Читать книгу Under A Desert Moon - Laura Martin, Laura Martin - Страница 10

Chapter Three

‘It’s far too dangerous for a gently bred young woman to be gallivanting off into the wilds of Egypt without a proper escort,’ Mrs Fitzgerald said. There were murmurs of agreement from the other guests around the table.

‘I wouldn’t be on my own, I’d have Ahmed with me,’ Emma protested.

‘Still, it’s not right. If I allowed you to risk yourself in such a way, your dear papa would never forgive me.’

Emma resisted the urge to point out her dear papa was dead. And that he’d spent most of his youth dragging her mother from camp to camp to study this or that new Egyptian discovery.

‘Really you’d be much better to stay in Cairo with us,’ Mrs Fitzgerald said. ‘We can help arrange for you to have a tour of the new Museum of Antiquities. And you can get up close to the pyramids.’

Emma nodded and tried to look enthusiastic. She was sure Cairo had a lot to offer her. She had been staring at paintings of the pyramids for years, dreaming of the day she’d see them for herself, but this was her adventure and she wasn’t going to let Mrs Fitzgerald stand in her way of seeing the more inaccessible parts of Egypt.

‘Don’t you agree, dear?’ Mrs Fitzgerald turned to her husband, who was sitting quietly next to Emma.

‘Yes, of course,’ he said, not looking up from his plate. ‘Far too dangerous.’

Mrs Fitzgerald nodded triumphantly and promptly changed the subject.

‘I’ll put you in touch with just the chap to be your guide,’ Colonel Fitzgerald said to Emma quietly. She glanced at him but he hadn’t moved at all. She suspected his wife would not forgive him for going against her advice.

‘Thank you,’ Emma whispered.

‘So how long are you out here, Miss Knight?’ a portly older gentleman Emma thought might have been called Sir Henry asked her.

‘At least a couple of months,’ she said. ‘My father talked of Egypt and Cairo incessantly when I was young. Now that he’s gone, I want to experience everything he told me about.’

‘Shame a young girl like you hasn’t got a husband to take her around the sights,’ Sir Henry said, wiggling his eyebrows in a way Emma suspected he thought was suggestive.

She tried not to bristle and reminded herself to keep calm. She was twenty-five, past marriageable age in the eyes of the social circles she moved in. A few years ago comments like Sir Henry’s would have hurt her, made her feel inadequate, but Emma had become hardened to them now. She knew she would never marry, never have the family she had once craved. Now she just let the comments and questions wash over her, and tried not to be too upset when she mulled them over in her mind later on.

‘You might be well away from the first flush of youth, but I’m sure many men would still want you. Especially men of the older variety.’

Now Emma knew he was proposing himself. She looked him over and tried not to grimace. She’d rather be alone. It wasn’t that she thought physical appearance was everything. No, she’d rather have a kind heart and charitable spirit over a chiselled jaw and firm muscles any day, but she thought she should be at least a little physically attracted to any potential spouse.

‘Miss Knight decided not to marry after the incident,’ Mrs Fitzgerald said in a loud whisper.

Emma felt the heat start to creep into her face and looked around for some means of escape. It wasn’t that she’d decided not to marry, in fact she’d been certain she was going to get married. It was her liar of a fiancé who’d had other plans.

‘Ah, yes, such a shame,’ Sir Henry said. ‘But the right man might overlook that little indiscretion.’

Emma smiled blandly and wondered if she could pretend to faint. Or vomit onto her dinner plate. Anything to get her away from this conversation.

‘We’ve all made mistakes, after all. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’ Sir Henry leaned in towards Emma and gave her an encouraging smile.

Emma glanced around, trying desperately to find some way to end this conversation. Her father had once warned her people were less subtle in Egypt. They would say things to your face rather than whisper them behind your back. He said it was because the English community out there was so small, so intimate. At the time Emma had thought it would be refreshing, not to have people whispering about her behind her back, but now she would give anything not to discuss her tainted past with people she’d only met a few hours before.

‘Would you do me the honour of dancing with me?’ Colonel Fitzgerald asked suddenly.

Emma could have hugged him.

‘But we haven’t yet had dessert,’ his wife protested.

‘I’m sure dessert will be waiting for us when we return,’ the colonel said.

He rose and offered his hand to Emma.

‘But your heart...’ Mrs Fitzgerald said.

‘Nothing wrong with my heart.’

Emma stood and allowed the elderly colonel to lead her onto the dance floor.

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly as they joined the four other couples moving slowly across the floor.

The colonel nodded gruffly. ‘They’ll have moved on by the time we sit back down.’

He was right. When the dance was over Emma returned to her place at the table and was pleased to find conversation had turned to a dig a few miles outside Cairo.

‘There’s rumour it could be the big one itself. Rameses.’

There was a moment of silence around the table as everyone considered what a celebration there would be if Rameses’ tomb was uncovered.

The conversation continued and Emma turned towards Colonel Fitzgerald and listened to him discussing the fake artefacts flooding the market and deceiving well-intentioned amateur collectors back in England. As he spoke Emma glanced towards the door and felt her heart jump in her chest. Striding through the wide doorway, looking as though he’d just been blown in from the desert, was Sebastian Oakfield.

He caught her staring at him and winked, making the blood rush to Emma’s cheeks. She forced herself not to look away or bury her head as she wanted to, but instead gave a nod of acknowledgement before slowly turning back to the colonel.

She didn’t know why he affected her in such a way. They’d met only briefly. She couldn’t deny he was charming, but the fact that he was a practised charmer should have had her running for the hills even if nothing else did.

Emma risked another glance over her shoulder and almost fell off her chair as she realised he was making a beeline for their table.

‘Miss Knight,’ he said, his voice low and seductive. ‘What a pleasure to see you again.’

He turned his smile on the rest of the company and Emma felt momentarily bereft. She shook her head, trying to find the sense that had abandoned her just seconds before.

‘Ladies, what a pleasure. So many beautiful women my eyes don’t know where to look.’

The ladies around the table tittered and giggled, and Emma would have sworn Mrs Fitzgerald even batted her eyelashes at the much younger man.

‘Colonel Fitzgerald, Sir Henry.’ The two men rose and they all shook hands.

‘Why don’t you come and join our little party?’ Mrs Fitzgerald suggested.

Emma stared resolutely at her hands. She wished he wouldn’t join them; she found it hard to keep hold of her normally robust common sense when he was around.

‘I wouldn’t like to intrude...’

‘Nonsense, we’d love for you to join us.’

Not needing any more encouragement, Sebastian grabbed a chair from an empty table and placed it next to Emma’s, forcing Sir Henry farther away.

‘You never mentioned you’d already met Mr Oakfield,’ Mrs Fitzgerald said to Emma.

Sebastian turned to her with a look of shock on his face.

‘You didn’t mention our recent adventure together?’

‘Adventure?’ Mrs Fitzgerald queried, her voice rising an octave.

Emma shot Sebastian a warning look.

‘A most exhilarating adventure,’ Sebastian confirmed.

Emma groaned. There was no way Mrs Fitzgerald was going to let her out of her sight after this.

‘There I was, minding my own business on the banks of the Nile up near the Temple of Horus.’

Emma rolled her eyes involuntarily.

‘Actually, would you like to tell the story, Miss Knight?’ Sebastian asked, motioning for her to continue where he’d left off.

‘I’m not sure I know how it goes,’ Emma said.

Sebastian grinned at her and continued, ‘Well, there I was, minding my own business when I hear a shout and before I know it I’m being chased by forty heavily armed Egyptian bandits.’

Emma felt her breath rush through her lips in disbelief. She fought to keep the smile from her face. It would only encourage him.

‘Are you sure it was only forty, Mr Oakfield?’ Emma asked.

Sebastian cocked his head to one side and pretended to consider. ‘Perhaps you’re right and it was closer to fifty.’ He shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter. Forty, fifty, four hundred, however many. The end result was a lot of bandits and only one of me.’

Emma glanced around the table. He had them all enthralled.

‘I looked to my left and I looked to my right but there was nowhere to escape. I thought my time had finally come to meet the angels in heaven.’

Emma knew she wasn’t the only one who raised her eyebrows at the idea of Sebastian Oakfield going to heaven.

‘Then, across fifty feet of fast-flowing Nile water, my eyes met those of a heavenly creature and I knew I was saved. I dived into the water and swam until my lungs were about to burst. When I surfaced, Miss Knight encouraged me aboard her felucca.’

Emma remembered it rather differently, but she had to admit Sebastian had a certain way with words.

‘But I wasn’t out of danger yet. The dastardly felucca captain threatened to disembowel me before I could catch my breath. Certain I was about to die, I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable, but instead I was surprised to find Miss Knight throwing herself in front of the captain’s sword for me.’

Mrs Fitzgerald gasped and Emma groaned quietly. She doubted she’d be allowed to leave her room, let alone Cairo, for the duration of her stay.

‘Miss Knight persuaded the piratical captain to spare my life and deliver me safely to Cairo. I shall be in her debt for ever.’

He turned his attention back to Emma and took her hand, planting a kiss just below her knuckles. His lips were soft against her skin and for a moment Emma felt as if they were the only two in the room. She forgot all the trouble he’d caused her and the curious stares of the Fitzgeralds and their friends. In that moment she was only aware of her heart thumping in her chest, his lips against her skin, and the primal urge that surged up through her, willing him to pull her against him and claim her as his own.

He released her hand and Emma came tumbling back to reality. She smiled at him shakily, wondering whether he had felt the same thrum of desire as she had. She shook her head; of course he hadn’t. He was a man of the world, a charmer—he probably took a different woman to his bed every night. A man like Sebastian Oakfield wouldn’t be affected by a mere kiss on the hand, especially not with an inexperienced woman like herself.

‘Interesting,’ he murmured.