Whispers in the Sand (49 page)

Anna was staring dreamily into the distance. “Science versus romance. That seems somehow a very modern solution to the problem. Shall we read some more?”

Toby glanced at his watch and shook his head. “We promised Ibrahim we’d be back before sunset so he can cook for us and then go off duty. We could read it later.” He frowned. “Ibrahim knows the cobra is magic, doesn’t he? Look how he reacted when we asked him if the bottle was in the safe. Shall we tell him the story of how it got here?”

Anna nodded. “He is very wise. I think he knows quite a bit about this sort of thing; a lot more than he lets on.” She shivered. “I don’t know whether it’s better or worse to find the cobra was put there by a nineteenth-century occultist or by the priests themselves thousands of years before that.”

“I think that’s a technicality which is relatively unimportant at this stage.” Toby grinned. He sat up. “Egypt is a magic place. Its past is so much around all the time. Someone who knows what they are doing can probably summon things from the past very easily, be it priest or serpent. You said Serena nearly succeeded last night.”

Anna nodded. She drew her knees up to her chin, hugging them thoughtfully, her eyes on the distant, coffee-coloured hills.

“Come on.” Toby stood up and reached down for her hand. “Let’s go call a cab to take us back.”

She laughed. The ease with which they could summon a boat enchanted her. She watched as Toby gathered up their belongings and put them in his pack. “You do think Serena is genuine, then?”

“Yes.” He paused, and then frowned. “Don’t you?”

She nodded. “She’s going to do another ceremony. At Philae. In the temple of Isis.” She shivered. “But she’s almost afraid of Andy.”

“Aren’t we all!” He looked grim suddenly. “In her case, it’s because Andy bullies her. If you ask me, there’s some Freudian thing going on there because Charley lives with her and clearly respects and likes her, and I suspect Serena has told Charley on more than one occasion what a prat she thinks he is! Anna, what are you going to do about the diary? When he comes back?”

She took off her sun hat and fanned her face for a moment or two. “I don’t know. It would be awkward to make too much fuss. I don’t want the police involved. Heaven knows what would happen, and I have a feeling it wouldn’t be wise to make an issue of it. He would only deny it and say I had lent it to him or something, and it would be very difficult to prove that I hadn’t. I’ll keep it locked up or with me at all times, and probably leave it at that.”

He stared at her. “Anna, he tried to steal something which could be worth thousands of pounds.”

“I’ve got it back,” she said firmly. “And he’s got to live with the fact that you and I and Serena know he’s a thief. He won’t know who else we’ve told. He’ll be sweating.”

“And that’s all you are going to do? Watch him sweat?”

She nodded. “As long as we’re in Egypt, yes.”

He exhaled loudly and shook his head. “OK. If that’s what you’ve decided. It’s your diary.”

They had walked down the path towards the landing stage. When they reached it, several small boats were already clustered there, just off shore and on the landing stage, dozens of men and boys milled around, selling every shape and size of souvenir and tourist bric-a-brac. Somehow, Anna and Toby pushed their way through the crowd and beckoned one of the boats. Toby, after a swift, good-humoured exchange of figures and a lot of gesticulations, managed to clinch a deal on the price back to the
White Egret
, and they scrambled aboard, fighting off the plastic gods and heads of Rameses and the tin Bast cats until the last possible moment, when the vendors, holding them out enticingly, were wading thigh deep in the water.

“I hated this when we first arrived, but I’m getting used to them now.” She shrugged, turning her back on the island and the men who had abandoned their efforts to follow them and withdrawn to besiege another group of tourists. “I’m sure people would buy more if they were allowed to look quietly. As it is, one has to run away. Even a second glance is a disaster!”

Toby leant back on his seat, staring up at the sail. There seemed to be some kind of wind, as they were making good speed towards the
White Egret
, although the tall sail was hardly bellied as it hung at the masthead. “It’s all good-humoured, though. I like the people here.” He glanced at the man at the helm, who, having captured them from the competition, had settled calmly and seemingly indifferently to his job without giving them a second glance. “I suspect it is only this bad around the tourist honey pots. In the rest of Egypt it’s probably possible to move around without being followed. After all, no one followed us on the island itself, did they?”

They dined alone in state by candlelight on Ibrahim’s speciality, something he called
mulukhiyya
, which turned out to be an herb soup poured over white rice, followed by fried perch and vegetables. For dessert, they were given dates and soft cheese and then Egyptian coffee. Only when they assured him they could eat no more did Ibrahim bid them goodnight and leave.

“And so,” Toby turned to Anna and smiled. “We have a boat to ourselves.”

She nodded. “Don’t forget the captain is still on board.”

“But we don’t see him. He is the
éminence grise
.” Toby smiled. “Perhaps he doesn’t exist. Or perhaps he is Ibrahim, too, with another hat on!” He glanced at her, and slowly his face became thoughtful. He led the way out on deck and went to lean on the rail. There was a long silence after Anna joined him, and she found herself wondering if he was trying to make up his mind whether or not to tell her something. Leaning on the rail beside him, she waited quietly, content to watch the evening drawing in.

It was several minutes before he spoke at last. “What did Andy tell you about me?” He didn’t look at her.

She bit her lip. For a moment she didn’t answer, then she turned towards him. “He seemed to think you had some kind of a scandal hanging over you.” She shrugged. “Under the circumstances, I didn’t take much notice. I think I could accuse him of what is known as the pot calling the kettle black!”

He grimaced. “Why haven’t you asked me if it’s true?”

She hesitated, scanning his profile. “Because I believed—hoped—it wasn’t.”

He still hadn’t looked at her. There was another long silence, then at last he glanced towards her. “It is true. Anna, I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

She waited, aware that there was a sudden knot of anxiety somewhere in her stomach. Her mouth was dry with fear when at last she managed to ask, “What happened?”

“I killed someone.”

There was a long silence. She bit her lip. “Why?”

His jaw tightened. “He raped my wife.”

Anna closed her eyes. Her hands had gripped the rail until her knuckles were white.

Beside her, Toby straightened, staring out beyond the lights clustering along the edge of the river, towards the darkness of the hills. “I don’t regret it. If I hadn’t done it, he would have got away with it. It was a justice the gods of Egypt would have approved of.”

There was a long silence. “Did you go to prison?” she asked at last.

“For manslaughter, yes.”

“And your wife?”

She studied his profile in the dark.

“My wife is dead.”

“Dead!” Anna stared at him.

“She killed herself while I was in prison. The state took it upon itself to punish me. It did nothing about the man who attacked her and tormented her. It chose not to believe her story. While I was in prison, it did not help her; it left her alone to cope with her unhappiness and her shame. She was pregnant when she died, apparently by him. She had no one. No family. My father was dead. My mother was abroad. She couldn’t get there in time.” He took a deep breath and, turning, walked away from her. He climbed up onto the upper deck, and she saw him disappear into the darkness. For a long time she stayed where she was, then at last she turned and followed him.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“If I hadn’t, Watson would have done so in the end, no doubt. People always remember these things, even though it happened years ago now.” He turned to her at last. “Do you want a drink?” To her embarrassment, she could see the emotion raw on his face. It was masked instantly. “If you want to drink with a murderer.”

“You weren’t a murderer; not if they said it was manslaughter. And yes, please, I think I’d like one very much.” She wanted to touch him, to reassure him and comfort him, but she sensed that would be wrong. Now wasn’t the time. Instead, she forced herself to smile, and it was she who turned and led the way down to the bar.

Toby poured two slugs of whisky, signed a chit from the pad by the locked till, and pushed one of the glasses towards her. “
Slainte!
”

She raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “Cheers, then. Here’s to you and me and the mysteries of Egypt,
Inshallah!
”

She clinked glasses with him. “Toby—” She hesitated. How could she put into words the strange mixture of feelings she was experiencing? Rage at the injustice of life. Sympathy. Pain for him, for his wife, for the unborn child who was the innocent victim of so much unhappiness. Anger at the man who had ruined so many lives. It was impossible, and looking up, she realised suddenly as he met her eye that he understood.

“Shall we read some more about Louisa?” he said quietly. It was a signal to change the subject.

She nodded.

The diary was in her cabin, left there, locked in the suitcase when she had showered and changed for supper. She stood up. “Shall I bring it here, or shall we read it in my cabin?”

He studied her face. “Which would you like?” He sounded hesitant.

She hadn’t intended her words to sound like an invitation, but suddenly she realised that that was what they were. She smiled and reached out her hand.

In the cabin, she turned on the bedside light. “The diary is locked up. A classic case of bolting the stable door.” She laughed. There was a sudden tight knot of excitement in her stomach as she felt him standing very close behind her. Reaching into her shoulder bag for the key on its ring, she turned towards the suitcase.

Toby stretched out his hand and caught her wrist. “Anna?”

She stood stock still. Then she turned and looked up at him.

They remained wrapped in each other’s arms for a long time before Anna gently disengaged herself. “Are you sure this is what you want?” She was amazed that it was she who was taking the lead, she who had initiated this move, overwhelmed as she was by a desire for him so great it almost paralysed her. She had never felt like this before. If anything proved to her that whatever she had felt for Felix, it was not love, it was this incredible, undeniable longing which had swept over her.

Toby smiled. “It’s very much what I want.” He reached out and caught her by the shoulders. As he drew her close once again, she could feel him searching for the zip of her dress. It slipped to the floor, and she felt his hands on her burning skin, cool and firm as he stroked her shoulders and ran a finger down her throat towards her breasts. She gasped, raising her mouth to his again as he reached for the hooks on her bra, letting it fall to the floor, then he pulled her towards the bed.

It was much later, asleep in the crook of his arm, that Anna was awakened by a violent knocking on the door.

She lay still, holding her breath, feeling him stir beside her.

They looked at each other for a moment. “It must be Ibrahim?” Anna sat up. She grabbed her cotton dressing gown, and pulling it tightly round her, she knotted the tie and then headed for the door as a fresh fusillade of knocking echoed round the cabin. Unbolting it, she pulled it open.

Charley almost fell into the room. “Anna! You’ve got to help me!” Tears were pouring down her face. “Oh God!” She glanced behind her down the passage, then, stumbling into the cabin, she slammed the door and shot the bolt across. She didn’t appear to have seen Toby, who had reached over the edge of the bed for his trousers and was surreptitiously pulling them on. Charley was shaking violently as Anna put her arm around her shoulders and guided her to the stool in front of the dressing table. “What is it? What’s happened? I thought you had gone with the others.”

Charley shook her head. She had grabbed Anna’s hands and was clinging to them as though her life depended on it. “Don’t let him in. Keep him away from me!”

Toby was pulling on his shirt. He frowned. “Who? Who is it, Charley? What’s happened?”

“I was asleep. In my cabin.” She shook her head. “I thought I was dreaming. I was dreaming.” Her breath was coming in short gasps, her hand in Anna’s shook violently. “Then I woke up. I’d locked the door. I know I locked the door. But he was there.” She broke into fresh sobs.

Toby came and knelt in front of her. He took one of her hands. “Charley, listen to me. You are safe. We are not going to let anything happen to you.” He paused.

Her sobbing had subsided. She glanced at him, her face white as a sheet, streaked with mascara, her eyes puffy and red. “You’re sure?” She was pathetically like a child suddenly, clinging to both of his hands.

“I’m sure. Now tell us quietly what happened. Who was in your cabin?”

“It was a man. In a green
galabiyya
.”

“An Egyptian?”

“Yes, of course an Egyptian!”

“Did he hurt you? What did he do?”

She shook her head. “No. He didn’t hurt me. I don’t think so. But he was reaching out towards me.”

“Describe him. Was he one of the waiters?”

“No. No. He was very tall. He was wearing an animal skin round his shoulders—”

“A lion skin?” Anna had gone to sit on the bed.

Charley glanced up and shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose so. It could have been.”

Toby glanced at Anna. “We need Serena, don’t we.”

Anna grimaced. She nodded silently.

“Charley?” Toby tried another tack. “Why didn’t you go with the others?”

“I was going to. I wanted to.” She shook her head “I remember waking up early, and Serena and I were getting dressed. Ali brought us some tea. Then she was ready, but I didn’t feel well. I went to the loo…” She shook her head again, pressing her fingertips against her temples. “I said I’d follow her. I was feeling so cold. So tired. I sat down on the bed for a minute. Serena came back, and I think she asked me how I was, and I suppose I said I wanted to go to sleep.”