I Fell In Love With A Pharaoh

Chapter 3

Hebe spent the next few days taking pictures of Dante's collection. She took multiple pictures of each item. Her plan was to put them in photo boxes according to the collections that they were in and then to break them apart by age and artist if she could discover who made the artifact. It was a lot of work and would take several weeks and even months to do.

Dante kept true to his word by getting her every day when it was time to eat. If it wasn't for him Hebe wouldn't be eating or sleeping enough. Hebe wasn't used to being taken care of like Dante was doing. Usually her clients just let her work and that usually entailed working herself to exhaustion. Normally, Hebe would have to take a few weeks to herself after helping a client, but she was beginning to realize that Dante was different. He seemed to really care about her which Hebe found odd and it made her feel uncomfortable. No one had ever acted like they really cared about her.

Warm afternoon sunlight was beginning to seep into the portico that housed the statues that Dante had collected over the years. Hebe's camera was busy at work snapping pictures. After each picture, Hebe would study the image captured before she would take another one. A warm breeze blew through the portico carrying a hint of the ocean that Hebe knew lay less than five miles over the edge of the horizon.

Hebe stood up and stretched her aching calf muscles from where she'd been squatting taking pictures. Her neck and back ached from being hunched over in various positions. Hebe let her camera hang from her neck as she rubbed at her lower back and studied the statues in front of her. Her practiced eye could tell which ones were genuine artifacts from the ancient world and which ones were copies. They stood side by side in perfect harmony with each other. No one but a professional could tell which ones were authentic and which ones were made to look authentic.

Dante had several covered porticoes that were filled with statuary. The porticoes were divided by culture like the rest of Dante's collection. Hebe had been spending most of her time documenting the Greek and Roman statuary. She liked starting with that culture and then heading into Egyptian culture. After that was any other culture or the various odds and ends that most collections had that didn't really belong anywhere.

Hebe let out a sigh as she wandered from the portico where she was, back through the gardens and into the cool interior of Dante's mansion. Her footsteps echoed slightly on the tiled floor as she made her way back into the Egyptian room so that she could study the mummified hand and foot once more. For some reason, unbeknownst to Hebe, the mummified hand and foot drew her each and every day into the room where they were housed. She liked puzzles and mysteries, but she was stumped about the mummified body parts. Hebe had no idea how she was going to determine what dynasty they came from or how old they were.

Mummies were something that had always intrigued Hebe. She had spent several digging seasons in Egypt looking for tombs. Her habit had been to go to the Cairo museum and spend hours looking at the mummies. The preservation of the hand and foot in front of her was amazing. They were both so well preserved and there was no sign of damage done by tomb raiders. All Hebe could conclude was that they were mummified that way.

"They draw you don't they."

Hebe jumped at the sound of Dante's voice. She gave him a rueful smile before she straightened up. "They are fascinating. I have seen dozens of mummies and have studied what was left after tomb raiders got through with them." Hebe motioned to the foot and hand. "All I can tell you is that this is not the work of tomb raiders. There is no damage done to them. My guess is that they belong to someone who was in a battle and lost them. After that I would guess that they were mummified naturally in the hot Egyptian sands. I could be wrong too, but that is my educated guess so far."