Chapter 11: A Change of Plan

“I will have to go after them.”
The expression that appeared on Mimi’s face caused me to make a swift amendment.
“We will have to go after them, but we cannot leave the encampment until Sayeed arrives, and that may not be for several days.”
Mimi and I were relaxing in reclining chairs in the shade of the awning of our tent. The missing bedding had been replaced, and the ripped canvas of the tent repaired.
A quick smile had flickered over Mimi’s face when she heard my revised statement, but now she wore a serious expression as she fingered the sapphire of her pendant.
“Do you think Eloise will kill Rollo and Chastity when she discovers the wrong pair have been kidnapped?”

“The gang of kidnappers will pay the price for their failure, but I doubt she will also kill Rollo and Chastity. They are useful as hostages, and in any case she knows we will be following her, hoping to recapture them, and it is us she really wants.”

Truth to tell I had not thought too much about the fate of the kidnapped pair as I was still reeling from the knowledge that Rollo Guest and Chastity Crudwright were lovers.
I had always regarded Rowland Guest as a straightforward, decent, honest Englishman, and it had come as an unpleasant surprise to discover he was nothing more than an adulterer and fornicator. I had thought him a principled man, with high moral standards, but my estimation of him had now sunk below zero. I said as much to Mimi, who surprised me with her reply.

“I think you will find Rollo is not the predator you imagine him but rather the victim. It is Chastity who is a despoiler of upright, decent, but unworldly, young men.”

“Surely not...”

“I saw the look in Chastity’s eye when she first met Rollo at Southampton. It was as a wolf regards a fat juicy lamb. Believe me, Jacques, she seduced him, not the other way around. I know full well the signs of a predatory female as I was one myself for a time.”
I did not wish to dwell on Mimi’s past, out-of-character, behaviour when she suffered an illness of the mind, and so made a slight change of subject.

“Do you think Crudwright was aware of her adul...”
A jab in my ribs from Mimi’s elbow alerted me, and I turned to see Crudwright approaching us.
He waved a sheet of paper in front of me.

“I found Captain Guest’s topographical map in his tent. The sites of the latrines are clearly marked, and I intend setting the labourers to dig trenches around the one nearest the datum pole.”

“The dig is finished, Professor, as I shall inform Sayeed bin Ghouad when he arrives. You and your daughter can make arrangements to return to England.”

“When will Sayeed Ghouad Pasha get here?”Crudwright asked.

“I estimate about five or six days. It is...”

“In that case I will continue the excavation until he gives me a direct order to cease.” He turned and started to walk away.

“How can you think to continue the dig when your wife has been kidnapped?” I shouted after him.
He stopped, then turned to face me. “She will be returned once a ransom is paid. Sayeed Bin Ghandou will have to pay the ransom or lose face. We are under his protection, for what good it has done us.” With that he spun on his heel and stalked off, leaving me speechless with anger.

“Leave him be, Jacques. Overseeing the excavation will take his mind off Chastity’s absence, and her infidelity with Rollo.” Mimi said.
I sighed in acceptance. I admit to having some sympathy for the cuckolded fellow. Crudwright was no fool, and after his marriage to Chastity he must have soon become aware of her promiscuity.

“I will have to write to the British Museum and inform them the expedition will be leaving Egypt earlier than expected,” I said “and also to Kensington Palace, warning the duchess we may be back in England later than planned.”

Mimi said she needed to talk to Georgina Crudwright regarding some sketches her father had asked for. She gave me a sweet kiss and then swayed away. I watched her leave, my heart full of love for her, and anxiety for her future wellbeing. I intended travelling to Suez to offer myself to Eloise de La Zouche in exchange for Rollo Guest and Chastity Crudwright’s release.
I knew Mimi would insist on accompanying me, and I blanched at the thought she might suffer the same fate Eloise had in mind for me. However, as the two females were related Eloise may be satisfied with only my death, not that I would go to that fate without putting up a fight – my concealed knife being an ace to trump Eloise’s plans.

I entered my tent and sat at the bureau, where I found paper, quill, and a bottle of ink in a drawer. It was devilish hot in the tent, but the sooner the letters were written the sooner Hassan could take them to Timsah for onward dispatch to England.
I had completed the letter to the British Museum – Rossiter Player would probably react to the news by cursing me up hill and down dale – and was about to seal the envelope when I became aware of a hullabaloo outside.
I walked to the entrance of the tent to see a body of horsemen approaching in a cloud of dust. For one paralysing moment I thought it was the kidnappers returning to snatch Mimi and me but then saw, with relief and not a little surprise, that it was Sayeed bin Ghandou with a troop of Provincial Guards.

“We did not expect to see you so soon, Sayeed.” I said as he reined his horse to halt in a shower of sand alongside me.
He swung down from the saddle and handed the reins of his horse to a groom.

“He has been hard ridden. Rub him down, let him rest a while and then give him some water,” he said, and then addressed me. “I was at a meeting in Mansoura when the messenger found me. We left immediately and have ridden all night. Have you received a ransom demand as yet?”
“There will be no ransom demand because the kidnappers snatched the wrong people. The targets were me and my wife but we, and Professor Crudwright and his daughter, were away from the encampment when the gang struck.”

Sayeed and I moved into the tent and sat at the table.

“I have a dozen Provincial Guards with me and we will hunt them down. The kidnappers had better release their captives unharmed else I will have the villains executed.”
I shook my head. “I expect the kidnappers are already dead, killed by Cleopatra for their failure to snatch the correct prey.”

“Cleopatra? The governor – former governor – of Alexandria’s whore?”

“The same, although I know her as Eloise de La Zouche.”
“But she has escaped to Europe, with thousands of gold sultani from the Alexandria provincial treasury. Abdulla Bulbul Ameer has been executed for the loss, although he was her dupe not the instigator of the theft,” Sayeed said.

“She must have laid a false trail to outwit the authorities, and was waiting in Suez for the kidnap gang to deliver my wife and me. However, the kidnappers took Captain Guest and Missus Crudwright instead.”

“Suez? That is not in my jurisdiction. I cannot take armed men into a neighbouring Province without permission from the Governor.” He thought for a moment. “I will write to the Governor of Suez Province, Gamal Nasser Pasha, directly, but it might take some time for him to reply.”
He indicated the sheaf of paper, ink well, and quills, on the table.