Channeling Cleopatra (29 page)

And so was Duke Hubbard, apparently, for
Gretchen had kept him with her long past the time when he could be
removed. Neither she nor Chimera told Wolfe. If he was surprised
when she chose her alias to work in the hospitals supported by the
efforts of Gabriella Faruk and others like her, her husband didn't
say so. He appeared to be as enamored and fascinated by her as Pete
was of Cleopatra. Leda knew she had taken off the pounds, shaped up
the bod, even improved the skin, hair, and teeth, but it wasn't the
Leda material that bewitched Pete so much as Cleo's aura. Leda
didn't really mind. She thought it was wildly funny to see old
wandering Welsh so smitten with, well, her, that he offered to
sleep across her doorway at night to protect her.

Privately, the Wolfes supported Gabriella's
network to protect and shelter the endangered women of Egypt and
the Middle East.

Chimera was refining the blendings so that
the more toxic personality traits could be removed, the more
admirable ones enhanced, but it was more art than science, finding
the right blend.

Gabriella's new job gave her more clout and
more ways to help her people.

But although she had reconciled with Ginia
as a friend, she no longer trusted her aunt to help with the work
they had formerly shared.

"Leda, you will be traveling, writing books
about your discovery?" Gabriella asked. "When will you return to
Egypt to look for Alexander?"

"I'm not sure," Leda replied. She wore a
clingy, long-sleeved gown with a beaded collar her friend in
Washington had made for her. Cleopatra liked it and declared it
much lighter than the jewels she had worn in her former life. "It
seems to me it may be the sort of thing that's best left to an
Egyptian team. And, while part of me feels a real kinship with
Egypt, I'm not, ethnically I mean. Besides, we've been there, been
queen of that, and are feeling that it's time to move on now.
There's been so much new knowledge in the years since Cleopatra's
death that study and exploration are more interesting now than
digging into a past we know already."

"I see. So you don't think you will return
to Egypt soon then?"

"It all depends. But this is boring. Let's
open gifts."

As the gifts piled up in
front of her, Leda cried, "Tribute!" gleefully and opened them—some
very expensive body oils and a negligee from Pete,
predictable but sweet,
a
breathtaking Christmas bonus from the company formerly known as
Nucore, writings of the Dalai Lamas throughout history from
Chimera, a copy of the scrolls authored by Cleopatra from Gabriella
Faruk, and a pectoral of Bast, signed "Love, Dad and Leroy" on the
back.

Leda gave Gretchen a speculum inscribed to
her dad, knowing how well-suited he was for his new life and
work.

Gabriella opened her gifts
to find a bracelet from Virginie, a new maternity wing to her
hospital from Gretchen Graffin, and a large donation to same from
Wilhelm Wolfe. Finally, there was a custom-made T-shirt with a
picture of Marvin the Martian, his space suit looking more Egyptian
than Roman in the illustration, his eyelashes definitely longer and
curlier, and lipstick adorning his Martian mouth. From Chimera,
Leda, and Cleopatra, there was one more small package, a note
saying that if she wished, Gabriella Faruk could receive the
ba
of Cleopatra Philopater
with the blessing of the existing
ba
and its bearer.

Leda grinned at Gabriella's reaction. "It
was Cleo's idea. She's completely given up trying to convince me to
have you strangled and decided she likes you and admires what
you're doing."

"It will be the first time we have used the
same donor in two different blendings," Chimera said. "We will all
be very excited to see what happens."

"I wonder," Gabriella said.
"Do you think that even when you and I, Leda, are in different
places, the
ba
of
Cleopatra in me and the one in you will be able to
communicate?"

"According to Cleo, yes. She says that is
one reason she wishes it done. When she was queen, she always
wished there was enough of her to go around, so she could be in two
places at once. Finally, thanks to Chimera and us, her dream can
come true."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is the author of
22 solo fantasy and science fiction novels, including the 1989
Nebula award winning Healer’s War, loosely based on her service as
an Army Nurse in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. She has
collaborated thus far on 16 novels with Anne McCaffrey, six in the
best selling Petaybee series and eight in the YA bestselling Acorna
series, and most recently, the Tales of the Barque Cat series,
Catalyst and coming in December 2010, Catacombs (from Del Rey).
CHANNELING CLEOPATRA’s sequel, CLEOPATRA 7.2, will also soon to be
re-released for eBook download and print on demand by Fortune, an
imprint of Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She is currently working on a
YA fantasy cat mystery, SPAM VS THE VAMPIRE. She designs bead
patterns for online sales and has had several of her finished bead
designs published in best-selling bead books.