The Passion of Cleopatra (Ramses the Damned 2)

If the sudden commotion in the foyer was any indication, her brothers were about to make an appearance downstairs.

"Sibyl!" Ethan's voice boomed up the grand staircase. "Gin! Gin for everyone!"

My dearest mother and father, she prayed. I pray that your spirits return on the wind and knock your terrible, ungrateful drunk of a son flat on his face!

"Sibyl! Wake up. We've got company!" Gregory was joining in now. " 'Less you've got a suitor up there with you, in which case give him our condolences!"

There was a riot of laughter at this remark, some of it female.

It was past three in the morning, the servants were asleep in the attic, and she was being summoned like a housemaid. And to serve whom? What company could one reasonably expect at three in the morning?

She swung her feet to the chilly hardwood floor and gathered the waistband of her robe about herself.

When she reached the top of the grand staircase, her brothers and their female companions stared up at her from the foyer far below as if Parker House were a hotel and the four of them were being rudely ignored by the bellman.

Ethan was the taller of the two. He had been a handsome devil before strong drink had convinced him to treat his shaggy mane of black hair as an afterthought, and given him a blotchy complexion and a bulbous red nose. Gregory was half his older brother's height, with a pear-shaped body and a bushy ginger mustache he maintained solely because it made him look older and therefore more accomplished in business than he truly was.

Their dates for the evening were both clad in spare but flowing dresses that managed to drape and reveal their long legs at the same time. This particular style of fashion had just started to take hold in young women who frequented jazz clubs, and Sibyl didn't care for it, which is why she always managed to forget its brusque name. Something to do with a bird, she thought.

Both women only glanced at her before returning their attention to the surroundings: the giant grandfather clock in the front hallway, the grand staircase beneath a stained-glass dome worthy of a statehouse.

"It is past three in the morning," she said quietly. "Am I really expected to entertain?"

"How many rooms this place got?" one of the women asked.

"Plenty, honey," Ethan answered. "Parker House's got plenty of rooms and we're gonna show you all of 'em. Where's Lucy?"

"I'm right here, madam," Lucy stammered. Ah, poor dear Lucy. Still struggling into her robe, Sibyl's beloved maid emerged from the stairs to the servant's attic. She was blinking at the chandelier's sudden glare.

"You may conduct a tour in the morning," Sibyl offered as she descended the stairs with Lucy behind her. "Or perhaps when you return at some later date. For now, Lucy and I both need our sleep."

Both of her brothers paled at the thought of spending more than a few lustful hours with their current companions.

"Gin, Lucy," Gregory bellowed. "Gin for everyone!"

"You may go back to bed, Lucy," Sibyl said.

"Fix us a drink, Lucy," Gregory cried.

"Go to bed, Lucy. This instant. I insist."

Lucy turned on her heel and proceeded up the stairs from which she'd come.

"Hey, what's this?" one of the women said. She picked up a parcel wrapped in brown paper off the console table and shook it as if it were a baby's rattle. "One of you fine gents get me a gift? You boys! We just met!"

"Oh, no, that's for Sis here," Ethan answered. "See, Sis is what you might call a collector. She enjoys dusty old things from all over the world 'cause they remind her of her love life."

Ethan snatched the package from his date's hand and shook it next to one ear.

"Ethan, put it down," Sibyl said. She stood at the foot of the stairs. "Please!"

"Doesn't sound like a piece from a pharaoh's scepter," Ethan said.

"Might be more bones," Gregory chimed in. "Remember the time the old man sent her some bones and she spent hours studying them at her desk like some mad scientist? Should have put her in a madhouse right then!"

"Put it down, Ethan!"

But Ethan only raised his arms high above his head so the package was just out of Sibyl's reach. The women cackled as if it were the funniest thing they'd ever seen.