I hope I number patience among my virtues, but shilly-shallying, when nothing is to be gained by delay, is not a virtue. - Elizabeth Peters

As Ramses did the same for his mother, he saw that her eyes were fixed on him. She had been unusually silent. She had not needed his father's tactless comment to understand the full implications of Farouk's death. As he met her unblinking gaze he was reminded of one of Nefret's more vivid descriptions. 'When she's angry, her eyes look like polished steel balls.' That's done it, he thought. She's made up her mind to get David and me out of this if she has to take on every German and Turkish agent in the Middle East.

But the dust! And the clutter! My housewifely and scholarly instincts were equally offended.

As the Egyptians say, Ramses can hear a whisper across the Nile.