What the River Knows

Elvira gives Inez a letter from her father, which she found in her parents’ hotel suite. In the letter, he cautions Inez not to trust her mother, explains that the ring he sent to her helped him make a major discovery on Philae, and entreats her to never stop looking for him. Inez wonders if her mother is holding her father captive and resolves to find him. She tells her cousin all about her adventures. Elvira insists that they attend the New Year’s ball and gives Inez a beautiful gown made of ivory silk embroidered with gold flowers. Elvira wears a nearly identical gown, and Inez observes that they look like twins.

The narration shifts to Whit’s perspective. He plans to stay in Egypt for a few more days to settle old scores and ensure that the enemies that he’s made in Cairo don’t impact his life in England. Ricardo gives him an envelope full of money and asks him to find out if Lourdes is in Cairo. Whit goes to one of his contacts with ties to Tradesman’s Gate, an Englishman named Peter Yardley who works for the Antiquities Service and sells stolen artifacts. Whit gives Peter the money from Ricardo to settle his debts. Whit tells Peter to be careful at the warehouse in Bulaq, and the seemingly casual comment alarms Peter. He aims his gun at Whit, and Whit kills him.

The narration returns to Inez’s perspective. Later that evening, at the ball, she introduces Elvira to Whit, who mentions that he is a lord. Inez is hurt that he kept his social rank from her when she shared so much of herself with him, but she still grants him a dance. Whit explains that he was trying to keep an emotional distance between them, but now he wants one last memory of her that he can carry home with him. Inez spots Mr. Sterling in the crowd, and Whit resolves to reclaim the ring. Inez wants to help him, but he tells her to leave the matter to him and kisses her cheek at midnight.

When the cousins return to their suite, Inez is heartbroken at the thought of never seeing Whit again. Elvira notices her cousin’s sadness, but Inez insists that she and Whit cannot be together. Elvira has arranged to meet one of her dance partners the next morning, and Inez asks her cousin to wake her so she can act as her chaperone.

Inez awakens the next morning to find a worried Whit at her door. He informs her that Elvira was seen leaving the hotel in a stranger’s carriage. Sallam gives Inez an envelope containing a note from Lourdes and tickets for Inez’s passage to Buenos Aires. Lourdes tricked her enemies into abducting Elvira instead of Inez and urges her daughter to flee before they realize they’ve taken the wrong person to the docks. Whit adamantly opposes Inez’s plan to rescue her cousin, believing it is too dangerous. She seems to concede his point and tells him to contact her uncle. As soon as he leaves the room, Inez hurries from the hotel and hails a cab.

Inez investigates the warehouses at the Bulaq docks. A man grabs her from behind, and she kicks him before realizing that it’s Whit. He urges her to leave because he’s afraid that he won’t be able to protect her, but she refuses. A group of guards attacks them. When one of the men points a gun at Inez’s head, Whit surrenders his pistol and offers to take her place as a hostage. A familiar voice orders the guards to bring both Inez and Whit aboard, and the man sedates Inez.

She awakens in a tomb. A battered Whit informs her that she was unconscious for hours and that he’s found no sign of Elvira. The man with the familiar voice returns with the guards, who beat Whit. Inez confirms her real identity, berating herself for using her cousin’s name as an alias during her travels. The man strikes Inez when she says that she doesn’t know her mother’s whereabouts, and Whit threatens him. When Inez continues to protest that she doesn’t know where her mother is, the man tells her that “[her] cousin will share [her] fate” and orders his men to seal Inez and Whit inside the tomb (368).

Whit uses a trick taught to him by a deceased friend to undo the ropes binding his wrists. Then he unties Inez, and expertly uses a strip of fabric to bandage one of his injuries. Inez realizes that she is looking at a rawer version of the man she knows, “someone who was no stranger to surviving” (370). When they fail to discover anything in the tomb that might help them escape, she collapses in tears. Whit embraces her and tells her the story of why he was dishonorably discharged. He served at Khartoum under General Charles George Gordon. The general was ordered to retreat, but he held the city against the Mahdis and sent Whit to meet the relief force. However, the relief force was delayed for months because they refused to let an Egyptian crew take them down the Nile and were waiting for a Canadian crew to arrive. Whit disobeyed orders and returned to Khartoum alone. By the time he arrived, Gordon had been beheaded by the Mahdis.

Inez attempts to soothe the guilt and shame he carries, saying, “I think you’re more decent than you think. Practically a hero” (373). She tries to comfort them both by insisting that her mother will come to her rescue. Whit and Inez kiss passionately, and he tells her that she tastes like roses. They hear muffled shouts from outside the tomb followed by a loud noise. Whit puts his arms around Inez and pushes her toward cover.

Inez hopes that her mother has come for her, but their rescuer is Ricardo. He leads them through a tunnel into the Valley of Kings. The sound of the blast draws the kidnappers’ attention, and one of them shoots Ricardo in the arm. The group’s leader is Mr. Burton, the American businessman Inez met at Shepheard’s. Lourdes stole artifacts from him, and he and his mysterious employer are convinced that Inez knows where to find her. One of Mr. Burton’s associates is the blond man who left Philae with Lourdes. Mr. Burton orders his men to retrieve Elvira, then he shoots her. He threatens to kill Inez next unless Ricardo tells him where to find his sister. Ricardo guesses that Lourdes has gone to Amarna to search for Nefertiti’s tomb. Inez attacks Mr. Burton, and Whit seizes one of the guard’s rifles and shoots Mr. Burton in the head.

The authorities arrest the kidnappers, and Elvira’s body is buried in a cemetery in Thebes. Ricardo receives medical treatment in Thebes before returning to Cairo with Inez and Whit. Back in her parents’ suite at Shepheard’s, Inez grieves for Elvira. She touches the trinket box, has a vision of Cleopatra after the Battle of Actium, and feels the defeated pharaoh’s turbulent emotions—“Rage. Despair. Sorrow to have lost everything” (385).

Ricardo explains to Inez that Lourdes became obsessed with searching for alchemical documents and would often stay in Cairo rather than going to dig sites with her husband and brother. During the couple’s last trip to Egypt together, Ricardo realized that his sister was involved with smugglers, and Cayo began suspecting that she was having an affair. Ricardo lost Cayo’s trust by urging him to forgive Lourdes, which is why he sent the ring to Inez without consulting Ricardo. The last time that Ricardo saw Cayo, he was headed to Cairo with Lourdes. He searched for them for weeks and then invented the story that they had perished in the desert. Inez suspects that Mr. Sterling is Mr. Burton’s boss and the associate Lourdes double-crossed by stealing the artifacts from Philae. However, Whit and Ricardo believe it may be Sir Evelyn. Inez is determined to stay in Egypt so that she can avenge Elvira, recover the stolen artifacts, stop her mother, and find her father. However, because Ricardo controls her inheritance until she marries, he tries to force her to return home by threatening to cut her off financially: “I will not help you destroy your life” (390).

The narrative moves to Whit’s perspective. He receives a telegram from a woman in which she cuts him out of her life. The young man drinks to the point of inebriation, berating himself for kissing Inez and for his futile search for the alchemical spell. He concocts a last, desperate plan and sends a telegram to his parents.

The narrative returns to Inez. Whit comes to her room while she’s packing for her journey back to Argentina, and she’s hurt to see that he is intoxicated and emotionally distant. When she says that she could marry the young man her parents chose for her so that she can access her inheritance, he pulls her close and says, “Marry me instead” (394).

Whit’s older brother, Porter, sails to Egypt. He holds a telegram from Whit that reads, “INEZ FELL FOR IT” (396).