“Have a look.” Whit lifted the corner of his shirt. The wound had closed up, and the angry-looking veins spreading outward had faded. He’d have a scar for the rest of his life, but he had stayed and lived. I let out an incredulous laugh and then promptly burst into tears.
“You must be so hungry,” I said, mopping up my eyes.
“I want a banquet table to suddenly appear in this room,” he said. “I want a mile-long buffet table. I want—”
“Understood,” I said, laughing again as I immediately got to my feet and walked out of the hotel room, fighting to keep my erratic emotions under control. One of the hotel attendants was coming down the hall with a tea tray, and I gave him a tremulous smile.
“He’s feeling much better,” I explained at the sudden alarm on his face. He must have assumed my puffy eyes had meant something different. Had I not used the ink bottle, that might have been the case. “May we have hot water sent up, along with fresh sheets? And he’d like breakfast. Boiled eggs, pita bread, that delicious stewed fava-bean dish. Maybe some rice? Oh, and he loves pan-fried eggplants with lots of honey. Actually, please also bring a bowl of honey. And a pot of coffee!”
He nodded and doubled back down the hallway.
“Food is on its way,” I said, closing the hotel room door behind me.
“Let me ask you something,” Whit said. “Who in Egypt would know about the underground water passageways beneath Alexandria?”
I blinked at the abrupt subject change. I was still in a Whit-had-almost-died headspace. “I left the room for one minute.”
“I don’t have a pocket watch, so I’ll take your word for it.”
“Whit.”
“Inez.”
“You’re supposed to be resting.”
“We don’t have time for me to have a proper convalescence,” Whit retorted. “Abdullah and Ricardo are wasting away in prison, while Mr. Sterling is tracking our every move. Lourdes is one step ahead of us, probablythisclose”—he brought his index finger and thumb nearly together, almost touching—“to finding the alchemical sheet, and if your father is alive, he’s probably being kept in some damp hovel somewhere.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. At the lighthouse, I’d had the strongest feeling that he was gone. “You think there’s a chance Papá might be alive?”
“I don’t know,” Whit said softly. “But if he’s alive, then the only reason he hasn’t reached out to you is because he physically can’t. He might be locked up somewhere…”
“I’ve thought that, too,” I breathed, hardly daring to hope.
“I know you have,” Whit said. “But I also want you to at least think it’s possible that he’s gone, Inez.”
“You’ve made your point,” I said absently, my mind stuck on what he’d said earlier. He loved me, but he clearly still wanted the Chrysopoeia, though I didn’t understand why. “Talk to me about the alchemical sheet, Whit.”
He blinked. “Now?”
“Now. Please.”
Whit shifted, getting slowly to a sitting position. His gaze dropped to his hands, clasped tightly in his lap. “I was never given a choice about who I’d marry. She was always going to be wealthy, an heiress, someone to pull my family out of the hole my parents had dug for themselves.”
I went to sit by him. “Go on.”
“After I was discharged, I spent a lot of time out at night.” He flushed. “I’m not proud of that season of my life, but I did happen to learn of an extraordinary rumor. A single sheet with instructions on how to turn lead into gold, written down centuries earlier by none other than Cleopatra the alchemist.” He unclasped his hands, his fingers twisting the bedding, and I reached forward to take his hand in mine. “I became obsessed with discovering where it was.”
“Why?”
Whit slowly lifted his face, his eyes meeting mine. “Inez, at first I wanted to find the sheet to get out of a marriage Ididn’twant. Now, more than anything, I want to find the Chrysopoeia to save a marriage Idesperatelywant.”
“The money doesn’t matter to me anymore,” I said. “It wasn’t about that—”
Whit arched a brow.
“Not entirely about that,” I amended. “It hurt that you’d lied, that you’d betrayed me. I wanted a family with you, a life together, and you destroyed us before we really got to begin.”
“I’m sorry.” Whit lifted my palm and kissed it. “I will never derail us again. It’s you and me, darling. Forever.”
