Servants of Darkness by Mark Hall

Author:Mark Hall [Hall, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781456382278
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2011-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

“Uncle Winston, wait! Please, Uncle Winston!”

Winston froze with his hand on the flap of his tent as Alex rushed across the dunes toward him. Lord, what could it be now? Couldn’t he just be left alone? He’d told Alex not to bring that woman here. The desert was no place for a woman, especially a pregnant woman. In the night she had unexpectedly gone into labor, and it seemed she would not be able to deliver the child without complications, and civilization lay days away. It would serve the young fool right if he lost both the woman and the child. Ah . . . but that was a little too harsh, wasn’t it? Just the same, the lazy shit deserved what he got. He’d been warned. But Alex listened about as well as he worked. That was the crux of it. The man would never be a true archaeologist. He hadn’t the discipline or the stamina for such endeavors.

Alex’s father, Lord Charles Whitehead—Smith’s brother-in-law—had far too much money, and to young Alex, archaeology was a game, a romantic notion, nothing more. He had never understood the realities. Archeology was work, dedication, commitment, all things a spoiled child such as Alex could never hope to grasp. But Winston, had made a bargain with the devil, and now he was mightily sorry for all of it. He wished he could take it all back and wash his hands of the entire affair.

And the woman, a French tart. Daughter of an ambassador, but a tart nevertheless. Alex had met her in Morocco and they’d begun rutting like a pair of deer. She’d followed him to Cairo where Alex had deposited her until three weeks ago when he’d decided all on his own to return to Cairo and bring her back here with him. The bloody fool. It seemed this newfound plaything had addled young Alex’s brain. And to make matters worse the idiot had tried to hide the pregnancy. And now the woman was about to give birth, and good lord in heaven, Alex was being a bloody spoiled shit about it.

But Winston couldn’t, wouldn’t be bothered now. He was on the verge of a great discovery and there was so much yet to be done. He needed time to get his thoughts in order, a few precious moments of reprieve alone to savor his discovery.

Ah, but it was not to be. Alex intercepted him before he could duck into his tent, and the damned fool looked even more stricken than he had earlier.

“What is it now, Alex?”

“She is getting worse,” Alex cried, breathless from his jaunt across the dunes. “Anwar says we will lose her if something isn’t done soon.”

Smith glared at his nephew. Alex the handsome one. Tall, thin, strong jaw chiseled to a sharp edge, dark brown hair, grown long from months in the wilderness, curled into tiny ringlets, almost covering his ears, thin Douglas Fairbanks-mustache. But the fool whined incessantly and Winston had no tolerance for whiners. Winston raised an amused eyebrow.

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