The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters Page B

he had drunk most of it, but I heard a distinct crack. “Curse you, Walter, how dare you suggest I am indifferent to my wife’s safety? I will deal with Sethos myself. The police are of no damn—er—confounded use anyhow.”
    I will summarize the discussion, which became somewhat heated. Emerson does not like to have his judgment questioned, and Walter was in an unusual state of excitability. It culminated as I had begun to fear it would, with Walter’s announcement that he could not allow Lia to accompany us that year.
    Everyone began talking at once, and Gargery, who had been shaking with indignation ever since Walter accused Emerson of negligence, dropped one of my best demitasse cups. Finding her father adamant, Lia burst into tears and fled from the room, followed by Nefret. I sent Gargery away, since he was wreaking havoc with the Spode, and persuaded Evelyn that she had better go to her daughter. She gave me an appealing look, to which I responded with a smile and a nod; for indeed I understood the dear woman’s dilemma. She would have risked her own safety to defend me from danger, but the safety of her child was another matter.
    Not that I believed there was danger to me or anyone else. I managed to express this opinion once I had got the men to stop shouting at one another. My arguments were sensible and ought to have prevailed, but I found to my annoyance that he who ought to have been my strongest supporter had turned against me.
    “Yes, well, I understand your viewpoint, Walter,” Emerson said, with the affability that usually succeeds his fits of temper. “The child would not be in the slightest danger if she were with me—what did you say, Ramses?”
    “I said ‘with us,’ Father. I beg your pardon for interrupting you, but I felt obliged to emphasize my willingness, and that of David, to lay down our lives if necessary—”
    “Don’t be so confounded melodramatic,” Emerson snarled. “As I was saying, little Amelia would be perfectly safe with us, but perhaps this is for the best. I have decided to leave for Egypt as soon as possible. We will return to Kent tomorrow, pack our gear, and sail at the end of the week.”
    “Impossible, Emerson,” I exclaimed. “I have not finished my shopping, and you have not finished your book, and—”
    “The devil take your shopping, Peabody,” Emerson said, with an affectionate look at me. “And the book as well. My dear, I intend to get you out of this bloody damned city at once. There are too many damned people here, including one of the bloodiest. If Sethos follows us to Egypt, so much the worse for him. Now come to bed. I want to get an early start.”
    Walter and Evelyn departed next morning with their unhappy child, leaving Mrs. Watson, their excellent housekeeper, in charge of shutting up the house and putting the servants on board wages. I expected Emerson would insist on driving the motorcar back to Kent, but to my surprise he gave in with scarcely a grumble when I said I preferred the comfort of the train. He ordered Ramses not to drive faster than ten miles per hour and presented Nefret with a preposterous motoring mask. Where he had found it, I cannot imagine. The tinted goggles were set in a frame of leather lined with silk, and it made her look like an apprehensive beetle.
                 (ii)      From Manuscript H
    “Take it off,” Ramses said. “We’re out of sight now.”
    Nefret, beside him in the front seat, gestured wildly. He couldn’t decide whether the muffled noises that emerged from the narrow slit over her mouth were laughter, or an attempt at a reply, or the gasps of a woman who was unable to breathe. “Get it off her, David,” he ordered in alarm.
    David, who was in the tonneau, tugged at the straps until they gave way. There was no doubt about the nature of the noises he was making, and as soon as the hideous accoutrement came away from her face, Nefret joined him.
    “Bless the dear man,” she