Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) (41 page)

           
“Get
OUT!” Ella yelled as another contraction edged its way to a sickening peak,
making her clutch Rowan’s hand. “Oh, my God, that hurts!”

           
“I
know, babe, I’m sorry. Try to pant. I know you didn’t get to take any childbirth
classes but breathing in short bursts helps manage the pain.”

           
He
began panting to demonstrate and Ella tried to mimic his sounds. “Who the hell
is this
Miss Newton
?” she gasped
between breaths.

           
“What?”
Rowan wiped the sweat forming on her forehead. “What are you talking about? You
know who she—”

           
“Was
she, like, your
girlfriend
while I
was being held captive with people trying to kill me and rape me?”

           
“What?
No. Don’t be ridiculous.”

           
The
contraction receded and Ella stopped panting. She looked at him. “Oh, my God,”
she said. “She
was
your girlfriend.”

           
“Look,”
Rowan said, “maybe she was hoping for something,
maybe
, but nothing happened. Why are we talking about this now?”
        

           
“It
takes my mind off the next…oh, God, Rowan, it’s coming! Dear Lord, I don’t
think I can stand it!” Ella tensed up and closed her eyes, clenching Rowan’s
hand in hers.

           
“Ella,
keep panting!” Rowan said. “Don’t hold your breath—”

           
The
rest of his sentence was drowned out by her scream.

           
“Good
girl,” he said, easing her knees apart as the pain began to release her. She
went limp against the bed. “I think we’re nearly there, love,” he said.

           
“I
want Halima,” Ella whimpered. “Where is Halima? I need her!”

           
Julia
hurried into the tent with a basin of steaming water and a stack of clean
towels under one arm. “Dear Lord, Ella, the whole camp can hear you all the way
down to the dig site!”

           
“Rowan,
I’m going to kill her so unless you want that on your conscious…Oh, oh, oh! Another
one! Here comes another one!”

           
“Julia,”
Rowan said, “put those down and get behind her. Remember to breathe, El.
Breathe.”

           
“I
can’t! It hurts too much. I can’t do it!”

           
Rowan
pulled Julia around the bed and positioned her behind Ella. He brought Ella up
into a semi-sitting position. “Push back against Julia,” he said to her. “Come
on, push against the pain. Push hard!”

           
Rowan
plunged his hands into the hot water and soaped up. He quickly dried his hands
and turned back to her. She had collapsed against Julia who was wiping her
brow.

           
“You
are doing so well, Ella,” Julia said. “You are the bravest person I know. The
bravest person I have
ever
known.”

           
Ella
shook her head weakly.

           
“Did
she tell you how they tied her to a post and beat her half to death for trying
to escape?” she said to Rowan.

           
Rowan’s
face tensed as he pushed the image and the building anger from his mind.

           
“And
then,” Julia said, “two days later, when she was still so hurt she could barely
walk, she ran off
again
.”

           
“It’s
coming,” Ella said, panting hard. “Another one. This one’s going to kill me.
Oh, please, let it kill me.”

           
“No,
El,” Rowan said, as he slid a clean sheet under her hips and placed both hands
on her knees. “This one’s gonna turn us into a family. Get ready to push when I
tell you to. Come on, darlin’. You’re nearly there. I see his head! Just a
little bit more…”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

 
          
The
morning, when it finally came, was bright and harsh but the inside of Ella’s
tent was kept deliberately dark to cool its interior as much as possible. When
Rowan finally tore himself away from her bed to find breakfast and confer with
Spenser who awaited him, Julia slipped into the tent and took his place next to
the bed.

           
Ella,
exhausted and aching, thought about pretending to be asleep, but decided she
didn’t have the energy for the subterfuge.

           
“Are
you awake, Ella?” Julia whispered loudly, leaning over her to rearrange her
cotton sheet such that if she wasn’t awake, she soon would be.

           
“You
know I am,” Ella said without opening her eyes.

           
“Can
I hold him?”

           
That
made Ella smile. She opened her eyes and glanced down at the warm and sweetly
sleeping bundle tucked next to her on the bed.

           
“As
long as you don’t wake him,” she said. “I just fed him.”

           
“I
won’t,” Julia said, reaching over and carefully picking up the baby. “Oh, Ella,
he’s beautiful. Especially all cleaned up as he is now.”

           
Ella
couldn’t help but smile at the memory of Julia swooning during the crucial last
moments of Tater’s birth.

           
“That
reminds me,” she said. “Did you hit your head when you fell or are you okay?”

           
“Pshaw!
I suppose you’ll be spreading gossip that I fainted during your delivery or
something. Has Miss Newton been in yet?”

           
“Visiting
hours are restricted to family,” Ella said and was rewarded by a wide smile
from Julia.

           
“We’ve
had quite an adventure, haven’t we, darling?” Julia said to her. “One neither
of us will ever forget.”

           
“That’s
for sure. Did you talk to Carter about the raid?”

          
Julia
pulled the blanket back from the baby’s face and smiled down on him and then
handed him back to Ella. “He was very understanding. Said no harm done, nobody really
hurt, and no gold taken. I think he was really more embarrassed for me than
anything. We English aren’t comfortable with strong passion.”

           
“Honestly,
Julia. You must have been out of your mind.”

           
“I
loved him,” she said.

           
“Promise
me you’re not going to go find him or something asinine like that.”

           
“No.
He was losing interest in me. I believe he came here last night not so much to
rob the camp but to deliver me back.”

           
“He
probably could’ve done
that
with a
whole lot less gunfire. I think the robbing part of the plan was still high on
his to-do list.”

           
“I
know you didn’t like him,” Julia said. “But I’m not sorry for any of it.”

           
“And
Carter really is okay with you staying on?”

           
“He
says so.”

           
“What
about Digby? How are you doing with all that?”

           
Julia
shrugged. “At least now I don’t have to get an annulment.”

           
Ella
grinned and shook her head. “The English,” she said.

           
After
deciding to stay in camp another week for Ella to get her strength back, Ella
was happy to allow Julia and even Marvel to help her with the baby. When she
did she was surprised to discover that there was nothing like a newborn to
bring women together who might not normally feel inclined that way.
Tater—formally named James Phoenix Pierce—was a good baby who slept
much and cried little. To Ella, he looked like a miniature version of Rowan
with brown hair and large blue eyes. He smiled easily and often. Sometimes when
she looked at him she couldn’t help but remember how he had been with her
through every step of her travels through the desert. And when she touched his
little fingers and hands, she realized how much of her strength had come from
him.

Once, when she
was coming out of the bathing tent after having left Tater with Rowan, she
passed the central camp dining table and was startled to realize that Spenser
was sitting there writing in his log with Tater in the crook of his arm.
Marvel—never far from Josh—was hovering nearby and it occurred to
Ella that she was getting a good preview of him as the future father of their
own children. Ella had to admit he looked relaxed and comfortable. Almost as
much as Rowan did.

           
Few
things delighted her as much as her nights alone with Rowan and the baby.
Because Tater didn’t sleep through the night, Rowan could be found every night
in the wee hours holding and rocking his son—sometimes outside looking at
the stars in the Egyptian sky. Nothing made Ella feel as close to him as
watching the two of them together. Every once in awhile she would remember the
wooden statue of the three of them, or she would recall the memory of her
husband and child in the hammock on the cliff and then she would be flooded
with relief and unbelievable gratitude. Often she would touch the tattoo on the
inside of her arm and her gratitude would be silently extended to the woman who
had loved her and helped her save her family.

           
As
for all that business with Abdullah, Ra and Viscount Digby, it became clear
that as far as Carter was concerned, the less said the better. Rowan revealed
to Ella that stolen artifacts from the dig site had been found in Digby’s tent.
For the sake of his family back in England, Carter was happy to recover the
objects and say no more about it. For everyone’s sake, it would be reported to
the authorities that Digby died—as the sole casualty in the camp
raid—attempting to free Julia from her Bedouin captors.

           
Julia
showed no interest in returning to England, and Carter, who, it transpired, did
not
have a wife and family back home,
graciously allowed her to stay and even began spending some time with her in
the evenings as she developed an interest in drawing the found artifacts. It
became clear to Ella that Julia felt she had no home to return to. Several
times Ella found her tacking up one of the little camp ponies to ride the
camp’s perimeter.
 
Whether her
intent was a hope that she might catch a glimpse of her desert sheik or to
enjoy the barren, incomparable beauty of the land, it was clear to anyone who
could see that her heart now belonged to Egypt.

When the news
came that Lord Carnarvon would be arriving even earlier than anticipated, Ella
was happy to put off returning to Cairo for another few weeks. The baby was
healthy and she felt strong. There didn’t seem to be any reason to hurry back.
Carnarvon’s coming while she and Rowan were still at the camp felt like the
final perfect piece of the whole picture falling into place. For Rowan to be
able to be a part of the opening of the Tut tomb would be an experience beyond
anything he could ever replicate back in 2013. He would be here as history was
made.
 

*
                                 
*
                                 
*
                                 
*

Rowan held his
son firmly in the crook of one arm and held the other out for Ella to hold. It
had taken some time before she remembered to hold his arm when they walked in
public and she had recently admitted that she had grown fond of the practice.

“Where are you
taking me?” she asked as they wound their way through the crowded streets of
the Cairo bazaar. “I thought we weren’t going to try to go back just yet. We
can’t just leave, Rowan, without saying goodbye to everyone.”

“We’re not
leaving today,” he said, frowning as they came to an intersection of streets
lined with shops. “I want you to meet someone.”

“Someone who
lives here?” She wrinkled her nose. “I know the hospital gave Tater a clean
bill but I’m sure he could managed to pick up something air-borne from this
market.”

They had arrived
back in Cairo three days before and settled in at Shepheards. The city—indeed,
the world—was still abuzz with the news of the recent discovery of King
Tutankhamun’s tomb. If it hadn’t been for Marvel’s suite of rooms, they
would’ve had to pitch a tent on the banks of the Nile. Every room in Cairo was
booked with tourists and journalists from all over the world.

“There it is,”
Rowan said, guiding Ella across the street to a shop front.

Ella was
surprised to see an elderly woman standing in the shop, smiling at them as if
waiting for them.

Rowan nodded at
the woman and gave her a half bow. “Olna,” he said.

Olna grinned,
showing many missing teeth, and pointed to the baby in his arms. “You found
her, I see.”

“I did. Can we
talk?”

Olna led them to
an interior room with a table. Before entering, she said a few words to the proprietor
who nodded and left them alone.

“Olna is the
reason I didn’t return to 2013 a few months back,” Rowan said, “when I was
convinced you weren’t in 1922 any longer.”

Ella’s eyes
widened. It hadn’t occurred to her that Rowan might have come back in time and
then left again. Just the thought made her feel instantly cold.

The proprietor
returned with a small tray of three cups of tea and set it down on the table
and left again without a word. Olna gestured for them to sit. Rowan handed
Tater to Ella and they seated themselves at the table.

           
“First,”
Rowan said to Olna, “I want to thank you for helping me find my family.”

           
Olna
nodded and smiled.

           
“But
secondly, I wanted to ask you, how are we able to do this? Switching times like
we have? And can we control it?”

           
Olna
smiled at the baby in Ella’s arms and then at Ella. “How was it the first time
for you?”

           
Ella
looked at Rowan and he nodded encouragingly. “Well, I was very upset when it
happened in Heidelberg,” she said. “I had gotten some bad news and was
just…walking blindly around extremely distraught.” She looked back at Olna. “It
was storming. Is that significant?”

           
The
old woman shrugged.

           
“And
I had my mother’s locket.”

           
Olna
widened her eyes. “A talisman,” she said. “That is good.”

           
“And
when Rowan came over to 1620,” Ella said, “he had his uncle’s dog tags.”

           
“Your
uncle was dear to you,” Olna said to Rowan.

           
“Yeah,”
he said, his voice a gruff whisper.

           
“But
this time, we had nothing,” Ella said. “I mean, I had my locket but I wasn’t
thinking of my mother and I wasn’t particularly upset.”

           
“You
were with child,” Olna said, nodding to the baby in Ella’s arms.

           
“But
what about Rowan? How was
he
able to
come to this time?”

           
The
old woman put her hands out in silent request to hold the baby. Ella gave Tater
to her without hesitation.

           
“Your
husband had the emotion for the trip that you did not,” Olna said, pulling the
blanket away from Tater’s face.

           
Ella
looked at Rowan. “I’m so sorry, Rowan,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ve even told
you yet how sorry I am to have put you through that.”

           
“It’s
okay,” he said. “It all worked out.”

           
Ella
turned back to Olna. “It doesn’t feel like we have any control over when it
happens.”

           
“Are
you sure?”

           
“I
didn’t deliberately time travel this time! It just happened to me.”

           
“Perhaps.”

           
“You
think I
wanted
to leave my own time?”

           
“Yes.”

           
“She’s
got a point, babe,” Rowan said, his eyes on his son.

           
Ella
looked at him and fought down the hurt and the guilt building in her chest.