“Wisdom, justice, and magic,” Darcy repeated. “It seems that Ptah has used all three to sentence Aahotep.”

“And these symbols here,” said Paul, pointing to the crook and flail the magician held. “They are usually carried by Osiris, the god of the dead.”

“Aahotep must find a way to make amends,” said Edward, almost in a trance.

He bent down, but Sophie was there before him as something gold caught their eyes. She bent down to pick up something which proved to be a necklace.

“How odd,” she said. “It is the same necklace as the one round Aahotep’s neck in the picture. I have never seen anything quite like it.”

Elizabeth shivered as an eerie feeling washed over her. Darcy put his arm round her instinctively, just as a terrifying crack rent the air and the ground seemed to open up beneath her. Darcy pulled her back from the brink, but Sophie was not so lucky.

“Sophie!” Elizabeth cried, as Sophie teetered on the edge, her face a mask of horror.

Sophie swayed for a moment as she tried to regain her balance, and it seemed she would do so, but then she fell, throwing up the sketchbook and necklace as she reached for the sides of the pit.

Paul and Edward both lunged forward.

Paul threw himself at his sketchbook while Edward threw himself at Sophie, falling at full length on the ground in his effort to catch her as he let the necklace fall into the pit.

“I have you,” said Edward as he looked into her panic-stricken eyes with his own suddenly clear ones. “You are safe. I will not let you go.”

“My fingers are slipping,” she said.

“Give me your other hand,” he urged, reaching out for it.

But even as he spoke, her fingers slipped through his grip, and he could only watch in anguish as she hurtled down into the pit and landed with a sickening thud at the bottom.

“Noooooo!” cried Edward.

“Sophie!” Elizabeth called in horror. “Sophie, are you all right?”

She knelt beside Edward as Darcy thrust the torch downward to illuminate the pit. The dancing light revealed Sophie’s face, now an unhealthy white in the weak illumination of the torch. Her eyes were closed and she made no reply.

“Sophie!” Edward shouted.

“Please, speak to us!” cried Elizabeth.

Slowly Sophie’s eyes flickered open. She groaned and began to struggle to sit up, but then cried out with pain and sank back down again.

“Lie still, Sophie. I will soon be with you,” said Edward, before pulling back and sitting up then rising to his feet.

“That pit is at least twelve feet down,” Darcy said quietly. “It is a miracle she is still alive. The sides are smooth and without any footholds. I don’t see how we can get down there, let alone bring her up.”

“I am going down,” said Edward in a tone that brooked no dissent. “I brought this upon her and I am not going to leave the woman I love alone in that hellish pit.”

“So, you love her,” said Darcy.

“Yes, I do, and when we get out of this situation I mean to ask her to be my wife.” Adding under his breath, “If she will have me, which after today’s misadventure I very much doubt.”

Quickly he retrieved three of the remaining torches from their original resting place near the entrance to the tomb and returned to the pit, lighting them from their one glowing torch and handing them to Paul and Elizabeth.

“I was wrong about there being no footholds,” said Darcy, taking advantage of the better light as he peered down into the pit. “If you look carefully, you can see there are some stones sticking out around the wall. I will hold onto you for as long as I can. When you are at the bottom, I will throw a torch down to you.”

Edward nodded and began to inch his way tentatively downward. Elizabeth held the torch as near to him as she could in order to give him as much help as possible in seeing stones to balance on and crevices in which to slide his feet, while Darcy took a firm grip on his shirt.

“Be brave, Sophie,” Elizabeth shouted as Edward cautiously descended. “You will soon have company.” But this time there was no answering call, and she and Darcy exchanged worried glances.

There was a frightening moment when Edward slipped, but at the last minute he managed to regain a foothold. He jumped the last few feet and they heard the echoey thump of his boots on the packed earth before seeing him gather Sophie into his arms. He pulled her closer and as he kissed her, Elizabeth nudged Darcy’s hand so that the torch no longer shone on the young couple.

“If you see Edward kissing her, you will have to speak to him sternly about it,” she said. “They are not yet betrothed.”

“But if I do not see it?”

“Then you will not have to object!”

Then Sophie’s weak voice could be heard as it echoed round the walls, saying, “You ignored the necklace. You saved me!”

“And you saved me. When you fell, it cut through the strange obsession which has gripped me these past few months. I knew I did not care if I never saw another tomb again, but I could not live without you. Sophie, this is neither the time nor the place, but I cannot wait any longer. Will you marry me?”

And around the walls reverberated the echo, “Yes… yes… yes.”

Elizabeth glanced at Paul, and for a moment he looked downcast, but then a look of calm dawned on his face and Elizabeth thought, He loves her but he loves his art more, and now he realises it and he has accepted it.

After giving the newly engaged couple a little more time, Darcy called down, “Are you ready for the torch, Edward?”

“Yes, cousin.”

Darcy threw the torch down and they saw Edward hurry to pick it up before it was completely extinguished. In the flare of light from the pit they saw that Edward was now examining her.

“How badly is she hurt?” called Elizabeth.

“I cannot tell in this gloom. I think her arm may be broken,” said Edward. “We must get her out of here as quickly as possible. I will look around down here and see if there is anything that will help, a piece of rope perhaps or something similar.”

His torch began to move, and suddenly they heard him give an exclamation.

“Good lord!” he said. “There is something down here. Can you see this?” He moved the torch until it lit something large and made of gold. “It is a small sarcophagus. And lying on top of it… the necklace. Almost as if it led us here,” he added musingly.

“Were the Egyptian dead not often buried with objects that would be useful to them in the afterlife?” asked Elizabeth. “Perhaps there will be something in the sarcophagus we can use.”

“It is worth a try,” said Edward as he knelt and examined the gold box. “There are no carvings of any kind on it and the lid is far heavier than I would have expected. I cannot remove it—hello, what’s this?” He sat back on his heels. “Really, I can hardly—”

“What is it, Edward?” Elizabeth shouted impatiently.

“The sarcophagus,” breathed Edward. “The markings on the lid are quite clear. This is the sarcophagus of Aahotep.”

***

Back at the camp, Mrs Bennet sat beside Sir Matthew’s bedside with a cloth in her hand.

“…and as soon as Mr Bingley moved into the neighbourhood, I knew he would end up marrying one of my girls, for as I said to Mr Bennet—”

“Grandmama,” protested Beth, trying to halt Mrs Bennet’s endless flow of words.

But Mrs Bennet was enjoying herself and ignored her.

“‘Jane cannot be so beautiful for nothing.’ And so it proved, for…”

Beth gave up and took the cloth out of her grandmama’s hand so that she could bathe Sir Matthew’s head, while outside, she heard William speaking in a dignified voice to Saeed. He, like Beth, had taken quiet charge when Mrs Bennet had proved to be unequal to the task. And while the younger children played, they helped Saeed restore some calm to the camp.

But as the day progressed, Beth was painfully aware how inadequate her actions were. Sir Matthew occasionally roused himself and apologised for inconveniencing her, but he was getting worse and there was little she could do. Mrs Bennet, tiring of the sickroom, retired to her tent with her nerves, so that Beth hoped her parents would be back soon.

As she sat and pondered, Saeed entered the tent. To her relief, Beth saw that he was accompanied by a new arrival, the camp physician.

“Here is Mr Knight,” said Saeed as the physician took in the situation at a glance.

“Well, well, young lady, and so you are the nurse? And doing a very good job, I see. If I can just…” Mr Knight made a quick examination of Sir Matthew and then smiled reassuringly at Beth. “We’ll have him up and about again in no time, you just leave him to me. Now you go off and play, my dear, or whatever it is young ladies like to do.” He smiled kindly at her and Beth gladly gave up her place at Sir Matthew’s side, going out of the tent and looking for William so that she could give him the news.

But when she found him, she found that her troubles, far from being over, were only just beginning.

“Have you seen Meg?” he asked.

“No. Why?” asked Beth.

“Because she seems to be missing.”

“Are you sure?” asked Beth. “Is she not with her nurse?”

“No. She complained of a headache and her nurse took her to rest in her tent, but when Laurence and Jane wanted to play with her, having been set free by their tutors for an hour, they could not find her. They called John to help them but he could not find any trace of her either.”

They exchanged worried glances as Saeed joined them. There was a small commotion by the girls’ tent. Margaret’s nursemaid, Jenny, was in tears.