The Italian Letters by Linda Lambert

Author:Linda Lambert [Lambert, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781933512495
Publisher: West Hills Press

CHAPTER 20

Egypt did not contain me. I crossed three continents.

I was honored upon the Tigris and the Tiber as well as the Nile.

I sailed beyond the Mediterranean, and flew north with the Roman eagles.

From the mists of Britain to the sands of Arabia, I was the universal Goddess,

And you who are not of the blood of my birthland may still be my children.

—Jezibell, Poet, Actress, Belly dancer

THEY HARDLY SPOKE. Hours sped by as Justine and Riccardo imagined what lay ahead in the archeological find and took turns driving his Maserati as the other pretended to doze. The call had told them little, really, but both knew that a cavern deep below the original tumuli in Cerveteri had been discovered and that there was something there. Each felt the suppressed excitement of impending discovery. Without asking, Riccardo pulled in at the autostrada way station at the Orvieto exit.

Justine set a large cappuccino in the cup holder and tore off pieces of a croissant, feeding it to Riccardo as he drove. Now well into the trip, she finally dared ask, “So, what do you think?”

Riccardo laughed. “After all this time I thought I’d hear a more complicated question.” He reached over and pulled one of her pigtails. For the first time since she’d left home, Justine realized that she was indeed wearing pigtails. She held them in the air and grinned. “I considered asking whether lavish tombs brimming with treasures would offer up answers to all the unknowns about the Etruscans—but thought that was a bit much.”

“I prefer the first question, the answer to which is, ‘I don’t know.’ Dipende.” He managed a lopsided grin, glanced into the rearview mirror, and moved into the left lane to pass three cars, speeding the sports car to 120 km/h.

Justine stared straight ahead, methodically loosening her hair.

No one was on hand to greet them when they drove into the back entrance of the necropolis site at Cerveteri. They scrambled down the first ladder into the deep trough and moved to the inside of the initial level of excavation, the one where Morgan and Riccardo had been trapped weeks earlier. Justine could hear Riccardo’s breathing shift; he was beginning to struggle for air. She turned and took his hand as they reached the top of the second set of stairs, and felt the muscles in his hand relax as they stepped into the narrow passageway leading to the cavern below.

At the bottom they found Morgan, Amir, and Delmo staring at a corner of the dished-out cavern lit by three overlapping electric torches. The newcomers edged their way through, eager to discover the source of fascination.

Justine slowly began to identify the focus of the converging lights. Two alabaster women sat erect atop a sarcophagus about two and a half meters in length. The women faced each other from opposite ends of the lid, their legs lying alongside each other’s. One bare foot of each woman extended beyond the ripples of cloth that were wrapped tightly around slender midriffs.

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