Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) by Susan Kiernan-Lewis Read Free Book Online

airport.
Because she didn’t have the proper converter plugs for her cellphone, she had
watched its battery light die an hour earlier. From what she could tell by the
map and the last email she had received from Maddie, her friend was staying, or
being held, at Gupta’s family home in Gisa. Ella had only met Gupta once and he
seemed as charming and darling a man as you would expect from someone who would
later fool everyone by turning out to be a wife beater. Ella couldn’t blame Maddie
for being taken in. She was so distraught at being thirty-three and still
single that she easily qualified as being flat-out desperate to find a husband.
When Gupta showed up as one of the foreign clients at her law firm, Maddie
couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to have to pay the price of waiting so long
to marry.
                Some
of Maddie and Ella’s other girlfriends—either still single or
divorced—were having the devil’s own time marrying because they were all
still judging their present day prospects by the standards of their twenty-year
old selves. A receding hairline? Next! A
paunch? Kids from a prior marriage? No way! Maddie had felt the same way
but with Gupta, she was able to have it all. He was tall, dark and gorgeous. He
spoke French, Farsi, and English with the most delightful accent. He was educated
at Oxford and was the picture of the perfect gentleman; he always remembered to
think of Maddie first, whether it was car doors, ordering for her off the menu,
or any other single situation where her feelings might need to be considered.
                The
day Maddie called Ella to say she was getting married— in Cairo, no less !—was the
happiest Ella had ever heard her friend. If there had ever been a dormant doubt
or even the tiniest suspicion ( had there
been?) on Ella’s part with regards to the kind of man Gagan Gupta was, it
was drowned out a thousandfold by the delight she heard in her dear friend’s
voice that day.
                Ella
drew a finger down what looked like a small mews on the map and glanced out the
window at the waning light. She had enough time to go right now. If she
hurried, she could have Maddie here, tucked in for the night in her luxury
double room at the Cairo Hilton. They’d drink wine and eat pizza and Maddie
would tell Ella the whole sad tale and someday—many somedays from now to
be sure—but someday they would remember this night as a very special one
in the long list of colorful and even romantic moments in their lives.
                At
that hopeful thought, Ella smiled and then felt her stomach gurgle painfully. She
gripped the side of the bed until the spasm passed. Within two minutes, she bolted
to the bathroom holding her stomach and praying she would make it in time. As
she ran, her glance fell on the bowl of sliced pineapples and peaches that had
come with her welcome fruit basket.
                The
next morning, after an unfortunate evening of jet lag punctuated by severe diarrhea,
Ella felt fine. She showered, dressed and was ready for her adventure. She
regretted having to leave her cellphone in the hotel room but without a charger
it was useless. She stopped briefly in the Hilton restaurant to eat a banana
and a bowl of muesli.
                Having
spent some time reading up on how badly she might have been cheated the day
before by the taxi driver, Ella felt confident in allowing the hotel’s doorman
to procure a taxi for her. She told the doorman where she wanted to go and
watched him as he translated it to the driver who looked considerably less
giddy than the one she’d had yesterday. After a brief exchange, the doorman
told Ella she would pay the driver 10 LE and no more. She climbed in the back
of the taxi, hugging her purse with her passport and all her money, and
regretted she hadn’t been able to come into the country with her Taser. That little baby helped me out of many a jam
in Heidelberg ,