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.’
Anna stood up. Finding her box of tissues she pulled some out and pressed them into Charley’s hands. ‘That must explain the third person on the boat. Serena must have told Omar and he told Ibrahim you were staying. What happened next?’
‘I don’t remember anything till I woke up and saw him standing there.’ Charley began to
sob again, the tears running down her cheeks and falling into her lap.
‘Then what?’
‘Then I screamed. I sat up and screamed and he sort of stepped towards me. Then he began to shake.’ She shook her head, confused. ‘He was shaking quite violently, then he –’ She stopped and shrugged. ‘He sort of wasn’t there any more.’
‘You mean he left the cabin, or he disappeared?’
She shrugged again. ‘He didn’t open the door. I did. I didn’t wait to see. I ran outside and I couldn’t see anyone. It was so quiet. They haven’t gone, have they?’
‘Who?’ Anna shook her head. ‘You mean the others? They left yesterday.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘That was twenty-four hours ago, Charley.’
Charley’s eyes focused on Anna’s face. ‘No.’ Her face resumed the child-like pout. ‘I only dozed off for a minute.’
‘If you’ve been asleep since they left, Charley, Anna’s right.’ Toby looked up at her with concern.
‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘No. I can’t have. No.’ She began rocking backwards and forwards suddenly. ‘No.’
‘Charley!’ Toby stood up and put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Listen.’ He paused. ‘Are you listening? Good. You were asleep. But it doesn’t matter. You must have been exhausted. You needed that sleep.’
‘I wasn’t drinking.’ She didn’t appear to have heard what he said. ‘I wasn’t drinking. I know I have been silly and spiteful and childish. I know I have. But I wasn’t drinking. Andy said I mustn’t drink any more. I wasn’t. I promise.’ She was shaking her head again, back and forth, back and forth, like an automaton.
‘When did you last eat, Charley?’ Toby had taken her hands again. He glanced at Anna. ‘Do you see how thin she’s got?’ he said under his breath. ‘I can’t believe it. In a week.’
Anna nodded. She had been studying Charley’s face whilst Toby was talking to her. ‘Charley, are you quite sure this man didn’t touch you?’
The question seemed to throw Charley. She stopped rocking and frowned.
‘Are you sure he didn’t touch you while you were asleep?’
Charley shuddered. ‘I had my clothes on. These.’ She gestured down at her jeans and black tee-shirt. ‘I had got dressed to go on the coach. I never took them off. I had packed my overnight bag. I was ready to go.’
‘And you sat down for a moment and when you woke up it was twenty-four hours later.’ Anna was wishing fervently that Serena had stayed behind. ‘Charley, you said you were dreaming when this man woke you. Can you remember what you were dreaming about?’
Charley shrugged and shook her head.
‘Do you think anyone touched you in your dream?’
‘You mean –? No! Oh ugh, no!’
‘I don’t mean sex.’ Anna glanced suddenly at Toby and was relieved to see him wink. Their awakening had been so sudden and so traumatic she hadn’t thought for one second about him or the touch of his body since Charley’s knock on the door. She could feel herself colouring slightly now, and she shook her head quickly. ‘I mean did you feel him touch you here.’ She put her hand to her own stomach. ‘Or on the mouth, or the throat or on your head?’
Charley shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I feel sore here.’ She put her hand to her stomach. ‘I thought I’d eaten something bad.’
‘Pharaoh’s curse.’ Toby grimaced. ‘It’s possible. But Anna is thinking about something else.’ He looked across at her. ‘Am I right? The incubus? Taking her energy?’
Anna nodded. ‘That’s what Serena thought.’
‘What? What did she think?’ Charley’s eyes were round again and Anna noticed she had begun to tremble once more.
‘Andy will be so angry. He was going to sit next to me. And now you’re with him,’ she nodded at Toby, ‘and not after my Andy at all. Or do you want them both?’ She shot a pathetically defiant look at Anna. ‘Did you know he had your stupid little bottle with him? So if you’ve lost it again, you know it wasn’t me.’
There was a moment’s silence in the cabin. Then, ‘He’s taken it with him?’ Anna stared at her. ‘Are you sure?’
Charley nodded. ‘Popular, isn’t it.’
Anna’s face had frozen. She was staring at the suitcase in front of the cupboard. Locked inside was the diary where only hours before she and Toby had read about the snake. The king snake, programmed to kill any man who touched the sacred ampulla.
She glanced at Toby. ‘The cobra,’ she whispered. ‘The guardian of the scent bottle. Only women have owned that bottle. Louisa. My great-great-grandmother. My great-aunt. Me.’
‘Oh shit!’ Toby rubbed his chin. ‘What do we do? Don’t tell me you want us to follow him?’
‘We have to. It might not be too late. If we can warn him. Get it back.’
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ Charley grabbed at Toby’s arm.
‘The snake you found in your cabin,’ Anna said sharply. ‘It didn’t hurt you because you’re a woman. If you had been a man it would have killed you.’
Charley stared at her. ‘Why? What do you mean?’
‘It guards the bottle. Look, don’t ask, Charley. Just believe it! Find Ibrahim,’ Anna said to Toby urgently. ‘He knew about the snake. He’ll know what to do. Perhaps we can phone Omar and get him to warn Andy.’
‘No! Don’t leave me!’ Charley clung to Toby as he turned towards the door. ‘What about the man in my cabin!’
‘We won’t leave you, Charley.’ Toby sighed. He pushed her towards Anna. ‘Stay here both of you. I’ll see if I can find Ibrahim.’
As he disappeared Anna closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. ‘If we can’t contact Omar, we’re going to have to find the others ourselves. Andy is a bastard, but he doesn’t deserve to die. We are going to have to find a way of warning him. Take a bus or a taxi or something. How much money have you got, Charley? We’ll need cash.’
She scrabbled under the bed for her shoes and grabbed her bag. Unlocking the suitcase she took out the diary and pushed it into her holdall. ‘Do you want your stuff? We’ll collect it as we go by. Where’s Toby got to?’
‘You sent him to look for Ibrahim,’ Charley objected. Then she clutched her stomach. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’
‘Loo!’ Anna pointed.
Trying to ignore the noises coming from the shower room she automatically dug out her sun hat and glasses and her guidebook and threw them in the holdall with a bottle of water. By the time Toby returned Charley had reappeared looking whiter than ever and Anna was ready.
‘I spoke to the captain. He knows nothing. Not where they are or where Ibrahim might be, though he thinks he has gone to visit friends in one of the villages. But he did have a contact who can find us a taxi. It’ll be by the gangplank in ten minutes.’
‘Don’t leave me!’ Charley was clinging to them both. ‘I won’t go back to my cabin. You can’t make me. He’ll kill me!’
‘We’re not leaving you, Charley,’ Toby said gently. He was trying to disengage her hands from his sleeve. ‘You can come with us, or we can drop you off at a hotel before we go. You’d be safe there.’
Charley shook her head. ‘I hate all this. I want to go home.’
‘A hotel can arrange that for you, if that’s what you really want.’ Toby glanced over her head at Anna. ‘I think it’s the right decision. She can’t stay on the boat and she can’t come with us. It’s about two hundred and fifty kilometres. It’s going to take hours.’
It was Anna who went into Charley’s cabin whilst Charley clung to Toby in the corridor outside. It was empty. She stood for a moment looking round, listening. As though her senses were in some way newly honed by everything that had happened, she found herself paying attention to her intuition in a way she never had before. It told her there was nothing there; nothing to fear at least for now. Grabbing Charley’s overnight bag she turned out the light and closed the door behind her with a fervent prayer that the priest of Sekhmet would stay wherever it was he lived and would not follow them.
A black car was waiting for them at the water’s edge. The young man at the wheel was wearing western clothes and greeted Toby with some deference as they climbed in. In seconds he had spun the wheel and pulled away from the gangplank, heading south along the Corniche.
He pulled up outside the Old Cataract Hotel.
‘Wait here,’ Toby said to Anna. He took Charley’s arm and bundled her out. ‘I’ll be five minutes.’
As they disappeared into the hotel entrance Anna frowned. Then she shrugged. She was too tired to think. If Toby could get Charley looked after here, and at this hour, well and good. She’d wonder how he was going to manage it later.
It was fifteen minutes before he returned and she had dozed off. She woke up as he pulled the car door open and climbed in, giving the driver some quick instructions. He seemed pleased with himself as they set off. ‘She’ll be fine. They’ll take care of her and I’ve made a couple of phone calls. Someone is going to check up on her in the morning and see if she is OK. She can either stay there till we cruise back to Luxor or they’ll get her a ticket to fly back home early. And I’ve sorted us out, too. South of Aswan it’s a military zone. I just thought I’d check in case we need passes and things to go through the desert.’ He leant back beside her.
‘And do we?’
‘All organised. No problem.’
She glanced at him sideways. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Positive. Now, get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.’
‘Toby?’ With a shiver she pulled her sweater more tightly round her shoulders. The car had grown very cold while they were waiting. ‘What happens if the priest of Sekhmet has got hold of her? What if he comes back when she’s on her own?’
‘The hotel staff will keep an eye on her. If anything happens they’ll call a doctor.’
‘And what could a doctor do?’
He shrugged. ‘We’ll be back in Aswan very soon, Anna. Probably tonight. And we can phone from Abu Simbel. It’s not as though it’s the ends of the earth. Once we’ve found Andy and relieved him of the bottle the urgency is over.’ There was a moment’s silence. ‘As long as you don’t expect me to touch it!’
Whispers in the Sand Page 34
