she had not seen in those tragic moments. She saw that both were human; she saw the grief in Ramses' eyes.
Later, when she'd lain as if dead herself, refusing to move or speak, after they'd buried Antony, Ramses had said to her:" You were the finest of them all. You were the one. You had the courage of a man and the heart of a woman. You had the wits of a King and a Queen's cunning. You were the finest. I thought your lovers would be a school for you; not your ruin."
What would she say now if she could revisit that chamber? I know. I understand? Yet the bitterness welled in her, the dark uncontrollable hatred when she looked at young Lord Summer-field walking beside her, this fair and fragile mortal boy-man.
"Dearest, can you confide in me? I've only known you for a short while, but I ..."
"What is it you want to say, Alex?"
"It sounds so foolish."
"Tell me."
"That I love you."
She lifted her hand to his cheek, touched it tenderly with her knuckles.
"But who are you? Where did you come from?" he whispered. He took her hand and kissed it, his thumbs rubbing her palm. A faint ripple of passion softened her all over; made the heat throb in her breasts.
"I'll never hurt you, Lord Alex."
"Your Highness, tell me your name."
"Make a name for me, Lord Alex. Call me what you will, if you do not believe the name I gave you."
Troubled, his dark brown eyes. If he bent to kiss her, she would pull him down here on the stones. Make love to him till he was spent again.
"Regina," he whispered." My Queen."
So Julie Stratford had left him, had she? The modern woman who went everywhere on her own and did as she pleased. But then it had been a great King who had seduced her. And now Alex had his Queen.
She saw Antony again, dead on the couch. Your Majesty, we should take him away now.
Ramses had turned to her and whispered," Come with me!"
Lord Summerfield stoked the heat in her, his mouth on her mouth, oblivious to the tourists who passed them. Lord Summerfield, who would die as Antony had died.
Would Julie Stratford be allowed to die?
"Take me back to the bedchamber," she whispered." I starve for you, Lord Alex. I shall strip the clothes off you here if we don't go."
"Your slave forever," he answered.
In the motor car, she clung to him.
"What is it, Your Highness, tell me?"
She looked out at the hordes of mortals passing her; the countless thousands of this ancient city, in their timeless peasant robes.
Why had he brought her to life? What had been his purpose? She saw his tearstained face again. She saw the picture in which he stood, smiling at the miracle of Camera, with his arm around Julie Stratford, whose eyes were dark.
"Hold me, Lord Alex. Keep me warm."
Through the streets of old Cairo, Ramses walked alone.
How could he persuade Julie to get on that train? How could he let her go back to London, but then was it not best for her, and mustn't he think of that for once? Had he not caused evil enough?
And what about his debt to the Earl of Rutherford; this much he owed the man who had sheltered Cleopatra; the man he liked and wanted so to be near, the man whose advice would always have been good for him, die man for whom he felt a deep and uncertain affection that just might be love.
Put Julie on the train. How could he? His thoughts gave out in confusion. Over and over he saw her face. Destroy the elixir. Never brew the elixir again.
He thought of the headlines in the paper. Woman on the floor of the dress shop. / like to kill It soothes my pain.
In the old-fashioned Victorian bed in his suite, Elliott slept. He dreamed a dream of Lawrence. They were talking together in the Babylon and Malenka was dancing, and Lawrence said: It's almost time for you to come.
But I have to go home to Edith. I have to take care of Alex, he had said. And I want to drink myself to death in the country. I've already planned it.
I know, said Lawrence, that's what I mean. That won't take very long.
Miles Winthrop didn't know what to make of any of it finally. They had issued a warrant for Henry's arrest, but frankly at this moment everything pointed to the