Clara and Daphne waited impatiently on Platform 1 at King’s Cross Station for the 12 noon Edinburgh to London train to arrive. Ten minutes later, following much tutting from Daphne about the lateness of trains, it huffed and puffed its way into the station and groaned to a stop.
Bella, looking bright and cheerful in an orange gabardine raincoat, a shade or two brighter than her ginger hair, bounded out of the first-class carriage carrying one suitcase and a hat case.
The three women greeted one another before Bella said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, Miss Vale, but I forked out for first class so I’d have a bit more privacy for you know what.’ She tapped her nose in time with the last three syllables.
‘Not at all, Bella, you made the right decision. I assume “you know what” is in there?’ said Clara, pointing to the hat case.
‘Aye, miss. Along with that notebook you asked me to get, and those letters from Dr Malone.’
‘Letters from Dr Malone?’ asked Daphne.
Clara nodded. ‘Yes, when you mentioned that you knew Bob had written to Charlie from Egypt, it reminded me that Charlie had told me he had some letters that he’d kept from Bob. I rang him last night and asked if he might send them down with Bella. Obviously, omitting anything he considered too personal, but I wanted to hear about Bob’s experiences in Egypt in his own words. To get to know him better.’
Daphne nodded her understanding. ‘I think that’s a lovely thing to do. And I’m sure Bob will be as wonderful a travelling companion in words as he was in life.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Shall we get going? The train leaves from Victoria to Southampton in an hour and a half.’ She turned to Bella. ‘Would you like to use the ladies’ cloakroom to freshen up, Miss Cuddy, before the next leg of the journey?’
‘Aye, Dr Coleman, I would. But before I do, there’s something I need to tell you both.’ Bella’s face suddenly looked serious.
‘What is it, Bella?’ asked Clara.
‘Well, miss, I’m sorry to tell you that your house was broken into on Monday, after you left to come down here. I discovered it when I went round to pick up the book you asked me to get.’
Clara’s hand went to her mouth. ‘Oh no!’
‘Now, Miss Vale, don’t get upset,’ said Bella hurriedly. ‘Inspector Hawkes is sorting it all out and I’ve taken the liberty of asking your charlady to come in to tidy it all up.’
‘Is there much of a mess? Do you know if anything was taken?’
Bella shrugged, apologetically. ‘Unfortunately, miss, it was hard to tell, seeing I don’t know what was there in the first place. And Inspector Hawkes has asked me to ask you to telephone him before we leave for Egypt.’
‘You told him we were going to Egypt?’ asked Clara.
‘Aye, miss, I had to. But I didn’t tell him what for …’ she looked at Daphne ‘… and I didn’t tell him about “you know what”, either, Dr Coleman, so don’t you worry about that. But I didn’t think I could properly lie. Not to a police officer. So, I just said we’re off on an expedition.’ She laughed. ‘Which we are!’
‘Yes, we are,’ said Clara, smiling at her assistant’s enthusiasm. But she was still worried about the break-in at the house. ‘Was there much mess?’
‘Not in most of the house, but there was in your study, and the library. Books and papers everywhere! I’m lucky you said the book you wanted was in your bedside drawer, miss. I wouldn’t have found it otherwise. If the burglar had been looking for books or papers he didn’t think to look there.’
‘Books and papers? Is that what you think he was looking for – assuming it was a man,’ said Daphne.
‘I don’t honestly know, Dr Coleman. It’s just that that’s the stuff that had obviously been searched. And as I don’t know what was there, I don’t know what’s missing. I’m sorry, Miss Vale, you’ll have to sort that all out when we get back.’
Clara nodded, her mind whizzing through the contents of her study, wondering what the intruder might have been after. The most obvious thing, of course, was what Bella was calling the ‘you know what’ – the Egyptian jewelled artefacts – that hadn’t been at her house but in the safe at her office. And the most obvious suspect was Rupert Pilkerton, trying to retrieve what he had been unable to at the museum after he was interrupted by the security guard. She asked Bella if she had mentioned Pilkerton to Inspector Hawkes. Fortunately, Bella said she had not.
‘All right,’ she said, decisively. ‘Bella, while you freshen up, I’ll use that telephone box over there to ring Inspector Hawkes. Daphne, would you mind looking after the luggage?’
‘Not at all,’ said Daphne, taking the hat box from Bella, and then flourishing her umbrella. ‘And I’ll be ready for any scoundrel – Pilkerton or otherwise– who tries to take it from me!’
The sun was setting over Southampton Harbour when Clara and Bella got there four hours later. The giant steamer, gleaming white on the choppy grey water, swayed and heaved against its tethers, as if yearning to break free and set sail again.
Daphne had arranged a temporary passport for Bella through her contacts. Clara had no idea how she’d managed to do it so quickly, but was grateful that she had. Clara, of course, had her own passport already. The ladies were met by a steward who took them and some other passengers to the departure lounge for the White Star cruise ships. First- and second-class passengers would board this evening, third-class in the morning before departure. Bella gasped as she saw the ship they would be boarding.
‘Bleedin’ heck, miss, it’s gigantic! Like a floating palace it is.’
And it certainly was. The RMS Olympic was the sister ship to the ill-fated Titanic which sank in 1912 and the Britannic, which was sunk by a German mine in 1916. The sole survivor of the trio had served faithfully during the war, and for the next decade surged back and forth from New York to Europe carrying immigrants and tourists between the Old and New Worlds. Now, as she was approaching the end of her career, she took time off in the winter months to do more genteel cruises around the Mediterranean.
According to the brochure Clara read as they waited to board, the steamer had ten decks and could carry nearly 2,500 passengers. On the first-class decks there was a swimming pool, a Turkish bath, a gymnasium, and even a squash court! There were libraries, smoking rooms, games rooms, shopping boutiques and beauty spas. It was like a small city.
The ship would be sailing first to Madeira where it would pick up more passengers joining them from New York, and then back north, then east into the Mediterranean, where it would make various stops before eventually docking in Alexandria, Egypt. From there, according to Cook’s, Clara noted they would need to catch a train to Cairo. The whole trip would take ten days – a bit too long in Clara’s estimation. She had hoped to go the quicker train route – joining up with the Orient Express in Paris – and then onto Constantinople. However, Daphne was unable to secure tickets at such short notice and Clara had to settle for the ship. Oh, well, she thought, looking at the floating hotel, might as well relax and enjoy it.
Clara and Bella were shown to their luxurious suite of cabins in first class. Clara had a double bed, an en-suite bathroom, and a small sitting area beside the starboard porthole. Bella had a smaller adjoining cabin with a single bed and small water closet. It was meant for a lady’s maid or gentleman’s valet, but was still much more swish than a third-class cabin, with communal ablutions, that a woman of Bella’s social standing would normally be able to afford. ‘Eee, miss, are you sure you can afford all this for both of us? I can go down to the third class, you know. No bother.’
‘Don’t be silly, Bella! Of course you should stay here with me. You’re my assistant and we have work to do between here and Cairo. And besides, I would be lonely without you.’
‘As long as you’re sure, miss …’
‘Of course I am. Now, let’s unpack and then have a walk around the ship. I see there’s a safe in my room. Best we put the jewels in there.’
Bella laid the hat box on Clara’s bed and opened it. Inside, under a token hat, wrapped in a velvet cloth, were the jewels retrieved from the sarcophagus at the Hancock Museum: the diadem, necklace and bracelet, all with a falcon centrepiece, set with onyx and turquoise stones. Bella picked up the bracelet and slipped it onto her wrist. ‘Eee, miss, they’re beautiful, aren’t they? How old did Dr Coleman say they are?’
Clara, putting the diadem on her head, and looking at herself in the mirror, said, ‘She wasn’t entirely sure. She said she hadn’t seen these particular jewels before, but they looked similar to something she’d seen from the tomb of a queen called Ahhotep – I wrote it down in my notebook, so I can check the details – but I think it was about eighteen hundred years or so before the birth of Jesus.’
‘Before Jesus? That’s nearly four thousand years old, then!’ Bella carefully slipped off the bracelet and placed it on the velvet cloth.
Clara did the same with the diadem. ‘Yes, they’re very old. So probably best we don’t play dress up!’
‘Aye, you’re right. So our job, then, is to take these back to Egypt and give them to someone at the Egyptian University that Dr Coleman knows, before it’s discovered they’ve been taken out of the country.’
‘That’s about it,’ said Clara. ‘As well as trying to find out who the poor girl was.’ Clara filled Bella in on the discovery of the crescent-shaped brooch and Daphne’s theory that she might be linked to the university.
Bella shook her head. ‘Eee, miss, that’s terrible what they did to that poor girl’s body. Why did they do it?’
Clara shrugged. ‘That’s one of the things we will try to find out. Who did it and why. As soon as we know who she is, we can arrange to have her body returned to her family.’
‘Unless it’s her family that did it,’ said Bella.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Clara, curiously.
Bella pursed her lips. ‘Well you never know, do you? They might have done it. We have no idea of this girl’s story.’
Clara sighed. ‘You’re right, we don’t. But we’ll do our best to get justice for her, mark my words. Our contact there is Dr Abdul Rahman at the Department of Archaeology. Apparently, he knew my uncle, so I’ll be pleased to meet him. And he might give us some clues as to who the girl is too. But our first task is to give him the jewels. Until then,’ she said, wrapping them up and putting them in the cabin safe, ‘we’d better look after them.’