Passage to Queen Mesentia Read Online Free PDF

2000.  The picture on the very first page nudged her sadness. Her mother waved goodbye, and the notation, written in her mother’s handwriting, said, “I’ll miss you my sweet Lilly.” Her mom had practically begged her to come to Egypt with them and to start the university there. Since Grant was planning on accompanying them, they would have been one big happy family. Instead, Lilly had decided to stay at Texas A&M and to move in with Wade. It had been a huge decision. A decision her mom tried desperately to talk her out of.
    After a few pages, she saw a picture of her parents’ apartment in Cairo. It was very modest compared to their home in the States. To the right of that, a photo of her father with his stereotypical archaeologist straw hat. He posed next to a huge boulder and underneath her mother had written, “My Rock.” Lilly smiled. She thought it was incredibly romantic how her parents were still so much in love after thirty years of marriage. In fact, when she was little, she had thought the story of how they had met was just another fairy tale. There was Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Isabel . She gazed at the wall where her white canopy bed with pink ruffles had been. “Tell me, Mommy! Tell me the story of Isabel and the prince. Tell me how they fell in love and he rescued her from the evil king.” Sometimes, after the story, her mom would say, “One day, you’ll marry your brave prince.” If her mom forgot to say those words, Lilly had thought them.
    Over the years, Lilly came to realize that the “Evil King” of that story was really her grandfather, who she had never met. Her mom never went into details about her horrible childhood. All Lilly knew was that her mom had been dirt poor and her dad had been mean as dirt. Lilly also knew, from day one, that her mom didn’t want that kind of life for her. “No daughter of mine is going to go through what I went through…”
    After the little memory detour, Lilly got back on track and turned page after page, without shedding a tear. She read journal entries about the first dig and remembered why she never bothered to read her mother’s journals before. It didn’t take long for it to change from a personal family album into a history lesson. She flipped through most of the pages and ended up at the back of the book, without a clue.
    She stood up and stretched, eyeing all of the notebooks on the floor and then eyeing the window. She took the step needed to see outside; Wade still waited in his truck. Why was he still out there? She growled and whined at the thoughts she had mingling in her head: Might as well put him to use if he is going to be out there all night anyway . He had offered to help. And she did feel bad about how short she had been with him. Maybe this way he would at least stop stalking her and she would get through the notebooks a lot faster.

Chapter 5
     
    “So what exactly are we looking for?” Wade asked as soon as they had walked into the bedroom. Lilly had scared him half to death earlier. “Boo,” she’d said, standing there by his truck window the precise moment he’d shut his eyes. “Sorry to scare you. I would’ve called but since you don’t believe in cell phones…” But then she’d smiled and actually apologized for being so bitchy earlier and said if he was still offering, she could use some help going through a stack of her mom’s journals. However, in the same breath, she’d told him that it didn’t “mean” anything. He didn’t know why she thought he was such child. He was mature and could be helpful without thinking they were getting back together and without thinking about them in bed together… Well, maybe he wouldn’t go that far.
    “I don’t know. Here.” She handed him a stuffed notebook. “You work in descending order, and I’ll work in ascending. Hopefully, we’ll find something before we meet in the middle.” She abruptly started fumbling through the rest of the notebooks.