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Their host grinned, clearly enjoying the game. “You do not want to miss this opportunity, my friend. Camel or horse, all of my mounts are prized. I had anotheringlizinot more than an hour ago who insisted on three of my best camels for himself, his wife and his niece,” Mr. Masri said, and Helen’s head snapped to attention.
“What did you say?” she asked.
——
Rhys listened attentively, trying to follow the thread of their rapid exchange as Helen peppered Masri with questions. From what he could make out, an older gentleman had recently passed through with his wife and niece. They’d left one of the English boats near Tanta but had been beset by bandits who’d stolen their provisions and newly acquired horses. Forced to travel the road by foot, the small family had arrived at Masri’s farm uninjured but travel weary.
“Can you describe the man and his family?” Helen asked. “What did they look like?” She gripped Rhys’s arm in her eagerness, and he settled a hand over hers.
“Ah, yes,” Masri said, “The gentleman, he was pale with the round shoulders of age. His Arabic was good, though I think not so excellent as yours.”
Helen, who colored prettily when talk turned to wives and harems, didn’t blush in the slightest at Masri’s compliment. She merely nodded, taking his words for fact, and urged him to continue.
Masri stroked his smooth cheeks and considered. “His lady wife was fluttery like a bird, about your height but with a large English bonnet.”
Helen’s hand tightened on Rhys’s arm as she leaned forward. “And the niece?”
Masri frowned. “The young lady, she was not made for this land. She wilts like the petunia in the sun, and she is spotted from insects, although why the bugs would bite such sour fruit, only Allah knows.”
Helen turned to Rhys. “It’s them, it must be!” Then, spinning back to Masri, she said, “They purchased camels. Do you know their destination?” Masri nodded and she fired more questions at him to learn the Tyndales were making their way back to Alexandria.
Rhys smiled at Helen’s obvious relief and elation, even as his stomach twisted. He was relieved for her, certainly. He’d be a churlish cad not to be, but such news meant he must again change his course. It was one more delay in his search for the Collector.
But once he reunited Helen with her party, he would be unencumbered once more. Surely, he would make better time traveling to Cairo alone. That thought should have been more satisfying than it was—his sister would certainly appreciate his haste in coming to her—but the notion of continuing on without Helen left him feeling a bit… somber. And that momentary indulgence left him feeling horribly selfish.
“We’ll take the mares,” he said to Masri gruffly, interrupting Helen’s enthusiastic expressions of gratitude. “Both of them. Fit them out for speed if you will, Masri.”
The lady looked at him in surprise, as if she’d forgotten his presence despite holding fast to his arm during her exchange with Masri. A frown furrowed her sunburned brow as she considered him, and he saw the wheels of her mind turning like a coach gaining speed on a down slope. Rhys dropped her arm to press the required coins into Masri’s hand, then he began helping the man saddle Helen’s new mount.
She followed them, little puffs of dust rising behind her rapid steps. He glanced up from where he’d placed a saddle on the bay’s back, eyeing her briefly across the animal. Masri passed him the bridle and he turned to take it, but not before Helen’s eyes narrowed in an expression he’d come to recognize. Like the crackling air that presaged a coming dust storm, her features predicted difficulties ahead. Clearly, she took exception once again to his ordering of their plans.
He may have been slow to learn, but that wasn’t to say he was incapable of it. After a beat of silence, he spoke to her across the mare as he tightened the girth. “Helen,” he said. “I would like to find the Tyndales before too much time has passed. Are you in agreement with that course of action?”
Her frown deepened. Ah, yes. Now came the discussion part. “But your sister,” she said. “We’re so close to Cairo. You can’t afford the time it will take to—”
He shook his head. “If we go now and quickly, we can overtake the Tyndales before they’ve traveled much farther.”
“Like we overtook them at Kafr Abu Homs?”
Rhys frowned and adjusted the stirrup as she continued.
“How do we know which road they’ve taken?” she asked. “There are any number of routes they might have chosen.”
His jaw tightened. She wasn’t incorrect, but the devil take it if he knew what to do about it.
“Rhys,” she continued, “I realize we must be close to the Tyndales, but you have to find the Collector. The answer is simple: we must continue on to Cairo as we were. I’ll go to the consul-general there, and his office will get word to the professor in Alexandria. You can’t delay your search any longer.”
Rhys’s brow dipped in surprise and not just at her use of his given name.Thiswas why he didn’t waste time with discussion. They’d spent the past hours rushing to catch the Tyndales, and now that they were closer than ever, she chose a different and altogether unexpected course. It was utterly confounding.
“Your sister’s life is paramount,” she whispered.
He couldn’t disagree, but he also couldn’t ask Helen to travel with him to Cairo,awayfrom the Tyndales. To do so went against all reason and was certainly not in her best interest. He swallowed at the impossibility of their situation, rubbing his jaw.
She gazed at him earnestly, her delicate brows pitched to a point, the scarf draped loosely over her cinnamon hair. Without his permission, this lady had worked her way into his heart. He found himself unexpectedly captivated by her intelligence and humor, her beauty and wit. But he’d spent the past weeks with the singular goal of finding and returning his sister to England. As soon as he had Fiona back, they would be on the next steamer to England, but now, for the first time since Fiona had been taken, the thought of leaving Egypt caused a pain of regret to tighten his chest.
“I’ve caused you to delay your search too many times,” Helen continued. “I retrieved your bag in Alexandria, then I gave you the opium in Kafr Abu Homs and now—” She stopped and drew a heavy inhale as she came around to his side of the mare.
He gave her a shaky smile. “I won’t deny all you say is true,” he said. “You’re like a mosquito trapped in my tent.”
