“Time to take a break.”
She jumped, then glanced at the windows with a slow blink of wonder.
“Oh. I hadn’t realized it was so late. Major Scovell went to talk to his men.”
She rubbed the back of her neck and rolled her shoulders. The movement squeezed her breasts up and together above her bodice.
“I found something for you. While I was out. I thought you’d enjoy it,” Raven said.
He placed the large book in front of her on the desk with athump.
She read the embossed gilt letters and glanced up at him in amazement. “Description de l’Égypte. For me? Truly?”
“Think of it as a reward for crossing that river.”
He hid a smile at her evident delight. She looked like a child on Christmas morning, wide-eyed with disbelief as she stroked the linen cover. “Goodness! Thank you.”
He felt her smile like a punch to the gut. She opened the book and he leaned over her shoulder, shamelessly exploiting the opportunity for proximity. Her tantalizing midnight-and-roses scent wrapped around him and sank into his bones.
His elevated position afforded him a lovely view of the smooth curves of her breasts and the shadowed valley in between. With a superhuman effort, he forced his eyes back to the book. The illustration was of a tomb interior. “What’s happening here?”
Heloise pointed to a set of giant scales. “Anubis is accompanying the dead to the Hall of Ma’at to have judgment. Their soul is weighed on the scales, see.”
Raven murmured something appropriate. At least, he hoped he did. Her nearness was playing havoc with his brain.
“You’ve heard the phrase ‘my heart’s as light as a feather’ and the word ‘heavyhearted’? They come from the Egyptian.” She moved her finger. “The soul is weighed against the feather of Ma’at. If the good deeds outweigh the bad, they’re escorted to the afterlife. If not, they’re given up to the fearsome Ammit, ‘the devourer.’ ” She pointed to a hideous goddess with a crocodile head, a lion’s body, and the rear end of a hippo. “She eats the souls of the unworthy.”
“No wonder she’s so fat.”
Heloise turned the page and pointed to an illustration of a stately cat. “Bastet is the goddess of protection. She’s also known as Pasht, which is the root of our word ‘passion.’ ”
A pink flush warmed her cheeks.
“I thought we agreed no more etymology?”
She gave a martyred sigh. “In Book of the Dead she’s mentioned as destroying the bodies of the deceased with the royal flame if they failed the judgment.”
Raven raised his brows. “So she’s Anubis’s partner in crime? Fancy that, a cat and a dog in harmony.”
She ignored his teasing and pointed to the figures in another illustration. “Look here. The women are the same size as men, indicating they had equal status. I sometimes think we’ve gone backward in terms of female emancipation. It’s worse now than it was thousands of years ago. A woman today is basically a chattel, but in Ancient Egypt women inherited land and property, made detailed prenuptial agreements, and received fair treatment in cases of divorce.”
“No wonder the civilization died out,” Raven teased, and watched in fascination as a furious blush made its way up her neck and across her cheeks. He never got tired of baiting her.
“Women’s minds are as strong and as cunning as men’s!” she fumed.
He injected just the right amount of skeptical scorn into his tone to infuriate her. “You think you’re a man’s equal?”
“Of course I do! The only reason everyonethinkswe’re less intelligent is because we’re continually denied the right to an equivalent education. If that were remedied I’m convinced there would be equal numbers of females in every single profession.”
He leaned in closer. “Mentally, perhaps, you might have a point. But you can’t claim to be physical equals.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Women have no need to develop muscles. We have you men to do all the mundane jobs, like lifting heavy objects.”
“You don’t need to keep proving yourself as capable as your brothers, you know.”
She jerked away from him. “I know that.”
“It wasn’t a criticism,” he said. “Don’t ever think that what you do is any less important than fighting. Your mind is a weapon that can save lives, not take them.”