Read Online Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase - Free Book Online

being diverted elsewhere.

    She disappeared and
reappeared at intervals, looking more and more vexed at each
reappearance.

    Watching her,
Rupert only half-heard the conversation nearby. Noxley had some
people he promised to talk to, starting with the men who’d come
to dinner the other night. He’d send some servants out to
collect the latest street gossip. He’d call on some district
sheiks.

    He summoned a
servant and gave orders in Arabic. Mrs. Pembroke chimed in.

    The servant exited.

    Then it was time to
leave.

    A good deal more
subdued than when he set out, Rupert escorted her home. He was
vaguely aware of its being later than he’d supposed. He
wondered how long they’d been at Noxious’s.

    “ Weren’t
we going elsewhere?” he said as they reached her street.

    “ Weren’t
you paying attention?” she said. “Lord Noxley is going to
call on the others. It is very good of him. I had not realized how
tired I was until now. But I never slept at all last night. I must
have a proper night’s rest. I shall be no good at all
inGizaotherwise.”

    “ Ah, so
you’re going toGiza,” Rupert said wistfully. He would
like to explore the inside of a pyramid, especially with her. He’d
heard the passageways were dark and narrow.

    “ Yes, well,
he doesn’t know that,” she said.

    Rupert turned
sharply toward her. But there was the hateful veil, hiding her
expressive face. “How can he not know?” he said. “He’ll
see you there.”

    “ Lord
Noxley?” she said.

    “ Who else?”
Rupert said.

    “ But he’s
not going toGiza,” she said.

    “ He’s
not?”

    “ No,”
she said. “You are.”

    They arrived at her
door. “I am?” Rupert said stupidly.

    She let out a long
sigh. “Really, Mr. Carsington, I wish you would try to attend.
Surely you heard him. He is like Vir—like Miles. They think
women—Oh, never mind. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t
need to know, and you wouldn’t understand. But do pay attention
now. You are taking me with you toGiza, no matter what he says. You
are to come and collect me tomorrow at daybreak. Is that clear?”

    “ Clear as a
bell,” Rupert said.

    He saw her safely
indoors, left the house, and with a wave at Wadid, passed through the
gate and set off down the street, whistling.

     

     

    ONCE MRS. PEMBROKE
had gone, all the sunshine went out of his lordship’s
countenance.

    Asheton Noxley
liked to have things his way—exactly his way. This wasn’t
easy anywhere. InEgypt, it was particularly difficult because people
here—even, or perhaps especially, Europeans—acted
according to no known rules of civilized behavior.

    Very early in his
stay he had learnt that official documents became increasingly
meaningless the farther away one was from the official who’d
provided them. For instance, the pasha might give him the exclusive
right to excavate at such and such a place or to remove this or that
object. But if the site was in, say, Thebes, and the pasha four
hundred fifty miles away in Cairo at the time, the one who actually
got to excavate was the one who either paid the local officials the
largest bribes or produced the largest band of thugs and ruffians to
insure his rights.

    Lord Noxley had
found local officials unreliable. They accepted bribes from rival
parties. They were accommodating one day and obstructive the next.
They withheld workers, food, and boats when the mood struck them.

    Consequently, he
had amassed a large band of men he could depend upon to make people
behave as they ought.

    He now employed
agents in most of the major villages betweenAlexandriaand the Second
Cataract.

    Though Miles
Archdale and his handsome sister didn’t know about it, his
lordship was making arrangements for them, too. His lordship was
cultivating the brother, reputed to be one of those nearest to
unlocking the secrets of the ancient script. They would make an ideal
team, Lord Nox-ley believed. Together they would unearth a great
find, greater than