Scroll Of Saqqara Part 12

No dressing can heal my wound, he wanted to shout. Everything in him demanded that the conversation be continued, that she be forced to admit a desire for him equal to his own, but a new wisdom advised a temporary retreat. Frontal attack would not work. Tbubui must be won with stealth, with a patience barbed in small thorns of aggression "Thank you, no," he replied briskly. "I must go home. I have business waiting. Your hospitality was boundless as usual, Tbubui." He did his best to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. She rose, unscrewed the earring and handed it back to him with obvious reluctance.

"We in this family revere ancient turquoise," she said. "This piece is of incomparable delicacy and beauty, and I shall perhaps try to have it copied. I appreciate being allowed to wear it, Prince." Hori wrapped it and returned it to the pouch. Clumsily he pushed himself out of the chair and without another word she followed him into the pa.s.sage.

The afternoon was far advanced, a blazing furnace of heat and light that shocked him after the coolness of her bedchamber. He took his leave with some of his accustomed dignity and she smiled wryly into his eyes, bidding him to come back at his earliest convenience. His litter was waiting. Grunting he reclined on the cus.h.i.+ons, gave his command and twitched the curtains closed.

Some moments later, something made him lift the heavy covering and glance back at the house. Tbubui was standing in the shadow of the entrance, gazing expressionlessly after him, and she was not alone. Her brother stood beside her, one arm across her shoulders, his sombre face as blank as hers. Quickly Hori withdrew and let the curtain fall, but the vision of those two frozen and somehow ominous sentinels stayed with him, clouding the otherwise burning day.

KHAEMWASET'S MOOD was still uncertain when the rest of the family gathered to dine just after sunset. Accustomed to a father of even temper, Sheritra prattled on about Harmin during the first two courses and was shocked into silence when Khaemwaset told her sharply to be quiet. For once Nubnofret defended her, saying, "Really Khaemwaset, there is no need to be rude!" But he did not answer, lifting food to his mouth that he hardly tasted and not hearing at all the pleasant music filling the hall. He was aware of Hori's unusual withdrawal, his monosyllabic answers to his mother's casual questions, and made a mental note to inspect his son's knee the following day, but forgot the thought as soon as it was complete. When he had returned from the tomb to his office, Penbuy had read him a scroll from Wennufer, his priestly friend, setting out the retort to an amicable argument the two had been engaged in, now, for months, regarding the true burial place of the head of Osiris, and Khaemwaset had found himself profoundly bored with the whole question. Huy, Mayor of Memphis, had sent a note inviting him to dine and he had told Penbuy to decline on his behalf. Si-Montu had written in his own hieratic scrawl to let his brother know that the grapes were recovering from their blight and filling apace. The mention of disease had made him think of the message from his mother's scribe, but he thrust the guilt of his inaction regarding her failing health to the back of his mind. He would dictate a cheerful letter to her soon. From the Delta had come the reports of the men detailed to measure the steadily shrinking level of the Nile, and his scribe's voice, monotonously reeling off the list of figures, had given Khaemwaset a sudden lancing pain in the gut that he did not even bother to treat. was still uncertain when the rest of the family gathered to dine just after sunset. Accustomed to a father of even temper, Sheritra prattled on about Harmin during the first two courses and was shocked into silence when Khaemwaset told her sharply to be quiet. For once Nubnofret defended her, saying, "Really Khaemwaset, there is no need to be rude!" But he did not answer, lifting food to his mouth that he hardly tasted and not hearing at all the pleasant music filling the hall. He was aware of Hori's unusual withdrawal, his monosyllabic answers to his mother's casual questions, and made a mental note to inspect his son's knee the following day, but forgot the thought as soon as it was complete. When he had returned from the tomb to his office, Penbuy had read him a scroll from Wennufer, his priestly friend, setting out the retort to an amicable argument the two had been engaged in, now, for months, regarding the true burial place of the head of Osiris, and Khaemwaset had found himself profoundly bored with the whole question. Huy, Mayor of Memphis, had sent a note inviting him to dine and he had told Penbuy to decline on his behalf. Si-Montu had written in his own hieratic scrawl to let his brother know that the grapes were recovering from their blight and filling apace. The mention of disease had made him think of the message from his mother's scribe, but he thrust the guilt of his inaction regarding her failing health to the back of his mind. He would dictate a cheerful letter to her soon. From the Delta had come the reports of the men detailed to measure the steadily shrinking level of the Nile, and his scribe's voice, monotonously reeling off the list of figures, had given Khaemwaset a sudden lancing pain in the gut that he did not even bother to treat.

l.u.s.t for Tbubui inflamed him. He could not have cast the vivid visions of her body, her laugh, her gestures, from his mind if he had wanted to. Every call upon his time and attention infuriated him, and Hori's abrupt revelation yesterday was a distraction of enormous proportions.

As soon as the evening meal was aver, Khaemwaset rose and left the hall, striding out into a far corner of the garden where he stood rigid, watching the rising of a pale, waning moon. He had made a supreme effort earlier in going to his wife's suite and entertaining her once more at sennet, and it had been almost too much for him to bear.

He had not wanted to go to the tomb that morning. The tomb was one catastrophe in an ocean of irritations. He had wanted to stay where he was, in the event that Tbubui might call on him for some reason. In a few days he intended to visit her, with a herbal recipe as the excuse. He knew that in fact he needed no excuse. She was a widow and he a prince, ent.i.tled to as many wives and concubines as he wished, but in his heart he felt besmirched, made guilty by this pa.s.sion. Its power had already swept him away so that his work, his family, his position meant nothing anymore He had already determined that nothing should stand between him and the object of his desire. Coldly he was beginning to plan his campaign of acquisition.

Sighing, he let the sensuous beauty of the night-the scented, fitful breeze that fluttered probing fingers against his naked skin, the soft black sky with its mat of stars- insinuate itself into that place already turbulent with obsession. His thoughts turned to the turquoise earring Hori had revealed with a mixture of pride and shame, but immediately he saw it resting against a tall brown neck, entangled in black hair that smelled of warmth and myrrh. It would suit her so well. "Ah Thoth," he groaned quietly, arms coming up to cradle his pain, "if you love me then help me. Help me!" The G.o.d's symbol now stood small and hard-rimmed above the house, its light an indifferent, alien thing.

Khaemwaset sank to the gra.s.s with his back against a tree. For a long time he watched the cheerful glow of lamps within move from room to room and eventually be extinguished. Beyond the garden wall, where the servants' compound lay with its granaries and the huge kitchen, came the intermittent sounds of laughter and the rattle of dice and click of knucklebones, but soon these faded into the deepening lateness of the hour.

A lamp appeared, hovering just beyond the shrubbery, and Kasa's voice called, "Prince, are you out here?"

"Yes," Khaemwaset called back without rising. "I am too restless to retire, Kasa. Leave my couch turned down and water in the ante-room so that I may wash before bed. Then you may go to your own quarters."

"Wash yourself, Highness?" Kasa's indignation was clear though Khaemwaset could not see him. "Really, I ..."

"Sleep well, Kasa," Khaemwaset broke in firmly, and the lamp made an agitated sweep and disappeared beyond the invisible pillars. In truth, Khaemwaset's eyes burned and his head felt thick with weariness, but beneath the physical symptoms he was preternaturally alert.

When the last lamp had been put out in the house he got up, intending to take a turn around his estate and perhaps watch the river for a while, but instead he found himself descending the watersteps, untethering the small skiff, clambering into it and running out the oars. This is madness, his sane self protested, aghast, but his driven, dreaming self established a rowing stroke, took note of the shrouded, deserted banks and the empty stretch of moon-glittering river, and matched Tbubui's name to each pull.

The northern suburbs glided by, sunk in silence. Once Khaemwaset pa.s.sed a large lamp-bedecked raft crowded with revellers, but their noise soon grew faint. He pulled for the eastern bank, scarcely conscious of his aching thighs and shoulders. I should not be doing this, he told himself peacefully. If anyone sees me they will think that the great Prince has taken leave of his senses. Perhaps I have. Perhaps I am in the grip of strong magic, perhaps I am even at home on my couch floating in the illusion of purpose, movement, under a spell of Thoth's moon. Well then, let the spell continue. Let it bind me tighter, let the night dissolve time and reality so that I may stand unseen before her house as a young man in love, without c.u.mberances. Water dribbled silver from the oars, and the surface of the river rippled away to be quietly lost in the shadows of the bank.

Her diminutive watersteps were easy to miss, crowded as they were by choking river growth, but Khaemwaset manoeuvred the skiff unerringly to b.u.mp against them. He disembarked, made his boat fast and stepped up onto the path. His feet made no sound on the sandy ground strewn with brittle fallen palm leaves. The trees themselves marched away into duskiness on either side like the pillars of a temple, and their spreading height made a canopy. Khaemwaset felt even more strongly that he was walking in a dream. One more bend in the track and the house would be before him, its white walls dimmed to a mysterious grey, its tiny windows blind. He padded on.

All at once a flicker of movement to his left caught his eye, and some of the weight of unreality slipped from him. He stopped. Someone was stalking him. I should have at least brought Amek with me, he thought, senses suddenly alert. I am a fool. He waited tensely for another flutter between the trunks. It came, and then Tbubui was walking towards him, threading her way barefoot, the delineations of her face and body blurred in the half darkness. Her hair was loose and tousled, a black cloud framing scrubbed features, and with an inward wrench Khaemwaset saw that she was naked but for a flimsy sleeping kilt tied about her hips. She came up to him and halted without the least surprise.

"Prince Khaemwaset," she said. "I should have guessed it was you. The air is full of your presence tonight.

She had not asked what he was doing there. Unadorned by any jewellery, her face fresh and unpainted, she looked about sixteen. I am a young man in love, Khaemwaset thought happily. Oh Tbubui! "The thought of you makes me commit outrageous acts," he replied. "I had planned to circle your house like a lovesick youth and then go home. Forgive my eccentric behaviour."

"It is no more eccentric than mine," she countered with a slight smile "I like to wander under the palms at night if I cannot sleep. And sleep often eludes me of late."

"Why is that?" he asked quickly, his throat constricting. She raised dusky eyes to his.

"I am not sure," she whispered, "but I know that I am lonely, Prince. Rest does not come easily to the discontented." She clasped her hands together under her chin in an artless, youthful gesture. "My brother is not a communicative man though he loves me, and Harmin ..." She shrugged. "Harmin is a young man carving out his own concerns."

She began to wander away, not in the direction of the house but farther in under the trees. Khaemwaset kept pace with her. He took her hand and it was a natural, simple thing to do. Her fingers curled around his. She came to a halt in dense shadow and he pulled her to face him, fumbling for her other hand.

"I love you also," he said urgently. "I think I have loved you from the first moment I glimpsed you walking in the dust along the river road. I have never been in love before, Tbubui, not with my body, mind and ka all crying out." He released her hands and took her by the shoulders, touching her neck, the curve of her ears, brus.h.i.+ng across her eyes in a kind of ecstasy. "I want to make love to you now," he hissed. "Here, under the palms."

"I long to lie in your arms," she returned in a low voice. "I have wondered what it would be like so many times, and then when I looked into your eyes and saw my desire mirrored there ..." She rubbed her cheek against his questing fingers. "But I do not give myself lightly, Khaemwaset, as some women might. I live sternly as the ancients did, and abhor the moral corruption of this age."

Khaemwaset sank to the sand, pulling her with him. Her words had merely skimmed his mind, and all he clung to was the admission from her own lips that she longed to lie in his arms. Forcing her gently onto her back he buried his face between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his hands kneading her thighs. Feeling the soft kiss of linen there he loosened it and raised his head. She lay naked under him, concave belly lightly lifting and falling, the simplicity of her stark hip bones an agony of pleasure in themselves.

He began to draw his tongue over the skin between them, but she took his head in both hands and forced it up, her mouth seeking his. This time the kiss was hers, the moans of delight were hers, and she thrust against him with an urgency that rendered him momentarily weak. He broke away and straddled her, victory awe and pa.s.sion a tumult within him, but she suddenly wriggled from his grip and rolled away, lying face down on the earth and panting. Khaemwaset put out a hand but she cringed away, then she sat up, pulling her knees to her chin.

"I cannot," she muttered. "Forgive me, Prince."

He wanted to shake her in his frustration. He wanted to fling her once more onto her back and hold her down, push himself inside her and release the dammed-up flood of pain that was now a constant burden, but he did not. He stroked her hair with one long, tender caress, then withdrew his hand. "I have a beautiful house on my estate," he said steadily. "It is large and airy and full of precious things. Its garden is complete with a fish pond and a fountain. I have not entered it for a long time. My very few concubines live there." He smiled wryly, but he did not think that she could see his expression for the depth of the shadows. "I have seldom bothered them over the years. Nubnofret was enough for me, but now ..." He paused but she did not look up. Her forehead was resting on her knees. "Now I want you with me," he went on. "Move into that house, Tbubui. Come as a privileged member of my household. Your every need will be met, yours and your son's and your brother's. Let me take care of you."

Slowly her head came up and turned towards him. Khaemwaset could see the cold glimmer of her eyes. "Princesses may count themselves fortunate to end up in the harems of kings," she said distantly, "but I will be no man's concubine, languis.h.i.+ng the long hours away in waiting for a man whose infatuation fades under the onslaught of fresh beauty, and who in the end does not summon her at all. She remains his property, though, and may not claim her freedom."

"Tbubui, it is I, Khaemwaset who makes you this offer!" he expostulated, amazed. "I am not by nature a profligate man. I would honour you with my body to the end of my life!"

"You were not a profligate man," she objected, and now her voice seemed disembodied and deadly cold, "but forces have been wakened in you that will not be quelled, O Prince. With me or without me, your long-suffering Nubnofret cannot satisfy you any longer, whether you know it yet or not."

"You woke those forces!" Khaemwaset cried out. "You changed me! It is you towards whom they are directed, and you who will always control them. I love you!"

"Yes, you do," she agreed, still in that flat remote tone. "But I am sorry, Prince. I cannot accept your offer. And I cannot give you my body whenever you desire it as a common wh.o.r.e would do. Such a thing would destroy me."

Khaemwaset became aware that he was grinding his lips between his teeth and his hands were clenched into fists. With conscious deliberation he uncurled his fingers, relaxed his jaw and lay back with eyes closed. For a long time a silence fell. Neither of them moved. The palm grove around them was utterly without sound.

Then Khaemwaset rose, getting to his feet without haste. Hands on his hips he stared down at her. "Get up, Tbubui," he commanded. She did so, brus.h.i.+ng her b.u.t.tocks, knees and elbows like a child who has been told not to muddy a new kilt, then she stood before him with downcast eyes. "Your words were strong," he said, "but they confirm in me the knowledge of your good breeding and sound morals. Such women are rare. I love you more, not less, for your position, my dear sister." It was the first time he had called her a lover's name and she made a small, throaty whimper. "Under the law I am permitted to take another wife," he went on boldly, though his other self, the cautious, sober self who wanted only to be returned to its placid old existence, listened in horror. "Until now I have not wished to do so, but I will have you, Tbubui, do not doubt it, and if it must be through marriage, then I gladly offer it." Taking her chin he forced her to look at him. Her expression was blank, even sullen, her eyes veiled. "I will have a marriage contract drawn up between us and you will live in my house, in a suite I shall build for you. Are you agreeable?" Her eyelashes fluttered as though she were coming out of a deep trance.

'Dear Khaemwaset, dear Prince," she said softly. "I love you, but never think that I refused to give myself to you in the hope that you might be pressured into marrying me. The marriage of a blood prince is a serious matter. Let us both take some time to consider it well."

He held her urgently. "But you will consider it?"

"Oh yes." She smiled. "Indeed I will."

All at once he wanted nothing more than to be at home on his couch where he could think. "Come and visit us tomorrow afternoon," he begged. "Spend some time with Nubnofret. She already thinks a great deal of you and enjoys your company. Life as a princess has much to recommend it, Tbubui."

"I am sure it has," she responded gravely.

He pulled her close and kissed her, this time with an almost violent ferocity, then he pushed her away, turned on his heel and set off briskly for the watersteps. He did not look back. She had not met his kiss with equal fervour but he had the distinct impression that its savagery had excited her. If I am to offer her a contract, if she is to marry into the royal family, I must inst.i.tute a thorough investigation of her roots, he thought, his eyes on the soft ground gliding by beneath him. Her blood must be pure, her lineage untouched by treason or any other offence against Egypt. Penbuy can do it. He can also draw up the contract, but quietly. The thought of his brother Si-Montu, who had cheerfully married a commoner and a foreign one at that, came into his mind, and he wondered whether his need to research Tbubui came from some small warning part of him that existed solely for his preservation. I am being foolish, he told himself happily, dazedly. My desire is now within my grasp. It will be difficult to tell the family but, after all, I will be doing nothing more than that which is my right. Father might even approve. He has always been amused at my sober tastes in everything. He felt lightheaded and slightly drunk, and indeed he stumbled twice before he got to the watersteps and his skiff, still tied to the peeling paint of her post. He was sure that he had left it a dozen hentis ago.

Suddenly he had the overpowering impression that he was being watched. Halting, he peered about, trying to pierce the thick gloom under the trees. "Tbubui, is that you?" he called, but there was not even a breeze to whisper an answer. Khaemwaset stood very still, breathing shallowly. He was more certain than ever, though he could see nothing, that an unseen presence lurked close by with speculative eyes on him. If he had been in less of an internal turmoil he would have left the path and searched angrily, but as it was he hurried down the steps and into the rocking craft. The night was no longer a magic spell of romance and timelessness. It was a shroud hiding the ephemeral, nameless things that preyed upon human beings in envy. He could not pull away from the watersteps quickly enough.

10.

Set not sorrow in thy heart, for the years are not many.

DAWN WAS ONLY DAWN WAS ONLY three hours away when Khaemwaset fell onto his couch without bother ing to use the water Kasa had dutifully left for him. His night lamp was low and guttering. He blew it out, thinking that he would doubtless sleep very late the next morning, but to his surprise he woke refreshed at his usual time, unaware of having dreamed and feeling full of vigour. three hours away when Khaemwaset fell onto his couch without bother ing to use the water Kasa had dutifully left for him. His night lamp was low and guttering. He blew it out, thinking that he would doubtless sleep very late the next morning, but to his surprise he woke refreshed at his usual time, unaware of having dreamed and feeling full of vigour.

After he had been bathed and dressed and had opened the shrine in his quarters to say his morning prayers, he went over the events of the night. Perhaps they were a dream I had, he told himself. They seem so unreal in the full light of early morning. But he was humming as he talked to himself, for he knew the difference between vision and reality.

When he had finished his morning prayers and was capping the incense, Hori was announced. Khaemwaset handed the long incense holder to Ib and turned to greet his son. But the warmth in his heart that he wished to spread over everyone he met today was dampened as he watched the young man approach. Hori was limping, of course, but it was his face that gave Khaemwaset pause. He was pale, even haggard, with black smudges under his eyes and a stoop to his ordinarily straight spine. Concerned, Khaemwaset's eyes flew to the knee, fearing infection, but the gash had closed well and the st.i.tches were all visible. "Hori, what ails you?" he asked.

Hori looked surprised and then shrugged. "Do I look that ill?" he said with an attempted grin. "My knee hurts, Father, but I don't suppose you will want to remove the st.i.tches until the last moment because of where the injury is. May I sit down?"

"Of course."

"I did not sleep well," Hori went on, lowering himself into the chair by Khaemwaset's couch. "I cannot remember what I dreamed but it was terrible, dark and full of foreboding and menace, and I woke feeling sick. It is wearing off now."

Khaemwaset sat on the couch and observed him carefully. You need three or four days of strict fasting," he said. "Let your body cleanse itself and your ka become quieter."

"You are probably right," Hori agreed. "I wish you had cast the horoscopes, Father. Phamenoth will soon be upon us and I do not like going blind through the days not knowing my unlucky hours. I find it impossible to make correct decisions." He was not speaking directly into his father's face. His gaze roved the room and his hands were woven tightly together.

"Something else is troubling you," Khaemwaset insisted. "I will cast the horoscopes for Phamenoth, I promise, but will you not talk to me, Hori? Let me help you."

Now Hori's glance came to rest on his father and he smiled. "There is nothing wrong believe me, Prince. I will take your advice and fast. I think that Antef and I have been imbibing too freely, eating too recklessly and falling into bed too often. with the dawn."

Khaemwaset, remembering his moment of unease on Tbubui's path the previous night, s.h.i.+vered a little. "Antef is due to return today."

"Yes." Hori pulled himself straighter. He had not yet been painted and Khaemwaset was relieved to see that already some colour was flus.h.i.+ng his cheeks and his eyes were regaining their translucent glitter. "Father, have you taken another look at the scroll yet?"

Khaemwaset did not need to ask which scroll. For the past three months there had only been one scroll, throbbing on the edge of his consciousness like a tooth beginning to rot. "No I have not," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

Hori's eyes once more left his and were fastened on the far wall. "Because yesterday I paid a visit to Tbubui. I had hoped to see Sisenet but he was not at home. He is an erudite man and I thought I might discuss the tomb with him again."

A formless anxiety blended with jealousy shook Khaemwaset. "You spent time with Tbubui?" he asked sharply. "You went there without telling me? You were alone with her?"

Hori blinked. "Yes. We think that it would help to have the scroll deciphered. She offered her brother's a.s.sistance. She told me that he has had some success in translating ancient writings and, with your permission, I would like to invite him here to inspect it."

"She is coming here this afternoon to visit Nubnofret," Khaemwaset said with a curious reluctance. "I will speak to her about it then. I suppose that Sisenet can do the scroll no harm." But will it do him harm? came the irrational thought.

"Coming today?" Hori exclaimed. "How do you know? She said nothing of it to me yesterday."

Something is definitely straining Hori, Khaemwaset thought. I wonder what it is." Your mother keeps expressing a wish to see her again and so I sent a message to her house in the evening," Khaemwaset explained. "She did not reply, therefore she is coming." I have never lied to my son before, he thought gloomily, but I have the feeling that it will not be the last time. Is he, in his deliberate silence, lying to me by omission?

"Oh," was all Hori said. "In that case I will not go out today. The scroll interests me greatly." He struggled out of the chair, suddenly kissed his father in an uncharacteristic, swift gesture and hobbled out of the room.

Tbubui arrived just after the noon sleep, when the greatest heat of the day still permeated the house. Khaemwaset had told a delighted Nubnofret that she was coming specifically to spend an hour or two in gossip; therefore it was Wernuro, Nubnofret's female servant and companion, who waited at the watersteps to greet and escort her.

Nubnofret had just risen when her guest was announced and was sitting at her cosmetic table, mirror in hand, naked but for a piece of thin linen tied loosely about her waist. Her cosmetician was touching up her kohl but at her word he immediately withdrew. Nubnofret swept to embrace her guest.

"Tbubui, how lovely that you decided to come and see me," she exclaimed, enveloping the other woman in perfumed musk. "I knew that we would become friends. It is important to have friends, is it not, when one is married to a man who in turn is married to his many duties? Come. Sit down. Forgive my unmade couch, but I have only been out of it a short while." She sighed. "The heat is becoming unbearable and it does make my eyelids swell so. I must say that you look very fres.h.!.+"

Tbubui had not taken the chair. She had settled herself cross-legged on the couch, pillows at her back. Nubnofret noted that today she had abandoned the very old-fas.h.i.+oned tight sheaths she usually wore and was dressed in a charming, ankle-length white gown gathered into an embroidered yellow yoke high on her neck. The garment was sleeveless and looked very cool. A band of gold gripped her upper arm and long gold droplets swung from her ears. Though she was finely painted, her hair was wound on top of her head and completely unadorned. She wriggled into her position and smiled brightly at Nubnofret.

"I like the heat," she said. "I sleep well in it, Highness, though I am not silly enough to walk out under the sun at this time of year. Would your Highness like to join me on the couch?" Nubnofret collapsed onto it with a sigh and lay on her side, propping up her head with its tumble of curls on one hand.

"Wernuro will bring drinks and pastries shortly," she said. "I decided that we should stay indoors. My bedchamber is a little cooler than the furnace of the garden. There is not even a wind to funnel down the wind-catcher. Tell me, Tbubui, are you becoming acquainted with any of our Memphis n.o.bles? How do you like life here?"

Tbubui laughed. It was a spontaneous, free sound, but Nubnofret thought that it revealed too much the feral quality of her small teeth. "We receive numerous invitations from the inhabitants of the northern suburb," she said. "I am sure that they are curious about us in a kindly way. But we accept few of them. We like our life to be quiet and well ordered. Memphis is beautiful and exciting, but it is usually enough to know that the pleasures it offers are set out like food on a plate for us to taste when we wish."

"Do you not find life dull, then?" Nubnofret asked. "Running your household cannot take up too much of your time."

"No it does not," Tbubui agreed. "But I am at present dictating a history of Egypt's relations with the rest of the world during the time of Osiris Hatshepsut, she who gave my ancestor the caravan route from Koptos to the Eastern Sea, and when I am not doing that I am walking the city. I like to walk."

I am not sure what to make of you, Nubnofret thought with a twinge of envy. Your responsibilities are few, unlike mine. You are free to do exactly as you please. Your roots are deep in Koptos. Then why are you here?

"That is an odd occupation for a woman," she said, more tartly than she had intended. "Writing history, I mean. As for the walking, I can see what it does for your body. You are tightly made, Tbubui!"

"Highness, you should not underestimate your own beauty," Tbubui protested, and Nubnofret realized that the woman had correctly interpreted the mild bitterness behind her own words. "Men do not always like a woman's body to be thin and muscled. Your b.r.e.a.s.t.s surely embody the essence of womanhood, being full and so large-nippled. Your hips swell with a most pleasing roundness, and the slight pouch of your belly speaks to a man of fecundity and sensuality. You were made for love."

Nubnofret was taken aback by Tbubui's directness and made even more uncomfortable by the minute brush of the woman's hand on her calf; but the touch was rea.s.suring, a gesture of sympathy. "I wish Khaemwaset agreed with you," she laughed. "I do not think that he even sees me anymore. To him I am the organizer of his household, the mother of his children and the hostess to his many official guests." She made a small grimace. "My time is over-full with those duties, so that often even I feel s.e.xless. But that is the way of life, is it not, Tbubui? Romance is for one's first youth, not for the hard glare of a long marriage."

"It does not have to be that way," the other woman responded gently. "Does Khaemwaset seek his concubines sometimes?"

Nubnofret privately considered the question. Was it a breach of good manners or the natural query of one adult woman to another? She decided, watching her guest's open, warm expression, that it was the latter. She shook her head and pushed her hair, sticky with heat, away from her forehead. "He never goes near them. I myself have not seen them for a long time. They come and go freely from their house, see their relatives, take journeys with permission and sometimes come to help entertain dignitaries. They are lovely women but not, of course, the kind one can befriend. No, Tbubui. If Khaemwaset needs a body he comes to me."

"I know that he loves you a great deal," Tbubui said. "He may appear to take you for granted but he values you highly."

"That may be," Nubnofret sighed again, "but his love is for a companion, a friend. It is not the delight one takes in a lover. Still I do not complain. I am happy." For the first time the words she used in her inward self so often suddenly sounded hollow. Am I indeed happy? she wondered. Am I? "And you," she countered. "Your husband has been dead for a long time. Are you not lonely?"

"Yes, I am," Tbubui answered frankly. "But I would rather remain a widow than marry just to alleviate my loneliness. I do not need another's wealth and I have dear Sisenet to care for me. I need love, Highness, but not at any price. The terms must be mine."

Nubnofret found herself liking Tbubui very much. "We know many great men all over Egypt," she said. "Would you like to meet some of them? I am a good matchmaker, my dear!" They both dissolved into howls of laughter. Nubnofret sat up and wiped her eyes on her waist linen, and at that moment Wernuro came in, bowed, and proceeded to set out water, wine and beer, and dishes of pastries and sweetmeats.

"Thank you for your offer, Highness," Tbubui gasped, "but I think I prefer to bore myself than have others bore me. I will have wine," she continued in answer to Nubnofret's silent invitation. Wernuro withdrew quietly.

"But what of Harmin?" Nubnofret pressed. With her highly developed sense of precedence on the social scale and the importance of one's place in it, she could not imagine a family with n.o.ble blood that did not want to advance. "Does he not desire a post at court or at least a priestly appointment?"

"I do not think so," Tbubui replied, sipping her wine. "He will of course inherit my personal estate, small though it is, and he already has the disposition of his father's wealth. He likes to be comfortable but he is not much inclined to rub shoulders with the powerful and mighty."

Nubnofret was pleased. Sheritra's obvious interest in the young man had caused her mother some anxiety, lest he should be merely attempting to get closer to the seat of power in Egypt. "I do hope he and Sheritra are enjoying their day," she said cautiously. "They have gone up river, I believe, to observe the wild life of the marshes and, if they are lucky, glimpse a crocodile. I do not envy them the heat."

Tbubui held her wine cup in both brown hands. "I have been meaning to speak to you about the Princess," she began hesitantly. "I understand that she is very shy and suspicious of people."

"Yes she is," Nubnofret said. Her thirst had been great and half her wine was already gone. A pleasant inner warmth was making her languorous. "Sheritra has no confidence in herself at all. She is intelligent and of course a great prize for any aspiring young n.o.bleman, but she will look at none of them. I was greatly surprised when she accepted you so readily."

"She senses perhaps that I enjoy her company." Tbubui uncrossed her legs, stretched them out and leaned further into the pillows. "I have a favour to ask you, Princess."

What a pity, Nubnofret thought lazily. I am always happy to do favours for my old friends, or women of my own standing, but this woman is not yet either. And I had begun to like her. She waited.

"Allow Sheritra to come and stay at my house for a while. I often feel the lack of feminine company, living as I do with two men, and she and I could have much to say to each other. I think I can help her with her appearance and her confidence and she can make me laugh."

Laugh? Nubnofret thought. Sheritra able to make someone laugh? I suppose the invitation is not so foolish. Khaemwaset was talking some time ago about sending Sheritra to the Fayum to stay with Sunero's family if I did not stop nagging the girl. Well, she needs nagging. The familiar feeling of mild exasperation Sheritra could always conjure began to itch at Nubnofret. "But Tbubui, what of the blossoming relations.h.i.+p between my daughter and your son?" she objected. "It is not acceptable to put them under the same roof."

"It is my roof, Highness," Tbubui reminded her, "and my ethical standards are high. The Princess would of course have her servants with her, and such guards as Khaemwaset saw fit to include in her entourage. We are a somewhat staid household," she finished, smiling. "We need livening." Nubnofret capitulated with wine-induced speed. Life without Sheritra for a month or two would be so peaceful, and perhaps she and Khaemwaset might find a new closeness without the barb of her daughter's personality to come between them.

"She is not just any princess," she reminded the other woman. "The blood of the G.o.ds flows in her veins and as such she must be treated with reverence and guarded well at all times. But ..." She smiled. "We will ask her when she returns home and then consult my husband for a final word on the matter. G.o.ds! This heat! Would you like to bathe?"