Page 98

Ellie leaned back against him once more as the ruddy peaks and rifts of the mountains unfolded around them.

“If it’s any consolation,” Adam added, “Iknow you’re pretty much always right.”

“Only ‘pretty much?’”

“You’ve got dubious taste in surveyors.” Adam spread his strong fingers out across her stomach in a caress that belied his light tone.

Ellie wove her grip with his own, holding his hand tightly. “I have thebesttaste in surveyors,” she countered firmly.

??

Twenty-One

Their winding pathslowly descended through the sprawling hills, and they emerged on a windswept desert plain. The green of the inundation was just visible in the distance. The sprawling, arid landscape closer by was interrupted only by a squat, thick-walled cluster of buildings marked by low arches and an elegant dome. An iron cross over the gate revealed that the structures must belong to a community of Egypt’s Christian minority, the Copts.

The buildings were obviously old. A wooden door set by the gate cracked open as they approached, and a young woman in a black headscarf and robes peered out at them wide-eyed. Her attire was near enough to what one might see in a Catholic convent for Ellie to recognize her as a nun.

“Ya Jemmahor!” Zeinab called impatiently.

“Wait here,” Jemmahor instructed.

As she swung down from her horse, the sleeve of her cloak slipped up, revealing a small blue tattoo of an even-sided cross on the inside of her wrist. The mark identified the young woman as a Copt herself.

Zeinab’s apprentice exchanged a few quick words with the nun at the door, speaking a language that sounded quite different from Masri. The tongue of Egypt’s Copts was thought to be the nearest living language to that of Ancient Egypt, and this was the first time Ellie had the privilege of hearing it spoken aloud.

She was hearing it quite loudly, as Jemmahor was gesticulating enthusiastically while the nun squeaked out replies with obvious surprise and alarm. Zeinab looked on the verge of rolling her eyes.

The exchange apparently reached a satisfactory conclusion, as the nun ducked back inside and the big gate swung slowly open on heavy iron hinges.

The rescue party paraded into a simple packed-earth courtyard framed by the convent buildings and a low stable. Other nuns popped into the narrow doorways set into the thick walls or peered from small windows.

An older woman hurried out to meet them, the lines at the corners of her eyes creased with worry.

“That’s my aunt,” Jemmahor announced cheerfully from beside Ellie and Adam’s horse. “She is abbess here at the convent of St. Hilaria. Don’t worry—she will be very happy to see me.”

The abbess did not look particularly happy. She looked more as though she was wondering where she was going to put an assortment of unexpected guests, including two strange men and a foreign woman.

Jemmahor ran over to her and enthusiastically kissed her cheeks, rattling on in excited Coptic.

Adam slipped down from the saddle in a maneuver that would have had Ellie plummeting backwards over the rear of the horse. He managed it with grace, save for a slight wince as the twist pulled at his bruised ribs, then turned and offered his arms to Ellie.

She hesitated. “Isn’t it going to hurt if you try to catch me?”

Adam raised an eloquent eyebrow.

Ellie frowned back at him with barely concealed frustration. “I ought to be capable of getting down from a horse on my own!”

“You don’t ride,” Adam pointed out.

“I’m from London!” Ellie protested. “Why would I ride when I can take a perfectly docile tram?”

Adam set his hands to her waist and plucked her from the saddle.

She landed with her hands on his shoulders, only a breath from sliding down the front of his body. His exceptionally blue eyes twinkled at her with amusement, and the temptation to haul him down to her for a kiss electrified her nerves.

You are standing in a convent,she reminded herself forcibly. At roughly the same time, Adam cleared his throat and stepped back to put a modest distance between them.

Ellie did the same—and promptly bumped up against the horse.