Where the Library Hides

Inez considers Whit’s proposal. When Ricardo gives her the tickets for her return to Buenos Aires within the week, Inez decides to accept Whit’s proposal, since it’s her last chance to stay and seek justice for her father. While Ricardo is distracted, she meets with Whit and tells him of her decision.

Whit then scrambles to arrange the wedding in secret. He goes to find his estranged military friend, Leo, at the exclusive Khedivial Sporting Club. The other men there recognize Whit and physically force him out, but Leo follows and agrees to help. Together, they secure the cooperation of an army chaplain at the bar in Shepheard’s Hotel. However, Whit accidentally endangers his plans when he drunkenly tells others there about his plan to marry Inez. His former captain, whose report led to Whit’s discharge, learns about the plan and vows to tell Ricardo. Whit knows that they’ll have to move even more quickly. He stumbles back into the hotel proper and soon realizes that Inez is watching him from upstairs.

Inez returns to her hotel room, shaken by the sight of Whit drunk and mingling with British soldiers despite his past disdain for them. She fears that she misjudged him again. When he sneaks into her hotel room early the next morning, he’s tense and distant as he announces that the wedding must happen that day. Though concerned by his urgency, Inez agrees.

At sunset, she goes to the Hanging Church to wait for Whit, wearing the same black dress she wore when she first met him. As the evening prayer rises, she fears that he won’t show up. Whit arrives, still disheveled but triumphant, holding the marriage license. As they prepare to enter the church, Inez is torn between excitement and grief. Her wedding isn’t the fairy tale she once imagined, but she knows this is her way to reclaim control over her life. She questions Whit about why he wants to marry her, and he says that she’s the only thing that makes sense in his life. Together, they enter the church.

As they enter the church, Inez is distracted by the beauty of the interior, while Leo, their witness, sleeps in the pews, waking just in time to participate in the ceremony. As the ceremony begins, Inez agonizes over her vows, as she was too focused on slipping away from the hotel to come up with them ahead of time. When the time comes, she vows to be faithful and respectful but not to obey him. Whit, in turn, vows to honor, protect, and stay by her side and doesn’t expect her obedience either. The chaplain pronounces them “husband and wife,” and they kiss.

Afterward, Leo congratulates Inez and expresses surprise that Whit chose to marry her rather than the woman his parents chose for him. Inez realizes that Whit’s choosing to marry her means severing ties with his family. Though she still has questions about his past, Inez believes she made the right choice to trust Whit.

Inez and Whit return to Shepheard’s Hotel after the wedding. As they sneak through the crowd in the lobby, they spot Ricardo arguing with hotel guests. Whit leads Inez through the chaos back to her hotel room. On the way, while Whit says they don’t have to rush to consummate the marriage, Inez says that her uncle will insist on an annulment otherwise. Once inside the room, they open up about their families to each other, and Whit undresses Inez. He asks if she’s ready, and she turns the question back on him, but he deflects. Only after they have sex and Whit falls asleep beside her does Inez realize he never answered her.

Inez wakes up in Whit’s arms the next morning. The peaceful moment is brief because they remember that they still must tell Ricardo about their marriage. When they enter his hotel room to tell him the news, Ricardo notices their clasped hands and punches Whit in the face. Inez defends their marriage, countering every attempt Ricardo makes to invalidate it. Before their argument can escalate further, a telegram arrives from Abdullah (an archaeologist and Ricardo’s brother-in-law), reporting a disaster at the excavation site in Philae. Ricardo and Whit prepare to go, planning to leave Inez behind. Inez initially believes Whit is dismissing her capabilities by agreeing but soon realizes he was placating Ricardo. Whit asks Inez to search Ricardo’s room while he’s gone, and she agrees.

On the journey to Philae, Ricardo accuses Whit of taking advantage of Inez, and Whit endures the criticisms, believing it will be worth it in the end. When they arrive at the excavation site, they find the camp in chaos. Tents were torn apart, supplies stolen, and they see blood in the sand. Abdullah, who is injured, tells them that Mr. Fincastle (Lourdes’s associate) ransacked Cleopatra’s tomb. Ricardo bemoans the loss of the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, a document containing instructions for creating the philosopher’s stone. However, Whit knows that Fincastle doesn’t have it either because he looked for it and failed to find it.

Inez searches Ricardo’s room for clues about Lourdes’s whereabouts or secrets and finds her mother’s journal hidden inside a pillowcase. The journal describes Ricardo as abusive and corrupt, which Inez knows is false, and she wonders why her uncle kept it. She realizes that her parents had left her behind for longer periods than she expected to return to Egypt when she was young. A knock on the door interrupts her thoughts. It’s Isadora, a young woman Inez met on her uncle’s dahabeeyah. Isadora says she needs Inez’s help and confesses that her father, Mr. Fincastle, led the attack on the Philae excavation site. He stole all of Cleopatra’s artifacts, including her mummy. Inez is horrified and realizes that her uncle and Whit likely discovered the devastation by now. Before Inez can process this, Isadora tells her that her father’s long-term affair was with Inez’s mother: Inez and Isadora are half-sisters.

Inez reels after the news. At first, she feels some happiness, knowing she’s not alone after her cousin Elvira’s death. However, she worries that Isadora could follow in their mother’s manipulative footsteps. Whit returns from Philae and confronts Isadora about her working with her father, but Inez steps in and insists that she wasn’t involved. She tells him about her mother’s affair with Mr. Fincastle and how that makes Isadora family, which Whit reluctantly accepts. He agrees to let Isadora stay with them for the time being. While Isadora goes downstairs to bring back a cot for Whit to sleep on, Inez shows him Lourdes’s journal. As they look through it, Whit notices a sketch of an ouroboros, a symbol linking to the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra. He speculates that Lourdes is still searching for it in Egypt.

Whit wakes the next morning angry because he thinks Isadora is manipulating Inez but can’t prove it. When he goes to get coffee, his brother, Porter, joins him. Porter tells him that their family’s finances have completely collapsed, and their sister, Arabella, is being pressured to marry an old man, Lord Fartherington. Porter insists that Whit fulfill his promise to save his family.

As the half-sisters share a tense meal, Inez reveals the full extent of their mother’s criminal activities in the “black-market” artifact trade. Isadora finds it difficult to believe but eventually acknowledges that her parents acted strange and suspicious at times when she was growing up.

Later, Inez visits the Anglo-Egyptian Bank to begin transferring access to her fortune but discovers that Whit already visited the bank, withdrew all the money, and wired it to a London bank account without informing her, effectively stealing everything. Leaving the bank, she encounters Whit and Porter on the street. Inez accuses Whit of using her for her money, and he admits that he did it to save his sister from a forced marriage, arguing that she wouldn’t have trusted him or given him the funds had he asked. Inez slaps him, saying she’ll never trust him again, and then leaves with Isadora.