Page 24 of The Stolen Queen

“But itdoesmatter. I hate that you’re giving up an opportunity like this. Why are we starting out our marriage with secrets and resentment?”

He took her hand and led her to the bed, where they sat side by side like strangers waiting for a bus. “There’s no resentment, I promise you. I’ll get back here and finish my fieldwork eventually. Right now, you come first, and I have absolutely no problem with that.”

“Then why have you been so distant?” Her face was hot and shetried not to cry. Maybe it was the baby that was making her so emotional, but she had to be honest with him.

He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “The job offer is not at all why I’ve been distant. And I admit, I have. But I had no problem telling Mr. Jankowski that I wasn’t interested in the position.”

“Then tell me why.”

“I guess it’s because I’m worried about being able to take care of you. I mean, I don’t have much saved up, and New York is expensive. I hate the thought of meeting your parents and immediately being indebted to them. Are you sure they don’t mind us staying with them until we get on our feet?”

“They don’t mind at all.”

In fact, Charlotte hadn’t yet mailed the letter telling them about Henry, the marriage, or the baby. She kept meaning to, but day after day she’d forget, and it remained in the drawer of her desk. Her parents were expecting her to return to them the same fresh-faced, innocent girl she’d been when she left. Instead, she’d gotten herself knocked up by a poor Englishman, her college career cut short. It was everything they feared might happen to their little girl if they allowed her to travel across the world and work in a dangerous foreign country. She’d begged them for the opportunity, convinced them that she was mature enough to handle herself, and then confirmed their worst fears.

“Look,” she said finally, “you are a brilliant Egyptologist. They’ll love you once they meet you, and of course they’ll love the baby. We may be doing things out of order, but that doesn’t mean all is lost.” She wondered who she was trying to convince.

“You’re right. I’m silly to worry. We’ll figure it all out.”

He didn’t sound very certain, though, and they listlessly undressedand crawled into bed, too tired from the festivities and the discussion of the uncertain future ahead to do more than kiss each other good night.

Charlotte woke up before Henry and went to the window. Outside, the desert shimmered in the sunrise, where a group of workers trooped out to the Valley of the Kings to begin work. There was so much still hidden in that desolate array of hills, where a maze of tunnels ran deep into the earth, representing thousands of years of burial ceremonies. That was what was so alluring about being here. Not only the potential for treasure, but the unfolding of information about a civilization that was so advanced that its art, politics, science, and beliefs rebounded around the world even today.

In comparison, even though Henry said he was grateful for the Met Museum job offer, she knew, for him, working at a museum would be no better than being locked in a mausoleum. He’d be far away from where the true work was being done, stuck all day writing seventy-five-word descriptions of limestone reliefs, when this was where he belonged. This was where they both belonged.

The idea came to her in a flash as the sun’s rays poured in through the window. She took that as a good sign. The Egyptians’ most powerful god was Ra, patron of the sun, heaven, power, and light, and maybe he was guiding her just as he had the ancient people of the Nile.

She woke Henry with soft kisses on his ear.

He smiled and pretended to swat her away, then pulled her on top of him.

“Hold on,” she said. “I have an announcement.”

“You’re pregnant?”

They both laughed.

“No. We’re staying here. You’re taking the overseer’s job.”

“What about New York?”

“I dread seeing my parents as much as you do. Why should we have to give up doing what we love and scandalize my parents and their friends when we don’t have to? You have a job here, I feel perfectly well, so let’s stay.”

He pushed himself up on one elbow. “You’ll be having a baby come August. There’s no way I’m allowing you to give birth out here in the desert.”

She’d thought it all through before waking him. “First of all, women have babies here all the time, if you haven’t noticed by the scrum of children running around everywhere we go. Second, Mr. Jankowski’s wife is a doctor, so I’ll have excellent medical care while we’re in the field. Third, we’ll be heading to Cairo in early June anyway, once the digging season’s over, and I’ll have the baby in one of the fancy hospitals there.”

Henry grew serious. “The Polish team aren’t as well funded as the Americans or the French. It will be a big step down from this,” he said, gesturing around the room.

“When we met, we were both living in caves, may I remind you.”

“That’s true.”

“Will Mr. Zimmerman be upset?” That was the only hiccup Charlotte could come up with.

Henry considered it. “He’ll be happy for me to finish my degree; then he can hire me as a curator instead of a research associate. Although he may question my sanity, allowing my pregnant wife to prance about digs instead of staying home with her feet up in America.”

“Tell him it’s my idea. After all, it is.”

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