Henry Bedford-Jones

Lady in Chain Mail

Warsaw 2022

Contents

Lady in Chain Mail

Lady in Chain Mail

From the hand of a dead Mameluke after the battle of the Pyramids, a civilian scientist with Napoleon’s army took the Sphinx emerald... and though the Mameluke’s militant daughter offered to buy back the gem at a price high indeed, swift tragedy followed.

FABRE twisted the ring from his finger and held it aloft, laughing, so that the sunset rays struck a green spark from the stone in it.

“The emerald of Ibrahim Kachef Bey, comrades!” he exclaimed lightly. “Look well at it! Today the Corsican himself offered me ten thousand francs for it. I refused.”

The other two men received his careless words with grave concern. Duroc the geologist, a rocky-faced cynic of forty, spoke out in his blunt way:

“A mistake, Pierre. You might have built your fortune on that ring. Bonaparte is an Italian; he cherishes a grudge or a rebuff. And the General-in-chief of the Army of Egypt can be a bad enemy to a mere member of the Commission of Arts and Sciences.”

“That’s true,” assented Bonnard, the historian. He was an elderly man, sad-eyed, burned-out, suffering with a liver complaint; a kindly fellow. “The ring cost you nothing. You took it from that dead Mameluke Bey at the Pyramids battle. Sell it. What good is it to you?”

“None, perhaps, but I’m fond of it.” Fabre regarded them with a glint of mockery in his stubborn dark eyes. “Yes, I’m in love with the emerald. And that woman sent again to me this morning, wanting to buy it back, asking for an interview. The dead Mameluke was her father, Ibrahim Kachef Bey. I’d like to see her. Who knows? Anything’s possible here, where our Corsican has become a sultan preaching the creed of Islam! She may be young and beautiful, eh?”

His words drew laughter and nods of comprehension.

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This is a free sample. Please purchase full version of the book to continue.