“Tomorrow. I would be delighted if you would all accompany me. I have made an appointment to see Sir Matthew Rosen, but it should not take long. I would enjoy showing you around.”

“I guessed as much,” said Darcy.

“Sir Matthew Rosen?” asked Elizabeth.

“An authority on Egyptian tombs and artefacts,” said Edward. “He has recently returned from an archaeological site near Cairo and I am anxious to talk to him.”

“Then it is settled; we will visit the museum tomorrow. I am already looking forward to it,” she said, her eyes sparkling.

She stood up as the gong for luncheon sounded in the hall, and the two gentlemen sprang to their feet. As they moved toward the dining room, Edward excused himself for a moment in order to retrieve a letter from his room that his father had given him for Darcy. Not wishing to delay the others, he bounded up the stairs two at a time and raced along to his room. But he stopped as he neared the door and heard a voice whispering softly. He walked slowly to the room and looked in.

Margaret was standing by the window, holding something in her hand, and talking to herself.

“Margaret? Are you quite well, my dear?” he asked. The child’s soft brown curls were sticking to her face, which was flushed with heat. She turned at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, Cousin Edward, I was talking to your doll. She’s very sparkly.”

“Yes. Where did you find her?”

“I didn’t find her. L—”

The little girl frowned and he guessed she was trying to avoid mentioning her brother’s name. Edward was well aware of the fascination his leather bag held for certain members of the Darcy clan, and he smiled.

“Well, never mind. Do you like her? Her name is Aahotep.”

“Is it? She’s not very nice, is she? But I think she’s rather sad.”

“Why do you say that?” Edward asked, startled.

He had found the doll in the attic of his family home, along with several other artefacts his father had brought home from Egypt. It was of little monetary value, although the coloured glass made it look pretty.

“Because she was mean to someone and now she can’t say sorry although she wants to. And it’s making her mean toward other people. But I feel sorry for her.”

“Well, I expect she will feel better when she has had some lunch,” Edward said gently.

Margaret gazed at him with clear grey eyes.

“She’s a doll, Uncle Edward. She doesn’t get hungry.”

Edward smiled. “Well, I do and I am sure you do too. Come, let us leave Aahotep to ponder her evil deeds and go down to lunch, shall we?”

Margaret nodded and, taking his hand, was soon busily reciting the tale of her recent visit to Kent, where she had visited her great-aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Her unusually rosy colour faded rapidly and Edward dismissed it as a peculiarity of the very young. It was not until much later on that he realised he should have paid more attention to the littlest Darcy’s pronouncements, but by then it was too late.

Chapter 2




Elizabeth woke the following morning with the feeling that something was wrong. At first she could not think what it was, but then she realised that no children were jumping on the bed or wriggling under the covers next to her.

She smiled as she remembered how horrified Darcy had been the first time the children had invaded their bedroom in the morning. He had been raised in a formal manner and he had seen his parents by appointment, usually for an hour after dinner, when he had recited whatever poem he had been learning or displayed his command of Latin. Then, having been smiled upon by his mother and inspired by his father, he had returned to the nursery, there to stay until the next appointed time. So when Beth had first toddled into the Darcys’ bedroom, having escaped her sleeping nurse, he had been torn between delight at seeing her waddling toward him and an uncomfortable feeling that she should have stayed in the nursery.

Elizabeth had not had any such difficulties, and she had given Beth a hug. Darcy had been charmed, despite the feeling that it was wrong for someone as august as Miss Elizabeth Darcy to crow with delight as her mother, the equally august Mrs Elizabeth Darcy, tickled her and teased her. But then he had been overcome with love and affection and he had succumbed entirely.

The Darcys’ room had become more and more crowded in the mornings as further children had arrived, until the older children had started to feel it was beneath their dignity to cavort in such a manner and had gradually absented themselves from the proceedings. Now Beth and William never came, John seldom, and even Laurence and Jane only whirled into the room about three mornings out of five. But Margaret always came. And yet here it was, past seven o’clock, and there was no sign of her.

Fearing that Margaret was ill, Elizabeth slipped out of bed and, throwing a wrapper round her shoulders, went along the splendid landing and into Margaret’s room. She need not have worried. The early morning sunlight, creeping in through a crack in the curtains, illuminated a peaceful scene. Margaret was sound asleep, clutching her Egyptian doll, and judging by the murmurs that came from her cherubic lips, she was dreaming.

A slight creak alerted Elizabeth to the fact that someone else was walking along the landing and a moment later Darcy entered the room and put his arm round her.

“I thought I would find you here. It is not the same without Meg climbing on the bed, is it, my love? I am glad she has not outgrown the habit. She must be worn out after yesterday’s excitement.”

“Edward certainly knows how to exhilarate people,” Elizabeth agreed.

“He does. He has always been carried away by his enthusiasms.”

“Which is no bad thing,” said Elizabeth. “I have been thinking for some time that I would like an adventure and Edward, with his talk of Egypt, is the next best thing.”

“An adventure? Do I bore you, my love?” asked Darcy teasingly.

She put her hand up to his face. “Never. But we have spent a great many years having our family—wonderful years and I would not change them for anything—and yet now that the children are older, I find myself thinking of all the places I have never seen. When I was younger, a trip to the Lake District seemed like an adventure, but now the Lake District is familiar and I find myself longing for that sense of excitement again, the feeling that I am going somewhere different, to see something new. To be transported beyond the confines of my normal life, to experience something that cannot be foreseen.”

“Then it is a good thing we are going to the British Museum. You can feast your eyes upon the Egyptian artefacts and imagine yourself exploring the pyramids!” he teased her.

Margaret stirred and then settled again.

“Let her sleep,” said Elizabeth. “It will be a busy day for her.”

“For all of us,” said Darcy.

***

The busyness was already apparent when Elizabeth walked into the drawing room an hour later to find the boys already up and dressed, surrounded by books.

Edward, who was pointing out something of interest in one of them, looked up with a laugh and said, “We breakfasted early, and ever since then we have been raiding the library for books on Egypt. Darcy has a fine collection.”

Elizabeth was used to seeing William with a book, but it was rare to see either John or Laurence anywhere near one by choice, and she thought with satisfaction that Edward’s visit had already been good for them.

Although she would never admit as much to Darcy, she did sometimes think that Laurence would benefit from school, but she hated the thought of losing him. He was her youngest son and she wanted to keep him with her. Now, seeing him so happy and engaged at home, she felt her somewhat guilty conscience being appeased.

“There are all sorts of interesting things in the museum,” said William. “Did you know it was opened over fifty years ago and that it has lots of Egyptian artefacts in it?”

“The Rosetta Stone was found by a soldier,” said John proudly.

“Only a French soldier,” said Laurence scathingly.

“Some of the French fought bravely. Colonel Fitzwilliam said so,” returned John. “I expect the Stone was found by one of the brave ones. The French invaded Egypt and they were working on the defences at Fort Julien when one of the soldiers saw the Stone sticking out of the ground,” he explained to his mama. “It was near a place called Rosetta, which is why they called it the Rosetta Stone.”

“But what is important,” said William, “is that it has some writing on it, and the writing says the same thing but in three different kinds of writing. One of them is in Greek writing, and one of them is ordinary Egyptian writing, and one of them is hiero… hiero… hieroglyphs, which are a kind of pictures. I can read and write Greek, so if I could make a copy of the Stone, I might be able to work out what the hieroglyphs mean.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” said Laurence. “No one can read the hieroglyphs yet, not even Cousin Edward.”

“And if not even Edward can read them, what hope is there for anyone else?” asked Elizabeth.

Edward laughed and moved some books so that she could sit down.

“I appear to have taken over your drawing room,” he said.

“Never mind, I do not have time to sit down anyway,” she said. “It is time we were all getting ready for our outing. Fitzwilliam has given orders for the carriages to be brought round and they will be at the door in half an hour.”

“Then we had better be ready for them,” said Edward.