Free Lady of Heaven by Kathryn Le Veque

have to go and at least do what I can.  I’m a trained
investigator; maybe… maybe I was meant to use my skills for this. For Fanny.”
    He stood next to
her as she rubbed at her cold arms. He eventually had all he could take and put
his big arms around her, pulling her against his warm torso.  Petite little
Morgan didn’t resist; she collapsed against his enormous, warm body, relishing
the heat and feeling his closeness with more excitement than she had felt in
years.   They just stood there for several long moments, watching the sunrise,
each lost to their own thoughts.
    “I can offer my
services,” he finally said.
    Her head was
against his chest, hearing his heart beating loud and strong. “You already
have,” she replied. “You deciphered the papyrus.”
    “No,” he looked
down at her as she looked up at him. “That’s not what I mean. I mean that I
would volunteer to go with you if you are really planning on going to Egypt. I
don’t want you going alone. I think you need me.”
    She gazed up at
him, this massive man with the black eyes she found so incredibly handsome. The
thought of traveling around Egypt with him did not distress her in the least;
in fact, it made the trip that much more alluring in spite of the serious
purpose.
    “Are you
serious?” she asked. “We could be gone weeks.”
    “I’m an
Egyptologist. I can write off the trip and justify the time away from the
museum.”
    She hadn’t
thought of it that way. Still, she needed to make sure of his intentions; all
of this was happening so quickly that she was afraid he was upswept in some
fantasy idea. She didn’t want him to regret it.
    “I have to do
this trip,” she said. “You don’t. Think about what you’re saying before you
commit yourself.”
    “I already have.
If you’re going, I’m going. Are you really going?”
    She nodded. “You
bet,” she replied. “But you’re telling me that you’re just going to drop
everything to run off on a wild goose chase with a woman you just met?”
    He grinned.
“Hell of a wild goose chase.”
    “You didn’t
answer my question.”
    “Yes, I am going
to drop everything to go with you. I don’t have a lot going on right now at the
museum and other than my parents and my brothers, there isn’t anyone to leave
behind in Britain. It’s not like I have a wife and kids anchoring me here.”
    “You mentioned
that.”
    “You still
haven’t told me where I can find a wife.”
    She laughed.
“Maybe in Egypt.”
    “You’ll be in
Egypt.”
    She reached up
and put a hand over his mouth. “No more of that talk,” she scolded softly,
changing the subject away from something they shouldn’t even be discussing after
knowing each other less than a full day. “The first thing I need to do is
figure out what the Claw of the Apes is. It seems to me like that’s the
starting point. Have you ever heard of it?”
    He shook his
head. “Can I please speak?” he asked through her hand, grinning when she
removed it. “I’m going to have to do a little research and let you know.”
    She was silent a
moment, listening to him yawn and feeling him pull her closer as if he was
snuggling down. “I need to go back to Los Angeles in a week,” she said. “But I
have at one hundred and twenty hours more of vacation time coming to me.  I’ll
go back, settle a few things, and fly out for Cairo.”
    “One hundred and
twenty hours?” he repeated, shocked. “Have you never taken a holiday, woman?”
    She grinned. “Not
in four years. It’s all accumulated time.”
    “Will they let
you go?”
    “They will.
They’ll have to; I’m entitled to take it.”
    He was silent as
he pondered the course of what the next few months for him were going to take.
“Not to rain on your parade, but a trip like this is going to be expensive.”
    She nodded. “I
realize that,” she said. “I have a pretty good sized retirement account I can
borrow against. What about you?”
    “You mean you’re
not paying