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By the time the sun rose, they were a miserable, shivering, still mostly wet bunch of people. It got surprisingly cold in the desert at night—a fact Evelyn had read about but, sheltered in the compound, had never truly experienced for herself. It didn't help that all she was left with was a thin nightgown. Hardly modest, either, even with Jonathan's jacket on over it.

They came to a village, where the women immediately encircled Evelyn, clucking their tongues at her misfortune and drawing her away to be cleaned up.

She had a bath, and a long nap, and a hearty meal—simple, yes, but tasty.

It was heavenly to be dry, and warm, and they found her a lovely dress just her size, and added a veil and lined her eyes with kohl, all the while chattering to her about the handsome young men she was traveling with. O'Connell was definitely that, she had to admit. It took her a moment to realize they meant Jonathan as the other one. She got so used to thinking of him as her brother that it didn't occur to her that other women might find him handsome. The wrong kinds of women, nearly always, from what she had seen. Someday, she hoped he'd meet the right woman, someone who could get him to settle down and stop wasting his money and stealing things.

Although, at least in this case, she didn't entirely mind his stealing. Even the loss of the boat and the equipment and her clothes didn't matter in the face of finally being on an adventure, finally living up to the spirits of her parents, who called her on, deeper into Egypt, beckoning her to follow.

All of these thoughts ran through her head as the women of the village helped her dress. They giggled as they led her out of the house where they had taken her and into the market.

Rick had instinctively tried to stop the women from taking Evelyn away. Somehow he didn't feel right without her at his side, where he could be sure she was safe and taken care of. Only the smile on her face in response to something one of the women said stopped him. She deserved to be warmed and dried and cleaned up.

Meanwhile, he was left to step between Jonathan and the warden, stopping both their complaints and their squabbling. He sent them off to get some food, while he found a secluded place to look through his bag of weapons. Everything had to be dried off, to make sure it wouldn't rust.

The three of them took a long nap under a tree during the heat of the day and woke feeling rested and rejuvenated.

The warden was assigned to get more food for the journey, and Rick sent Jonathan to bargain for camels. Sure, they could walk into the desert and reach Hamunaptra, but none of them would enjoy it. And the only thing that could motivate Beni more than the Americans' money was the thought of beating Rick. Well, Rick wasn't about to allow him the satisfaction.

Of course, Rick had expected Jonathan to actually know how to bargain. Clearly the village camel trader was more than a match for the English gentleman, trying to pawn off on them the oldest and most infirm camels he had.

At least it was a relatively prosperous village, with a fairly large herd of camels.

The warden had gotten himself in trouble poking his nose in where it didn't belong—a common habit of his, Rick was coming to notice.

Jonathan had worked himself up over the camels, shouting at the merchant, "I only want four! Four! Not a whole bloody herd!" As the trader jumped up and down speaking in rapid Arabic, praising the health and strength of his camels, Jonathan turned to Rick. "O'Connell!"

Rick had some sympathy for the trader, wanting to unload some of his less useful charges onto someone else to feed and tend, but they were in something of a hurry. "Can you just pay the man?" Yes, it was ridiculous to pay a surcharge for only getting the number of camels they were asking for, but after all, Jonathan and Evelyn seemed to have plenty of money.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Jonathan snapped, opening his billfold. "I can't believe the price of these fleabags. Yes. Happy. Verrry good," he added, taking the reins of two of the camels, while Rick led the other two.

"We probably could've gotten them for free. All we had to do was give him your sister."

"Yes. Awfully tempting, wasn't it?"

Rick was about to give a flippant answer, when he was stopped short by the most intoxicating vision of loveliness he'd ever seen. Evelyn in British clothing was beautiful. Evelyn in Egyptian clothing was all things mysterious and alluring and … yes, very tempting. "Awfully," he echoed, his voice sounding strange in his own ears. He would give anything to have a woman like that, he thought, before immediately shutting the thought down.

A woman like Evelyn Carnahan wouldn't have anything to do with a man like him. Nor should she. She was destined for fine things and a decent man who would take her home to England and a great many other things that he could never be.

Or so he tried to tell himself, even as he could barely take his eyes off her beautiful face, half-hidden by the sheer veil she wore.

The camel next to him grunted, and Rick smiled, patting its nose. The camel knew how foolish those dreams were, and so did Rick.

He went to her side. "You ready to go?"

"Oh, yes. What lovely camels!" And she took the reins of hers, walking ahead, carrying on an animated conversation with the great beast, while Rick tried not to look at her and failed completely.