Max found himself riding in a separate world, lost in his thoughts, his eyes on the horizon but his mind on Eden. Where did they go from here? He had no idea what she was thinking, and he didn’t know how to start the conversation.
When they’d stopped the first night, he hadn’t been sure if she still wanted to share a tent with him. She hadn’t spoken to him all day, and he didn’t know how to bridge the distance between them.
“I’m going to stay in my own tent tonight,” he’d said. “You seem like you need some space.”
She met his gaze for a long moment, and he prayed she’d shake her head and tell him she still wanted to sleep beside him,but instead, she had just nodded. “Yes, that’s probably for the best.”
He watched her on the long stretches, sometimes catching her staring at the smudged notebook in her saddlebag, as if trying to piece together what she’d seen.
On the third day, he saw dust on the horizon, and he turned to meet Amir’s gaze. “There’s a camp up ahead.”
He pointed to a small forest of poles and canvas rising from the dunes. As they drew closer, the sound of shouting and the rhythmicthud-thudof pickaxes echoed off the canyon walls.
“Should we go around it?” Eden asked, the first thing she’d said in hours.
He shook his head regretfully. “They’ll have seen us already.” But he put his hand on his revolver just in case. As they grew closer, he realized he needn’t have bothered.
Sir Thomas Albright stood under a silk-lined canopy, sipping something from a crystal glass that looked obscenely cold. He looked up, his eyes narrowing behind a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles as Max and Eden’s bedraggled crew shambled into the camp.
“Good God,” Albright said, stepping out from the shade. He looked like a man who hadn’t broken a sweat since landing in Alexandria. “Lady Eden? You look as though you’ve been buried alive.”
He didn’t offer a hand to help her down. He stood back, as if fearing the dust on her clothes might jump onto his pristine Norfolk jacket. Max slid off his camel first, his boots hitting the sand with a heavy thud. He moved to Eden’s side, catching her as she dismounted. She was light, her body trembling with fatigue she was desperately trying to hide.
“Sir Thomas,” Eden said, her voice thin but steady. She leaned into Max just enough for support, but not enough forAlbright to notice. “I see you’ve brought half of London with you.”
Albright let out a short, sharp laugh, his eyes darting to Max with a look of pure dismissal. “When one hunts for the foundations of history, one comes prepared.” He gave a disdainful glance at their small crew.
Max’s jaw tightened so hard his teeth ached. He was used to being looked through by men like Albright, but he absolutely hated the way that bastard was treating Eden.
“I didn’t need this sort of circus,” Eden said coldly. “We did just fine.”
Albright laughed, his tone dripping with bored disbelief. He gestured vaguely in the direction they’d come from. “I take it the great discovery was a bust? I assume you found nothing but a few shards of common pottery and a great deal of misfortune?”
Max looked at Albright’s smug, smooth face and imagined telling him what they had found. Telling him that Eden had found the discovery of a lifetime while he was busy chilling his gin. This bastard had obviously pulled some strings in the Antiquities office and found out where they were headed. Thank goodness his caravan was moving so slowly. Even if he found the labyrinth, he’d never find its secrets now.
For the first time, he truly realized what it was going to cost Eden to go back empty-handed. All those men back in London would treat her just as Albright was. Her brave decision would ensure she’d never receive any respect.
“You’re right, Sir Thomas,” she said, her lip trembling. “We found nothing but sand and a very expensive lesson in humility.”
Albright’s smile was triumphant. He looked at her with a patronizing pity that turned Max’s stomach. “Valiant effort, my dear. Truly. But leave the desert to those with the constitution for it.”
He turned his back on them, shouting an order to a servant. “Give them some water. We can’t have the Lady Eden collapsing.”
Max turned the camels toward the water trough. He didn’t look back until they were a mile away, the camp a white speck against the rock.
“I should have knocked him on his ass,” he finally said angrily.
“I would have liked to see that,” she said, giving him a wry smile that made him think that maybe she would get past this after all.
