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Hester tried not to look guilty. “He’s dead, actually.”
“Dead! Since when?”
She raised her chin. “Since five weeks ago. He had some sort of apoplexy. It was very sudden. One minute we were surveying the east ridge of the—”
“Five weeks? He’s been dead for that long?” Harry interrupted. “And you didn’t think to send a letter back to England? Or to return to Cairo and inform the British Consul, Henry Salt?”
“No, I did not. Because I knew that as soon as I did, everyone would demand I come home. I’m not ready. I decided to stay and finish Uncle Jasper’s map of Upper Egypt instead. It’s what he would have wanted. I’m nearly done, in fact. I only need a few more days.”
Harry’s expression portrayed his shock and annoyance. “Good God. It’s a miracle you’re still alive. You’ve been out here all alone, unprotected—”
“Hardly,” Hester scoffed. “I have Suleiman. He’s a trained bodyguard. A Mameluke soldier who once guarded Ali Pasha himself.”
Harry placed his hands on his hips. “So where is he?”
“I don’t know, actually. It’s most unlike him to simply disappear.”
Harry rolled his eyes.
“In any case,” Hester continued, “I also have a letter of protection from Muhammad Bey himself. It gives me free, unencumbered passage throughout his empire and promises dire consequences for anyone who interferes with me or my retinue.”
“Oh, and I’m sure any bandit’s going to take the time to read aletterbefore he robs and murders you,” Harry drawled. “How did you get such a thing, anyway?”
“Uncle Jasper and the Pasha were good friends. We stayed at the palace for a few weeks when we first arrived in Alexandria, and I became quite fond of his wives. They loved hearing stories about England. I gave one of them a simple remedy to treat her head cold and the Bey gave Uncle Jasper the letter of protection in thanks.”
Harry sent her a frustrated look. “You need a man to protect you out here, not a bit of paper. Egypt’s not safe for a woman alone. Even one as intrepid as you.”
“Oh, pah. Everyone I meet out here regards me as a curiosity. There’s really no need for you to be here. I’ll make my own way back to England in my own time.”
“There’s every need.”
Hester glared at him. “Why are youreallyhere, Tremayne?”
“Well it’s certainly not for the pleasure of your so-charming company. I’m doing this as a favor to my Aunt Agatha. She insisted someone came and collected you.”
“I’m not a parcel!” Hester fumed. “And I don’t believe you. You never do anything out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Well, if you want to know the truth, it’s for the money.”
“What money?”
Harry grinned—that gorgeous, boyish, wicked grin that did funny things to her insides.
“There’s a price on your head. A bounty, if you will. Aunt Agatha’s offered five thousand pounds to the man who returns you safely to England.”
“She did not!”
“She really did. And unlike you, Lady Morden, I’m not in line to inherit a whopping great fortune. Some of us have to make a living. Plebeian concerns, I know, but there you go.”
Hester sucked in a deep breath. The scorching desert air burned her lungs. “How could she? And you! You’re nothing but a fortune hunter!”
Tremayne didn’t even bother to deny it. His shrug was a study in insouciance, and Hester chided herself for noticing the way the thin cotton of his shirt clung lovingly to the muscles of his shoulders. He had a splendid physique, she had to admit. He was almost as broad as Suleiman.
“I was coming this way, anyway,” he said. “I want some mummies to take back to the Royal College of Surgeons. They want to dissect ‘em.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I don’t believe I require your permission,” he said haughtily. “Both you and those mummies are coming back with me to England, whether you like it or not.”
