Egyptian Honeymoon Read Online Free

feel? He had not married her merely to look at her, nor for the pleasure of her society, which he did not seem to want. She wondered if he realised that she had never slept with Hugh and she was totally inexperienced, in sex. However willing she was she feared she might shrink from Steve's touch, which was not the response he would expect from a woman he had bought at some considerable expense. Perhaps if she drank freely at dinner that night it might help.
    Steve returned to his papers and Noelle abandoned the magazine for the window. She could see water below them now and here and there an island. The Mediterranean. She and Hugh had planned to visit it some time when they had enough spare cash for a foreign holiday, though they would have had to wait a long time before they could have saved enough to go as far afield as Egypt. Due to Simon's blundering, Steve believed it was where she most wanted to go, and was offering it to her on a plate; that was kind of him, but she had no wish to visit it in
his
company. Ah, if only Hugh was sitting beside her instead of this intimidating stranger! Why, oh, why did he have to be killed? Unconsciously she sighed, and Steve gave her a sharp look.
    'Not much longer,' he said, and began to fold up his papers. In confirmation a disembodied voice over the intercom told them they would be landing in fifteen minutes and the sun was shining over Cairo. 'But then it always does.'
    Steve returned his papers to his briefcase as they came in over land. As the aircraft lost height, Noelle could distinguish buildings, waterways and roads spread beneath them. Egypt, one of the oldest civilisations the world, the land of the Pharaohs, where men had lived, loved, fought and died through aeons of history. A country that had been cultured when England was a wooded swamp peopled by barbarians. Noelle felt her pulses stir as the romance of it hit her. Then the lights went on behind the notices forbidding smoking and ordering them to fasten their seat belts. They were arriving.

    The hotel where Steve had booked a suite for them overlooked the Nile. It was air-conditioned and seemed almost chill after the heat outside. The suite comprised a sitting room, a bedroom, bathroom and a dressing room. The hotel had recently been rebuilt and was adorned with appropriate murals. Noelle sank into one of the deep armchairs in the sitting room and looked about her. The thick piled carpet was beige, the walls honey-coloured and decorated with pseudo-Egyptian reliefs, of tan-coloured figures in the conventional attitude, shoulders square, faces in profile, dressed in white kilts. There was Osiris, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, holding the crook and flail, sitting in judgment over the departed souls, escorted by the jackal-headed Anubis. Noelle, who had always been interested in Egyptology, was pleased that she had recognised him. Steve wrinkled his straight nose at the Lord of the Underworld, remarking:
    'A bit overdone, isn't it? Like the paintings in a tomb. Would you care for a drink?'
    'Yes, please. Lemonade with plenty of ice.'
    He gave the order over the phone.
    In a short space of time it arrived in a tall frosted glass. Service was prompt, the waiter obsequious. He had learned to recognise quality. Noelle looked curiously at his dark features surmounted by a small white turban and when he had gone, enquired:
    'I suppose they're all Arabs?'
    'Yes. The descendants of the original Egyptians are the Copts, who are mostly Christians, but they're in the minority.'
    Noelle knew that, but did not betray her knowledge. If it pleased him to instruct her let him do so. She would do anything to atone for the inadequacy of her feelings towards him. He went on to suggest that she bathed and changed, she could use the bathroom first as he had one or two contacts to make. They would dine early in the hotel restaurant as she must be hungry after such a poor lunch. Noelle thanked him for his consideration,