Darcy did not reply.

Elizabeth’s eyes, accustomed now to the moon and starlight, took in the full splendour of the pyramids. They loomed ever larger as she and Darcy walked toward them, moving as briskly as the soft sand and stones beneath their feet would allow.

“To think, the great pyramid has been here for four thousand years,” said Elizabeth, adding, “You see, I have been listening to William. He has been reading all about it. I think he almost knows as much about Egypt now as Edward does!”

“I am not surprised. He spends his life with his books. But I intend to make sure he spends more time away from them now that we are on dry land.”

“It will do him good,” said Elizabeth.

They talked quietly as they walked onward until at last Elizabeth saw a small camp ahead of them. Several black wool tents were set up at the base of the great pyramid and in front of them was a campfire. The smell of roast mutton filled the air as it turned on a spit over the fire.

“I sent some men on ahead,” said Darcy by way of explanation.

Elizabeth was glad of it. She had enjoyed the walk but she was tired and the appetising smell revived her, as did the warmth of the fire. She sat down gladly beside it. The footmen who had set up the camp withdrew to a second set of tents some way off, and the guards withdrew to a discreet distance.

Darcy sat down beside her and they warmed their hands at the fire, until at last Elizabeth felt able to remove her cloak and Darcy his coat. He began to carve slices of the roasted mutton and he handed it to Elizabeth, together with the rice and other foodstuffs that had been brought from Cairo, on a china plate.

“I never knew you had a desire to sleep in a tent and eat from a campfire,” Elizabeth teased him. “Although it is rather an elegant form of making camp,” she added, as she took the china plate.

“Ordinarily, nothing could be further from my thoughts, but we are here for a reason, as you will see, and I could not let you starve in the desert, now could I?”

She began to eat, the hot food refreshing her. After they had eaten their fill of the mutton, Darcy set it to one side and then took some small cakes out of a box. Elizabeth savoured the sweet, honey-laden taste of them, and when they were done they sat companionably by the fire, which had died down and looked like a glowworm in the dark.

“This is perfect,” said Elizabeth, with a final glance at the stars when at last they retired to their tent.

Darcy took her hand. “The best is yet to come.”

***

Elizabeth was awakened early the following morning before it was light by Darcy kissing her cheek and shaking her gently, saying, “Wake up.”

She opened her eyes and then closed them again.

“It is still dark!” she murmured, turning over and starting to go back to sleep.

“It is time to get up all the same. I want to show you something. It is time for your surprise.”

She roused herself with difficulty and said, “You mean it was not sleeping out here under the stars?”

“No, it is something different, but I cannot show it to you until you get up.”

She rubbed her eyes and reluctantly sat up, pushing her hair out of her face and yawning. It was very early and she was still tired. To her surprise, she saw that Darcy was not only up, he was already dressed. He disappeared through the tent’s opening and returned a few moments later with a cup of hot coffee, which he handed to her, together with some small cakes and dates.

“Here,” he said. “You will feel better when you have had something to eat and drink.”

“Am I allowed to know what the surprise is?” she asked, as she took a sip of the hot coffee.

“No. Not yet,” he said. “But I will tell you why you are having it today, or at least, I will remind you. Do you know what day it is today? Or, I should say, date?”

“The twelfth. Oh!” she said with a broad smile. “The twelfth of October.”

“Yes, the twelfth of October. The day we met. Sixteen years ago, we were at the Meryton assembly in Hertfordshire, and little did we know it but our lives were about to change. I was feeling irritable because Bingley had dragged me there against my wishes, and I was not in a mood to enjoy a country entertainment…”

“…or to give consequence to a young woman who had been slighted by other men!” said Elizabeth.

“No, I was not,” he said with a rueful smile.

“And I was not feeling very cordial toward you for disdaining my charms. No woman likes to think she is not handsome enough to tempt a man to dance, though I managed to laugh about it with my friends.”

“What a fool I was,” he said, kissing her. “To think I almost missed the best part of my life because of my pride, my arrogance, and my conceit. But fortunately, I realised what a fool I had been before it was too late and claimed you as my own. And now I want to give you something to celebrate our first meeting. I have given it a great deal of thought, because I wanted it to be something different, not the usual gifts of jewels—”

“Although the Pemberley jewels are magnificent,” said Elizabeth appreciatively.

“—but something unique. I was hoping we would arrive here in time for this day and knew that we would if all our plans went well. And now that we have, we can celebrate in a special way.”

Elizabeth put down her cup, closed her eyes, and held out her hand for the gift.

“Oh, no,” he said with a laugh. “It is not so easy this time, no small box I can hand to you, nor even a horse waiting outside for you when you draw back the curtains.”

She smiled, remembered one of his larger gifts, and opened her eyes again.

“This time, you cannot just receive it, you have to work to get it.”

She was intrigued but could not resist teasing him. “Ah, I see how it is. I knew you would tire of me in the end. Now I am to work for my presents; how long before you send me out to work for my pin money? Perhaps Lady Catherine would let me scrub the floors at Rosings!”

He kissed her on the tip of her nose and said, “Get up.”

She pushed the covers back and climbed out of the makeshift bed. There was already water in the bowl standing beside it, a luxury in the desert, and one which she knew must have taken some trouble to arrange. She washed gratefully in the cool water and then dressed, throwing a cloak around her shoulders and settling a bonnet on her head before venturing out of the tent.

The guards’ silhouettes could be seen not far away, but everything was peaceful, with no threat of disturbance.

“Where are we going?” she said. She looked into the distance. “Is it far?”

“Not in terms of length, but in terms of height,” he said. “We are going up.”

“Up?”

She craned her neck and looked up at the towering pyramid, at whose base they had made camp, and then back at him.

“Yes. We are going to climb the pyramid.”

“We are?” she asked, a shade doubtfully.

“We are,” he said firmly. “Unless it is too much for you?”

Elizabeth could not resist the challenge and took his arm as together they walked to the base of the pyramid. The sides were made of great blocks of stone, arranged in a steplike pattern leading to the top, but once again she looked at it somewhat doubtfully, for each block was almost as high as her waist. Nevertheless, she was beginning to catch Darcy’s enthusiasm, and mingled in with it was an enthusiasm of her own. What a chance to do something different! And what a view they would have from the top. And then she realised… “Oh!” she said ecstatically. “We are going to watch the sun rise.”

She felt a surge of pure joy at the thought. Her tiredness was forgotten as she took his hand and together they began to climb the pyramid.

“Now I know how the children felt when they were toddlers and they tried to climb the staircase at Pemberley!” she joked as she put her hands on the next step and managed to scramble her way up by dint of jumping and pulling herself up with her arms at the same time.

Darcy reached down his hand and helped her up the next stepped level.

“How did the ancient workmen manage to build such a thing?” she asked.

“It took a lot of labour and a lot of rollers. I have been talking to Sir Matthew,” he said, “and he has made a study of it. Luckily we do not have to build it, only to climb it!”

“And that is difficult enough,” said Elizabeth.

But she was not complaining. She found the exercise exhilarating, and the knowledge that she was climbing farther and farther to the top spurred her on.

They stopped to look about them and enjoy the beauty of the scene as the darkness gradually lessened and became less impenetrable. The desert lost its amorphous look and began to reveal its contours, and the outlines of the buildings in Cairo were dimly visible in the waning moonlight, their minarets showing as black silhouettes against the sky.

Having caught their breath, they set off again for the summit. The air began to grow warmer and Elizabeth climbed with renewed vigor when she saw that the top was within reach. With a burst of effort, she climbed the last few blocks and stood upright at the apex. She felt a huge sense of achievement and was flooded with a sense of wonder as she realised that dawn was on its way.

She spun slowly, drinking in the wonderful view. She could see for miles, and she came to rest again facing the east. There was a mist over the plains, but it could not obscure the spectacular sight as the sun began to rise. Bands of orange light suffused the sky, warming the diaphanous clouds, and at their centre was the very top of the sun’s molten disk as it began to rise above the horizon. It seemed to grow as she watched it, and the light intensified as it spread its rays ever wider, illuminating the desert and driving the chill from the air. She turned again, slowly, as the mist began to clear, unveiling a majestic view. To the south she could see a collection of smaller pyramids, their sand-coloured sides warming to tawny in the orange light, and to the west was the endless desert, its billowing dunes turning golden before her eyes. She turned slowly again to the north and looked out across fertile lands, with the Nile descending toward the sea. And turning again to the east she saw Cairo sparkling in the strengthening sunlight, the gold light of morning gleaming on its numerous minarets. Beyond Cairo lay the plains, lushly populated with groves of palm trees, and far off in the distance were the mountains.