I gestured to the Inez mountain sitting on top of the bedding. “Despite the mess.”
Slowly, he touched the tip of his index finger to the corner of my mouth. “No one else.”
“Oh.”
“Well?”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a delicate underthing had slipped off the bed and onto his shoe. I bent to retrieve it, but he beat me to it. He carefully placed it on one of the pillows.
I detected the faintest blush blooming high on his cheeks.
It occurred to me then that I’d never seen Whit blush.
I’d seen him messy and smirking, furious and amused. But never embarrassed. It was this sight that reminded me of who I was dealing with. Whit was my friend, maybe even the best one I had. He’d kissed me when we thought we’d die trapped in that tomb, the air slowly turning against us, quietly dangerous. He had held my hand in the dark and shared his biggest regret with me.
When someone had dared to hurt me, he’d ended them.
This was the man asking for my hand.
“I’d give you more time,” Whit said, “but you’releaving the country.”
That was true—my uncle wanted me gone. For my safety, as if he couldprotect me still when I had already lived through the horror of seeing my cousin shot in the head, not ten feet away from me.
Elvira.
Pain stabbed my heart, and the cloud of confusion descended again. It seemed impossible that I’d never see her mischievous grin right before breaking one of her mother’s many rules. Never hear her voice or read another one of her stories. Her life had been cut short, a book closed forever, the ending written as a horrifying nightmare.
I had to stay in Egypt for her.
It was my traitorous mother’s fault she was gone. Grief held on to me like a tightened fist, and a sob worked its way up my throat. I ruthlessly tamped the emotion down, searching for another that wouldn’t leave me on the floor.
Anger simmered in my blood, just under the surface.
More than anything, I wanted to hunt my mother down. Force her into prison where she could rot for eternity. I wanted her to tell me what she had done to my father, if he was still living, trapped somewhere and only she knew how to find him. Papá’s words from his last letter to me swam in my mind.
Never stop looking for me.
I could do nothing from another continent.
I understood at once what Whit was implying. If I married him, I would have free rein over my fate. It made my head spin. A destiny uncontrolled. Access to my fortune, no longer dependent on my uncle, and as a married woman, I would no longer need a chaperone everywhere I went. Whit’s offer was appealing. And there was the other thing. The thing I couldn’t have predicted when I first set sail for Egypt.
I had fallen in love with Whitford Hayes.
I loved him with my whole heart, despite my head telling me to have better sense. But I loved him in a way that meant forever. I hadn’t known for sure until this moment, as I stared into his face, which was somehow vulnerable and remote all at once. Terror gripped me. I’d never felt so stricken, so raw, so exposed.
Again my head said,What you’re feeling is utter nonsense.
She sounded stern and convincing.
“Think it over, then. And let me know.” He smiled faintly, and his next words sounded more like himself. “Preferably before you get on that train to Alexandria.”
He left, the door closing with a measured click.
To the empty room I said, “Miércoles.”
PART ONETHE CITY OF ALL CITIES
CAPÍTULO UNO
