Contest Entries

An Egyptologist's Diary (2022) #DeathOnTheNile

Have you ever loved so much, you would kill?

It's the sort of sentiment one would not ordinarily attend to. It could be straight from the pages of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Rather on the nose, a line that resides purely in novels filled with people who could never really exist.

Except now I understand it's so much more complicated that that.

This cruise was supposedly in honour of her. She followed the trail into the desert opposite Luxor, and she found what none of us could. A vault full of treasures. It's like her brain operates in a different realm to the rest of us, she's quite remarkable. She deserves the sort of acclaim that Howard Carter received! If everything this week were to go to plan, she would get exactly that, if she played her cards right. And Beverley Wright always does.

Allan, it appears, would disagree. I overheard him in his cabin, gloating that he'd already penned the telegram. The dashing twit's plan, or so he was telling Cunningham, is to take all the credit. He seems to think the whole thing was a fluke. He must still be sore over that night at the Bullington Club. How dare Beverley have better tastes than to entertain some pathetic rich boy?

Something must be done. I can't tell Beverley. Who'd believe the two of us over someone like Allan? Alma Mater: Jesus College, Cambridge? She deserves this acclaim more than anyone else I know, but for some bizarre reason, she trusts him. This would break her heart.

Cunningham knows, yet hasn't said a thing. As usual, he appears to be acting as though nothing is wrong. What does the truth matter? We can't rock the boat when his parents are funding a new wing of the library.

So that leaves me with one option. I invited Allan to the stern viewing deck at sunset. I imagine the fool assumes I've had a change of heart. In one sense, I suppose I have.

Have you ever loved so much, you would kill?

I suppose tonight we shall see.