Touch of a Scoundrel (Touch of Seduction 3) by Mia Marlowe Page B

the inscription say?”
    “Translating hieroglyphs is not an exact science, you understand. However, we are confident we have settled on a fair approximation of the original for the front section of the base. We continue to work on the rest.” Dr. Farnsworth adjusted his spectacles so they perched on the end of his nose and then ran a finger over the markings along the front. “Tetisheri, beloved of Isis and Anubis. Pharaoh of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of the Nile.”
    “I thought “pharaoh” was the designation for a male ruler,” Devon said with a skeptical scowl.
    “Normally, yes, but there is precedent for a female pharaoh in Egypt. Remember Cleopatra. She reigned without benefit of a permanent male consort. If you’ll kindly direct your attention to this portion of the work . . .” Farnsworth pointed to the statue’s chin. “There’s a rough patch just there in the granite, if you’d care to feel it.”
    Devon shook his head. Touching the silk that had covered the benighted thing was bad enough.
    “At any rate, it suggests the statue once sported a false beard—an affectation common for female rulers of the Double Kingdom,” Dr. Farnsworth explained.
    “But why does she look so . . . un-Egyptian?” Louisa asked, leaning forward to peer at the statue intently. “Give her a bonnet and a parasol and your Tetisheri would be perfectly at home strolling in Hyde Park.”
    “And she’d turn more than a few heads,” Ted said. “But the more interesting question is how she arrived in Egypt. We have a theory on that. Dr. Farnsworth, if you’d care to do the honors?”
    “You can explain it as well as I,” the old man said with a beneficent wave of his hand. He beamed at Theodore with the self-satisfied glow of a professorial soul basking in the accomplishment of his protégé. “Go on, lad.”
    “We know that Egypt was overrun from time to time by other population groups. For example, about the era of the thirteenth dynasty, the Hyksos came down out of Syria with their chariots and conquered the Lower Nile and its rich Delta.” Ted spoke with confidence, but Devon noticed he tucked his hands in his pockets to keep from gesticulating nervously. It was an old trick their tutor had taught him. “The Egyptians had never seen a horse before that time so the Asiatic chariots made quite an impression.”
    “Never seen a horse?” Louisa said with a giggle. “Can you imagine it?”
    “Don’t laugh,” Theodore said. “I bet you’ve never seen a camel.”
    Louisa pulled a face at him. “But at least I know they exist,” she grumbled.
    “At any rate,” Ted said, determined to soldier on despite his sister’s interruptions, “the Egyptians must have thought horses were demons of some sort because the Theban royal court fled up the Nile and lived as exiles for years while the Hyksos intruders occupied their homeland.”
    “Glad to see you’ve decided to get serious about studying history, Ted,” Devon said, impressed that his dilettante brother actually seemed to have learned something.
    He noticed that Emmaline had settled into one of the wing chairs flanking the fireplace, positioning herself as far as possible from the rest of the group without actually leaving the room. She stared into the cold hearth without the slightest hint of interest in Teddy’s exposition. Well, she’d presumably heard this story before, he supposed.
    Or perhaps she was more troubled over that kiss in the orangery than he thought. Devon tried to put the lush softness of her lips out of his mind and concentrate on his brother’s new scholastic interest instead.
    It was an uphill battle.
    “What does the Hyksos invasion have to do with this statue?” Devon asked.
    “It establishes a precedent for what we believe this statue proves,” Theodore said. “The Tetisheri statue indicates that at some time in the distant past, a European group swept down into Egypt, much as the Syrians did. Moreover”—he paused to