“What are you going to do now?” Isadora asked.
“Finalize our plans.”
Tío Ricardo shoved away the steaming cup filled with black tea. “No more. I need something stronger.”
I sighed, sitting down in the chair next to his unmade bed. “I suppose I shouldn’t bother telling you to rest?”
“You ought to be groveling. Begging for my forgiveness is what youought to be doing,” my uncle snapped as he settled against the pillows. “Where is your bastard of a husband, anyway? He hasn’t checked in with me since we came back from Philae.”
“He’s out running errands,” I lied. I hadn’t seen him, either. This morning, I’d woken to find him gone. I doubt he knew my aunt and cousin were also staying at the hotel. Not that I cared what he did. But since he wanted to supposedly help me, I would have thought he’d make himself more available.
“Whit still works for me,” he said. “He knows better than to disappear without telling me.”
I frowned. “Are you worried about him?”
My uncle scowled. “Wherever Whit goes, trouble seems to find him.”
That was certainly true, though the same could be said of me. “What do you need him to do? Perhaps I can do it instead?”
“I suppose you could,” my uncle said thoughtfully. “Abdullah checked in at the hotel, and a physician has been tending to him. Perhaps you can pay him a visit? I believe he’s on the same floor.”
“Certainly,” I said. I couldn’t imagine what he was going through. The find of the century and it had been taken away from him. “How is he?”
“No lo sé,” Tío Ricardo said testily. “Hence why I’d like you to pay him a visit.”
“You are grouchy this morning,” I observed.
“My ward got married in secret to a man with questionable ethics and morals,” he said. “The work I’d done at Philae, alongside my brother-in-law, has been destroyed. Cleopatra’s mummy will be pulverized and used for wealthy aristocrats to heal, I don’t know, a mild headache. Her life’s possessions will be sold off to the highest bidder in an illegal market, which my sister is a known member of. Your aunt, a woman I cannot stand, has lost one of her daughters thanks to me and is now hysterical two bedrooms over—shall I keep going? I have cause to be grouchy.”
Privately, I added,Isadora is my sister and the daughter of the man who pillaged Philae. Oh, and Whit stole my inheritance.
But perhaps I ought to save that bit of news for another time.
“Let me know how my friend is doing,” Tío Ricardo said. “Perhaps you should make him drink this awful tea.”
“I will, as soon as you finish your break—”
Loud and insistent knocking broke through our conversation. My uncle sat upright, intent on getting out of bed, but I held up a hand and said sharply, “I’ll answer.”
My uncle glared at me, but I was already on my feet and opening the bedroom door, fully expecting to find my errant husband on the other side. Instead, a short, balding man stood before me, flanked by somber-looking men dressed in dour clothing and displaying equally dour expressions.
“Mademoiselle,” Monsieur Maspero said in surprise. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Is that Maspero?” my uncle called out. “Hold on a minute, and I’ll get dressed.”
“Pleasedon’t get out of bed,” I shouted in return. “I’m sorry, monsieur, but I fear your business will have to wait. My uncle is ill and recovering from a gunshot wound. He recently pushed himself too far—”
A strangled oath reverberated in the sitting room. My uncle appeared, hair unkempt, his beard overtaking more than half of his face. He tucked in his shirt and looked around for his shoes.
“You’ll tire yourself,” I protested.
“I believe I gave you something to do, didn’t I, sobrina?” He dropped onto the chair and began lacing up his work boots.
I let out a long sigh and turned to Monsieur Maspero. “I don’t have any refreshments to offer, but if you’d like, I’d be happy to send for tea.”
“No, thank you,” Monsieur Maspero replied, stepping aside to give the other two men space to enter my uncle’s hotel room. “These men have come to arrest your uncle and his business partner, Abdullah.”
“What?” I gasped.
