The Lord’s Inconvenient Vow

How many times had she and Lucas and Chase and Edge scrambled up these cliffs as children, imitating the night yowling of the jackals? Well, not that Edge howled with them, he had always been too aloof for that, but he’d come none the less. Then they would watch the hills across the Nile turn from ochre to orange to purple and then fade into the indigo of night.

She tilted her head, baring her throat to the rising breeze, and breathed deeply, trying to chase away the murky taste of the canal waters of Venice that always followed thoughts of Ricki.

She chased away all those ghosts, even her own. She was no longer Lady Carruthers. Not even Lady Samantha Sinclair. Only Sam.

I am Sam.

She raised her arms to the world, tipped back her head and told the world that truth at the top of her lungs.

‘I am Sam!’

Edge was viciously thirsty. His heart was beating and his legs burned from the climb, but none of the many physical discomforts concerned him as much at the moment as what he would see when he crested the sandstone cliff.

If he was wrong, if he’d made a single mistake on the crisscrossing camel and goat paths from Zarqa, there would be nothing but more desert—an endless, taunting ochre grin. Even the faint but distinct scent of the Nile could be nothing more than a sarab, a desert illusion like the shimmering trees and water that danced on the horizons until they were sucked under as he approached.

If he was wrong, he might end up like the jackal’s carcass he’d passed hours ago. He should have taken into consideration that eight-year-old memories of terrain were not necessarily reliable. He was older, slower, less alert. But the path had looked so very familiar...

He stumbled a little as he crested the cliff, pebbles skittering under his feet. He stopped, narrowing his burning eyes against the glints that splintered along the broad green scar of the Nile. But it wasn’t the Nile that held his gaze. Or the sprawling city of Qetara on the far side of the bank. It was the green gardens of Bab el-Nur tucked below the cliffs.

Home.

The word shivered in the air like a sarab threatening to disappear. Home. Not any more and not for many years since he’d tried and failed to build his own. They said third time lucky, but he didn’t believe in sayings. Or in anything much any more.

He closed his eyes and heard nothing but air moving up the cliff below him, a distinctive hollow presaging the rise of the afternoon winds. He’d once loved this time of day when the sun finally showed signs of exhaustion from its brutal assault and the desert began changing, all kinds of new forces entering its stark stage. New colours, new animals, new sounds.

It had been so long since he’d just...listened. Absorbed. It had been so long since he’d felt like listening. Since he’d felt anything much at all.

He didn’t know if this was a good sign. He liked not feeling.

At least he’d finally made it. More or less in one piece.

A very tired, aching piece.

Edge glanced up at the keening of a bird swooping in and out of tiny indentations on the cliff face and winced as the glare of the sun made his head pound. He’d finished the last of his water some hours ago, a miscalculation on his part. The hiss of the wind cooled the perspiration on his forehead and nape and he smiled at how good it felt now that he no longer feared for his life. His smile itself felt like a crack in the cliff face, sharp and threatening, but he allowed it to linger.

The sound struck him as harshly as if he had fallen off the cliff and hit the ground.

‘Aimsa!’

It carried out over the valley and for a mad second he was willing to consider he had been wrong about his disbelief in all matters supernatural. But somehow he doubted an ancient Egyptian spirit would be yelling at the tops of its lungs. He hurried as best he could on his stiff legs along the cliff and stopped.

The image was worthy of any of the locals’ tales: carved into a sky ignited into a blaze of orange and mauve by the setting sun was a figure cloaked in a pale billowing gown that snapped and surged under the evening wind as if being pulled towards the lip of the crater by desert furies. Then the figure raised its arms and the wind seemed to carry it upwards, as if preparing to hurl it over the cliff like a leaf.

Edge didn’t stop to think, just vaulted over the boulders and ran towards it, his mind already anticipating the image of this woman casting herself off the cliff.

‘Don’t!’ he called in Arabic. ‘Laa! Tawaqfi!’

The figure whirled, one hand outflung as if to hold him back.

They stood facing each other in mutual shock.

His breathing was harsh from the fear of what he had expected to witness and the need to stop it. But his mind was already rushing ahead with a series of realisations—that the woman who had just keened like a vengeful houri at the top of her lungs into the desert air was neither a local nor a hallucination of his, but something far worse.

Egypt had taught him to always expect the unexpected. Especially when it came to Sam Sinclair.

She was dressed in local dress, and local male dress at that, a cream-coloured gibbeh tied with a red cotton sash around her waist over a simple muslin gown. She was still staring at him, her blue-grey eyes wide and far away, but then the pupils dilated as recognition settled in and with it wariness. For a moment he wondered whether he was mistaken. After all, almost a decade had passed and this was no child. She looked very much like Sam and yet she did not.

Well, she wasn’t Sam any more. She was Lady Carruthers, wasn’t she?

‘I thought you were about to jump,’ he said, his breath still short and her eyes focused even further as she glanced from him to the cliff.

‘Why on earth did you think that?’

‘Perhaps because you were standing on a cliff, screaming?’

‘I did not scream, I howled. These are, after all, the Howling Cliffs. I didn’t expect anyone to be listening. I came here to be private.’

Anger was proving to be a wonderful antidote to fear and shock.

‘I am so dreadfully sorry to have intruded, Lady Carruthers.’

His sarcasm kicked up the corners of her mouth, but they fell almost immediately.

‘And I am sorry I frightened you, Lord Edward. I thought it safe to do so since no one dares come here. These cliffs are haunted, you know.’

‘I do now.’

The smile threatened again, but again failed to materialise. Perhaps this really wasn’t Sam at all. Or perhaps marriage had finally succeeded in taming her where all else failed. If so, it was nothing short of a miracle.

‘Not by madwomen,’ she corrected. ‘But by the protectors of Hatshepsut. Poppy was telling us they think that is probably her temple down there.’

She pointed to the structure at the foot of the cliffs. It and the flanking sphinxes were now completely uncovered as was a broad gravel pathway leading towards a jetty. It looked very small and inconsequential from where they stood, nothing like the sand-covered temple where he’d sat with this woman eight years ago...

A lifetime ago.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. It felt raw and rough with sand.

‘You are staying with Poppy?’

‘Of course. Why else would I be in Qetara?’

Why indeed. His wits had clearly gone begging. Her gaze moved over him again and for the first time he realised how he must look. Filthy, for one. He hadn’t shaved in days, or was it a week now?

‘Where did you come from?’ She looked around, frowning. ‘I would have seen you if you came up from Bab el-Nur.’

‘I haven’t been there yet. I came from Zarqa.’

Her eyes widened, managing to look both surprised and suspicious.

‘You’d best fetch your donkey or camel and come down. It will be dark soon.’

‘I don’t have a mount. I walked.’

Surprise turned to shock and then to outrage. He’d forgotten how expressive her face was.

‘You walked from Zarqa. On foot. On your own.’

‘Yes, on all counts. Is that an offence?’

‘Only against good sense! And what on earth were you doing up here? The desert path leads directly through the valley to the Nile, not to the Howling Cliffs. Were you lost?’

‘I wanted to see the view first.’

Her lips closed firmly on whatever was straining to be said. Then she gave her skirts a slight shake, as if dislodging something distasteful.

‘Well, it’s your hide if you wish to risk it. But I suggest you abandon this romantic conceit and make your way down before dark or you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the cliff more rapidly and painfully than you would like.’

She set off down the path and he followed. The reversal of scolding roles was as peculiar as everything else about his return to Egypt. She was right, though. He’d been tempting the fates walking from Zarqa in the first place and going along the cliff path in his present state was...

Romantic conceit. No one had ever accused him of being romantic. Conceited, yes. Romantic—he’d only been romantic once in his life and that had cost him dearly. He sighed. The path which he’d climbed and descended hundreds of times in his youth felt endless and his legs were a mixture of wool and fire when they finally reached the gate in the high whitewashed walls.

‘It has changed a little since you were here last,’ Sam said as she secured the gate behind them and he forced himself to look up.

She was right. Bab el-Nur used to be a sprawling but modest whitewashed structure surrounded by neat gardens, but Poppy had constructed a second storey and the gardens were a lush jungle of trees and flowering bushes surrounded by high mudbrick walls.

‘Good God, he’s constructed a fortress!’ he exclaimed as the house came fully into view.

She laughed over her shoulder, her face transforming, and for the first time the cool woman from the cliff and the girl in his memory connected.

‘It is even more amazing inside and Janet has made a marvel out of the gardens. I have been sketching...’ She paused and shrugged and it was like watching a flower furl its leaves as night fell, a physical and spiritual diminishment.

They continued through the garden, scents and memories engulfing him. It was already dark and the palm trees were weaving above them in their evening dance. The packed earth of the path gave way to the stone floor of the veranda and suddenly there was a flurry of movement.

‘Good heavens, Sam, who is...?’

Edge looked up and his uncle’s question melted away.

‘Edge. Dear Lord. My boy!’

Poppy wasn’t quite as tall as he, but he was a burly man and his embrace was powerful, his arms catching Edge in a vice, his bushy grey hair surprisingly soft against his cheek. For a moment Edge just stood there in shock. It had been so long since he’d seen this man, though he’d been closer than a father to him. How had he allowed so much time to pass?

‘Edge...’ The one word was a cracked whimper, then he was suddenly thrust away, his shoulders grabbed in Poppy’s considerable paws. ‘What have you done to yourself, boy? You look disgraceful! And why did you not tell me you were in Egypt? Janet! Edge is here!’

The last words were a bellow worthy of a call to prayer from the minarets and their effect was immediate. A plump figure hurtled into the room followed by others and Edge found himself being handed around like a parcel, embraced, scolded, questioned. He tried to keep his feet steady as he greeted everyone, but the room was beginning to move around him and suddenly a pair of blue-grey eyes were in front of him and he felt his hands clasped in a cool, strong grip.

‘When did you last eat, Edge?’

Eat?

‘This morning.’

His answer set off another bustle of activity, but at least it was away from him. Within moments a glass of tea infused with mint was shoved into his hand. It was so sweet it made him wince, but he drank and when they brought him food he ate and when they led him off to be bathed he went meekly.

It was very strange, being home.

‘The poor fellow is still asleep,’ Poppy announced as he entered the breakfast parlour and sat beside Janet.

‘I know,’ Janet said as she handed him a small porcelain cup of bitter coffee. ‘I couldn’t resist and peeked. He looks better now he’s washed and shaved, but he’s too thin, Poppy. You could cut stone with his cheekbones. I’ve told Ayisha to prepare the lamb stew he loved as a boy.’

‘Don’t fuss, Janet. You know he hates it.’

‘I never fuss.’

Sam smiled to herself at how Edge’s appearance had transformed her hosts. She’d forgotten how deeply they loved Edge. Janet was lit from within, her movements sharper but more abstracted, and after his heartbreaking show of love when he’d embraced Edge, Poppy now appeared taller, more resolute.

‘He isn’t ill?’ Sam tried not to sound worried. He’d looked so haggard yesterday she’d lain awake a long time, waiting for the sounds of a household bustling around a sickroom. She knew desert fevers could be deadly.

‘No, child, merely exhausted. Nothing food and sleep won’t remedy.’ Poppy’s words were a little too hearty and Sam knew that, though Edge might not be ill, Poppy was worried.

‘Did you know he was in Egypt?’

‘No. We received a letter from him only a couple of months ago from Brazil, but it must have been sent long before.’

‘Good morning.’

Janet wavered. Clearly she wanted to rush to Edge, but perhaps it was the sight of a very different but far more familiar Edge that stopped her. Daoud had done more than shave him, he’d trimmed his hair and found a set of clothes left by Lucas or Chase.

In the flowing gown and the long cotton strip worn like the natives to protect the head and face from the sand and sun Sam had hardly recognised him. Now she was thrown back eight years to the last time she’d seen Edge—in this very room, she realised. He’d stood just as straight and withdrawn and watchful. And yet this was a different man. He’d lived a whole lifetime in those eight years, as had she.

‘Good morning, Edge. Would you care for tea?’ she asked. His gaze moved to her and then settled on the tea pot by her hand.

‘Yes, thank you, Lady Carruthers.’

Oh, for heaven’s sake, Edge.

The words almost spurted out of her, but she held them back and held out the cup.

‘Your tea, Lord Edward.’

‘You are very kind, Lady Carruthers.’ Something almost like amusement flickered in his eyes, but then Poppy’s patience ran out.

‘Now, boy, tell us when you arrived, why you didn’t inform us of your arrival, and what on earth—’

‘Let him eat first, Poppy,’ Janet interrupted and Edge sat by her.

‘It is all right, Aunt. I cannot stay long so you may as well hear everything now. Rafe has disappeared.’

‘Rafe? What is that fellow up to now? I’d expected he would be settling in as the new Duke of Greybourne.’

‘Unfortunately not. I received a communication from the embassy in Istanbul that Rafe was killed alongside the Khedive’s son Ismail in Nubia. The Greybourne lawyers instigated an inquiry, but that could take months so I came myself.’

‘He...he is dead?’ Janet faltered and Edge smiled, reaching out to take her hand. The transformation was so extreme Sam felt herself tense as if she’d just noticed a crocodile moving in the reeds.

‘No, I don’t believe so, Aunt. In fact, I have reason to believe that letter was sent by Rafe himself. I need to find out why.’

‘But you cannot go there,’ Janet said, horrified. ‘That whole area is in upheaval. You could be killed!’

‘I am glad I didn’t stop here on the way, then, Aunt Janet. I wouldn’t wish for you to worry.’

‘You already went?’

‘Yes. There are still skirmishes, but Defterdar Bey has the area well under his brutal thumb. I don’t know quite what Rafe is about, but I do know he did not take part in those battles.’

‘How do you know? He is a mercenary, is he not?’

‘He is, but for several years now he has chosen to involve himself in financial rather than political concerns. More to the point, Ismail was killed in November of last year and I spoke with a...an acquaintance of Rafe’s who met him and his valet Birdie in Alexandria only last month before he headed south. I followed his trail and there were enough people who recognised my description. They call him Nadab.’

‘Scar,’ Poppy translated, frowning.

‘Yes. I never imagined I would be grateful for Rafe’s accident. In Syene he was joined by a young man and they hired a guide and camels to take them north through the western deserts. I was several days behind so I decided to try to cut around them by way of the river.’

Sam watched Edge as he spoke. She’d forgotten how blank his face could be. People showed more emotion speaking of the weather. But she knew better—she could see tiny signs, in the dip of his long eyelashes that shielded deep grey-green eyes, the flicker of tension in the lines cut on either side of his mouth.

Janet sighed. ‘I know he swore not to take a penny of Greybourne money as long as your father lived, but why must he continue in this stubbornness now he is Duke?’

‘I don’t know,’ Edge admitted. ‘Six months ago he told me he intended to return to England and tried to convince me to go with him.’

‘Were you planning to return?’ Poppy asked and Edge’s smile turned wry.

‘No. But that is beside the point. What matters now is that I hope I have gained some ground on them by coming by way of the river, perhaps even enough to outflank them if I come through the oases. Which made me think of al-Walid. No one could cross his territory without him knowing, correct? If you could give me some testimonial, I will proceed there and if I find nothing I will continue to Cairo. I paid dragomen there and in Alexandria to keep an eye out for him so hopefully at some point my luck will turn.’

‘You appear to have had more than your share of luck already, my boy. Walking from Zarqa! What next?’

‘It seemed the most reasonable option.’

‘Reasonable! One more day and you wouldn’t even have found us here. We were to leave for Cairo tomorrow and then back to England.’

‘Then I am glad you are here, but I am certain Daoud or Youssef could have helped me. All I need is a camel or a good sturdy horse and some form of message for—’

‘We will come with you, Edge,’ Janet interrupted softly. ‘We can continue as well from Bahariya as from here and in truth it has been far too long since we visited al-Walid.’ She held up her hand as Edge tried to protest. ‘You might be younger and stronger, Edge, but Poppy and I are more practised at desert travel. Good, now that is settled I shall have a word with Ayisha and Daoud about provisions, and of course we must bring gifts. I know just the thing. Come along, Poppy dear.’

She wandered out as she spoke, patting Edge on the head as she passed, as if he was still the young boy they took in almost thirty years ago rather than a man of thirty-four who was taller than she even when seated.

‘Uncle...’

‘Admit defeat, my boy. You know our Janet.’

The room fell very silent as Poppy closed the door. Sam poured more mint tea into her cup and after a moment’s hesitation refilled his cup as well. He watched, his mouth tense. She knew that expression, having been so often the recipient of it. He was annoyed.

‘Can’t you convince her this is unnecessary, Lady Carruthers?’ he said. ‘You used to wrap her around your little finger. Tell her you prefer to travel by dahabiya.’

Sam’s little finger tingled, but so did her temper. It was a peculiar feeling; she hadn’t been angry in quite a while.

‘Tell her,’ she repeated and his eyes narrowed.

‘It was a suggestion, not a command. For your own benefit and comfort.’

‘No, for your benefit and comfort. As usual.’

‘As usual?’ There was a dangerous lowering of his tone and the peculiar feeling quickened—anger tasted warm, thick. She’d forgotten that.

‘Yes. Ten years ago you convinced Poppy not to allow me to join the expedition to Bahariya.’ She felt rather foolish raising this old grievance now and rather surprised by how sharp it still was.

‘Precisely, ten years ago. I was perfectly justified in objecting to taking a child into the middle of the desert. Your brothers and I very nearly didn’t make it back.’

‘From what I heard Poppy tell Janet you and Lucas and Chase would not have been in danger either if you had not strayed from the town on your own. Since I would have remained, sensibly, with Poppy and Huxley and al-Walid, I would have been safe. Besides, I was sixteen. Hardly a child.’

He bent his glare on his teacup.

‘Would you care for some more tea?’ she asked and had the satisfaction of making him snap,

‘No. Thank you.’

‘You are welcome.’ She braced herself as they moved from annoyed to angry. Good.

‘Perhaps you weren’t a child, but you acted like one. Within a week of our return you had me thrown in gaol and then Poppy and Huxley were almost chased out of Qetara when you kidnapped Sheikh Khalidi’s cats.’

‘Oh! That is unfair! You were thrown into gaol because Khalidi’s daughter was fool enough to fancy herself in love with you and came to Bab el-Nur to beg you to stay in Egypt. I certainly didn’t ask you to try to break Abu-Abas’s nose when Khalidi sent him to return Fatima home.’

‘What the devil was I to do when you threw yourself between him and Fatima like a demented Don Quixote?’

He had a point so she moved swiftly to more defensible ground.

‘Besides, if I hadn’t tried, and failed, to kidnap Khalidi’s adored cats you probably would have remained in that horrid gaol far longer.’

‘He planned to release me anyway—he was merely making the point that not even foreigners could assault his men with impunity. Simply because your actions did not end in disaster does not mean they were justified. It was reckless and foolish and you could have been seriously hurt. You always had more luck than sense.’

She’d forgotten fury. She’d forgotten wanting to launch herself at someone as she had at Abu-Abas when he ordered the soldiers to take Edge away. But she was no longer a child and she would not gratify his insults by confirming them.

‘And you always had more sense than heart, Edge. I promise you, next time you are tossed in gaol I shan’t lift a finger. I shall reserve my loyalty for people who appreciate it.’

He turned away, but she saw the flush that showed darker under his sun-browned skin.

‘I don’t know why I am arguing with you,’ he grumbled. ‘I don’t argue with anyone but you and as usual it’s a waste of time. Come to Bahariya if you wish.’

‘How magnanimous.’

‘Don’t be snide. You’ve won, Lady Carruthers.’

It didn’t feel like a victory. She felt as weary as he looked.

‘It is not a contest, Edge. And please stop calling me Lady Carruthers like that. If you object so much to my presence, I will travel with Ayisha and the luggage on the dahabiya while you go with Poppy and Janet.’

He didn’t answer. All she could see was his profile, an outline that was etched in her mind with the familiarity of a childhood landscape—the kind you woke up to every day and hardly noticed until you went away. Without thinking she leaned across the table, hand extended.