What the River Knows

Inez no longer trusts her uncle, but she still finds herself drawn to Whit against her better judgment. In the morning, the brawny Mr. Fincastle and his daughter, Isadora, board the boat, and their presence makes Inez uneasy. Inez hides herself and takes out the wooden box again. As she holds it, she has a vision of Cleopatra crafting a potion, and she realizes that the pharaoh worked magic. She spends the rest of the day working with Kareem in the kitchen and wondering how to reveal her presence to her uncle. That evening, Inez helps serve dinner in the boat’s saloon, which allows her to eavesdrop on Ricardo, Whit, Mr. Fincastle, and Isadora. Mr. Fincastle’s comments about the opulent boat cause Inez to realize that her parents’ deaths have made her uncle enormously rich.

The next day, the Elephantine continues up the Nile. While Inez is hard at work scrubbing the deck, the wind scatters some important papers. She falls overboard trying to catch them. When a crocodile approaches her, Whit calls her by her first name and loses his ever-present flask diving in after her. He promises, “I won’t let anything happen to you” (146).