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‘Indeed we are.’
‘So… do you know what it was all about? The explosion and the fighting at the Luxor, I mean. Do you have any idea who was behind it?’
Oh yes, certainly. Lord Daniel Eugene Dalgliesh, Peer of the Realm of Great Britain and Ireland, Member of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, resident at East India House, Leadenhall Street, London. It’s wonderful to have all-powerful enemies, isn’t it?
‘None at all, I’m afraid, Captain.’
‘Strange… very strange…’ For a moment, he looked troubled, thoughtfully stroking the speck of beard on his chin. Then he shrugged. ‘Well, as long as you are unharmed - that is all that matters.’
‘Yes.’ Inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. The difficult part of the conversation seemed to be over. ‘Enough about boring old me, Captain. How are things going with you? Was the man you were going to question as informative as you hoped?’
Regretfully, he shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, no. I don’t know what was the matter with him. When I arrived at Dark Nights of Delight, he was red in the face and shouting at his subordinates at the top of his voice about some fellow named Thomson. When I tried to approach him about the subject of the bandits, he cursed at me and ordered his men to chase me out of the building.’
I coughed delicately. ‘Fancy that.’
‘I imagine someone must have angered him for some reason, just before I arrived - maybe this Thomson. In any case, he wasn’t very informative and, for some reason, neither were the other informants I have been able to find. They all seemed a little on edge.’
Probably a residue left over from our visit a day or two earlier.
‘Strange. Very strange indeed.’
‘Now there’s nothing to do but to head out into the desert and find the bandits by good old tracking and searching,’ he sighed, gazing around the bazaar. ‘That’s why I’m here, in fact, I and a few of my men. We have to buy supplies and camels for our journey into the desert.’
‘No! Camels?’ My eyes became huge with fake surprise. ‘You can buy those creatures here in the bazaar, too? I never knew!’
‘Yes, but don’t get too close to one. They spit.’
‘You don’t say!’
From the distance, we heard someone shouting Captain Carter’s name. Turning, we saw a young sergeant waving his hat above the crowd, pointing to a particularly disagreeable camel tethered right beside him.
‘Sir! Captain Carter, Sir, I’ve found one for you!’
The captain sighed. ‘Well, duty calls, Miss Linton. I’m going to have to leave, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh, that’s perfectly all right, Captain! You go back to your duties, and the best of luck to you. And to your French and Egyptian comrades, too.’ The corner of my mouth twitched. ‘Make the world a safer place for helpless maidens such as myself, will you?’
His eyes strayed to the two bulky guards behind me, their hands on their sabres, and his lips twitched, too. ‘I’m not sure whether young maidens nowadays are quit
e as helpless as sometimes assumed. Au revoir, Miss Linton.’
And with a bow, he vanished into the crowd.
Breathing another sigh of relief, I turned back to the nearest booth. Behind it, a Bedouin man with a big dagger at his belt and an equally big paunch behind the belt, looked uncertainly from me to his deadly wares.
‘You would, um, be interested in my wares, Hanem?’
‘Depends. How much is one of those?’ I pointed to a wickedly sharp dagger, at least as long as my forearm. The trader’s eyes widened.
‘Um… perhaps you’d find something more appropriate at another stall, Hanem,’ he suggested. ‘Maybe a trinket, or a nice lace handkerchief?’
I was just about to shoot him a dark glare when I noticed something right behind him. On a peg sticking from one of the posts of the stall hung a long, bright white garment. My eyes lit up. I was supposed to find something to wear, wasn’t I? Well… maybe I had found just the right thing.
‘Forget about the dagger. How much is that?’ I pointed to the unconventional piece of clothing.
‘What?’ The man’s eyes widened even more. ‘This is not a clothes booth, Hanem!’
‘How much would you ask for it?’
