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Chapter One

Early April 1801—Upper Egypt

There was shade down there and water jars sweating therowth that ran froe into the banks of the Nile Too soon Quin lay flat on the hot sand of the dune’s crest and distracted hi pain in his left ar on the tent below

Tent was perhaps too modest a word It seemed to consist of several interior rooms surrounded by shaded areas formed by poles and flaps of fabric which, he supposed, would collapse to ht

It was an ih there were no servants to be seen To one side was an anih, on the other a reed roof covered a cooking area A thin wisp of smoke rose from the banked fire, there was no donkey tied to the rail and the only occupant appeared to be the man in shirtsleeves who sat at a table in the deep shade of an awning, his pensteadily across the paper in front of him

Quin narrowed his eyes against the dusty sunlight Mid-fifties, burly, salt-and-pepper brown hair: that was certainly his quarry, or one of them at least Sir Philip Woodward, baronet, antiquarian and scholar, neglectful husband, selfish er and father and, very possibly, traitor

A flicker of ht in the light breeze Soaze to where the monumental colu sand, dwarfing the e of fisher a donkey lance for the great ruins as they passed them by It was a wo folds of a dark blue tob sebleh, but like ypt, unveiled A servant—or the other person he had been sent to find?

Madame Valsac,of Capitaine Thierry Valsac of Napoleon’s Arhter of Sir Philip Woodward and, maybe, another traitor But unlike her father, whose safety was of little concern to the hard-faced men who had briefed Quin, Madaypt and restored to the custody of her grandfather whether she liked it or not, and regardless of where her loyalties ht lie

That this ht prove troubleso British army, in the path of France’s fearso north at that ypt’s periodic outbreaks of plague, had not concerned the gentlemen in Gibraltar Quin was a diploh of antiquities to pass as one of the French savants, the scholars left by Napoleon to explore Egypt under the protection of his underpaid, diseased, poorly resourced army That, so far as they were concerned, was sufficient qualification

‘Classical antiquities, ypt is virtually non-existent’ Nor aht have added, but did not

‘Plenty of time to read it up on board ship between here and Alexandria,’ his unsympathetic superior had retorted ‘Just rehter back, never iment to her bed Her father no one wants, but if he’s a traitor, then we need to know the ins and outs of it Then you can dispose of him’

‘I ae ypt He ht be ambitious, but he drew the line at murder

‘Then introduce hiry crocodile or lose him in the desert’

Quin blinked to clear his vision and realised that the black dots swi before his eyes were not flies

The woman and the donkey were close now She spoke as she passed the , but he made no reply A servant, then

She halted the donkey and began to heave the water jars froth of someone accustomed to manual labour She filled the donkey’s bucket, poured e jars and finally carried a pitcher to one of the open-sided shaded spaces facing the dune where Quin lay

Through the insistent throbbing in his head it took him a minute to realise what she was about The woman pulled the cotton folds of the tob sebleh over her head, removed the twisted cloth that tied up her hair and was unfastening the sash around her waist before he assi and yptian—but the fact that she was about to strip off her under-tunic and bathe