CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ardeth walked straight up to Charlotte and picked her up, ignoring the muffled complaints she made as he carried her further away from the others. He found it a little harder to ignore the punches she directed at his head and chest, but he swallowed his anger and held her arms against her as he sat down, stopping her from striking him again.
He waited whilst she wore herself out with her futile attempts to escape. When she finally stopped moving he arched an eyebrow and stared down at her. "Have you finished?"
Charlotte swallowed and pressed her lips together to stop them shaking, but she couldn't stop the tears from continuing to fall from her eyes. "I suppose you have to punish me again? Well go ahead, I don't care anymore," she blurted out, utterly miserable.
Ardeth gathered her up against his chest and tucked her head underneath his chin, rocking her and stroking her hair. "I am sorry for the words I said, I did not mean them."
"You think I'm a whore," she mumbled, sniffing as she calmed down.
"And you hate me," Ardeth returned. He nudged her face away from his neck and rubbed her tears away with his thumbs. "Do you not?"
"No," she said, shaking her head.
"Then why did you say it?"
"You hurt my feelings," she admitted.
"And now you know why I also said words I did not mean," he said, and she saw the faint flash of his teeth as he smiled.
"I hurt your feelings?" she asked, confused.
"Yes, when you refused the idea of being my wife."
"Oh."
"Why did you dismiss the idea?"
"Why would you want me for a wife?" she countered, not really wanting to hear his answer, because she was sure it wouldn't be good.
"Because you are delicate, yet strong when the occasion calls for it. You are honest and caring, and you are the most beautiful woman I have seen in my life."
"I'm not..."
"Yes, you are, little one. You are beautiful, and you have my heart," he said, laying himself open to her for the first time.
"I do?" she asked, stunned.
"You do. Now you must promise me that you will take care of it," he said, his voice lowering as he raised her hand and placed it over his heart. "I want you with me Charlotte, I want you in my home when I return to my village. I want my child to grow within you."
Charlotte went hot at the intensity of feeling he put into his words. "I'd like that," she whispered.
"You would? How do you feel about me, my lady?" he whispered back, his thumbs caressing her face.
"I...I love you," she said softly.
He closed his eyes as a wave of intense relief ran through him, grasping her hands and lifting her palms to his mouth to plant a soft kiss on each one. "You do not know how much I have longed to hear those words. Kiss me, Charlotte, show me how much you love me."
She didn't hesitate, putting her arms around his shoulders and placing her lips on his, gently kissing him. As he pulled her tighter against him, so she kissed him harder, doing something she had wanted to do for some time and sucking on his full lower lip. He groaned as she did this, and suddenly took over from her, plunging his tongue deep into her mouth and rolling them down onto the sand so he was laying on top of her, his hands grasping her small waist.
His knee nudged her legs apart and he settled himself fully against her, letting her feel his arousal pressed intimately at the juncture of her thighs. She squirmed slightly in embarrassment, but the intensity of his kiss soon wiped such thoughts from her head, his hands beginning to roam over her body causing her to arch up into him.
He groaned in frustration when he heard one of his men calling his name and rolled away from her, laying on his back and taking deep gulps of air to try and calm his body down. Once he managed to get his breath back he shouted out to the man approaching them in his own language, relieved when his shout was answered and the man swiftly moved away.
"We must marry soon, my lady, before I dishonour us both!" he muttered, smiling grimly in the darkness as he forced his wayward body to relax. It took a few minutes.
Charlotte lay quietly, wondering if he really thought she was a loose woman, and also wondering if he didn't have every right to think so. She jumped when he sat up suddenly and reached for her hand, pulling her up to stand in front of him. She could barely make out his face in the darkness, only the thin sliver of the moon providing illumination.
"Come, let us make our way back before another one of my men is sent to disturb us," Ardeth said wryly, leading her slowly over the sand towards the distant lights of the makeshift camp.
"Who would be sending them to disturb us?" Charlotte asked, still trying to catch her breath after their amorous encounter.
"Khalid, most likely. They will have been told by the women to make sure I do not dishonour you, and I must obey these rules or they will beat me when we return home."
"Beat you?" she asked, her voice slightly shocked. "Surely they wouldn't...?"
Ardeth chuckled. "Believe me, I may be the leader but I must also follow the rules of conduct observed by my people. To not do so could turn out to be most painful."
When they reached the others Ardeth led her to Rick and Evy, making her sit down on the sand and share the food that they had in front of them. "Now, eat, my lady, and then we will continue our journey, together this time huh?"
She nodded in the darkness, but the flash of white she saw when he smiled let her know that he had seen the small movement, and he reached out a hand and stroked the side of her face gently, drawing back reluctantly when a muffled laugh was heard from among his men. "One day we will have a measure of privacy, I promise you!" he whispered, his tone disgusted and she couldn't help smiling as he walked away to talk sharply with his men.
"Is everything alright Charlie?" Evy asked, sidling over next to her and offering her some dried meats of some sort.
"I think it is, yes," she replied softly, biting her lip and taking a deep breath of the damp evening air. "I'm going to marry him, Evy, isn't that wonderful?"
Evy laughed and hugged her cousin. "Yes it is, and it's about time, too!"
"I totally agree," Rick put in, speaking around a mouthful of food. "After all the things he's done to you, he damn well should marry you!"
Charlotte wasn't a hundred percent sure if he was joking or not, but then she heard his faint laugh when Evy smacked him, and she gave a relieved sigh, frowning when she remembered the fight they'd had. "Are you okay, Rick?"
"If you mean my jaw, then yes, I'm okay. A bit bruised maybe, but no condition I haven't been in before. Anyway, it did the trick it was intended to do. Er," he cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, "I'm sorry about what I called you. I didn't mean it the way it probably sounded to you, I just wanted to get him to see sense. I think it worked, don't you?"
Charlotte laughed softly at that. "I suppose it did. Thank you for your help."
"Hey, no problem. Well, looks like our little break is coming to an end," he said, standing up and brushing himself down when he saw the faint silhouettes of the men moving about in the dark, preparing to move on. "Come on ladies," he said, reaching out a hand to both women and hoisting them up effortlessly off the sand.
"Time to get back on that uncomfortable animal, I suppose," Charlotte said, rubbing her backside with one hand and wondering if she'd ever get used to it. She started to walk towards it and then something brushed her arm, making her jump with fright as she spun in the direction of whatever it was.
"I apologise for startling you," Ardeth said, chuckling all the same at the huge sigh of relief she gave. "Are you ready to continue our journey?"
"Yes, I think so," she said, taking the hand he held out and feeling herself pulled right next to him, the warmth of his body flowing into her.
"Good, then you will ride with me, yes?"
Charlotte felt a smile tug at her lips and she looked up, barely able to make him out. "Can I?"
"You are my wife, you can do whatsoever you wish," he said, leaning down to place a soft kiss on her mouth and then tugging her over to his horse.
Once he was safely on the horse's back, he reached down and helped her up, sitting her draped across the horse as he had before, his arms going firmly around her as he took the reins and started the animal moving. "You are comfortable?" he asked her as they set off.
"Yes, thank you," she murmured, stifling a yawn.
Ardeth chuckled. "Go to sleep, my lady, you will not miss anything I assure you. We only have more hours of this journey ahead of us. When you awake we will be there and your adventure can begin."
"It's already begun," she murmured, turning her face into his chest and closing her eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.
Ardeth rode along and relished her soft weight against him, feeling almost free for the first time since his duties began as leader of the Med-jai.
****
Charlotte discovered that indeed the whole journey had passed whilst she had slept, and she was glad that he had allowed her the freedom to sleep, not having realised quite how much she needed it. Ardeth gently nudged her awake, his eyes smiling down at her as they sat on his horse. "You have slept well?"
She nodded and gave a small stretch, making Ardeth's eyes flick down to her breasts briefly where they were pressed against the material of her blouse. "I slept really well, thank you," she said shyly, smiling at him. She looked around them and saw lots of tents dotted around, men beyond them digging in the sand. "We're here already?" she asked in surprise and Ardeth chuckled, pulling on the reins to bring the horse to a stop.
"Yes, my lady. You have slept the entire journey, it seems. Come," he said, keeping one hand on her back while he slid elegantly off the horse, "let us explore. I am sure you will find much to interest you."
Charlotte kept close to Ardeth as she met the professor again, and the older man's eyes seemed to sparkle oddly as he looked at her. "Er...what is it you're digging for exactly?"
The strange look left his face to be replaced by genuine interest, and he had them follow him to a small box of things they had already found. "We've been searching for some jewellery that was written about in the tomb of a little known Queen, Neferure. It's very unusual, because jewellery and gold, riches of any sort, were rarely written about. To the Egyptians gold was just something to decorate things, to wear. It had no fantastic value to them, although obviously other countries valued it and they traded with it. What did have value, strangely, was silver."
"Silver? But, surely gold's much more precious?" Charlotte asked, confused. Westerners certainly valued gold above everything else.
"It's simple really. Gold is very easy to come by, easy to mine, but silver is not. The Egyptians, with all their skills, found it incredibly hard to mine silver. Plus the metal wasn't that plentiful in the country. Therefore, anything made of this denoted great wealth and power."
"And the jewellery you're searching for? It was silver?"
He nodded, showing her some rings and what appeared to be brooches made of the metal. "Yes, we've already found these, but they're not what we mainly want to find. There are three bracelets, and each one has hieroglyphs on the surface, according to the tomb writings. We want to find them so we can discover what it is that's written on them, because no one knows." He smiled. "We like a mystery, you see?"
"And Neferure? Who was she?" Charlotte asked starting to get caught up in it all.
"Well, no-one knows an awful lot about her. We do know she was married to Tuthmosis III, but after that it's a blank. He had a son, Amenhotep II, but it appears that another wife gave birth to him. So beyond that - nothing." The professor gave a shrug and picked up a small silver ring with a turquoise stone, turning it over in his hand. "I'm hoping that the bracelets will tell us more."
Ardeth looked carefully at everything the professor had found so far, but he could detect nothing damaging in the box full of objects. He would make sure to keep a close eye on all that was found, just in case something came to light that shouldn't.
"May we help in any way?" he asked the older man politely, raising one eyebrow.
The professor smiled and shook his head. "There's no need, really. We have plenty of workers. Why don't you just walk around and take a look at what's going on?"
Ardeth nodded and took Charlotte's arm, leading her away from the professor. He didn't trust the man, and it wasn't entirely to do with what Rick and Evy had said about him. There was just something about him, something he had seen before in other explorers. Grayson Johns wasn't just out for treasure, of that he was certain.
Evy came up to them and grabbed her cousin's arm, smiling at Ardeth. "Do you mind if I take her away from you for a while? I want to show her the tomb walls they've uncovered, she'll love it."
"I do not mind, I must talk to my men anyway," Ardeth said, and he lifted Charlotte's hand for a kiss, giving a slow smile as he let Evy drag her away. He turned to where a group of his men were standing and moved over to them, getting a wide grin from Khalid.
"So, you have finally let the girl go? I was beginning to think you had been sewn together!" he said, chuckling at Ardeth's enraged expression.
"She is none of your business," Ardeth said shortly, frowning hard when he heard a snort of derision from the back of the group. His eyes found one of his men, Aslar, staring at him coldly. Ardeth disliked him, but he had to tolerate him because he came from one of the more prominent families in the village, and he knew he didn't like the recent spate of marriages to western women. He wanted to keep the bloodlines pure, and he had delusions of grandeur, believing he had the right and the ability to lead his people. In that, he was wrong, and Ardeth had made sure that, although he was one of his warriors, he had never risen in the ranks. He was trouble, and at the first opportunity he would get rid of him, if the man ever did anything to warrant such a dismissal. The elders would surely question such a move, so he had to make sure it was justified.
"You have something to say Aslar?" Ardeth asked, lifting his chin arrogantly and staring at the other man with a coldness that matched his own.
"Not at all," he sneered, abruptly turning his back and walking away, an action that made Ardeth grit his teeth with anger. None of his other men would ever treat him with such disrespect, and he knew that he would be having words with the younger man before the day was out.
