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“Where is my uncle?”
He gently pulled me into the circle of his arms and I squirmed against him, desperate to find Tío Ricardo. They’d just had the evening meal, he would surely still be up. “I must go!”
“Easy, Inez,” he murmured against my hair. “Go where?”
“Buenos Aires!”
He stiffened and pulled far enough away to look down at me, concern written across his handsome face. “You’re—” He broke off, his lips parted. “You’re leaving Egypt?”
I exhaled and fought the terror pecking at me like ravenous vultures. “My cousin Elvira has gone missing. My aunt tried to tell me twice, and fool that I was, I ignored her letters.”
“Hold on. Is it possible this is a ruse?”
I blinked. “A what?”
“Would your aunt lie to you? Perhaps this is a strategy to get you to return home.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me, but as soon as his words registered, I was already shaking my head. “She wouldn’t do something like this. Not after what I went through when I learned about my parents. She wouldn’t make something like this up concerning Elvira.” I squeezed my eyes shut. Even though I’d said the words, I hardly believed them.
Whit gently led me out of my narrow bedroom. By the time we found my uncle—reading atop his bedroll—I was shaking once more, tears streaking down my face.
He flung his book aside and jumped to his feet. “Qué pasó? What’s happened?”
“It’s Elvira,” I began. The lines around his mouth tightened as I finished giving him all the details and then handed him the crumpled letter.
My uncle stared at me gravely, a deep crease between his dark brows,and then read the letter once, then twice. Terror gripped me. What if he didn’t believe this was from my aunt? What if he didn’t believeme?
I’d lied to him. Betrayed him.
Tío Ricardo could refuse to let me go with him. He could call me a liar, a fool. Both those things would be true.
Tension twisted between us as I held my breath and waited.
“I’ll take you back to Cairo,” he said quietly. “Pack your things.”
WHIT
Inez left the room, her skirt twirling around her ankles. I turned my focus to Ricardo. With Inez and him leaving for Cairo, it was the perfect time to broach a subject festering in my mind. I didn’t want to bring it up, but I had to. It was long past time.
Ricardo dragged a tired hand across his face. “What a mess.”
“I know.”
Ricardo hunched over the book where I’d been keeping careful track of all the artifacts. He scowled down at the heavily marked page. His belongings were strewn everywhere in his narrow room, creating a mess. He liked to throw things when he couldn’t shout.
“It was right here all along,” he said.
“What was?”
“Inez’s deceit,” he said. He jabbed his index finger onto the sheet. “She was careful to take copies, but not always. The blue serpent is missing. It’ll be worth a fortune, a perfect model of the asp that killed Cleopatra. The only snake in her entire tomb.”
“You’re still angry at her.”
“There will never be a day when I won’t be,” he said tiredly. “Why aren’t you furious?”
I leaned against the wall, crossed my ankles, and shrugged. “How well do you think she knew her mother?”
“Not an excuse.”
