Page 6 of Tomb of the Sun King

The orange-and-white cat looked less horrified, calmly cleaning an extended leg.

“…andwhat happened with that dastardly Mr. Jacobs and your map!” Constance continued relentlessly. “Did you find your lost city? Was it full of ghosts and hidden occult treasure?”

“Ha ha ha,” Ellie laughed uncomfortably. “You are quite letting your imagination run away with you, Connie.” She deliberately shifted her attention to the boy. “Here’s another millieme for you, young man, and I think we can quite manage for ourselves now.”

The boy took the coin and gave it a brief inspection. He cast an appraising look up—and up—at Mr. Mahjoud, who glanced down his nose at the child with a disapproving frown.

The coin disappeared into a ragged pocket. “Salâm bye-bye.” The boy scampered off into the crowd.

“Nowthat’ssettled,” Mr. Mahjoud cut in, “might we return to the carriage as soon as we have collected your…”

Mr. Mahjoud’s gaze moved to the luggage by Ellie’s boots. It halted on the smellier of the two pieces, and his expression shifted to one of quiet horror.

“Youwillcatch me up on everything that has happened,” Constance pressed Ellie darkly. “But don’t tell me that you really came all this way on your own!”

“I suppose one might…” Ellie began, flashing an involuntary and guilty look at the slightly malodorous rucksack still resting by her valise. “That is to say, I have not beenentirely—”

“Hey Princess!” a boldly masculine voice called out from across the crowd. “How about some camels?”

Ellie turned at the sound. Beside her, Constance’s eyes widened.

Adam Bates pushed through the shifting mass of bodies. He was still wearing a coat over his braces and shirtsleeves—which was a small miracle in itself, as Adam was not very good at keeping coats on… or shirts, for that matter. In a somewhat less respectable twist, he had pushed up the sleeves to expose his well-muscled forearms. His sun-kissed blond hair peeked out from under a battered, flat-brimmed fedora that Ellie had watched him yank out from under his bed two weeks before. His wide grin and piercing blue eyes contrasted with his deeply tanned skin.

Ellie’s pulse automatically and inconveniently kicked up at the sight—just as it had insisted on doing for the better part of the last month and a half.

Familiarity, in the case of Adam Bates, had not bred contempt. In fact, it seemed to be doing the opposite, and over the course of their two-week voyage from British Honduras to Egypt, Ellie had come very close to doing things with him that would make their torrid embrace in a cenote in the tropical wilderness look like a church society dinner.

The memory of those stolen and entirely inappropriate encounters on the boat to Egypt flared to life inside her mind. She closed her hands into fists. It felt like the only reliable way to make sure that she did not reach out and run them over Adam’s remarkable pectorals.

She should not be putting her hands on pectorals—or any other part of Adam Bates, for that matter. Not when their situation remained decidedly… complicated.

“Who… is…that?” Constance demanded in a low voice.

“That is my… er… traveling companion, Mr. Bates,” Ellie replied.

“Delightful,” Mr. Mahjoud said in a tone that sounded distinctly unenthusiastic.

“He is an old college friend of Neil’s,” Ellie added hopefully—as though the fact might make her situation slightly less awkward.

"Is he?" Constance returned flatly as her eyes roved appreciatively over Adam’s figure. They hitched on the eighteen-inch sheath strapped to his belt. “Your brother'scollege friendappears to be wearing a sword.”

Mr. Mahjoud scoffed. Ellie glanced back at him in surprise. By the sound, one might almost have thought that the neatly dressed fellow was both familiar with swords and accustomed to ones larger than Adam’s blade.

“It’s a machete, actually,” Ellie weakly corrected her. “It’s very… useful.”

Constance fixed Ellie with an alarmingly focused gaze. “And what uses have you found for the rest of it?”

Ellie clamped her mouth shut even as her cheeks flared with heat.

Constance’s eyes narrowed to a dangerously knowing glare. “You have a great deal of explaining to do, Eleanora Mallory.”

Ellie was saved from further interrogation by Adam’s arrival as he popped through the press of rail travelers.

“He said we can have them for a week for a reduced rate.” Adam pointed through the crowd to where Ellie could now see a wizened old man holding a pair of enormous dromedaries by their leads.

“How nice,” Ellie said weakly.

Adam turned to her petite companion. “You must be Constance. I’ve heard all about you.”

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