understand," she said. But she was thinking something else quite different. You wrote the whole story in the scrolls. You left them there. And that was because you could not bear this secret any longer." You don't understand these times," she said again." Miracles aren't believed, even by those to whom they happen."
"What a strange thing to say!"
"Were I to shout it from the rooftops no one would believe. Your elixir is safe, with or without these poisons."
It seemed a shock of pain went through him. She saw it. She felt it. She regretted her words. What madness to think this creature is all powerful, that his ready smile doesn't conceal a vulnerability as vast as his strength. She was at a loss. She waited. And then his smile, once again, came to her rescue.
"What can we do but wait and see, Julie Stratford?"
He sighed. He removed his frock coat, and walked away from her into the Egyptian room. He stared at the coffin, his coffin, and then at the row of jars. He reached down and carefully switched on the electric lamp, as he had seen her do, and then looked up at the rows and rows of books rising over Lawrence's desk to the ceiling.
"Surely you need to sleep," she said." Let me take you upstairs to Father's room."
"No, my darling dear, I do not sleep, except when I mean to take leave of life for the time being."
"You mean ... day in and day out, you need no sleep whatsoever!"
"That is correct," he said, flashing her another little smile." I shall tell you another wicked secret too. I do not need the food or the drink I take, I merely crave it. And my body enjoys it." He laughed softly at her shock." But what I do need now is to read in your father's books, if you will allow me."
"Of course, you needn't ask me for such a thing," she said." You must take what you need and what you want. Go to his room when you wish. Put on his robe. I want you to have every comfort." She laughed." I'm beginning to speak the way you speak."
They looked at each other. Only a few feet separated them, and she was grateful for them.
"I'll leave you now," she said, but instantly he caught her hand, and closed the distance and locked her in his arms, and kissed her again. Then, almost roughly he let her go.
"Julie is Queen in her own domain," he said, a little apologetically.
"And your words to Samir, let us remember them. 'But for now, I shall protect Julie Stratford from anyone or anything that would hurt her.'"
"I did not He. And I should like to lie at your side, the better to protect you."
She laughed softly. Better escape now while it was still morally and physically possible." Oh, but there is one other thing," she said. She went to the far northeast corner of the room, and opened the cabinet gramophone. She cranked the thing, and looked at the RCA Victor records. Verdi's Aida." Ah, the very thing," she said. And no appalling picture on the front of the album to repel him. She put the heavy, brittle black disk on the velvet turntable. She set the arm in place. And then turned to watch his face as the triumphal march from the opera began, a low, faraway chorus of lovely voices.
"Oooh, but what is this magic! The machine is making music!"
"Just wind and play. And I shall sleep as mortal women do, dreaming, though real life has become all I ever dreamed it would be."
She glanced back once to see him rocking to the music, his arms folded, his head bowed. He was singing with it, very low, under his breath. And even the simple sight of the white shirt stretched taut over his broad back and powerful arms sent the shivers through her.
AS MIDNIGHT struck, Elliott closed the notebook.
"He had spent the evening reading Lawrence's translations through and through, and reexamining his dusty old biographies of the King called Ramses the Great, and the Queen known as Cleopatra. There was nothing in these historical tomes that could not accommodate the assertions of the mummy's preposterous story.
A man who ruled Egypt for sixty years might damn well have been immortal. And the reign of Cleopatra VI had been by any standards utterly remarkable.