Chapter 23 #2
Within minutes, Ezra appeared, having raced down the hill, his face tight with concern. He stopped short to look at Gerald, who, although dust-covered and grazed, was unmistakably intact.
‘How, the heck did you get down here?’ he demanded, staring at Gerald in disbelief.
‘It’s a long story,’ Gerald replied, ‘but thanks for looking out for me.’
‘No, man, it’s more than that.’ Ezra shook his head gravely. He lowered his voice so that only Hattie and Gerald could hear. ‘It’s the curse of the tombs!’
Hattie let out a nervous laugh. ‘Oh, not that old legend again,’ she said.
Ezra leaned in, eyes wide. ‘I’m telling you, it’s real. I’ve heard stories about people falling or getting a strange illness after visiting all these tombs. Nazeem told me that the locals believe the ancient nobles still guard this ground, punishing anyone who stirs up their secrets.’
‘There is no curse,’ Gerald said, ‘only my foolish mis-footing.’
But as he turned to the café, where Anouska had gone minutes before, he knew that the danger he’d faced hadn’t come from ancient curses and dead nobles.
It had come from someone who was very much alive.
The rest of the afternoon began with Gerald assuring Hattie that he was fine. He joked that he had nothing more than a bruised shoulder and few more grazes to add to his already knobbly knees and told her that he was looking forward to a gentle sail and a leisurely wander around Kitchener’s Island.
It didn’t surprise Gerald to see that Anouska had summoned a smaller felucca after informing Sam that she had a headache and would be returning early, to the SS Nefertari.
Despite all that had gone before, and her attempt on his life, he noted that her selfie stick was held aloft, perfectly angled to capture another Instagram moment, as her felucca caught the breeze and began to skim across the water.
Sam announced that the guests had an hour to enjoy Kitchener’s pride and joy and to meet up again at the far end of the island, where souvenir stalls were located. When he learned that Gerald had fallen, Sam’s composure slipped, and he became concerned.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Sam’s face was troubled as he saw Gerald’s grazes.
Gerald caught the look that flashed across Hattie’s face. The one that suggested she was moments away from informing their guide that the safety of his party was paramount, a fact he’d seemed to neglect.
‘It’s nothing,’ Gerald assured Sam. ‘I expect visitors tumble on the hill all the time.’
There was little to be gained from explaining that his wife had attempted to propel him into the afterlife.
Sam frowned. ‘I need to complete an incident report.’
‘There is no incident to report.’ Gerald held firm. ‘Just a misstep.’
‘Well, if you’re sure.’ Relieved, Sam nodded.
Now, as Gerald went ahead of Hattie and Ezra and mounted the steps to the gardens, he glanced back to see that the pair had been detained by the gaggle of children at the entrance and were browsing gifts and nick-nacks.
Finding a bench under the shade of several trees, Gerald sat down to wait.
After the dust and heat of the Tombs of the Nobles, Kitchener’s Island was a lush green paradise afloat on the Nile.
Climbing the worn stone steps to the entrance, visitors were met by children with outstretched hands, selling bracelets and misbaha strings of prayer beads, carefully threaded together and finished with silk tassels.
When Hattie noticed that Ezra had stopped to barter, she reached into her purse.
‘I like the one with the amber stones,’ Hattie said. ‘That would suit you.’
‘Me too,’ Ezra said, looping it around his wrist and holding it up, where the honey colours caught the sun. ‘I’m going to buy two.’
Hattie handed over her money, fully aware that she’d paid way over the odds but unwilling to haggle with a child.
‘My treat,’ she said to Ezra. ‘Is the other one for Nazeem?’
Ezra gave her a sideways look, then broke into a smile. ‘Sure, do you think that’s okay?’
‘I do,’ Hattie said and, taking his arm, climbed the steps to catch up with Gerald.
Inside the beautiful gardens, paths curved beneath towering palms, and bougainvillaea spilled everywhere in a riot of colour. The scent of citrus blossom was almost overpowering, and as they wandered around at a slow pace, the earlier tensions began to dissolve.
Hattie reached for her guidebook and handed it to Ezra, asking him to read aloud.
Ezra scanned the pages and began by telling them that Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener was the British Consul-General of Egypt, who, in the 1890s, transformed the dry and dusty island, sparsely vegetated, into the botanical paradise seen today.
‘What a guy,’ Ezra said, his nose buried in the book. ‘He travelled all over India, Africa and the Far East to import plants, bringing its rich soil too.’
They paused by tall bamboo, where brightly feathered birds flitted between the leaves.
‘I remember reading that after the Second World War,’ Gerald said, ‘the island passed to the Egyptian government and was opened to the public as the splendid garden we see today.’
Hattie leaned down to take note of the neat labels edging a border of medicinal plants.
‘I wish I could grow these at home,’ she said, brushing a finger lightly over the silvery leaves of eucalyptus.
‘Good for respiratory complaints,’ she commented and moved along, noting henna, for minor wounds.
‘Ah, aloe vera.’ She glanced at Gerald and smiled.
‘Perfect for soothing your grazes, and I have some on the boat.’
At the next marker, she paused. ‘Senna.’ She frowned, knowing its laxative powers. ‘With luck, we won’t be needing that.’
Before they reached the café, the path narrowed into an avenue of stalls, a bright corridor of fluttering flags, jewellery shining in the sun, and tablecloths and scarves swaying gently from improvised rails.
Spotting a neat stack of hats, displayed on wooden crates, Hattie lifted a Panama from the pile.
Flicking imaginary dust, she handed it to Gerald.
‘Here you are,’ she said, ‘to replace the one you lost. Do try it on.’ She stood on her tiptoes to settle it on his head.
Gerald laughed as the brim shielded his eyes, but once in position, the hat felt right.
‘It fits perfectly.’ Hattie grinned and reached for her purse. ‘My treat!’ She smiled, haggling a price with the vendor.
Gerald was contemplative as he watched Hattie hand over the notes, his thoughts circling back to Anouska.
He felt certain that his wife had tried to kill him, and yet there was nothing he could do.
No witnesses. No evidence. Just his word against hers.
Anouska would deny everything. She would say she hadn’t been there, and that Gerald’s fall had been nothing more than an unfortunate accident.
The certainty of her deception unsettled him, but he refused to be caught off guard again, and for the rest of the cruise, determined to remain vigilant and put his plans to end their marriage into place.
Returning to Hattie he saw that she was laughing with Ezra as he jammed a fez onto his head, shaking the tassels from side to side. Within seconds, Hattie had struck a new deal, pressing the hat into Ezra’s hands.
Gerald remembered her studying the medicinal borders, reading each label with care, genuinely delighted by the properties of the plants, wanting to understand what grew where and why.
Anouska, he knew, would never have paused to learn what eucalyptus was good for.
She would have been too busy scanning the gardens for the perfect backdrop to pose against.
Hattie’s purchases weren’t about objects. It was the giving she seemed to enjoy, there being more pleasure in giving than receiving. He’d known that once, with Sally. Now, he recognised it again in Hattie and found himself smiling at how good it felt.
Hattie was talking to the vendor, leaning down to listen to the child alongside him, paying attention to whatever was being said as though it mattered enormously.
Bringing Ezra into the conversation, she met the vendor’s eyes then shook his hand and reached into her bag to give him a generous tip, and a packet of crayons for the child.
Gerald noticed how easily she included everyone, drawing out their best.
His heart swelled and despite all the trauma of the day, Gerald knew that he was being given another bite at the cherry of life and prayed that Hattie felt the same. If she did, he promised himself, he would do everything in his power to be the man that she deserved.