“We would be honoured,” he said.
It was settled. Mrs Bennet would remain at the camp with Beth and Margaret, while the rest of the party would explore some of Sir Matthew’s more recent excavations with Saeed as their guide.
The women put on their hats and pulled their veils down over their faces; then, donning their gloves and picking up their parasols, they declared themselves ready.
The sand had been trodden down into a path by the passing of many feet, and on the way they passed fellahs leading donkeys laden with sand and rubble. They came at last to a great hole in the ground and the children ran in and then out again, laughing and shivering at the same time, while Saeed smiled to see their horrified glee.
Elizabeth and Sophie folded their parasols and went down into the gaping hole, looking about them with interest, while Paul brought up the rear, his sketchbook never out of his hand.
Saeed told them about the excavation as they proceeded, and they spent an hour wandering through the damp darkness. Rats and mice scurried in horrid little corners, and Elizabeth was convinced she saw a bat once, although Saeed assured her there were no bats in the tunnels. They all carried a lamp, which thrilled Laurence. He kept swinging his backward and forward, insisting he could see ghosts and almost once setting fire to a workman’s clothes. After that, Elizabeth had to insist he give up his lamp or be escorted back to the surface.
Paul was fascinated by the friezes that the workmen had uncovered, and he scribbled feverishly throughout their tour. Elizabeth could tell he was desperate to return when not encumbered by his employer’s family. As he rushed to take as many notes as possible, covering his sketchbook with quick sketches and at the same time pointing out the colours and shapes of the ancient Egyptian artists, he did not neglect Sophie and he explained to her what he was doing and why he was doing it. Every now and then he ran his hand through his hair, rumpling it most attractively and flashed a smile at Sophie, who responded with a smile of her own.
Finally they returned to the surface, with Saeed promising Laurence he could return tomorrow and telling Paul he would arrange another visit with more lighting that evening, thankfully out of Laurence’s earshot. They all blinked, finding the daylight too strong after the dark of the tunnels, but by and by their eyes adjusted and Paul offered Sophie his arm as they set off back to the camp.
Elizabeth changed for dinner and joined her mother and Sophie in the shade, where she listened with fond affection to an account of Beth and Margaret’s day.
The sun was setting low on the horizon when John and Laurence came running toward Elizabeth with the news that they could see a caravan of camels heading for the camp: the men had finally returned. As soon as Elizabeth saw Darcy’s face she knew the day had not gone well. Shepherding the children into her mother’s care, Elizabeth joined him in their tent.
“You look tired, my love,” she said by way of a greeting.
“I am,” Darcy replied wearily. “We seemed to have covered hundreds of miles over endless dunes in search of nothing more substantial than mist, and yet still Edward insists the tomb exists. I wonder…”
“Yes?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Never mind, you have time to undress and rest before dinner. You seem to have brought most of the desert into the tent with you. What hope is there for Jane and Laurence when they have two such untidy parents!”
Coaxing and soothing him, she bade the servants bring cool water in a bowl, for once refusing the assistance of Darcy’s manservant, and gradually, under her calm ministrations, his weariness faded. Finally he lay back on a rough canvas chair and smiled at her.
“Are you rested now, love?” she said, handing him a drink.
“Yes. You always know how to make me feel better.”
“Not always,” she said.
“When it counts. It is not your fault I have a young fool for a cousin, though luckily he is saddle sore and intends to remain in the camp tomorrow. Which means that you and I can return to the oasis and have the picnic I promised you.”
By the following morning, Darcy’s uneasiness over Edward’s obsession had evaporated. The sky was blue, the air was clear, and Elizabeth was looking enchanting. Her spirits had bloomed with the novelty of their trip, and he had never seen her looking lovelier. Her somewhat jaded air of the previous winter had given way to a new vitality, and the splendid sights and sounds of the pyramids and oases had rejuvenated their marriage, giving them some welcome opportunities to be alone.
Leaving the rest of the camp sleeping, they set out for the oasis. Elizabeth felt the warmth of the early morning sun on her face and the strong presence of Darcy behind her as they left the camp, riding on a camel. She was now used to the strange gait of the animal and felt safe on its back, enjoying the view it gave her of the rolling sand dunes. In England it would probably be raining, and the colours would be a dreary green and an even drearier grey, but in Egypt the sun shone down from a bright blue sky, turning the sand to gold.
“This is the real treasure,” she said as she looked about her. “I do not believe that any jewels could be better than this.”
Darcy’s arm tightened around her waist and he kissed the back of her neck.
“Or this,” he said.
She leaned back against him, delighting in his nearness and in the feel of his breath blowing cool across her neck. When they had first married, they had often gone out alone, with Darcy delighting to show her the extensive grounds of Pemberley and then, later, the Derbyshire countryside. Together they had explored the wild moors, with their rocky outcrops and rough grasses—a countryside which was completely different from the pleasant Hertfordshire countryside where Elizabeth had grown up. They had ridden down small country lanes and climbed low, dry stone walls. They had walked across wide acres of turf, finally sinking down into swathes of glorious purple heather to kiss and caress and talk.
They had wound their way through woods full of bluebells and picked their way across bubbling streams, and they had climbed to the moors’ summit and looked across at the vast spread of the landscape and then down at the small villages that nestled in the hollows.
But never had they been anywhere as entrancing as Egypt.
And yet, for all the strangeness of the landscape, Elizabeth felt something of the same sensations, for she was once more exploring an alien world with her husband, and only with her husband.
She put up her hand to stroke his cheek, revelling in the sensation of being alone with him. He took it and held it, kissing the back of it and then turning it over and kissing the palm. She leaned back against him and his arm went around her.
“I have missed this,” she said to him. “At home, our lives are full of other people.”
“Yes, they are,” he agreed.
“It is not that I am not grateful. I know we could not run Pemberley without such a large staff or maintain the grounds without an army of gardeners, and I know how lucky we are to have such a large circle of friends and family, but…”
“But sometimes it seems as though we are caught up in a swirl of people from whom we cannot escape?” he asked.
“That is it exactly.”
She thought of all their duties and responsibilities at home, most of which fell upon Darcy’s shoulders, but many of which fell upon her own. She was the first lady of the neighbourhood, and scarcely a day went by without an appeal of some kind: someone asking her to speak to her husband about preferment for their son or nephew or brother or a woman in the village who needed her help. Always someone and something, so that sometimes she did not see Darcy from morning ’til night, at least not without a whole host of other people present.