Chapter 12: The Pursuit

Later that morning Hassan brought Mimi and I our breakfast.

“Me and my Uncle will be travelling to Suez with you, Effendi Colonel,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

“Will Griszelda be with you?” I asked him, and then turned to Mimi. “Griszelda is Hassan’s donkey,” I informed her.

“No, she does not like the desert; travelling to Abu Sultan was enough for her. I will leave her with Fatima.”
Fatima was a washerwoman – washer girl – with whom Hassan had struck up a friendship.

After breakfast Thomas MacKay brought two horses and a camel drawn cart to my tent. He and Hassan had already loaded the cart with their baggage – plus a small European type tent and food and water – ready for the desert trek. My campaign trunk, containing my European and military clothing, together with Mimi’s travel trunk with all her European clothes, were then stowed aboard. Around my waist I wore the money belt containing three hundred sovereigns, and also had a brace of cap lock pistols concealed beneath my Bedouin clothing. Mimi likewise wore Muslim female garb, although the two pistols concealed beneath her jilbaab were not normal accessories for a Muslim female.

“What shall we do with all the maps, plans, and sketches belonging to Rollo?” Mimi asked.
I had clean forgot that all the topographical maps made of the proposed canal, plus many other plans and sketches, were lying neglected in Rollo’s tent.

“We best take them as they really belong to the British government. I will keep them safe until we return to England, and then hand them over to the Foreign Office.”

It was only after loading the cart that I noticed an Egyptian labourer passing by wheeling a barrow loaded with soil. I called him over and, via Thomas MacKay, asked him what he was doing, as the dig had finished and all labourers had been paid off and dismissed.
His reply ‘the Professor wanted the soil sifted and examined for signs of travertine’, sent me rushing off to trench number three from where the soil had been excavated.
Crudwright was standing over the trench directing operations when I arrived.

“What the devil are you doing, Crudwright? The dig is over, and you should be on your way back to England and your post of curator of Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum.”

“What I am doing, Sir Elijah, is carrying out an excavation on behalf of the Damietta Provincial Museum, of which I am the newly appointed Director. I have dispatched a letter of resignation to the British Museum, as my future life is now here in Egypt.” Crudwright replied in a sneering tone of voice, and with a look of triumph on his bloated features.

“You have allowed your daughter to travel home alone? That is...”

“My daughter’s future is also in Egypt. As a member of the Governor of Damietta’s household I have an apartment at the Provincial Palace, and Georgina will be under the protection of His Excellency Sayeed bin Ghandou in the palace harem. His Excellency assures me he will find her a suitable husband after she has converted to Islam, as of course will I.”

The scales dropped from my eyes, and now I saw it all as clear as day. Crudwright, so obsessed with that damned ‘House of Fools’, had traded his daughter to Sayeed bin Ghandou in order to continue with the excavation. When I accused him of that crime he was vehement in his defence.

“It is nothing of the sort. His Excellency offered me the position at the museum, and when I demurred, as it would mean Georgina travelling back to England alone, His Excellency then suggested that Georgina and I become members of his household. He would then be legally and morally responsible for our protection and future. We shook hands on the deal, and I signed a contract of employment and was declared the new Director of the Damietta Province Museum.”
I looked at him in disbelief. “Sayeed has lusted after your daughter from the moment he first saw her. The harem is the sole domain of Sayeed, and the females are his to do with as he pleases. On arrival at the Provincial Palace your daughter will be ordered into His Excellency’s bed. You have made your daughter his concubine!”
“Stuff and nonsense! You are jealous of my coming success, and seek to demean and belittle anything I do. His Excellency has assured me Georgina will be regarded as a member of his family. You see the worst because you cannot face the truth, which is that I am going to be famous for discovering Akhenaten’s temple.” He spoke rapidly, his face beet red, and specks of spittle flying off his blubbery lips.
“And what about you, the high and mighty Sir Elijah Greenaway? You have placed your daughters in the care of the Duchess of Kent so she can dangle them in front of dukes and marquesses, and make favourable marriages – favourable political marriage for her and favourable financial marriage for you. Do not try and pretend what I have done is any different from what you have done.”
My demon stirred, and my hand crept to the hidden pocket of my left boot. However, I kept a calm exterior while inside I seethed with fury.

“One difference, Crudwright, is that my daughters are not being sequestered in a harem. Another is that when my wife and I return to England the girls will re-join us in our family home.”

I gave him an entirely false smile. “In the meantime my wife and I are off to Suez to release your wife from durance vile. When we return with Chastity do you expect her to join Georgina in Sayeed’s – err – harem?” I did not say it but implied Chastity would be expected to share Sayeed’s bed with Georgina.
Crudwright’s face turned scarlet with anger. “You can keep the bitch, or better still leave her where she is. If I never see her again it will be too soon.”