Chapter 10

Elizabeth loved the city of Alexandria and time flew by for her, as each day she learned more about this culture that was so different from her own. Eleth continued to grow like a weed and before Elizabeth knew it, he was having his fourth birthday party. They had invited some of the neighboring children that Eleth had met and become friends with, and so the three women had put on a grand celebration for him. They played all sorts of games, they ate cake, and then Eleth opened his presents. It was a new experience for him, to have children his own age attend his birthday, and he reveled in it. He was happy all day long until after the last child had left with its parent. Then Elizabeth found him, sitting on a settee in the parlour, moping.

"Eleth," she asked softly, "what's wrong? Didn't you have a good time today?"

Eleth looked thoughtful for a moment. "Mummy," he whined, "all of the other children had daddies. Where is mine?"

Elizabeth was taken back by this question, and slowly sat down beside him on the settee. She had thought for a moment to lie to him, and tell him he had died, but she looked into her son's eyes, seeing Ardeth reflected in them, and decided to tell him the truth. Or as much of it as she could. "Eleth, your father lives in the Sahara desert. Remember I showed it to you on the map?" Eleth nodded his head. "Well, you see darling, he is a great warrior among his people and one night we...met. But he wasn't supposed to be your daddy, someone else was, and so this great warrior brought me back to my own people, for I couldn't live among his people."

"Why not?" piped up Eleth.

"Because we are of different cultures. I am English, and he is Egyptian, or close to it, and the two don't get along very well, I'm afraid."

Eleth frowned in thought. "Then, if he can't be my daddy, can someone else?"

Elizabeth's eyes watered as she looked down into the plaintive face of her beautiful son, and realized that, for as much love as she could give him, he still needed a father-figure in his life. "I'll try to find someone, my little love, I'll try," she said gently as she gathered him up in her arms.

Later that night, after Elizabeth had put Eleth down to sleep, she told Lina and Nana about their little conversation. The two older women listened attentively as Elizabeth poured out her own concerns about being a single parent.

"I don't know what to do! I don't want to get married but Eleth needs a father in his life. It made me cry today when he asked me about his father, and I couldn't give him a full explanation, I mean, what am I supposed to say? That I met his father and we slept together for three nights, then I went back to London with another man?" Elizabeth paced the floor in distraught.

"Elizabeth, calm down," said Nana gently, "you're getting yourself too worked up about this."

"Nana, Eleth has needs that I can't provide for him! I'm an unfit mother," she said dejectedly.

"You listen here, Elie," demanded Lina. "You have been the best mother I've ever seen, and I'm old, so I've seen a lot. Don't go berating yourself for circumstances beyond your control."

"She's right, lovey," agreed Nana.

"I think you should look for this Medjai chief and have him meet Eleth. Then at least the boy would know he truly had a father."

"No," sighed Elizabeth, "I just couldn't. I don't want to cause Ardeth any problems."

"Showing a man his own flesh and blood wouldn't be a problem, Elie, he'd probably be overjoyed."

Elizabeth looked at Lina and smiled wistfully. "Ardeth is too much of his culture, and, perhaps inwardly, he would be proud to know his son, but he could never acknowledge him to his people." Elizabeth stood up, suddenly tired from the day's events, and went upstairs to bed.

Lina looked over to Nana after Elizabeth had left the room. An understanding passed between them, and Lina spoke. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That she needs to go to Cairo?"

"That's it," said Lina. "I'll make it a short trip for us, and we'll go under the pretext that its for Eleth to see different cities while we're in this country."

Nana looked thoughtful. "That would work," she said slowly, "but what if Ardeth never comes to Cairo?"

Lina leaned towards Nana. "Didn't she say that they went into town every few weeks for supplies? So, we'll just stay there a month or so and see what happens." Lina winked to Nana and the old nurse smiled broadly.

After losing her trail in Vincennes, Clive had gone back to London to await word from Carter. It had been a year and a half since he had traveled to the small town in France, and his patience, what little he had of it, was extremely thin. Not only was Carter searching for Elizabeth, but Clive had hired extra thugs to help with the search. Right now, Carter and the hired hands were in the coastal city of Marseille, having followed Elizabeth's trail from Vincennes, to Paris, and all through the countryside of France. Elizabeth had been smart, fumed Clive inwardly, by switching trains at different destinations, making his search even that more difficult.

He sat behind his office desk, drumming his fingers impatiently on the wood as his secretary knocked on the door. "Come in!" he snapped.

The secretary opened the door and stepped inside. "This just came for you sir," she walked over and handed the paper to Clive.

Clive took it from her hands eagerly, as he saw it was a wire. It could only mean one thing. His eyes read over the piece of paper:

"Have picked up the trail. Stop. She took a ship to Alexandria.
Stop. She is not alone. Stop. Will send another wire when I know
more. Stop. Signed your humble servant Carter. Stop.

Clive smiled big and once again made plans to travel and meet Carter in Alexandria. He was very close to her, he could feel it in his bones.

Clive arrived in Alexandria a couple of weeks later. Carter met him at the ship and helped him with his bags.

"Sir, I think I've found them! Elizabeth is traveling with two older women. Obviously one of them has to be Nana and the other one is a wealthy English widow who owns property here in Alexandria. I have the address."

Clive was elated as they walked to a waiting cab. "Excellent work Carter! I hope you were discreet. I don't want another failure like Vincennes."

"Oh, yes sir, I've been very discreet! Would you like to settle into your hotel first?" said Carter as he loaded his cases in the automobile.

"No!" snapped Clive. "I want to get her right away and leave this miserable country."

"But sir, she might not be willing to come along," remarked Carter.

Clive opened up his jacket and the butt of his gun became visible. "Oh yes she will." Clive and Carter got into the cab and they sped off through the city of Alexandria.

It wasn't too long before they reached Madame Trent's estate and they drove up to the door. Clive got out, adjusted his jacket and tie, and walked up to the front door. He rang the doorbell and put on a smile as he heard the doorknob start to turn. When the door finally opened, he was surprised to see a native standing before him.

"May I help you?" asked Rasheed politely.

Clive looked at the tall Egyptian and wondered for a moment if Carter had the wrong address. "Ah, yes, I'm looking for Elizabeth Walker, I'm a friend of the family and just...happened to be in the neighborhood. Do I have the correct address?" Clive put on his most charming smile to soften the native up.

Rasheed smiled back at him. "Yes, Madame Elizabeth and her son live here.

Clive kept a tight lid on the joy which threatened to explode within him. "May I come in and see her?"

"I am sorry, but they left two days ago."

Clive kept the smile on his face as he realized that once again, he had just missed her. "I see, well, I don't suppose you would know where she is going? I will be traveling around the country and it's so pleasant to see people you know when in a foreign land."

Rasheed was taken in by Clive's polite demeanor. "They all went to Cairo."

Clive was shocked when he heard the destination. He never thought in a million years that Elizabeth would go back there. It would be the first place he would have looked, didn't she know that? "I see, well, thank you very much for your time." Clive turned around and walked back to the waiting cab. He climbed inside and gave Carter a look. "They left two days ago for Cairo."

The shock on Carter's face mirrored what Clive was feeling inside. Clive told the cab driver to take them back to the port.

"What are you going to do now, sir?" asked Carter.

"We are going straight to Cairo, tonight. We'll take the first train that leaves from the station."

"Sir, let me just stop by my hotel and get..." started Carter.

"No time," interrupted Clive, "she's two days ahead of us. I don't want to lose any more time. I'll buy you whatever you need along the way Carter."

"But what about the other men you hired?"

"I'll hire more in Cairo."

They arrived at the train station in due time, and Clive purchased tickets for the next train bound for Cairo. It wasn't too long before he and Carter boarded the train and settled themselves in for the ride.

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