Read Glenn Meade for Free Online Page B

jewellery
- and it was all so wondrous we'd spend hours looking at them. When Jack wrote
and told me he was coming to
Egypt
to help with the dig, he asked if I'd like to come along. We'd hardly seen each
other in almost six months, he'd been so busy helping his father with family
business interests in
Germany
,
and besides, I was ready to jump at the chance to get away from a stuffy
Manhattan
office. It
seemed like a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. So I decided to scrimp together
what few dollars I'd saved, quit my job, and take up the offer.'
    'No girlfriends left behind?'
    'No one worth talking about.'
    'And no regrets about what you've
done?'
    'Not one. The only trouble is,
it's kind of spoiled me. I don't think I can go back to the kind of career I
had before. At least not until my money runs out. It's been more fun putting my
engineering skills to work on a dig like this, instead of building roads in
New York
.’
    'You know what surprises me? That
Jack never became an archaeologist.'
    'I think he's too restless to
commit himself to any one thing.
    He says himself he'll always be
just a fanatical amateur, like his father. He brought him here on visits as a
child, but I guess you know that. And for as long as I've known him he's been
in love with this country, fascinated by it, and not only its history, but
everything about it - its culture, its people. I guess the fascination's sort
of rubbed off on me.'
    'You like Jack very much, don't
you?'
    'He's always been my best friend,'
Weaver answered honestly.
    'He's like the brother I never
had. And I'm grateful for his friendship. Besides, if it wasn't for his father,
I probably never would have gone to college.'
    'What do you mean?'
    'Franz Haider paid for my
education. My own father could never have afforded it, though all he had to do
in return was to make sure he kept the estate gardens filled with white lilies,
the kind Jack's late mother loved so much.'
    Rachel hesitated. 'Is that why you
didn't talk about your past? Did you feel beholden to Jack and his family?'
    'Not a bit,' Weaver said with
conviction. 'They were simply good people who wanted to help me get a proper
education.
    And I'll always be grateful. But
Jack's father isn't the kind to make you feel under an obligation. And nothing
like that would spoil the friendship between Jack and me, I'm sure of it. In
fact, nothing at all ever has. We've always got on like a house on fire.'
    'You've never fallen out?'
    'Not ever. I guess that's kind of
remarkable. Sure, we've had our minor differences, but nothing we couldn't
agree to disagree about.'
    Rachel looked at him, and said
honestly, 'You know something?
    I think you're both lucky. To have
met each other. To have become such good friends. I thought that from the very
start, when I first met you both. It's such a rare thing. Something to be
cherished. And I hope nothing ever comes between you.'
    She smiled then, looked into his
eyes, but with an inexplicable sadness in her own, and on impulse took a flower
from one of the window boxes and placed it in his buttonhole, before leaning
over and kissing him gently on the lips. 'A small gift from me. Something far
less than a college education, but meant sincerely. I'm just so happy you came
to help on the dig, Harry. I can't imagine what it would have been like without
you and Jack.'
    Weaver looked back at her, at the
striking blue eyes and pretty face. 'I'll miss you too, Rachel.'
    'Will you, honestly?'
    'More than I can tell. But I'm
worried.'
    'About what?'
    'We hear all this talk about
what's happening to the Jews in
Germany
.
If you ever go back-'
    He let the sentence hang, and
Rachel said quietly, 'There's no chance of my parents or I returning to
Germany
. Not
until this war has blown over and the Nazis are no longer in power.
    For now,
Istanbul
will be our home, and it'll be safe.
My father has a lot of contacts there and he's sure he can get a more permanent