Egyptian Honeymoon (10 page)

'I haven't admitted a thing.'

'Oh yes, you have—that every man will lie to a woman. I know now how far I can trust your word in the face of circumstantial evidence.'

Steve's face set like stone as he said bitingly:

'Like all women you can twist words to suit your purpose. I'm quite indifferent to your opinion of me.'

He was rapidly becoming indifferent to her in every way, and she said despairingly: 'What a pity you married me!'

'Not at all. You'll look very decorative at my dining table when I entertain my friends.'

Along with the Crown Derby plate and silver cutlery, a possession brought out for special occasions. He met her stormy eyes with amusement in his, as he went on:

'You know I'm a collector of choice pieces, and that hair of yours will look well against the dark panelling of my dining room. I thought of that when I proposed to you.'

'Of all the cold-blooded…' she burst out.

'Come, come, my love, why such heat? You didn't marry me for love, but for material advantage, and that you've got in abundance.'

Noelle wished she could deny it, but she had accepted him for the sake of her parents and Simon. It came to her then that she wanted to be much more to Steve than the mere figurehead he had suggested, but they had started off on the wrong foot, and now Marcia had come to widen the rift.

The amusement died out of Steve's face and he said sternly:

'But watch your step with that Arab type, he's only got one use for a woman, as you'll soon find out.'

At the end of her endurance she flung at him:

'Then you and he are two of the same sort!'

Steve smiled unpleasantly.

'That being so, you'd better get out of my room.'

Noelle fled, pursued by his mocking laughter. She heard the key grate in the lock as he closed the door behind her.

The day before the
Serapis
was due to arrive in Luxor was one of hectic activity. The Excursion Manager had come aboard and everyone was arranging their trips. They were all rather bored with the long journey, for though the ship had passed several towns on her way up the Nile, she had not put in to them. They were to be visited on her return journey, when it was hoped they would prove an attraction to deter passengers returning by air. Noelle was spending most of her time with the Bates, for though she met Steve at meals, he had become immersed in plans for a take-over, and shut himself in his cabin amid a pile of papers, except when he was trying to send radiograms, and upsetting the crew with impossible demands. At least he was not with Marcia, who when he did appear greeted him with reproaches. Why must he work on a holiday? He replied tersely that something had blown up which required intricate calculations, which he must complete before they reached Luxor and a more efficient communication system. Marcia turned her attention to Omar, to Noelle's chagrin, for in spite of his derogatory remarks about the redhead, he did not seem averse to her company. For all that she was often conscious of his eyes fixed upon her speculatively if she happened to be in his vicinity, though he did not approach her, and Noelle wondered if Steve had warned him off.

The Bates were too tactful to ask questions, but Noelle could see they were a little puzzled by their relationships. They dubbed Marcia an adventuress and were sorry for Noelle, whose husband neglected her. They all wanted to go to the Valley of the Kings, and the Colonel asked her if she would like to go with them. Not knowing what Steve's plans were, and whether they included Marcia, she said she would be glad to do so if her husband agreed. He did not. He told her brusquely he had made arrangements for her entertainment, adding disagreeably:

'Are you trying to annex that old hasbeen now?'

Noelle stared at him in astonishment. Surely he could not disapprove of the Colonel?

'He's a very nice gentleman,' she said, 'and his wife's a dear. Since you leave me to my own devices, I have to talk to someone.'

'I don't flatter myself you're pining for my company,' he retorted. He seemed tired and irritated.

Stung, she returned. 'Hardly that, but you should give me some of it, for appearances' sake.'

'Quite unnecessary.' He regarded her moodily. 'By now both crew and passengers will know that we sleep apart.'

Including, of course, Marcia and Omar. Noelle sighed and turned away. Marcia must be filling his needs and he no longer desired her—the thought was bitter gall, but she would make no advance while the other woman was in possession, she could not bear to share him. Steve went back to his cabin and his work, while she went to tell Colonel Bates she must refuse his kind invitation.

The next day the
Serapis
reached Luxor. The town is situated on a flood plain of the Nile which covers a wide area. It is built on the site of the eighteenth-dynasty ancient capital of Thebes, of which nothing remains except its rich heritage of temple ruins. In the old days there were two cities, the east bank one with its palaces and gardens and across the Nile the City of the Dead. Because the Ancient Egyptians were much preoccupied with death the latter had been of unsurpassed splendour. The kings were buried in rock tombs, burrowed deep into the Theban Hills in a vain attempt to conceal them from grave robbers. These had operated often only a generation or so after the funeral, abetted by corruption in high places. The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, with all its rich treasures, gave some idea of the immense value of the offerings entombed with the great Pharaohs, for Tutankhamen was only a minor king and not much more than a boy when he died. The mind boggles to imagine the wealth that would have surrounded a ruler like Rameses the Second. It provided a temptation too great to be resisted.

As the actual burying places had to be hidden, the dead were honoured by large mortuary temples built along the western bank. The attendant priests and their servants, the architects, builders and masons engaged upon performing services for the dear departed and erecting new buildings were housed in this vast necropolis, and many of the temples they were engaged upon are still standing. The biggest of them all, the huge temple erected by Amenhotep the Third, who was responsible for most of the building in Thebes, is demolished, except for the Colossi of Memnon, the great stone statues of the Pharaoh himself, which still stand at what was once the entrance to it. With, the dawn of the Christian era the city had dwindled to a mere village, but eventually the modern city of Luxor came into being, and was now a flourishing tourist centre, with hotels, an airport and other Western amenities. It occupies only a small portion of the site of the original mighty town.

The
Serapis
arrived at Luxor as she had departed from Cairo, in the glory of the sunset. Noelle stood on the little deck watching the pageant of the sun's departing below the Theban Hills, heedless of the bustle below her of passengers coming and going. She was wondering what Steve's plans were for the morrow.

To her surprise, he came out to join her, and as they stood side by side at the rail, he said softly:

'Osiris returning to his nether kingdom. He was identified with the sun, you know, and Isis with the moon.'

'I thought Amon-re was the god of Thebes.'

'So you know that? Yes, Amon-re was the supreme god, like Zeus in Greek mythology, but Osiris was important too.'

'Who was destroyed by Set the evil one and the sorrowing Isis collected his remains. Her tears caused the Nile to flood and bring fertility to the land.'

'She must have wept prodigiously. Would you have wept if I'd succumbed to… the crocodile that morning?'

Noelle stared at his dim profile beside her in amazement. His eyes were fixed on the distant hills and his voice was gentle. She did not know him in this mood.

'Not enough to flood the Nile,' she returned, 'but what's got into you, Steve? You weren't in any real danger, and'… her slight bosom swelled, 'you taunted me with being a rich widow.' She had not forgiven him for that.

'Which of course would have been an enormous consolation.'

Now he was jeering, a more familiar Steve.

'No,' she said quietly, 'I don't think wealth is all that important.'

'Really? Then why on earth did you marry me?'

'Because my life was so empty, and my parents were set on it. Besides, you were very persistent.'

'Unwisely so.'

Noelle went cold. So he was regretting their marriage. Was he thinking Marcia's sophistication was more suited to the position of his wife? She had acted as hostess for him before, and red hair would look as striking against his dining room panelling as her own pale blonde locks. The shock those two words had given her surprised her. Could it be possible she had fallen in love with her husband, and in so short a time? It was an unwelcome thought, because Steve despised love; he had said with satisfaction that he had learned to live without it. If she had been more receptive on that fatal night, her position might have been more secure, but all he had wanted then was physical satisfaction, which he had since found elsewhere. Love, she knew, meant so much more, and it was painful to her to realise she could love again after Hugh, and a man like Steve Prescott, for she doubted if any woman could come close to him; in his heart he despised her sex.

The glow from the sunset threw his face into strong relief, the harsh lean planes of cheek and chin, the dark bar of his eyebrows, and the surprisingly long lashes which should have softened the hardness of his eyes, but never did. His head was set proudly upon his broad shoulders, which made him appear more arrogant than he actually was. He was still gazing at the last red rim of the sun, disappearing behind the hills, and his mouth had an unusually gentle curve.

She said firmly: 'It's done now.'

'What's done can always be undone.'

Her heart jolted, almost with fear. He had said once that what he had he would hold and the words had seemed to her a threat of permanent bondage. But even Steve could change his mind. Noelle had always understood an unconsummated marriage could be annulled without much difficulty. Was that what he had in mind? Unconsciously she had begun to lean on him, for she was not the independent type of woman, and when she had worked at Forbes Fashions she had relied upon Hugh throughout her employment there. His demise had meant not only the loss of her lover but her anchor and bulwark. Without him she had felt adrift and that was partly why she had accepted Steve. The strident advocates of women's rights would have told her she had a slave mentality, and she would have retorted that two bosses did not make for a harmonious home life. She was perfectly willing, to be guided by her husband if he could be persuaded to do the guiding, but at the moment it looked as though their semidetached existence might deteriorate into total separation. The prospect of a return to single life filled her with dismay, and not only that, she had been shocked into the realisation that she wanted Steve, and desired passionately to remove the barrier that had sprung up between them, and drive the marauding Marcia off her preserves.

How could she break down Steve's indifferent facade? Convince him that she would welcome his embrace? But she was not quite certain of her own feelings, though the memory of their wedding night caused an excited flutter in her stomach when she envisioned a repetition. The hot Egyptian sun engendered eroticism, but she had not quite broken through her inhibitions. She needed his encouragement.

She looked at him wistfully. In the fading light he was a tall, dim shape, dominating but unapproachable. He had not liked Omar's attentions to her, and it flashed into her mind that there she had a weapon with which she could revive his interest in her. He was jealous of his possessions, and the male in him, and he was very male, would resent a rival. Only dimly conscious of the primitive forces within both herself and him with which she was playing, Noelle said provocatively:

'If you're thinking of walking out on me I can always fall back on our Arabian prince.'

'You'd be a damned fool if you did,' Steve told her brusquely, which was not the reaction for which she had hoped. 'I can't think what you see in that layabout.'

Then the full significance of her words seemed to hit him, and he grasped her shoulders painfully. 'What have you and he been up to?'

'Nothing… as yet.'

His touch set her vibrating like a harp in the wind. So this was love, something far more physical than she had ever experienced with Hugh, and far more overwhelming. Forcing herself to speak-lightly, she went on:

'He's offered to show me the desert. It might be rather… thrilling.'

'Is that what you want? A thrill?' His hands dropped from her shoulders to close over her back. He was drawing her nearer to his broad chest. Noelle did feel a thrill, of excitement, and her lips parted in anticipation of his kiss. All was not lost if she could arouse desire in him, but almost immediately he dropped his arms.

'I was forgetting, I don't thrill you… only revolt you.'

A whiplash could not have hurt her more than his withdrawal. Her half aroused senses recoiled like a released spring.

'Oh, Steve,' she cried reproachfully, 'it's not like that at all!'

The sun had gone and darkness was rushing over the land with the speed night descended in that latitude. She could not distinguish his features, but his voice held the familiar gibe when he spoke:

'Isn't it? Don't try to perjure yourself, my love, out of a sense of wifely duty. I know what your true feelings are, and I've come to dislike bought kisses.'

'You've had plenty of them,' she said bitterly struggling to control her chaotic emotions. She was not sure if she loved or hated him.

'Exactly, and they've become sour.'

Noelle sought for words to convince him that he was mistaken about her attitude towards him, but she was too confused by her changed feelings to think coherently. There was silence between them, while her heart knocked against her ribs with such violence that she thought Steve must be able to hear it. Lights came on all over the ship; it had been dressed overall in coloured bulbs to celebrate their arrival. She saw Steve was standing apart from her gazing towards the shore, seeming no more moved by her presence than if she had been a dummy.