Chapter 6/ Joyous reunions

In Alexandria, the Foggs stood bed watch over a very sick friend. "The lady had not been poisoned on purpose," the old French doctor who tended her said. "She was given an opium mixture to make her sleep. It was too strong. She had an allergic reaction to fighting it. She must have appeared dead to her captors. Having been left for dead for so long, her continued existence shows a healthy constitution. She is lucky not to be thrown overboard. Even luckier, the potion had acted on her the way it did."

On the fourth day in the doctor's care, Katharine moved an arm of her own power. On the sixth day, she opened her eyes. She took in Rebecca's presence, sitting beside her, smiled, and fell back to sleep.

Rebecca had teared joyously at the small sign of life.

Phileas left the bed watch to Verne and Rebecca. He and Passepartout took care of other details. He sent a message to Scotland to inform the Earl of his wife's location. Revisiting the Egyptian merchant, he had grilled him alive concerning his purchase of stolen property. Phileas was scary enough for the job himself; but he added to the man's terror the Scottish nobleman whose wife they had found. Voicing the name of their company made the man visibly shake in his shoes. He instantly volunteered to set aside all the property for the family's recovery and came to the hospital, daily, asking about the lady's health.

The merchant had viciously cursed the pirate who had captured the vessel. "He is a vagabond, known as Omar," the merchant said. "The cargo he brought paid off a long-standing debt. I know nothing of his location or home port. He speaks like a North African and looks like an Arab."

Three weeks later, two Highland Trade Company ships arrived in Alexandria. They had received Phileas's message while on a hopscotch trail across the west end of the Mediterranean.

Andrew came to the hospital quietly, with hat and gloves in hand. He found his wife sitting up awake. She was pale and weak, delicate as porcelain. Her long hair was down, tied back with just a ribbon. He walked to the bed in silence and sat beside her in a chair vacated for him by a young man Andrew didn't know. He touched the hair and the side of her face, and gently wrapped his arms around her to weep unashamedly.

Everyone quietly left the room to give them privacy.

Katharine was crying, too. "It's all right," she soothed, holding him tight. Andrew never cried. "I am well. The sleeping potion they gave me made me sick." A severe understatement, but she wanted to calm him.

"I thought I had lost you," he cried against her. "I would never have stopped looking for you. I couldn't bear living without you. I couldn't… I couldn't…"

"Enough of that," Mary Kate said. "None of that. You would have had our son on raise. You would never have done me the offence of abandoning him. Please, tell me you wouldn't. Tell me right now that you won't."

Andrew pulled up to look at her face. Even upset with him, she was so beautiful. "I won't." He put more conviction in it, seeing her reaction to his words. "I wouldn't have abandoned you or him."

They continued to hold each other for a long time. When the tears stopped flowing, Andrew fetched a towel to dry both their faces. He gave her water to drink but had to hold the glass with her to keep it steady. Mary Kate was tired from the emotional exertion. She could not even hold her head up anymore. He gently helped her lay back and tucked in the blankets. She fell asleep almost instantly, with a faint smile on her lips.

It took Andrew time to regain control enough to leave the room. He had never seen her so frail. Even after childbearing, she had bounced back to health and activity quickly.

When he left her, Andrew thanked the Foggs fervently for finding and caring for her; and asked the doctor how her recovery was coming.

"She is well enough to move to private quarters," the doctor said. "She will still need constant care. Your wife must regain her strength, eat well, and drink lots of fluids and rest as much as possible."

"I will see to that," Andrew said. The statement was made with such assurance, the doctor had no doubts.

Andrew arranged a hotel in the city and a nurse. He also encouraged Rebecca to continue in Mary Kate's company. When he complained about Mary Kate having nothing to wear, Rebecca told him of the trunk of women's clothing they found with the ship's property.

Rebecca said, "Phileas can send it ahead to the hotel."

Rebecca left Katharine's room to Phileas to tell Phileas she would move into the hotel. She noticed Andrew talking to him and two men at the end of the hall. They were William Robertson and Sir James McCollum who had become the chieftain for the united clan. Katharine's letters had told her of Sir James's rise to the chieftain.

And he has been popping into London ever since the wedding, looking for me. She sighed. He has made no declarations, just asks for my company occasionally.

Getting closer, she heard Sir James questioning Phileas. She came to Phileas's side, hearing everything he said about Omar the pirate. It was not much. All the questions were pertinent, but delivered with too much deliberation. It was as if they had been asked before and often.

Phileas noticed that, too, and made a few inquiries of his own.

Sir James gave him a grim smile. "There are three other merchant companies, friends, looking for the ship besides the three vessels we bought for the search. We had word of the Mary Kate being sighted off the coast of Lebanon."

"We were heading down the coast, checking all ports and deep-water mooring. Samuel, the captain of the Mary Kate, has been a driven man. The pirates picked the wrong captain to steal from."

"The tradesman's reaction to your company name was pronounced," Phileas said. "Is there a reason for that?"

Sir James looked down, grimacing, with a mixture of pride and embarrassment. "Our fleet has a reputation around the world not to be crossed. Mostly because of our last generation's antics during the wars with Napoleon, but it goes further back. Our quick reaction to this incident backs up that history. The company methodically hunts down predators and deals with them directly. It is a habit that has kept us unmolested most of the time. My great grandfather, on my mother's side, tore through the Caribbean eighty years back. The stories say several pirate ships went to the bottom before he found the one he was after."

"Should you not let the Navy handle that?" Phileas said. He had no problem with carrying out such action and was the last person to preach against vendettas and retribution. This situation, however, involved every country off the coast of this sea and could cause problems for British foreign relations.

Sir James stared straight into his eyes, anger, and indignation clear to see. "The Navy might have been useful, had a ship been close when the incident occurred. It does not chase down stolen merchandise. As our government…" he said, not knowing Phileas's background. "The director of the Secret Service informed us of the attack. Mary Kate was presumed dead and written off. The government would make no search beyond looking for property. I would have taken the man apart, but Andrew pulled rank and handled that himself."

Phileas let his imagination fill in what the hotheaded young man must have done. He recalled doing something of the sort himself when Chatsworth had sent Rebecca on a mission half informed. Cold-cocking him had been satisfying, but this was different. Being his father's son and the man who should have had the job put Phileas in a better position to chastise Chatsworth. Andrew, Earl or not, didn't have that going for him. That could go badly for him later. "What are your plans now that she has been recovered?"

"Robertson and I, and the fleet, will continue to hunt down this pirate," James said. "The old man knows every port along these coasts. There is still a ship to be recovered. We will store the recovered property until the ship is located. I will try to send Andrew and Mary Kate home as soon as she can travel. He has already given me charge of the search. Samuel, Robertson, and I will manage."

Phileas was sure they could, but that was not the way it would work. Before the Earl's ship's arrival, news of Katharine's recovery had reached London and orders had been sent to Alexandria for Rebecca. She was to gather all the information and take over the investigation. Stopping the Highland Trade Company's rampage through the region was the first item on those orders.