Curse of the Kings (22 page)

I felt I had lost Tybalt already.

After the meal Tybalt went out to look at the site and I was permitted to accompany the party. There was a fair amount of work going on in spite of the hour. The full moon and the clear air made it quite bright; it was easier to work at this hour than under the heat of the blazing sun.

The stark hills rising to the moonlit sky were menacing but rather beautiful. The parallel lines of pegs marking the search area, the little hut which had been set up, the wheelbarrows, the forks of the excavators, and the workmen were far from romantic.

Tybalt left me with Hadrian, who smiled at me cynically.

ot quite what you expected?he said.

xactly,I said.

f course, youe a veteran of Carter Meadow.

suppose it is rather similar, although there they were merely looking for Bronze Age relics; and here it the tombs of the dead.

e could be on the verge of one of the really exciting discoveries in archaeology.

ow thrilling that will be when we find it.

ut we haven done that yet, and you have to learn to be cautious in this game. As a matter of fact there are lots of things you have to learn.

uch as?

eing a good little archaeological wife.

nd what does that mean?

ever complaining when your lord and master absents himself for hours at a stretch.

intend to share in his work.

Hadrian laughed. van and I are in the profession but I can assure you wee not allowed to share in anything but the more menial tasks. And you think that you will be?

Tybalt wife.

n our world, my dear Judith, there are archaeologists wives and husbands are just by the way.

f course I know I nothing but an amateur yet.

ut that is something you won endure for long, eh? Youl soon be putting us all to shameven the great Tybalt!

shall certainly learn all I can and I hope I shall be able to take an intelligent interest

He laughed at me. oul do that. But in addition to an intelligent interest take equally intelligent heed. That my sound advice.

don really need your advice, Hadrian.

h yes you do. Now! Youe looking for Tybalt, I can see. Hel be hours yet. He might have waited until morning and devoted the first night in the Chephro Palace to his bride. Now had I been in his place

ou are not in his place, Hadrian.

las! I was too slow. But mark my words, Tybalt the man he is and so hel remain. It no use your trying to make him any different.

ho said I wanted to make him any different?

ou wait. And now let me take you back to the palace. You must be ready to sink into your bath of chalcedony.

s that what it is?

expect so. Grand, don you think? I wonder what Lady Bodrean would have thought of it. She wouldn have approved of it for ex-companions even though it turned out that you and she are connectedn a manner of speaking.

should love her to see me in my state apartments especially if she had lesser ones.

hat shows a vengeful spirit, Cousin Judith. You are my cousin, you know.

he thought had struck me. How are your affairs?

ffairs? Financial or romantic?

ell, both, since you raise the question.

n dire straits, Judith. The former because that their natural state and the latter because I didn know in time that you are an heiress and missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

ren you presuming too much? You don think I would have allowed myself to be married for my money, do you?

omen who are married for their money don know it at the time. You don imagine the ambitious suitor comes along and going on his knees begs for the honor of sharing a girl fortune, do you?

ertainly it would have to be done with more subtlety than that.

f course.

et you imagine that you only had to beckon my fortune to have it in your pocket?

only letting you into the secret now that it too late. Come on, Il get you back to the palace.

We did the journey back to the riverbank on mules where a boat was waiting to take us down the river to the short distance when we alighted on the opposite bank, almost at the gates of the palace.

When we arrived at the palace Theodosia came into the hall.

Evan was down at the site, she told us, and Hadrian remarked that he would have to go back. ou can depend upon it, it will be the early hours of the morning before we return. Tybalt a hard taskmaster; he works like the devil himself and expects the same of his minions.

Hadrian went back and when I was alone with Theodosia she said: udith, come to my room with me and talk.

I followed her along the gallery. The room she and Evan shared was less grand than mine and Tybalt, but it was large and dark, and the floor was covered by a Bokhara carpet. She shut the door and faced me.

h, Judith,she said, don like it here. I hated it from the moment we came. I want to go home.

hy, what wrong?I asked.

ou can feel it. It eerie. I don like it. I can tell Evan. It his work, isn it? Perhaps he wouldn understand. But I feel uneasy You don of course. I wish they go home. Why can they let the Pharaohs stay in their tombs? They couldn have thought, could they, when they went to all that trouble to bury them that people were coming along and going where they shouldn.

ut my dear Theodosia, the purpose of archaeology is to uncover the secrets of the past.

t different finding weapons and Roman floors and baths. It this tampering with the dead that I don like. I never did like it. I dreamed last night that we found a tomb and there was a sarcophagus just like the one that time in Giza House. And someone rose out of it with bandages unraveling

can live that down, can I?

cried out in my dream: top it, Judith.And then I looked and it wasn you coming out of the thing.

ho was it?

yself. I thought it was a sort of warning.

oue getting fanciful, Theodosia. I was the one who was supposed to be that.

ut anyone could get fancies here. There a sort of shadow of the past everywhere. This palace is centuries old. All the temples and tombs are hundreds and thousands of years old. Oh, I glad youe come, Judith. Itl be better now youe here. These people are so dedicated, aren they? I suppose you are a bit. But I feel I can talk to you.

I said: re you worried about Evan?

She nodded. often think what if what happened to Sir Edward should happen to him.

I had no glib comfort to offer for that. Hadn I wondered whether it could happen to Tybalt?

I said, f course we get anxious. It because we love our husbands and one gets foolish when one loves. If we could only take a calm rational view look in from outside as it were we should see how foolish all this talk would be.

es, Judith, I suppose so.

hy don you go to bed,I said. oue not going to sit up and wait for Evan, are you?

suppose not. Goodness knows what time theyl come in. Oh, it feels so much better since you arrived, Judith.

o it should. Don forget wee sistershough only half ones.

glad of that,said Theodosia.

I smiled at her, said good night and left her.

I went along the gallery. How silent it was! The heavy velvet gold-fringed curtains shut me in and my feet sank deep into the thickly piled carpet. I stood still, suddenly tense because I had an instinctive feeling that I was not alone in the gallery. I looked round. There was no one there and yet I was conscious of eyes watching me.

I felt a tingling in my spine. I understood why Theodosia was afraid. She was more timid than Ihough perhaps less imaginative.

There was the softest footfall behind me. Someone was undoubtedly there. I turned sharply.

bsalam!I cried. ustapha!

They bowed. y lady,they said simultaneously.

Their dark eyes were fixed on my face and I asked quickly, s there anything wrong?

rong?They looked at each other. es, my lady. But it is still not too late.

oo late?I said falteringly.

ou go home. You ask it. You are new bride. He cannot refuse his beloved.

I shook my head.

ou don understand. This is Sir Tybalt work his life

is life They looked at each other and shook their heads. t was Sir Edward life, and then his death.

ou must not be concerned,I said. ll will be well. When they have found what they seek they will go home.

hen too late, my lady,said Absalam, or was it Mustapha.

The other looked at me with deeply sorrowing eyes. ot yet too late,he suggested hopefully.

ood night,I said. shall retire to my room now.

They did not speak but continued to regard me in their mournful way.

I lay awake. The flickering light of candles showed the ceiling on which had been painted pictures in softly muted colors. I could make out the now familiar outline of Amen Ra, the great Sun God, and he was receiving gifts from an elaborately gowned figure, presumably a Pharaoh. There was a border of hieroglyphstrange signs full of meaning. I wondered whether while I was here I might try and learn something of the language. I had a notion that there would be many nights when I lay alone in this bed, many days when I did not see Tybalt.

I must be prepared for this. It was what I had expected in any case; but I did want Tybalt to understand that my greatest wish was to share his life.

It was two olock in the morning when he came in. I cried out in pleasure at the sight of him and sat up in bed.

He came to me and took my hands in his.

hy, Judith, still awake?

es, I was too excited to sleep. I was wondering what you were doing out there on the site.

He laughed. othing that would make you wildly excited at the moment. Theye just been marking out the proposed areas and making general preparations.

ou are going on where Sir Edward left off?

l tell you about it sometime. Now you should be asleep.He kissed me lightly and went into our dressing room.

But I was not ready for sleep. Nor was Tybalt. We lay awake talking for an hour.

es,he said during the course of the conversation, e are exploring the same ground which my father did. You know what happened. He was convinced that there was an undisturbed tomb in the area. You know, of course, that the majority were rifled centuries ago.

should have thought they would have tried to keep the burial places secret.

p to a point they did, but there were so many workmen involved. Imagine hewing out the rock, making secret underground passages, then the chambers themselves. And think of all the transport that would be needed to bring the treasures into the tombs.

he secret would leak out,I said, nd then the robbers came. It odd that they were not deterred by the Curse.

o doubt they were, but the fabulous riches found in the tombs might have seemed a worthwhile reward for damnation after death; and since they had been clever enough to find the hidden treasure no doubt they thought they could be equally shrewd in escaping the ill luck.

et Sir Edward, who was merely working for posterity and to place his finds in some museum, is struck down whereas robbers who seek personal gain escape.

n the first place my father death had nothing to do with a curse. It was due to natural causes.

hich no one seems certain about.

h come, Judith, surely youe not becoming superstitious.

don think I am unduly. But everyone must be a little, I suppose, when their loved ones are in danger.

anger. What nonsense is this? It just a tale.

et he died.

He kissed my forehead. oolish Judith!he said. surprised at you.

t will teach you not to have too high an opinion of my sagacity where you are concerned. Wise men are fools in lovend you can be sure that applies to women.

We were silent for a while and then I said: have seen Mustapha and Absalam. They have said I should persuade you to go back home.

That made him laugh.

t such nonsense,he said. t was a tale put about to frighten off robbers. But it didn, you see. Almost every tomb that has been discovered has been tampered with. That why it the dream of every archaeologist to find a tomb which is just as it was when closed two thousand years ago or thereabouts. I want to be the first one to set foot in such a burial place. Imagine the joy of seeing a footprint in the dust which was made by the last person to leave the tomb, or a flower offering lying there, thrown down by a sorrowing mourner, before the door was closed, the mountainside filled in and the dead person left in peace for the centuries to come. Oh, Judith, youe no idea of the excitement this could give.

e must try to see that your dream is realized.

y darling, you speak as though I am a small boy who must have his treat.

ell, there are many sides to people and even the greatest archaeologist in the world at times seems as a little boy to his doting wife.

so happy to have you here with me, Judith. Youe going to be with me all the way. Youe going to be the perfect wife.

t strange that you should say that. Did you know that Disraeli dedicated one of his books to Mary Anne, his wife. The dedication said o the Perfect Wife.

o,he said, an ignoramuspart from one subject.

oue a specialist,I said, nd knowing so much about one thing you couldn be expected to know others. He married her for her money but when they were old he would have married her for love.

hen,said Tybalt lightly, t must indeed have become a perfect union.

I thought: If that happened to me I should be content.

Then he started to talk, telling me of customs, fascinating me with the exotic pictures he was able to create. He told me of what had been discovered in tombs which had been partially rifled centuries ago; and I asked why the ancient Egyptians had made such a fine art of the burial of the dead.

t was because they believed that the life of the spirit went on after death. Osiris, the God of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead, was said to be the first ever to be embalmed and this embalming was performed by the God Anubis. Osiris had been murdered by his brother Set, who was the God of Darkness, but he rose from the dead and begot the God Horus. When a man died he became identified with Osiris but to escape destruction he had successfully to traverse the mythical river Tuat which was said to end where the sun rose in the kingdom of the Sun God, Amen Ra. This river was beset by dangers and no man could navigate it without the help of Osiris. The river was supposed to grow darker as the flimsy craft, in which the soul of the deceased traveled, progressed. He soon reached a chamber which was called Amentat, the Place of Twilight, and after he passed through that the horrors of the river increased. Great sea monsters rose to threaten him; the waters boiled and were so turbulent that the boat was in danger of sinking. Only those who had led good lives on earth and were valiant and strong could hope to surviveand only they with the help of Osiris. And if they were lucky enough to survive they at length came to the final chamber where the God Osiris judged them; those whom the god decided were worthy of making a journey to Amen Ra went on; those who were not, even though they had so far survived, were destroyed. For those who lived on, the tomb was their home. Their Ka, which is the spirit which cannot be destroyed, would pass back and forth into the world and back to the mummy lying in the tomb, and that is why it was considered necessary to make these burial chambers worthy of their illustrious inhabitants that they might not miss the jewels and treasures they had enjoyed during their sojourn on earth.