissing Ha.s.san with a gesture of his hand.

'So, I trust you enjoyed our trip to the obelisk yesterday,' he said at last to Louisa when Augusta finally drew breath after her lengthy description of Louisa's ordeal the night before. When told that the scent bottle had been stolen then miraculously returned Louisa had seen him frown sharply, then relax, seemingly unperturbed. He made no further mention of the matter and when, after he had received a cup of coffee from the servant he turned to her again, it was with a question. 'Are you planning any more sightseeing, Mrs Sh.e.l.ley?'

Louisa was about to deny any plans when Augusta jumped in. 'Indeed she is, Lord Carstairs. She is planning to go to Philae. Perhaps you're going there yourself?'

Louisa gritted her teeth against the retort she wanted to make. There was no point in being rude to her hostess who no doubt meant well. Instead she rose to her feet. 'I should certainly like to go there if there is time.' She managed what she hoped was a 155.

gracious smile. 'Maybe on our way back downriver after we have been to Abu Simbel? And I understand from the reis that he will take some two or three days to negotiate the cataract. Maybe I shall take the opportunity to leave the boat then and go on ahead. There is plenty of time to decide.' She nodded to them both. 'Please, Lord Carstairs, don't get up. Forgive me but there are letters I have to write this morning if they are to catch the steamer before we set off.'

Leaving the saloon with perhaps more haste than decorum she made her way to her own small cabin and threw open the door.

The knock on the door made Anna jump out of her skin. She glanced at her wrist.w.a.tch. It was after midnight. Putting down the diary she climbed out of bed. 'Who is it?'

'It's Andy. I am sorry it's so late. I need to talk to you.'

She frowned, then reluctantly she turned the key and opened the door.

Andy eyed her thin cotton nights.h.i.+rt and the long expanse of her tanned legs and grinned. 'I hope you weren't asleep.' He glanced at the bed where the bedside light and the discarded diary told their own story.

'No, I wasn't asleep.' Anna was still holding the door. She made no move to invite him in. 'I think you've said enough for one night, Andy. What is so important that it couldn't wait until morning?'

'It's the diary. It's worrying me. I wanted to offer to look after it for you. I am sorry, Anna, but I really don't trust Toby Hayward. I have a feeling he might try and either persuade you to give it to him, or he might just take it.'

'That is a ludicrous idea! How dare you suggest such a thing!' Anna took a deep breath. 'Andy, it's my diary and what I do with it is really none of your business.' 156 They were talking in whispers, aware that everyone else on the boat was asleep. The corridor outside her cabin was lit only by a small lamp at the end by the staircase.

She took a deep breath. 'Now please go. Leave me alone.'

He looked at her, a half-calculating expression in his eyes. In a moment it was veiled. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you.' He stepped back and as if as an afterthought he put his hand out and gently touched her bare arm. 'Anna, I'm only worried because I care.' Before she realised what he was doing he reached out and caught her to him and almost apologetically he pressed a light kiss on her lips, then he released her. With the quick boyish smile of one who is confident he will be forgiven if he looks sufficiently contrite, he blew a second kiss and turned away.

Anna closed the door and leant against it, her eyes closed. Her heart was thumping unsteadily and without knowing she had done it she touched her lips with her fingers. She was a ma.s.s of conflicting emotions. Anger was still there, top of the list. Whatever this vendetta was that Andy was waging against Toby it made her uncomfortable not least because of her own suspicions. But then there was surprise, gratification and, she had to admit, pleasure. Andy was an attractive man and his kiss might have been nice but for the beer. At the same time she had a slight, treacherous suspicion that he knew it and that he had taken advantage of her.

Moving away from the door at last she picked up the diary again and looked at it thoughtfully. Just how valuable was this book?

Ha.s.san had brought the felucca against the side of the larger boat in the soft, pre-dawn darkness. She could see the gleam of his white teeth in the shadows of his face as he smiled at her and put his finger to his lips conspiratorially. Silently she handed him her painting things and her bundle of clothes and shoes. Her feet like his were bare and silent on the wooden boards.

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As she climbed over the side she felt his strong brown hands grip her waist and a shock of excitement knifed through her as he lifted her off the ladder and down into the boat. Then he had guided her to her seat and released her. Quietly he cast off the rope and steered the felucca out of the lee of the dahabeeyah and into the main channel. The river was totally silent.

She had lain awake most of the night. Long after dark the noise of Aswan had drifted across the water towards them and she could hear music and drums, laughter and shouting, all the noises of the eternal Arab town together with the smells of animals and the cooking from the neighbouring boats. Then as the night intensified before dawn the desert air freshened and at last it grew quiet.

Louisa found herself gazing apprehensively at the neighbouring boats, The Scarab, which housed Lord Carstairs and beyond it the Fieldings' Lotus. They lay in total darkness; there was no sound, even from the crew's quarters.

Neither of them spoke. The breeze died almost at once and they drifted to a halt as the current caught them and pushed them backwards. Quietly Ha.s.san picked up the large oars and s.h.i.+pped them. With a powerful sweep he turned the boat's nose back towards the south and drove it on as the dawn call of the muezzin from a distant minaret began to echo softly across the water.

It was a long time before he turned and drove diagonally towards the bank. As the felucca nosed in at last he smiled triumphantly. A boy was waiting for them with horses, three saddled and one carrying panniers.

'We will ride five miles up the side of the cataract.' Ha.s.san spoke normally now, well out of sound and sight of the Ibis. 'Then we find someone to take us across to the island.'

He watched as Louisa slipped on her shoes. Already the light was much stronger. The boy, barefoot and ragged, having stuffed all their baggage into the panniers on the pack horse had leapt onto his own mount and trotted ahead, the lead rein of the pack horse in his hand.

'You are worried, Sitt Louisa?' Ha.s.san helped her into her saddle and stood for a moment looking up at her.

She shook her head. 'I was afraid Lord Carstairs might see us and call me back to go with him. That was not what I wanted.'

'Then it shall not be. Inshallah!' He smiled and turned towards his own mount. 'And the bottle, Sitt Louisa? It is well hidden?' 1 58.So he too suspected that, once it was established that she had gone, someone might be inclined to search for it. She nodded. 'It is well hidden, Ha.s.san. It is in my paintbox.' The smallest of gestures towards the pack horse in front of them showed where deep inside her basket of painting things the little bottle nestled inside a carefully packed small box. 'Lord Carstairs will not find it. Nor will any river pirates.'

Ha.s.san swung into his saddle. 'And the djinni, Sitt Louisa? What of him?' She saw him make the sign against the evil eye.

She shrugged. 'We must pray that the djinn will not bother us, Ha.s.san, and that our prayers, yours and mine, will keep us safe.'

A dozen times during the course of their ride she wanted to stop, to sketch the cataract villages, the beauty of the river hurtling over the rocks; the carvings and drawings etched into the cliffs over thousands of years by pilgrims on their way to the temple of Isis, but he would not let her. 'On our return, Sitt Louisa. We can stop then. Or while the dahabeeyah is dragged up the cataract, then there will be plenty of time for you to draw everything.' He glanced behind them nervously but there was no sign of pursuit.

Once or twice they saw glimpses of the distant pillars of the temple as they grew near, then at last they were at the top of the falls where the river widened and calmed and they could see the island of Philae in front of them. They made their way towards the landing stage where they could hire a boat to take them out to the island and Ha.s.san began to unload the pack horse. Giving the boy a few piastres he bade him wait for their return and once more he began to row.

Louisa could not take her eyes off the island. The beauty of the temple, reflected in the still, deep-blue water was breathtaking. The contrasts were stunning. The yellow of the island where the desert came near the river; the intense blue of the water beneath the even bluer sky, the huge black rocks clumped around the island like sleeping monsters, the honey-coloured pillars and in the distance the eastern mountains which had taken on a purple hue in the heat haze.

Her transformation into the cooler, artistic lady painter had taken place this time in a secluded spot behind some rocks where the cliffs had come near the waters of the cataract. Now as Ha.s.san rowed her towards the landing place her hand trailed in the limpid water and her feet were bare once more. Her eyes were fixed on 159.

the columns of the temple. She had forgotten Carstairs and her fear that he might follow them.

'This place is called the Holy Island.' Ha.s.san rested on his oars for a moment. 'The heathen G.o.d Osiris was buried on the small island next to Pilak which is what we call Philae, and the priests would visit him from this great temple. People came from all over the ancient lands of Egypt and Nubia to pay homage to him and to Isis.'

'I believe it is still holy.' Louisa lifted her hand, trailing water droplets, to shade her eyes from the glare. 'Did you know that the wors.h.i.+p of Isis spread all over the world, even to England.'

Ha.s.san looked surprised. 'And the Christians allowed this?'

She shook her head. 'It was before the time of Christ, Ha.s.san. I suppose it was the Romans who brought her as their G.o.ddess from Egypt.' She paused, gazing at the scene. 'Even from here I can sense how sacred a spot this must have been. You can feel it still.'

They found a place to sit in the shade in the courtyard between two of the huge carved pillars which formed the great colonnade in front of the temple and she began to draw at once whilst Ha.s.san was still unpacking their belongings. Ha.s.san squatted on his haunches beside her when he had finished, content merely to watch and she became at once acutely aware of his presence near her. When she raised her eyes she found his fixed on her face. For a moment they stared at each other then Louisa looked away. Ha.s.san reached out and very gently touched her hand. She glanced at him again. 'Ha.s.san -' She found she couldn't speak.

He gave her his serious gentle smile and put his finger to his lips. There was nothing to say.

They stayed where they were for a long while. Slowly she became lost once more in what she was doing and it was several hours before she stopped at last and they began to eat the bread and cheese and hummus he had brought for their lunch.

Then it was time to explore. Even though Ha.s.san said they would be safe, before leaving her paints and sketchbooks Louisa extricated the scent bottle in its small box and tucked it into her skirt pocket with a small notebook and a pencil. Ha.s.san nodded. 'It is better always to have it with you.' He laughed. 'And my lady cannot be without her drawing book and her pencils. They too are part of her, are they not?'

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Slowly they wandered across the island, totally covered as it was by the temple and its attendant buildings and the ruins of a Coptic village which had been built there many hundreds of years before and then been abandoned. Here and there she stopped to make a quick sketch of a palm tree or a piece of wall as they made their way towards the delicately elegant Kiosk of Trajan, perched on the eastern edge of the island. Set against the stunning blue of the water and the stark barrenness of the rocks it was astonis.h.i.+ng in its grace and beauty after the heavy stateliness of the main temple with its square pylon. Louisa laughed in delight. 'I am going to have to paint this. As we saw it first. From the river. Or perhaps from down there, on the sh.o.r.e.'

Ha.s.san smiled indulgently. He had grown to enjoy seeing her so excited. 'Perhaps both. That's it! I must paint both. But we do not have much time if we are to go back to the Ibis tonight.'

'We can come again, Sitt Louisa. I see no signs of hurry from Sir John. I think he enjoys the excuse to linger. The reis tells me that he has rented the boat until the end of the season. We have a month or more before it grows too hot and we need to return to Luxor to travel north.'

'Then we shall come again. Can you feel the magic of this place, Ha.s.san? It is in the air all around us. More than in the other temples we have seen. This is special.'

She leant against a piece of fallen masonry and pulled off her straw hat to fan her face. As she did so her eyes fell on the dazzlingly bright sand of a small bay below them. A boat had been pulled up there and a man in European dress was standing beside it. He too had taken off his hat and he was mopping his face with a large handkerchief. He had deep-copper hair. Louisa stared at him through narrowed eyes then she let out a little cry of dismay. 'It's Carstairs!'

'No, Sitt Louisa, that is not possible.' Ha.s.san stepped closer to her, his eyes narrowed against the glare.

'It is.' Louisa felt a rush of anger and something not unlike fear. 'I was afraid he would do this! How dare he follow me!'

'But he cannot know you are here,' Ha.s.san protested. 'It must be chance that has brought him.'

'Don't say, Inshallah!' Louisa was infuriated. 'It is not the will of G.o.d that has brought him! It is his own intelligence. After all, the 161.

reis knew where we were going and Augusta told him yesterday in front of me that it was what I had planned! And they would both tell him anyway where I was if he asked, of course they would. They would think it the neighbourly, friendly thing to do and they are clearly dazzled by his rank and fortune.'

Ha.s.san raised an eyebrow. 'There is no need for us to see him, Sitt Louisa. This is a small island, but there are places to hide.'

'But he will have asked the boy who waits with the horses. He will have asked the man from whom we hired the boat, or the woman who was was.h.i.+ng her clothes on the beach or the children over there by the ruins. They will all have told him we are here. "Yes, my lord. They are here. Give us baksheesh and we shall take you to them!"' She was almost stamping her foot in her vexation.

Ha.s.san was staring at the sh.o.r.e, seemingly unworried, his face calm as usual. 'We will prove them all wrong. We will disappear into the shadows.'

She looked at him sharply. 'You're serious?'

'Of course. Come.' He held out his hand.

Without any hesitation at all she took it and they ran back the way they had come towards the great temple itself.

Ha.s.san swept all their belongings together into a pile and threw the Persian rug over them. 'See. There is no sign that a lady artist has been here. Merely a visitor who has gone to explore the ruins. Here, boy!' He beckoned a ragged urchin over and showed him a coin. The boy's eyes grew huge. 'This is for you if you guard our belongings. If a gentleman asks, you do not know whose they are and you have seen no lady here at all. Hear me?' Louisa watched the boy's face. She did not understand the quick stream of Arabic but the meaning was clear. If the boy did his job well there would be much more. A piastre changed hands. The larger coin went back into Ha.s.san's pocket. Louisa saw the boy watch it disappear and the emphatic way the child nodded. Moments later he was seated on top of the pile, his arms folded. Ha.s.san smiled. 'There are several groups of visitors going round the temple now, Sitt Louisa. This could belong to any of them. I promise you, the effendi will not search long.' Once more he took her hand. 'It is best if we go inside. There are a thousand pillars to hide behind, a hundred small chapels and corners and robing rooms. There are chambers within chambers and walls within walls. There are stairs which lead to the top of the pylon. He will not find us.' His face was alight with laughter.

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She couldn't help but laugh with him. Like two naughty children they ran into the shade of the colonnade and hid behind the pillars.

It was several minutes before Roger Carstairs appeared in the entranceway under the great outer pylon. He leant on his walking cane and surveyed the colonnades with enormous care, then slowly he moved forward.

It seemed to Louisa that he was making directly towards them. She caught her breath and felt the gentle pressure of Ha.s.san's hand on her arm. He smiled down at her and beckoned. Silently they slipped back into the shadows and made their way towards the inner entrance beneath the second great gateway.

Behind them Carstairs stopped in the middle of the courtyard and stared round. Louisa felt his eyes pa.s.s over them, then come back. She was sure he had seen them but after a moment he moved on, heading as they were for the inner pylon. A group of visitors moved into the bright sunlight for a moment and stood staring up at the huge relief of Neos Dionysos placing his sacrifices before Horus and Hathor. From behind her pillar Louisa saw Carstairs hesitate, scrutinising the women with care. After a few moments he moved on again, clearly satisfied his quarry was not amongst them. Feeling the touch of Ha.s.san's hand she turned away to follow him into the darker shade close to the wall and tiptoed with him towards the entrance.

She wasn't sure how they did it. It was as though he had thrown a cloak of invisibility over them both and now somehow they were inside, under cover of the other party without Carstairs seeing them. They left the others immediately and flitted across this smaller open court between the vast columns with their brightly painted capitals and on towards the hypostyle hall.

'Where is he now?' Louisa breathed as they waited. 'Can you see him near the entrance?'

Ha.s.san shrugged. 'We must wait to see what he does next. We do not want to be trapped by going further into the temple. Although it is darker, there are fewer ways out should he come after us.'

They waited, peering round the pillar, Louisa acutely aware that Ha.s.san's arm was touching hers, that his fingers brushed her fingers. She did not move away. Her heart was hammering in her chest, half from fear, half, she had to admit, from excitement.

She felt him move slightly, heard a pebble grate beneath his sandal on the paving slab as he peered out into the court. Carstairs 163.

had appeared beneath the archway and was once more standing staring round him. She held her breath; the fear was there again. She felt he could see them, or somehow sense them near him. His expression reminded her of a dog, every sense honed, poised ready to attack its prey.

As if afraid he could feel her gaze upon him she closed her eyes. Slowly she moved her head back and turned towards the doorway to the inner vestibule at the far end of the court. Beyond it lay the sanctuary.

When she opened her eyes she saw a figure was standing there watching her. He was tall. dressed in white, his dark aquiline face a shadowy blur. As she watched he began to move towards her, drifting over the rough paving slabs. His arms were crossed over his chest, but as he moved closer he unfolded them and reached out towards her.

She didn't realise she had screamed out loud until Ha.s.san pulled her against him, his hand across her mouth. 'Allahu Akbar; Allahu Akbar, AlIahu Akbar!' He had seen it as well. 'G.o.d is great; G.o.d is most great; G.o.d protect us.' He guided her steadily backwards towards the wall. 'Yalla! Go away! uns.h.i.+! Allahu Akbar! G.o.d save us from both the evil spirit and from the English effendi!'

She had closed her eyes again, trembling violently, aware of the steady beating of his heart beneath her ear, and the strength of his arm around her. The box in her pocket dragged against her hip as she walked. It seemed to her that it was growing hotter and heavier with every step. Her eyes flew open as with an exclamation of horror she broke away from him and fumbled in the soft gauzy cotton of the gown. She wasn't sure what she intended to do. Take it out. Throw it away. Hurl it towards the sanctuary perhaps. The tall figure was still there when she turned. It seemed to have come no closer but it was, if anything, more solid. She could see the details of the face now, the gold embroidery on his gown with the girdle at his waist and what looked like the tail of a leopard hanging to the ground.

'Dear G.o.d save us!' Her own whisper was barely audible as she shrank back into the shadows.

'In the name of the G.o.ds which you serve and of Isis your queen, be gone!'

The voice immediately beside them made Louisa gasp. She cowered back into Ha.s.san's arms.

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Carstairs was only a few feet from them now. His eyes were fixed on the apparition, his hand outstretched palm foremost. For a moment no one moved. Louisa had closed her eyes again. When at last she looked up the tall figure had vanished. In its place Carstairs was standing right in front of them, his face contorted with anger.

'So. You see the danger now of playing with matters you do not understand!' he said. 'I a.s.sume that as its keeper has shown himself here, you have the ampulla with you? It would be sensible to let me have it, I think.' He held out his hand.Neither Louisa nor Ha.s.san moved. Carstairs' face darkened. 'Let go of your mistress, you dog!'

Ha.s.san moved back without a word. His expression grew hard. Louisa's fright turned suddenly to blind fury. She pushed the box back into her pocket as she moved forward. 'How dare you speak to Ha.s.san like that! How dare you! He was protecting me. He takes the greatest care of me!'

She was aware of faces watching from the shadows. The party of Europeans glanced at them as they made their way towards the next vestibule and hurried forward. From the colonnade a group of Nubian faces, blacker than the shadows, watched with rounded eyes, then melted away out of sight.

'Then he has done his duty.' Carstairs' voice was even. He took a deep breath, visibly calming himself. 'The bottle please, Mrs Sh.e.l.ley. For your own safety.'

'I am perfectly safe with Ha.s.san, thank you Lord Carstairs.' Her eyes met his and held them. 'And the ampulla, as you call it, need not concern you. Nor need any superst.i.tions and visions you may have thought you saw. Whatever it was did not harm us.' She hoped he could not see how her hands were shaking as she hid them in the folds of her skirt. 'I came here on a whim to paint the temple. I did not feel I needed your permission, nor would I have dreamt of soliciting your company. I saw when we visited the obelisk how boring for you and the Fieldings was my desire to linger over the visit in order to draw and paint the views. I do better on my own!'

'How grateful for my intervention!' he sneered. 'Do you realise, Mrs Sh.e.l.ley, what would have happened had I not been here? Do you realise what would have happened had the priest Hatsek appeared?'

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There was a moment's silence. Louisa stared at him defiantly.

'The priest Hatsek?'