Henuttawy replied with terrifying sweetness. “I suppose it’s that she’s so ambitious and clever,” she said. “Clever Nefertari, who began life as a worm and emerged as a butterfly.”
“Enough!” Pharaoh Seti warned. He looked to the High Priest. “I wish to see them joined in marriage before my court leaves for Avaris. Arrange a royal wedding.”
The hyena stepped forward, and his bald head reflected the late afternoon light. “Within two days?” he questioned. “Perhaps it would be better if His Highness waited until the auspicious month of Pharmuthi.”
When Iset will give birth, I thought.
“We will marry tomorrow,” Ramesses swore. “If it’s not possible to ready the Temple of Amun, I’m sure that Hathor or Isis can be readied.”
Rahotep’s face lost some of its color. “Amun’s temple can be ready, Your Highness.”
Henuttawy and the other viziers made to speak, but Pharaoh Seti stood and pounded his crook on the dais. “The proclamation will read as such: Tomorrow, there shall be a wedding between Pharaoh Ramesses and Princess Nefertari.”
For the first time, Queen Tuya spoke. “I don’t understand why it has to be so soon.”
“Because if not tomorrow, then when?” Seti asked. “How do you know when the gods will bring us back to Thebes? Or do you propose to miss our son’s Marriage Feast?”
Tuya’s hand tightened around her iwiw’s leash. “I am sure he will have many Feasts of Marriage we will miss.”
“Perhaps. But none to a princess of Egypt.”
Queen Tuya settled unhappily back into her throne, and when her hand rested lightly on Adjo’s head, the iwiw wagged his tail contentedly.
“So will she greet the people?” Henuttawy demanded. “If she’s going to be queen, she should walk through Thebes and meet her subjects.”
Woserit glanced at her brother. “Nefertari doesn’t need to go among them yet.”
“Why not?” Pharaoh Seti frowned. “Let them become accustomed to seeing her with Ramesses.”
I was too full of my own joy to see then what Henuttawy had done.
Court business being concluded, we left the chamber and Ramesses took me in his arms. “By tomorrow, you will be at my side in the Audience Chamber, and there’s no one who will dare to say a word against you.”
And of course, because I was naïve and hopeful, I allowed myself to believe him—even though I knew what the courtiers thought. They believed I had my aunt’s blood and that I’d be the new Heretic Queen. Merit came to my side and her face was as bright as an oil lamp.
“Congratulations, Your Highness. It is a union sure to be blessed by Amun.”
“Thank you, Nurse. I was hoping Nefertari would join me in the Arena. Do you think that will be possible?”
“With a dozen things to do and arrange before tomorrow?” Merit cried.
Ramesses laughed, and I knew he hadn’t really expected her to say yes.
“There is the matter of a dress to arrange,” she said, “and a wig and malachite paint . . .”
“I believe she’s saying no,” I told Ramesses, and he put his arms around my waist.
“Then may I come to you tonight?” he asked quietly.
Courtiers were watching us and I forced myself not to look back at them. They will always be watching us, I reminded myself. I will never enjoy a private kiss. There will always be eyes upon me, and I must simply get used to it. That was the price for loving a Pharaoh. “Of course you can come to me.”
A hundred pairs of eyes followed my walk through the halls with Woserit and Merit, and one of them was Henuttawy’s. I smiled widely. If I had been a commoner about to marry some farmer’s son, the women of my house would never have allowed my husband to climb into my bed before he had carried me over the threshold of his home. But Ramesses was Pharaoh. He could do as he pleased. By coming to my room before our wedding, he was telling the court that a single night couldn’t be wasted in trying to create an heir with me.
CHAPTER TEN
A PHARAOH’S MARRIAGE BEGINS ON THE WATER
IN THE GREAT Hall that evening, the whole court appeared to see the worm that had turned into a butterfly. Everyone was eager to see the niece of the Heretic Queen, whom Ramesses was going to take to wife.
At the long, polished table on the dais, a servant led me to my seat between Ramesses and Woserit, while Iset had been placed at the side of Queen Tuya. I felt sorry for Iset,