“Am I allowed to know what the surprise is?” she asked, as she took a sip of the hot coffee.
“No. Not yet,” he said. “But I will tell you why you are having it today, or at least, I will remind you. Do you know what day it is today? Or, I should say, date?”
“The twelfth. Oh!” she said with a broad smile. “The twelfth of October.”
“Yes, the twelfth of October. The day we met. Sixteen years ago, we were at the Meryton assembly in Hertfordshire, and little did we know it but our lives were about to change. I was feeling irritable because Bingley had dragged me there against my wishes, and I was not in a mood to enjoy a country entertainment…”
“…or to give consequence to a young woman who had been slighted by other men!” said Elizabeth.
“No, I was not,” he said with a rueful smile.
“And I was not feeling very cordial toward you for disdaining my charms. No woman likes to think she is not handsome enough to tempt a man to dance, though I managed to laugh about it with my friends.”
“What a fool I was,” he said, kissing her. “To think I almost missed the best part of my life because of my pride, my arrogance, and my conceit. But fortunately, I realised what a fool I had been before it was too late and claimed you as my own. And now I want to give you something to celebrate our first meeting. I have given it a great deal of thought, because I wanted it to be something different, not the usual gifts of jewels—”
“Although the Pemberley jewels are magnificent,” said Elizabeth appreciatively.
“—but something unique. I was hoping we would arrive here in time for this day and knew that we would if all our plans went well. And now that we have, we can celebrate in a special way.”
Elizabeth put down her cup, closed her eyes, and held out her hand for the gift.
“Oh, no,” he said with a laugh. “It is not so easy this time, no small box I can hand to you, nor even a horse waiting outside for you when you draw back the curtains.”
She smiled, remembered one of his larger gifts, and opened her eyes again.
“This time, you cannot just receive it, you have to work to get it.”
She was intrigued but could not resist teasing him. “Ah, I see how it is. I knew you would tire of me in the end. Now I am to work for my presents; how long before you send me out to work for my pin money? Perhaps Lady Catherine would let me scrub the floors at Rosings!”
He kissed her on the tip of her nose and said, “Get up.”
She pushed the covers back and climbed out of the makeshift bed. There was already water in the bowl standing beside it, a luxury in the desert, and one which she knew must have taken some trouble to arrange. She washed gratefully in the cool water and then dressed, throwing a cloak around her shoulders and settling a bonnet on her head before venturing out of the tent.
The guards’ silhouettes could be seen not far away, but everything was peaceful, with no threat of disturbance.
“Where are we going?” she said. She looked into the distance. “Is it far?”
“Not in terms of length, but in terms of height,” he said. “We are going up.”
“Up?”
She craned her neck and looked up at the towering pyramid, at whose base they had made camp, and then back at him.
“Yes. We are going to climb the pyramid.”
“We are?” she asked, a shade doubtfully.
“We are,” he said firmly. “Unless it is too much for you?”
Elizabeth could not resist the challenge and took his arm as together they walked to the base of the pyramid. The sides were made of great blocks of stone, arranged in a steplike pattern leading to the top, but once again she looked at it somewhat doubtfully, for each block was almost as high as her waist. Nevertheless, she was beginning to catch Darcy’s enthusiasm, and mingled in with it was an enthusiasm of her own. What a chance to do something different! And what a view they would have from the top. And then she realised… “Oh!” she said ecstatically. “We are going to watch the sun rise.”
She felt a surge of pure joy at the thought. Her tiredness was forgotten as she took his hand and together they began to climb the pyramid.
“Now I know how the children felt when they were toddlers and they tried to climb the staircase at Pemberley!” she joked as she put her hands on the next step and managed to scramble her way up by dint of jumping and pulling herself up with her arms at the same time.
Darcy reached down his hand and helped her up the next stepped level.
“How did the ancient workmen manage to build such a thing?” she asked.
“It took a lot of labour and a lot of rollers. I have been talking to Sir Matthew,” he said, “and he has made a study of it. Luckily we do not have to build it, only to climb it!”
“And that is difficult enough,” said Elizabeth.
But she was not complaining. She found the exercise exhilarating, and the knowledge that she was climbing farther and farther to the top spurred her on.
They stopped to look about them and enjoy the beauty of the scene as the darkness gradually lessened and became less impenetrable. The desert lost its amorphous look and began to reveal its contours, and the outlines of the buildings in Cairo were dimly visible in the waning moonlight, their minarets showing as black silhouettes against the sky.
Having caught their breath, they set off again for the summit. The air began to grow warmer and Elizabeth climbed with renewed vigor when she saw that the top was within reach. With a burst of effort, she climbed the last few blocks and stood upright at the apex. She felt a huge sense of achievement and was flooded with a sense of wonder as she realised that dawn was on its way.
She spun slowly, drinking in the wonderful view. She could see for miles, and she came to rest again facing the east. There was a mist over the plains, but it could not obscure the spectacular sight as the sun began to rise. Bands of orange light suffused the sky, warming the diaphanous clouds, and at their centre was the very top of the sun’s molten disk as it began to rise above the horizon. It seemed to grow as she watched it, and the light intensified as it spread its rays ever wider, illuminating the desert and driving the chill from the air. She turned again, slowly, as the mist began to clear, unveiling a majestic view. To the south she could see a collection of smaller pyramids, their sand-coloured sides warming to tawny in the orange light, and to the west was the endless desert, its billowing dunes turning golden before her eyes. She turned slowly again to the north and looked out across fertile lands, with the Nile descending toward the sea. And turning again to the east she saw Cairo sparkling in the strengthening sunlight, the gold light of morning gleaming on its numerous minarets. Beyond Cairo lay the plains, lushly populated with groves of palm trees, and far off in the distance were the mountains.
“Well?” he asked softly. “Was it worth it?”
“Oh, yes,” she nodded, glancing at him before looking back at the wondrous view. “A thousand times yes. We will remember this for the rest of our lives.”
He put his arms around her waist and she turned to face him, and they kissed in the early morning sunlight as if it was the first time.
***
In Cairo, the rest of the party was having a more conventional start to the day. With the children soon whisked away by their tutors and Mrs Bennet declaring that she had had enough of the sun and that she intended to write some letters, Sophie suddenly found herself with nothing to occupy her. This was such an unusual state of affairs that she could not, to begin with, think what to do about it. At home she was constantly in demand either by her parents, her married brothers and sisters, or the vicar and his wife, since everyone thought that an unmarried woman could have no plans of her own and would be glad of any occupation.