Виктория Холт - Curse of the Kings

Knock, knock, on the other side of that blessed door.

With all my strength I knocked back.

There was the answering knock. Now I could hear noises beyond that wall. Someone knew I was here. Someone was coming to me.

I sank back. While I could hear that blessed noise I knew they were coming. It increased. The door trembled. I sat back watching it, the tears falling down my cheeks, the babble of words on my lips.

"Tybalt is coming. He has found me. I shall be free . . ."

I was happy. Had I ever known such exaltation? Only when one is about to lose it does one realize how sweet life is.

The lantern was flickering. Never mind. They are coming. The door is moving.

Soon now.

Then I was no longer alone. I was caught up.

"Judith . . ."

It was Tybalt, as I had known it would be. He was holding me in his arms and I thought: I did not die of fear, but I shall die of bliss.

"My love," he said. "Judith, my love."

"It's all right, Tybalt," I said, comforting him. "It's all right . . '. now . . ."

During the days that followed I lived in a kind of daze.

There were times when I was not sure where I was and then Tybalt would be beside me, always Tybalt, holding me in his arms, reassuring me.

I had suffered a severe shock; and I was constantly told that everything was all right. All I had to do was remember that. And Tybalt was with me. He had come to me and rescued me; and that was all I must think of as yet.

"It is enough," I said.

I would lie still clinging to his hand; but when I dozed I would often awaken shouting that the black bat was in the ceiling and that his eyes were glittering. I would find myself crying: "Help. Help. God . . . Allah . . . Tybalt . . . help me."

It had been a terrible ordeal. There could be few who had been buried in one of the tombs of the Pharaohs and come out alive.

Who had done this to me? That was what I wanted to know. Where was Leopold Harding? And why had he taken me down into that underground vault and left me there?

Tybalt said: "We shall know in time. He has disappeared. But we shall find him."

"Why did he do it, Tybalt? Why? He said he was taking me to you. He said you had asked for me to come."

"I don't know. It is a mystery to us all. We are trying to find him. But he has disappeared. All you need think about now is that you are safe and I shall never allow you to be lost again."

"Oh, Tybalt," I said, "that makes me happy."

Tabitha was by my bed.

"I want to tell you something, Judith," she said. "You've been talking a great deal. We were shocked to know what was in your mind, how you could have believed such things possible. Tybalt knows I'm talking to you. We think it best so that you should understand right away. You thought that Tybalt and I were lovers. My dear Judith, how could you? I love Tybalt, yes ... I always have ... as I would love a son if I had one. I came to the household, as you know, when my husband was put into a home. Sir Edward's wife was alive then, but ill. Oh, I know it was wrong but Sir Edward and I loved each other. Nanny Tester knew it and spied on us. She was devoted to Sir Edward's wife and she hated me. She hated Sir Edward too. When Lady Travers died she blamed me. She all but suggested that I had murdered her. Sir Edward and I were lovers. As you know I accompanied him on some of his expeditions. We would have married had I been free. But I was not . . . until it was too late . . ."

"I understand now," I said.

"My dearest Judith. You were always so in love with Tybalt. He realizes how lucky he is. You never did things by halves as your aunts used to say. So you had to love Tybalt with that fierce possessiveness. Such determination as yours had to have its effect. Even Tybalt was vulnerable. He confided to me long before he asked you that he wanted to marry you . . . that was when you were Lady Bodrean's companion . . . and I must admit you didn't fit into the role very comfortably. There was nothing meek about you, which is a quality one always associates with companions."

"I can see," I said, "that my wild and foolish imagination built up the situation."

"It was not a real one. It did not exist outside your imagination, remember that. I've something else to tell you too. Terence Gelding has asked me to marry him."

"And you've accepted?"

"Not yet. But I think I shall."

"You'll be happy, Tabitha. At last."

"And you will be happy too. I never saw Tybalt work so hard or so fervently as when they were pulling down that door which separated him from you, not even when he believed himself to be on the verge of the biggest discovery of his career. No, I have never before seen that purpose, that desperate need . . ."

I laughed. "I do believe I must be of greater importance to him than a Pharaoh's undisturbed tomb after all."

"I am sure of it," said Tabitha.

Tybalt was by my bed.

"As soon as the doctor has seen you we are going home. I have asked Dr. Gunwen to come out and make sure that you are fit to travel."

"You have sent for Dr. Gunwen! And we are going home. Then is the expedition over?"

"Yes, it's over for me."

"My poor Tybalt."

"Poor. When you are here, alive and well."

Then he held me against him.

"At least," I said, "I found happiness that I never dreamed possible."

He did not answer but the way in which he held me told me that he shared my joy.

"Where is Hadrian?" I said. "Why doesn't Hadrian come to see me?"

"Do you want to see Hadrian?" asked Tybalt.

"But of course. He is all right, isn't he?"

"Yes," he said, "I'll send him to you."

I saw the change in Hadrian at once. I had never seen him so sober before.

"Oh, Hadrian!"

"Judith." He took my hands, kissed me on both cheeks. "That! To happen to you. It must have been frightful."

"It was."

"The swine!" he said. "The utter swine. Better to have put a bullet through your head than that. Judith, you'll forget it in time."

"I wonder whether one ever does forget such an experience."

"You will."

"Why did he do it, Hadrian?"

"God knows. He must be a madman."

"He seemed sane, an ordinary merchant who was excited to come across an expedition like ours because in a way it was a link with his business. What could have been his motive?"

"That we shall have to find out. Thank God, the conference ended when it did, about the time you and Harding entered that place. They had agreed that there was to be an extension of a few more weeks and when we came back to the palace, Tybalt wanted to tell you this. One of the servants had overheard Harding telling you that Tybalt wanted him to take you to him on the site and that you had gone off with him. Tybalt was alarmed. I think he has been more uneasy than he has let us know about a lot of things. We went to the site. We searched for you. We thought it was hopeless but Tybalt wouldn't give up. He kept going over and over the same ground. And finally we heard the knocking."

"What could have been his motive? I believe he tried to kill me in the Temple one day."

"But how could your death possibly profit him?"

"It's so mysterious."

"There was Theodosia. Do you think that was Leopold Harding?"

"No, that was the Pasha and his servants."

"The Pasha!"

"One of the workmen . . . Yasmin's lover . . . warned me. Yasmin was discovered in the tomb and they killed her. She was there on the day the Pasha came to us. You remember the Feast of the Nile."

"Good God, Judith. We're in a maze of intrigue."

"Theodosia's death could have been anyone's death. She was the unfortunate one. The bridge had been tampered with because the Pasha wanted a victim. It didn't matter which."

"But the Pasha has helped us."

"He wants us out of this place. It may well be that he will attempt to kill another of us."

Tybalt came in and sitting on my bed regarded me anxiously.

"You've been tiring Judith," he accused Hadrian.

I reveled in his concern but insisted that I was not tired and that we had been talking of Leopold Harding and the Pasha and once again looking for a reason why this attempt had been made on my life.

Tybalt said: "In the first place Harding must have known something about the layout of the ground."

"He had been there on several occasions," I reminded him.

"He knew too much. He must have acquired the knowledge from somewhere."

"It is certain," I said, "that Leopold Harding was not what he seemed. Tybalt, I wonder if that boy, Yasmin's lover, knows anything. It was he who told me that the Pasha wanted to drive us away."

"We'll send for him," said Tybalt.

"On some pretext," I warned. "No one must know that he is suspected of helping us. How can we be sure who is watching us."

The boy stood before us. We had decided that I should be the one who questioned him because I had won his confidence.

"Tell me what you know of Leopold Harding," I said.

The manner in which he looked over his shoulder assured me that he knew something.

"He comes at times to Egypt, Lady."

"He has been here often then? What else?"

"He is friend of the Pasha. Pasha give him beautiful things."

"What beautiful things?"

"All beautiful things. Jewels, stones, furniture ... all kinds. Leopold Harding goes away and comes back to the Pasha."