The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters

Author:Elizabeth Peters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781568955971
Publisher: Wheeler
Published: 1999-02-15T08:00:00+00:00

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Nine

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When I approached the verandah next morning I heard the murmur of voices and wondered who was up so early. Emerson had been splashing and sputtering over his ablutions when I left the room, so I concluded it must be the children.

I was in error.

“Good morning, Sir Edward,” I said, surprised. “And—Fatima?”

“I intended to creep onto the verandah without disturbing anyone,” he explained, rising to his feet. “But this kind woman found me and brought me tea.”

Fatima ducked her head. “She has been good enough to allow me to practice my Arabic,” Sir Edward went on easily. “I hope I am not too early? I wanted to be in time to accompany you to the Valley, and I know the Professor’s habits.”

“Excellent,” I said. “The others will be here soon, Fatima; you may serve breakfast. Thank you.”

“She understands English?” Sir Edward laughed ruefully. “I might have spared her my appalling Arabic had I known.”

“She has been studying English, and learning to read as well. Ambition and intelligence and the love of learning are not limited to the masculine gender, or to a particular race, Sir Edward. We are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of heaven, and if education were available to Egyptians—”

“Lecturing again, Peabody?” said Emerson from the open door. “Good morning, Sir Edward. Come and have breakfast, we must be off in a quarter of an hour.”

It was nearer half an hour before we left the house, primarily because Ramses and Nefret got into another argument. She wanted him to wear the sling and he said he would not.

“You will keep hitting your hand,” she insisted.

“It will be my own damned fault if I do,” said Ramses.

I told Ramses not to swear and Nefret said he was a damned stubborn fool, and everyone added his opinion, except Sir Edward, who would have feigned a courteous deafness had that been possible, which it was not, since all their voices were quite loud. Emerson finally put an end to the discussion by shouting louder than anyone else and demanding that we get off at once.

I was especially glad that day that we had got into the habit of hiring horses for the season instead of relying on donkeys and our own feet. One feels—and is—much more vulnerable mounted on a little animal not much taller than oneself, which does not take kindly to moving faster than a trot. The boys’ splendid steeds could outrun anything on four feet, and even the horses we had hired were in excellent condition, especially after I had attended to them as I always did animals that came under my care.

Sir Edward had borrowed one of Cyrus’s mounts. It and the other horses were waiting when we emerged from the house. I watched Ramses out of the corner of my eye, wondering how he would manage; he had of course lost the argument and his right arm was enveloped in what appeared to be a bedsheet, for Nefret did nothing by halves. Risha snuffled

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