“Well, you have had your adventure now, my love,” said Darcy, kissing her forehead gently. Elizabeth grimaced.
“This was not what I had in mind all those months ago at Pemberley,” she admitted. “If ever I seem inclined to wander again from the safety of my home, remind me of this.”
She glanced around at the ever encroaching darkness. The torch was gradually dimming, and she was sure she had heard the soft scurrying of rats—or something else she did not even want to think about.
Darcy laughed. “Even if I did, it would do no good. It will take more than this to dim your spirit. In a few months time it will be Christmas, and we will be shivering with the cold and you will be wishing yourself back in the desert,” he replied.
“We will be celebrating with a great fat goose in front of a roaring fire,” said Elizabeth, taking new heart from the cheerful thought. “And I may pine for the heat of the desert, but I can assure you I will never pine for this soft dampness oozing into my bones.”
“I must agree with you on that—” Darcy began, but then they heard Edward’s voice, attempting a loud whisper.
“What is it, Edward?” Darcy leaned forward and stared down.
He could just see Edward’s white, strained face.
“It’s Sophie,” he said in concern. “I think she is delirious.”
Elizabeth leaned over.
“It must be the heat. Do you need more water, Edward?” she asked.
They had thrown down one of the two canteens they had left after Wickham had gone. There was very little left in their own now, but if it would help Sophie, she would gladly give it.
“I think it might help.”
Elizabeth threw down the canteen, and Darcy included Edward in their conversation to take the young man’s mind off the fears of the present. But Darcy couldn’t stop himself at last from looking at his pocket watch. It was only just after two in the afternoon and he very much feared the torches would not last much longer. And then all five of them would be sitting in the pitch black.
***
“I cannot see how she could have come so far,” Saeed said for the fifth time in ten minutes.
Beth said nothing. Seated atop the camel, with William behind her, she looked back from where they had come. The camp was nowhere to be seen.
“She could be anywhere now,” Saeed added. “I wonder if perhaps we should return to—”
“We should go to the tomb,” said Beth.
“I doubt very much that Miss Margaret will be there, Miss Darcy,” Saeed said politely. “It is a long way away and she has no idea—”
“No doubt you are right, Mr Massri, and at any other time I’m sure I would agree with you. But my sister Jane said that Margaret mentioned the tomb and that is where she will be going,” Beth said clearly.
There was a silence. It seemed ludicrous that a little girl out on her own walking across a desert would have any idea how to reach the tomb. But eventually even Saeed nodded.
“It is as good a place as any to look,” he said at last.
Chapter 16
The torches were very near the end of their life. Darcy could see there was hardly anything left to fuel them and even from twelve feet away he could hear Sophie moaning.
“It will not be much longer now, Edward,” Darcy shouted down to him. “Very soon Sir Matthew will be coming through the tunnel entrance with a hundred fellahs.”
“I pray you are right, Darcy,” Edward replied. “Sophie’s colour is ghastly and she will not drink even though she looks parched.”
From above they saw him try to press the canteen to Sophie’s lips, to no avail. The light from Edward’s torch was almost gone, and things looked bleak.
“We have to do something,” said Elizabeth. “If we look around, perhaps we can find something…”
“Yes,” said Paul, even though they had looked around several times already and found nothing of use.
Elizabeth began searching again, but before long, the final flames flickered and died on the torch beside them. A few moments later they lost sight of Edward too, as his torch went out, and they were all plunged into darkness.
“Edward!” Darcy shouted.
“I am still here, cousin, but talk to me, please. I feel very alone down here. And as for Sophie… If anything happens to her, Darcy, I will never forgive myself.”
“None of this is your fault,” said Darcy.
“No?” said Edward. “I lied to you and deceived you, luring you into a trip that could very well end your life, and I have no idea why I did it. I was like a man possessed. I—”
“What was that?” Darcy cut across him.
“What?” Elizabeth strained her ears, immediately alert as she felt a change in him.
“Listen. Again. There, do you hear it?” Darcy asked.
“I hear it,” said Paul, in a voice full of hope.
Elizabeth strained her ears. “I hear nothing—” she began, and then she stopped. At first it seemed as though there was the scratching of some tiny creature, and then the noises seemed to grow.
“It’s someone calling your name, Darcy. A voice, calling for—”
“Papa! Papa! Where are you?” came the sudden pure voice of a little girl, cutting through the blackness around them.
“Meg? Is that you?” Darcy shouted in astonishment, and as he turned to the sound of his youngest daughter, there was the faintest flicker of light in the distance near the tunnel entrance, the warm welcome glow of an orange flame illuminating the darkness around them.
“Papa, where are you?”
Suddenly they heard other voices too, Beth and Saeed, and although they could barely believe it, William was there as well. Within minutes there were several torches bobbing and weaving their way down the tunnel into the tomb.
“Edward, we are saved!” Paul cried.
“Thank the Lord,” came the heartfelt reply from below.
“Beware of the moat!” cried Elizabeth to the children.
Darcy and Elizabeth turned their backs on Edward’s pit and went toward the bobbing lights, stepping carefully so that they did not stumble and keeping their eyes on their feet so that they did not fall down the moat themselves.
“What happened, Mama? Why are you and Papa standing here in the dark?” asked Beth.
“And where are the donkeys?” asked William.
“More to the point, what are you doing here?” asked Elizabeth, her fear turning to anger once she saw they were safe. “And why did you bring Margaret with you? She is far too young to be here.” For Margaret was sitting on the edge of the moat.
“We had to come. Margaret wandered out of the camp and we followed her here,” Beth said.
“Is that so?” asked Darcy. “Children, I am proud of you.”
Elizabeth was about to protest when she caught the glow on William’s face as he heard his father’s words and her angry words died on her lips.
Darcy is right, she thought. He is not a little boy anymore. And look at Beth, a young woman almost. And both of them sensible and intelligent. And so she put her fears and admonition aside and said, “Your father is right. You are a credit to us.”
“I’m glad we found you, Papa,” sighed Meg. “Aahotep said I helped her find the tomb so that she could say she was sorry to Ammon and Husn, and so she was going to help me to find you and Mama before she went to her rest. She used to be very bad but she’s not very bad anymore, she’s just tired and sorry and she’s glad you’re safe.”