The Adventuress by TASHA ALEXANDER

them if one wishes to study them, do you not? Science requires it. Is it not a beautiful thing, a discipline that requires darkness to reach the light?”
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    Amity
    Four months earlier
    Restlessness consumed Amity almost from the moment she arrived in Cairo. She might have told Jack she believed the society was second only to that in London, but in fact she would have preferred Paris, or some other cosmopolitan capital. Although she had come to adore India, she did not miss its humidity, yet she did not prefer the dusty heat of Egypt. Cairo was a filthy place, full of whining children, their hands outstretched, begging with thin, wheezing voices for money, no matter where she turned. Christabel, however, felt altogether differently about it. She had come with the intention of catching a glimpse of some distant sort of relation, an eccentric lady who had married an even more eccentric archaeologist. Unfortunately, the lady in question proved uninterested in family connections, and would not agree to a meeting. Christabel took the failure of her purpose in stride, and threw herself into exploring the region and enjoying its society.
    She insisted that Amity accompany her when she shopped for trinkets in the Khan el-Khalili, rebuking her friend when Amity insisted there was nothing to be seen that she would wish to purchase.
    â€œHow can you not long for these little leather slippers?” Christabel asked. “The work on them is exquisite and you will never find their equal in New York, of that I am certain. I am taking three pairs, and I shall feel like an exotic princess every time I wear them.”
    â€œYou are very easily amused, Christabel.”
    â€œI do not take your remark as a criticism. What has happened to you, Amity? You were unhappy when you arrived in India, but no sooner had we started exploring than you fell in love with the place. Will you not give Egypt the same chance?”
    Amity curled her lip. “Were it possible to escape from the feeling of constantly having sand rubbing against my skin, I might.”
    â€œYou will feel differently after we see the pyramids tonight.”
    Christabel’s optimism proved incorrect. Amity appeared in all ways unimpressed by the Giza plateau, and refused to climb to the top of the Great Pyramid.
    â€œThere is no view to see in the dark,” she said.
    â€œLook at the stars above us, Amity,” Christabel said. “Imagine being even closer to them, with the lights of Cairo stretched out before us.”
    â€œI thought we would have seen Jack by now,” Amity said, not bothering to so much as glance at the stars. “We have been here for nearly three weeks.”
    â€œHe is in the army, dear. It is no surprise that they would be keeping him busy.”
    A rowdy group of tourists on camels approached them, whooping hellos. Amity turned her back and ignored them. “I thought he was going to meet us at the station when we arrived.”
    â€œHe telegrammed before we left India to say that would not be possible.”
    â€œI suppose there is little chance of us meeting his brother now.”
    Christabel placed a hand on her friend’s arm. “Now I understand your melancholy. Is it possible that you have thoroughly fallen in love with this gentleman before even having met him?”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous. Of course I am not in love with him. By all accounts he is a dreadful boor,” she said, lines etching her normally smooth brow. “It is only that I had believed Jack would keep his word and introduce us. I am trying to keep my mother happy—you know why she has brought me here.”
    â€œYou do not fool me, Amity,” Christabel said. “You have set your heart on the Duke of Bainbridge. I hope the man himself does not prove a disappointment.”
    â€œHe won’t. I have never been more certain of anything in my life.” She sighed. “From all that Jack has told me, he is