Barbara Erskine - Whispers in the Sand

‘You’re making it up.’ Anna backed a step away from her. She leant against the door. ‘You’re frightening me!’ Suddenly she was shivering uncontrollably. Was it this which had woken Louisa and frightened her in the darkness?

Slowly Serena looked up. Her eyes found Anna’s face but she wasn’t seeing it. Her pupils were huge; unfocused.

‘Serena?’ Anna whispered. ‘Serena, please!’

There was another long silence then abruptly Serena rubbed her eyes. She smiled uncertainly. ‘What did I say?’

‘Don’t you know?’ Anna didn’t move from her position near the door.

Serena looked down at the little bottle still lying in her hand. With a shiver she let it fall onto the bed. ‘It is old. Very old,’ she repeated, her voice completely flat.

‘You said.’ Anna swallowed. Her eyes were riveted to the bottle, lying on the bed. ‘But what was all that other stuff? About the blood?’

Serena’s eyes opened wide. ‘Blood?’ There was a moment’s silence then she looked away. ‘Oh shit!’ She put her hands to her face. ‘I didn’t mean that to happen. Forget it, for goodness sake. I’m sorry. Don’t believe anything I said, Anna.’ She reached out towards the bottle, changed her mind and stood up, leaving it where it was. ‘I have a tendency to be melodramatic. Take no notice. The last thing I meant to do was scare you.’

‘But you did.’

‘Did I?’ For a moment Serena stood gazing into her face as if trying to read her thoughts. Then she shrugged and looked away. ‘They must have finished the talk by now. Why don’t we go to the lounge and have a drink?’ She bent over the bed and reached out to the bottle. The hesitation was only momentary, then she picked it up and firmly rewrapped it in the silk square. She held it out to Anna. ‘I should get Omar to put it in the safe for you. I think it probably is genuine.’ Her voice was still strangely flat.

Anna took it reluctantly. She held it for a moment then she stooped and tucked it back in the suitcase. ‘Later. I will. When there’s someone at the desk.’ She opened her mouth to ask another question, then she changed her mind. Grabbing her purse she reached for the door handle. ‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’

Drinks in hand they made their way through the lounge where the others had settled in groups round the low tables and they stepped out onto the open covered deck where the tables and chairs were deserted. Anna shivered. ‘There’s a cold wind.’

‘I don’t mind. It’s wonderful – cleansing. Such a relief after the heat of the day.’ Serena shook her head. ‘Let’s climb up onto the sundeck.’

She led the way up to the front of the boat, where Anna had been asleep earlier. All was in darkness up there as they looked down on the string of small coloured lights around the awning of the lower deck. Looking up they could see the velvety black of the sky and the intense brightness of the stars. They stood leaning on the rail looking out across the river. The night was somehow more silent for the sounds of talk and laughter wafting out of the doors below them.

Anna fixed her eyes on the wavy reflections in the dark water below them. ‘How did you do it?’ She took a sip from her glass.

Serena didn’t pretend not to know what she was talking about. She shrugged. ‘They call it psychometry. It’s a kind of clairvoyance, I suppose. Reading an object. I’ve always been able to do it, since I was a child. It was what first drew me to the study of psychic phenomena. In children it’s called a vivid imagination. In adults …’ she paused. ‘Eccentricity. Lunacy. Schizophrenia. Take your pick.’ There was the slightest touch of bitterness in her voice for a second, then it was gone. ‘It’s not something to be cultivated lightly, as you can imagine, but it has its uses. Sometimes.’

Anna was still gazing down at the water. ‘What did your husband think about it?’

‘Ah.’ Serena smiled ruefully. ‘Another woman, of course, goes unerringly to the crux of the problem. He vacillated between thinking me delightfully scatty and certifiably insane. But to do him credit he never tried to get me actually locked up.’ Her quiet laugh made Anna glance up at last.

Serena stood back from the rail and sat down on one of the chairs. Leaning back with a sigh she stared up at the stars. ‘We were very happy. I adored him. I kept all this stuff firmly under the hatches as much as I could while he was alive. Then, when he died,’ she paused, ‘I suppose it was rather like coming out. I found kindred spirits. I read. I talked. I wrote. I studied. Charley thinks I’m mad, but she’s not there much and frankly I don’t care what she thinks. I began to study Egyptian mysticism two years ago and I came out here to get a feel of the place in a group before coming back on my own.’

Anna turned back to the river, leaning on the rail. She too was looking up beyond the low bank and the dark silhouette of the trees. The stars were so bright. So clear. She shivered. ‘So, tell me about my bottle.’

‘I don’t remember what I said.’ Serena took a sip from her glass. She caught sight of Anna’s face in the darkness and gave a rueful smile. ‘No, honestly. I don’t. Sometimes I do, but more often than not I go into some sort of trance state. I’m sorry, Anna. But that’s how it is for me. You will have to tell me what I said.’

‘You talked about hatred and treachery and blood.’ The words hung for a moment in the silence. ‘You described a man. The priest. You said he was tall, with piercing eyes.’ She turned with a start at the sound of footsteps behind them.

‘That sounds like me. Tall. With piercing eyes!’ Andy had appeared at the top of the steps. ‘Come on, girls. What are you talking about so secretively? Serena, old thing, I can’t have you appropriating the most beautiful woman on the ship. It’s not allowed. Especially if you’re going to discuss other men.’ He gave an amiable grin.

Serena and Anna exchanged glances.

‘We’ll join you in a minute, Andy.’ Serena did not move from her chair. ‘Now, bugger off, there’s a good chap.’

Anna hid a smile. She said nothing, watching his momentary discomfiture. It was followed by a shrug. ‘OK. Don’t shoot!’ He raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘I know when mere males are not wanted. There’ll be drinks on the bar for you if you want them.’

They watched as he padded back across the deck with a nonchalant wave of the hand and disappeared down the steps out of sight.

It was a few moments before Serena spoke. ‘Andy is a scoffer. A non believer. I think it would be wiser not to mention any of this to him.’

‘I agree.’ Anna sat down on the chair next to her. She pulled her sweater round her shoulders with a shiver. ‘So, what do I do?’

‘You could throw the bottle in the Nile.’ Serena tipped back her head and poured the last dregs of her drink down her throat. ‘Then my guess is you’ll be shot of the problem.’

Anna was silent. ‘It was Hassan’s gift to Louisa,’ she said at last.

‘And what happened to them?’

Anna shrugged. ‘I haven’t read much of the diary yet, but I know she came home safely to England.’

‘It’s up to you, of course.’ Serena leant forward with a sigh, her elbows on her knees.

‘You said you were studying Egyptian mysticism,’ Anna said slowly. ‘So, perhaps there is something you could do. Could you talk to him?’ Part of her couldn’t believe she was actually asking; another part was beginning to take Serena very seriously.

‘Oh, no, that doesn’t qualify me to deal with this.’ Serena shook her head. ‘Anna dear, this is – or could be – heavy-weight. A high priest, if that is what he was, would be way out of my league. Probably out of the league of anyone alive today. Those guys practically invented magic. You’ve heard of Hermes Trismegistus? And Thoth, the god of magic?’