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Fadia snuck out of Aunt Hala's house.
Well, perhaps it wasn't sneaking, because she was just going to the market after all, but she was very careful not to wake Hala from her noontime nap, and she hadn't asked permission to go out first.
All right, so it was sneaking.
But only because everyone was annoyingly protective and perhaps old-fashioned. As if they hadn't taught her several old-fashioned ways to defeat any thieves or miscreants who might have given her trouble, not that she expected such an encounter.
Whatever.
She just wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the windy autumn day, walking the city and people-watching before Masud came to fetch her home that afternoon.
She certainly didn't expect to step around a corner onto the market street and nearly collide with Evelyn O'Connell of all people.
Evelyn's exclamation of surprise scarcely had time to pass her lips before Rick O'Connell loomed up beside her, clearly searching for a threat, even with his young son perched on his shoulders.
When his eyes fell on Fadia, however, he grinned. "Hey, Fadia, long time no see."
"Hello." Fadia smiled. "I am surprised to see you here."
"Yes, well, we're here on Museum business," Evy told her.
"And staying out of trouble, of course." Rick added playfully.
"Of course." Fadia nodded with mock solemnity.
At that moment, Alex began to protest his place on Rick's shoulders and waved his arms frantically, demanding to be lifted down. Rick obliged, and was quickly led away on some adventure or other.
Evy smiled after them, then turned to Fadia, and with a cursory glance at their surroundings, asked, "Are you here alone?"
"Oh, yes. My aunt decided to take a nap, so I took the opportunity to get out of the house. And my brother is not in Cairo," Fadia added, because it felt important to clarify. Then she asked, "Is your brother with you?"
"No, he stayed back in England," Evy replied, sounding distinctly disappointed. "Although I did invite him to come along."
Fadia pressed her lips together and couldn't help sounding bitter when she said, "Well, he probably just wanted to spend more time with his sweetheart."
Evy eyed her for a moment, then said, "Actually, he and Polly parted ways."
"Oh?" Fadia couldn't keep from taking a step closer.
"Yes," Evy said, leaning in slightly. "He's doing as well as can be expected, I suppose."
Fadia nodded understandingly. "I know how it is to have a brother who will not settle down. Ardeth is always running about defending things, and while it is his duty, I sometimes feel that he does more than he should merely to keep busy. For whatever reason."
"I think Jonathan is the same way," Evy said conspiratorially. "He's always dashing in and out of the house. I'd thought that dashing off to an entirely different country would be appealing to him, but in fact he was oddly resistant to coming along. And you know, he and Polly parted ways right after we'd returned from Cairo. I'm a tad surprised he hadn't mentioned it before...."
She drifted off with a meaningful glance at Fadia.
Both single. Both keeping needlessly busy, and therefore both avoiding.
Evy's emphasis on the timing of Jonathan's departure from Polly wasn't lost on Fadia. She wondered if she should just come out and say something, despite having been told repeatedly that it wasn't her place. But Ardeth had asked her not to, so her hands were tied. Still, she was positively burning with curiosity about where Jonathan Carnahan's heart truly lay.
Evy's thoughts went along the same track. How much could she say? Jonathan would be furious if she just went and spilled his secrets...and her theory was still just that—a theory. And while it had been more proven than disproven, Jonathan still had never told her plainly that he was, in fact, pining after Ardeth. And then, of course, her evidence that Ardeth had feelings for Jonathan was a tad...circumstantial. Without one-hundred percent certainty on either man's feelings, and without Jonathan's permission to spill the beans, as it were, she felt the need to bite her tongue. And if Rick had warned her once that what she was seeing might be shaped by her suspicions, he'd warned her ten times.... It was all rather irksome.
"Hey, honey." Rick's voice broke into her train of thought. "Hate to interrupt, but do you know what time it is?"
Evy almost told Rick he had his own watch before she realized what he meant. "Oh dear." She glanced at the timepiece on her own wrist and grimaced. "Fadia, I'm terribly sorry, but I've an appointment I must be getting to. But perhaps we could meet up for dinner...?"
"Sadly, my cousin is coming to fetch me back to the desert today," Fadia replied, genuinely disappointed. But she knew there was no way Masud would stick around longer than necessary. He hated Cairo, and crowded places in general, even more than Ardeth did. "Otherwise I would be glad to."
"Oh," Evy said, her face falling slightly, "Well, perhaps another time?"
"Of course. And maybe my brother will be able to join us then."
"Yes, that would delightful," Evy replied, her mind turning with ideas on how to get Jonathan to the theoretical future dinner. "Well, it was lovely to see you. I'm sorry to be dashing off in such a rush."
"Have a safe trip home," Rick said, smiling even as he began herding Evy and Alex away.
"I will," Fadia replied as the distance between them grew, "goodbye!"
She watched the O'Connells disappear into the crowd and turned over the information that Evelyn had so kindly given her. Jonathan had parted ways with Polly. Jonathan was as frantically miserable as Ardeth—if Fadia had her assumptions in order, which she rather thought she did.
And most certainly, she was going to tell Ardeth that Jonathan was unattached as soon as possible. She might even twist his arm to actually do something about it, though she doubted it would do any good.
Still, it was worth a try.
++
Fadia strolled through the front door of her aunt's house, arms laden with the treasures she'd purchased at the market, and found her aunt sitting in her chair by the window, drinking tea.
Aunt Hala gave her a sideways glance and raised an eyebrow. "Well niece, I assume you had an enjoyable time after you slipped out from under my nose."
"Indeed I did, Aunt Hala. And in fact, I bring news." Fadia set her things on the couch and turned to her aunt with a grin. "The Englishman is single again."
Aunt Hala looked puzzled. "What?"
"Jonathan Carnahan is single again," Fadia said, sitting down next to her trove. "I ran into his sister at the market just now. According to her, he's quite miserable."
Aunt Hala turned back to her tea. "How sad."
Fadia shrugged. "Actually, I think it's good news. It means that maybe he misses Ardeth and wants to marry him, instead of entertaining women for mysterious reasons."
Fadia elected to ignore the chastising look that her aunt sent her way.
"That is a lot to assume, Fadia."
"Oh, I know." Fadia smiled smugly to herself. She was going to assume, anyway.
+++
Fadia found her mother doing the washing by the river. Mirah glanced up as Fadia neared and smiled.
"Hello, Fadia," she said, "did you have a nice time with your aunt?"
"Yes." Fadia grinned slyly. "I had an even better time when she closed her ever-watchful eyes in sleep, and I was able to go out to the market."
"Fadia, you know I don't like you wandering off by yourself."
Fadia rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Mother. It's not as if Ardeth—and you—never taught me anything about defending myself. Besides, one of these days you're just going to have to realize that I'm not a little girl anymore."
"I know." Mirah's eyes turned softly playful. "Still, it is difficult."
"Well, you will simply have to try harder," Fadia said with mock sternness.
Mirah smiled. "I know that, too."
Fadia watched as her mother resumed her washing, the rhythmic movement of the cloth in the water. "Anyway, I received an interesting piece of news on one of my little trips. The Englishman is single again."
Mirah looked up, clearly surprised. "What?"
Fadia was beginning to like revealing revolutionary information to people. Well, perhaps beginning wasn't the right word. She always liked doing that. She shrugged. "While I was in Cairo, I ran into Evelyn O'Connell, and she told me that her brother was single again, and apparently quite miserable."
"Oh." Mirah looked back down at the garment in her hands. "That is sad news."
"I think it means he wants to be with Ardeth."
"That's quite a leap in logic, Fadia," Mirah said, her voice stern and cautionary. "He probably just misses, um, Dolly, and that is why he is miserable."
"Polly, Mother," Fadia corrected while waving off Mirah's statement, "and the way Evelyn told me about it, I doubt Polly is the reason he is miserable. I think Evelyn was trying to tell me something."
"Or perhaps you were just reading into it."
Fadia rolled her eyes. "Or perhaps I am the only one who knows how to take a hint."
+++
Fadia sat in her mother's tent, polishing an old silver hand mirror—a gift from her late grandmother—when the tent's entrance was opened. She glanced up, surprised when she saw Ardeth stepping inside out of the sun. She hadn't expected him back for at least another day.
"Hello, brother," she said, setting the mirror in her lap.
He smiled at her. "Fadia."
"I take it your latest outing was sufficiently dull?" She asked. That would explain why he was back so soon.
"Yes, thankfully." He sat across from her. "And how was Cairo?"
Fadia heaved a theatrical sigh. "Five and twenty men asked for my hand in marriage," she said dramatically, examining her fingernails, "but other than that, it was fine."
Ardeth huffed in amusement.
Fadia smiled to herself, reveling in the success of her plan. Lately she'd made up her mind to make Ardeth laugh every time she saw him. It was good for him.
"Oh," she said, suddenly recalling some Very Important information, "and can you guess who I saw there?"
Ardeth raised an eyebrow, still looking amused. "I have only just returned, and you expect me to begin guessing things already?"
"Of course," Fadia replied slyly, "I must keep you sharp, after all."
"Very well." Ardeth pretended that this was a terrible imposition, when in fact he more than appreciated the blessing of returning home to have ridiculous conversations with his sister. "Aside from all those lovesick men, I know you saw Aunt Hala..."
"Obviously."
"...And it could not have been Hazim, as he was with me, and I, of course, was not there...."
Fadia grinned. "Would you like a hint?"
"I will not begrudge it," Ardeth replied, "especially since you appear so eager to give it."
"It was someone you have not seen in a while, and also someone who may or may not have almost caused the end of the world."
A bolt of something like alarm shot through Ardeth, powerfully enough that it made his arms twitch. She couldn't have seen Jonathan...could she?
Fadia glanced down, caught her reflection in the small mirror still resting on her lap, and exchanged a long-suffering look with herself.
Ardeth did not voice this burning question, but said instead, "That could be at least three people."
Fadia decided to go easy on him, for some reason, and give up charade. "Well, I saw two out of the three," she said, adding—a bit deviously, because she couldn't go too easy on him—"And one to spare."
"One to spare?" Perhaps his own partiality was getting in the way, but Ardeth doubted that anyone could describe Jonathan as 'one to spare', which only left.... "Well, that must mean the O'Connells. Now you have made it too obvious."
"Oh well, I guess I have." Fadia shrugged. "But no matter, I shall tell you all about them. They seemed in good health and all. Evelyn was there for work, and Rick was following her to the ends of the earth, as he does, and Alex had grown a good deal since I last saw him." She paused, and with her eyes fixed unerringly on her brother, she plunged onward with the Important part. "Jonathan wasn't with them. Evelyn said he is single again because that Polly of his went her own way, and he seems rather adrift."
Ardeth was very careful not to let his arms twitch this time, feeling that he was in the midst of some intense interrogation with the way Fadia was staring at him. He set his jaw to keep from giving anything away, and let the information sink in.
Part of him felt sorry that Jonathan had parted from someone he had appeared to care deeply for. And another part of him—small, shameful, and deep, deep, down—was relieved to hear that Jonathan was unattached. That part of him grew hopeful that it meant something. That it meant exactly what he knew Fadia thought it did.
But he clamped down on that part of himself. It was foolish, and selfish. Jonathan's parting from Polly Day had nothing to do with him.
"So, now you can talk to him," Fadia was saying eagerly, just as he had expected, her voice seeming to return from a great distance. "You could go and visit, or perhaps the next time his sister comes to Egypt on business, we could—"
"Fadia."
Fadia pressed her lips together and fought the urge to roll her eyes. Here we go again, she thought ruefully, more excuses. "Don't you dare say that it's impossible or whatever silly excuses you still have," she couldn't help saying.
Ardeth gave her a weary look.
It didn't stop her. "Also, apparently he resisted joining his sister in Cairo. It sounded to me as if he is avoiding the place. Perhaps it's because he feels the same way you do—you know, too busy thinking things are impossible to act on his feelings, and—"
"Fadia, stop."
"What? I'm just—"
"I am well aware of what you are doing," Ardeth said, his tone weary to match his face. "And I am asking you to please, stop."
Fadia bit back asking why. "Fine. I will stop, and you can do as you please. I, at least, did my part and told you he was available."
She stood up and bustled outside. That hadn't gone at all how she'd intended, and instead all she'd succeeded in doing was wiping the smile from Ardeth's face. She grumbled to herself and glared at nothing in particular.
Apparently, everything was stupid, and apparently, she and Evelyn O'Connell were the only two people in the world with any sense.