Tetley

Tetley is a British Museum-associated informant who becomes one of Theodosia’s pursuers, linking an early London search for the Heart of Egypt to the later confrontation in an Egyptian tomb. His appearances move from overheard intelligence and a sudden street attack to an unmistakable role among her enemies; in the tomb, Theodosia turns the execration magic she has prepared against him, and he collapses as a result.

Identity and First Clues

Theodosia first learns Tetley’s name by listening outside an office where Lord Snowthorpe is speaking to him. Snowthorpe tells him that he was wrong: the Throckmortons do not have the Heart of Egypt. The exchange shows that Tetley had supplied information connecting the family to the artifact, but it does not establish how he obtained that information or why he passed it on. Snowthorpe suspects the family is bluffing about the Heart being cleaned and rebukes Tetley for failing to check his sources. Tetley apologizes and is told to carry on, suggesting that this mistaken report does not end their association.

The scene gives Theodosia a name but not an explanation. She leaves with more questions about how Tetley learned of the Heart and what else he knows. After a door closes, a passerby mutters that an old man was not supposed to go looking for it. The speaker is not identified, so the remark cannot be securely assigned to Tetley; it nevertheless extends the sense that information about the artifact is being exchanged beyond the conversation Theodosia overheard. When she sees a young man in a hat and carrying a cane walking briskly away, she judges that he is probably Tetley, not that she has positively identified him.

London Pursuit

Tetley next appears in a dangerous London episode. In a grime-blackened alley that ends at a brick wall, his way forward is blocked. A pursuer closes in with a long black club and strikes him on the head. Tetley crumples into a puddle, and Theodosia cannot tell whether he is dead or merely unconscious. The uncertainty matters: the blow removes him from the immediate scene, but the book does not then confirm his condition or name the attacker. His later presence in Egypt establishes that he survived the episode, although the account does not explain how he recovered or travelled there.

His return also changes the meaning of the earlier glimpse of the young man leaving Snowthorpe’s office. On a tram pulling away from danger in Egypt, Theodosia recognizes Tetley among her pursuers. She has already identified von Braggenschnott from his appearance at St Paul's churchyard; the second man remains scarf-covered, but Tetley’s face is plainly visible. The recognition connects the man involved in London’s intelligence trail to the organized pursuit now closing around her in Egypt. It confirms his presence on the opposing side without disclosing the full extent of his duties or the nature of his relationship with the other men.

The Tomb Confrontation

Inside the tomb, Theodosia sees Tetley leaning over an Anubis statue and grinning at her. His appearance makes his identity certain at last. She has been preparing an execration figure, carving his name into the wax while reciting the rites. When Tetley comes close again, she finishes the figure’s final hieroglyph; the scene makes her preparation an immediate response to the threat surrounding her, rather than an abstract exercise in magic.

The tomb falls deathly silent as all three pursuers watch Theodosia. She recognizes von Braggenschnott and Tetley, then reacts with surprise at seeing Nigel Bollingsworth as well. With her back against the wall and the wax figure hidden beside her skirts, she is outnumbered and has little room to act. She waits until Tetley has taken two more steps, then grips the figure’s left leg and breaks it while chanting the words of power. Tetley screams and clutches his own left leg as it folds beneath him. She snaps the wax figure’s right leg as well; Tetley howls and crumples to the floor.

Role and Outcome

Tetley’s role is defined by a sharp reversal. In the London alley he is the person struck down, leaving Theodosia unsure whether he is alive; in the tomb he is an active pursuer, and she uses the same kind of vulnerability against him through a magical image of his body. The effect is concrete and immediate: each broken wax leg corresponds to a leg giving way, and the second act leaves him on the floor. The narrative does not state what happens to him afterward, so his collapse should not be treated as confirmation of death or lasting injury.

As a plot figure, Tetley supplies continuity between separate stages of Theodosia’s investigation. His conversation with Lord Snowthorpe reveals that information about the Heart is circulating, while his later appearance among the pursuers shows that the threat has followed her beyond London. His identity is disclosed gradually: first a name overheard through a door, then a likely sighting, then a man knocked down in an alley, and finally a face recognized in Egypt. The sequence turns uncertainty into recognition without supplying a complete account of his motives, leaving his place in the wider operation clear enough to threaten Theodosia but not fully explained.