Lady of Heaven (19 page)

Fox sighed
faintly as they approached the taxi stand from a distance.  He put his arm
around her shoulders as they walked.

“I know what he
said,” he replied steadily. “Let’s not talk about this until we get back to the
hotel, okay? We don’t want anyone else catching wind of this. In spite of the
size of the city, word can get around and we really need to think this
through.”

“But…!”

“Please, love;
not a word. Not here.”

She coughed,
grumbled, but did as he asked.  By the time they got in the taxi, she was
weeping softly. He held her hand, glancing over at her now and again as the
taxi sped through the Cairo streets, watching her wipe tears off her cheeks. He
wasn’t sure what to say to comfort her because the truth was that he was still
processing everything himself. It was shocking to say the least.

The afternoon
was warm and smoggy as they pulled up to the Marriott, climbed out of the taxi
and went straight into the hotel. By the time they hit the modern, spacious
lobby, Fox heard someone call his name.

“Dr. Fox!”

Fox and Morgan
came to a halt, turning to the sound of the voice. Beni was running at them
from the area of the lobby that looked like a doctor’s waiting room. He
appeared thrilled and excited to see them.

“Dr. Fox!” he
rushed upon them, bowing respectfully to Morgan as he focused on Fox. “Dr. Alia
has sent me to help you with your project. I have been waiting for you to
return.”

Fox eyed the man
a moment; he was growing increasingly uncertain about letting Beni in on what
they were doing.  Anything he told Beni would undoubtedly get back to Alia. But
at the moment, he wasn’t sure how he wanted to proceed given the conversation
with Allahaba. He needed to talk to Morgan and decide a course of action based
on what she wanted to do.  The situation was becoming odd and complex and, at
the moment, Beni’s appearance was unwelcome. He had to treat it carefully. But
as he looked at the man, something even more concerning came to mind.

“Beni,” he
greeted evenly. “How did you know where we were staying?”

Beni’s face fell
somewhat as he appeared to grope for words. “Dr. Alia… she called the big
hotels in Cairo until she found you.  She has sent me here to help you.”

Fox didn’t like
that answer at all.  Alia calling every hotel in the city looking for him was
not a good sign.

 “Oh,” he said,
belying the irritation and concern he felt. “Well, I wish you would have just
called and left a message. It would have saved you the trouble from coming to
the hotel. I’m not working on the project today.”

Beni’s hopeful
expression fell. “Oh,” he suddenly looked uncomfortable and apologetic. “I am
sorry to have disturbed you. Perhaps tomorrow?”

Fox nodded.
“Probably,” he replied. “I’ll call you at the museum.”

Beni nodded
eagerly, his gaze moving between Morgan and Fox. “Are you shopping today?”

Fox nodded. “We
are,” he replied. “We just came from the Khan el Kalili bazaar.”

Beni was back to
being hopeful. “Would you like for me to take you around and show you the good
shopping places?”

Fox shook his
head. “Morgan isn’t feeling well,” he told him. “I think we’re going to stay
here the rest of the day.”

Beni looked
stricken. “I see,” he said, suddenly backing away from them as if he had taken too
much of their time. “I will see you tomorrow, Dr. Fox.”

Fox just waved a
hand at him and began heading back to the elevators with Morgan in tow.  The
elevator door opened and they stepped in, listening to the doors shut swiftly
behind them.

“That was kind
of weird,” Morgan said softly.

He looked at
her. “Why do you say that?”

She shrugged.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Tracking down our hotel for one.  And he just seemed
like he wanted to hang out with us.”

Fox squeezed her
hand, leaning back against the elevator and looking up at the floor numbers as
they advanced.

“I thought it
was strange, too,” he said. “But the last thing we need is Beni hanging around
right now.  Although I’ve known him for a few years and respect his knowledge,
anything I say to him will undoubtedly get back to Alia and I’m not sure I want
her to know what I’m doing.”

Morgan was
watching him closely. “Why not?”

He didn’t look
at her as the elevator doors opened onto their floor. “You saw her back at the
museum,” he said, letting go of her hand so he could reach into his pocket for
the key card. “She’s still… well, anyway, she’s obviously jealous of you and I
don’t trust her. I don’t want her around you in any way, shape or form.”

Morgan’s
eyebrows lifted. “You don’t
trust
her?” she repeated. “Then why did we
go to the museum and ask her for help in the first place?”

He unlocked the
hotel room door and held it open for her. “Because I really thought after all
of these years, she’d be over the fact that I didn’t want to do anything more
than date her,” he said. “Obviously, she’s not. She can be ruthless and bitchy,
and I don’t want you exposed to it.”

Morgan pulled
off her straw hat, setting it on the kitchenette counter.  She looked up at him
with her clear brown eyes. “I can’t say I’d get over it, either, if all you
wanted to do was date me,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “I can’t fault
the woman her good taste.”

He smiled,
setting the giant straw bag down on the couch and taking her in his arms. He
just held her a moment, his forehead on the top of her head, feeling her supple
body against him. The mere act of feeling her warmth and life against him
settled his spirit, brought him peace, more than anything he had ever known. It
was a feeling he’d searched for his entire life.

“And I probably
would have hung myself if you had sent me away when I showed up at Heaven’s
Gate the day we met, begging to translate the papyrus,” he murmured. “I think
that was the best day of my life until today. It just keeps getting better and
better with you.”

She wrapped her
arms around his neck as he nuzzled her; with their height difference, Morgan
found herself staring up at the ceiling as he bent over her, swamping her with
his massive presence, feeling his gentle kisses on her neck.  The tranquil
moment between them, however, was a cover for her rapidly-moving thoughts. 
Even as she stared at the painted ceiling from the envelope of his enormous
arms, her mind was working furiously.

“So I’m calmer
now,” she said softly as he nibbled her ear. “What do we do about the fact that
Allahaba’s grandfather apparently sold Fanny the papyrus?”

He stopped
nibbling and she felt him sigh. He pulled back to look at her. “Of all the wild
coincidences,” he muttered. “I still can’t believe it. To tell you the truth,
I’m not sure what we should do. Do we tell him? Do we not? I just don’t know.”

Morgan pulled
away from him and leaned against the couch to remove her shoes. “In her
journal, Fanny referred to the dealer she purchased the papyrus from as Mr.
Sula. What is Allahaba’s last name?”

Fox cocked an
eyebrow. “Sula,” he said frankly. “But to be fair, it’s a fairly common Arabic
name.  It’s like Smith or Jones.”

“Still, I feel
stupid for not having made the connection.”

“I wouldn’t
worry about it. We certainly know now, don’t we?”

She pulled off
the other shoe. “That’s for sure,” she cocked her head thoughtfully. “He seemed
bitter about it.”

He wriggled his
eyebrows. “I’d say so,” he moved over to a second couch and plopped his big
body down. “Given his reaction, we need to tread very carefully with this. I
don’t want to risk offending Allahaba; the man was invaluable to me when I was
on the Edfu dig and his friendship means a great deal.”

Morgan pondered
his statement; with her shoes in her hand, she sat down on the couch opposite
him, lost in thought.

“I don’t like
what he said about Fanny,” she whispered. “He implied that she coerced his
grandfather into selling her the papyrus.”

Fox’s black eyes
were soft on her. “I know, love,” he murmured. “I’m sure he’s speaking from his
family’s point of view and you know they’d be bitter about it.”

“I guess so,”
she regarded him a moment. “What do you think we should do?”

He pursed his
lips thoughtfully, looking off into the room as he thought on her question. “If
it was my papyrus and my family involved, I would want to know everything
Allahaba knows from his perspective,” he told her. “He may have clues as to
what really happened to Fanny. That’s what this is all about anyway, right?”

She nodded
faintly. “It’s about that... and finding the end of the rainbow as far as the
papyrus is concerned,” she said. “I told you that for Fanny’s sake, I wanted to
see where the trail ended. I still want to do that.”

He sighed
faintly, lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back. “I’ll tell you
what I think, then.”

“Please do.”

“I think we
should tell Allahaba we have the papyrus and what our true purpose is,” he told
her. “Honestly, I think finding him was a gold mine for us. He brings another
perspective to the situation and more information than we could ever dream of
finding.  I think we need to tell him everything and ask for his help.”

“Do you trust
him?”

“With my life.”

Morgan absorbed
his advice, thinking it made some sense. The truth was that she wanted to know
what Allahaba knew about Fanny regardless of the circumstances involving his
grandfather.  She wanted the truth, no matter what it was. She had to reconcile
herself to the fact that the truth may not be as pleasant as she had hoped.

“Then why don’t
you call him and see if he’ll come to the hotel for dinner,” she said softly,
rising from the couch and collecting her bag of goodies. “We can have dinner in
the room and tell him everything.”

Fox watched her
go. “He may want the papyrus back.”  

She stopped at
the doorway, turning to look at him. “Fanny purchased it. It belongs to my
family.”

Fox shrugged and
lowered his big arms, standing wearily. “I’m just saying that he might want it
returned,” he said. “Are you prepared to do that?”

Instead of
become angry about it, she just hung her head and looked at the shoes in her
hand. Then she walked into the bedroom with Fox on her heels.

“What would you
do?” she asked.

He lifted his
big shoulders. “Do you really need it?”

She looked at
him as she put her shoes on the floor. “What do you mean?”

“Just that - do
you really need it? If so, why?”

“Because it
belonged to Fanny.”

“But you have
her journal which includes the translation in it. Plus, I’ve translated it for
you and we have a photocopy of it.  Why do you need the actual papyrus?”

She saw what he
was driving at and knew he was right. With an irritable sigh, she plopped down
on the bed and lay flat on her back, gazing up at the ceiling.

“I guess I
don’t,” she said softly. “If it means that much to him, I’ll give it back.”

He smiled as he
went over to her, staring down at her as she looked up at him. Her blond hair
was spread out over the comforter like angel’s wings.

“
We’ll
give
it back to him and tell him that it’s called the Frances Sherburn Papyrus and
he needs to donate it or sell it to a museum,” he told her.  “Don’t worry; I’ve
got your back on this one.  One way or the other, Fanny’s memory will be
honored.”

She smiled up at
him, thought it was with less enthusiasm than usual. He knew she didn’t want to
give up the papyrus and was touched that she was willing to take his advice on
something that meant a great deal to her.  He lay down next to her, lying on
his side as he threw a big arm across her torso. Morgan put her hands on his
big arm, gazing out of the window and into the blue Egyptian sky, pondering the
course of events. It was just too fantastic to believe and she was still trying
to wrap her mind around it.

As they lay
silently, eventually, Morgan began to hear Fox’s soft snoring in her ear. She
looked over at him, seeing that he had fallen asleep. It looked like a good
idea because she really didn’t want to think about the papyrus, the journal, or
the odd relationship they’d just discovered with Allahaba anymore. She just
wanted to shut off for awhile. 

Snuggling
against him, she fell asleep in the warm, languid Egyptian afternoon.

October 31, 1923

            I
returned to Mr. Sula today to purchase the papyrus.  Mr. Arak came with me
because dear Louis did not want to go.  Mr. Sula offered Mr. Arak and I strong
Egyptian tea and produced a translation of the papyrus.  It is called the “Lady
of Heaven” papyrus and is said to describe the greatest tomb of all – the tomb
of the goddess, Isis.  Can this be true? Something deep inside me is yearning
to find out!