bluff. They must not have found any. I was not bluffing. My mother had many evil ways and weak points, but she knew how to be obeyed and that, I suspect, I must have inherited from her. After this little intimate talk I had no further trouble with my household.
Bukentef began to write notes on an ostracon which was always kept by the kitchen door, and stopped running out just before dinner because he had forgotten to draw enough wine for dinner. Takhar, who was a good cook, began to exhibit her talents. Kasa gained confidence from not being slapped and began to adopt a lordly air with the other boys. My maidservants remembered what they had learned in the service of the Unnamed Lady and began to talk of other things than clothes, jewels, and who was lying with whom. The old man Ipuy softened after being threatened with banishment. He and his wood carving tools were ensconced in a cool corner of the outer apartment, where he could talk to the soldiers on guard.
More than anything, I now had leisure to miss everyone; Kheperren, the general, Ptah-hotep. But I could not scold my household for laziness and sit musing over my broken heart all day while they were working. I helped wherever I was needed, folding linen with the maids or cleaning armour with the soldiers. Nebnakht, the soldier whom I had surprised in mating with Ii, taught me how to sharpen a spear, and the old man Ipuy listened to the sliding gritting noise with pleasure.
‘That takes me back,’ he said in his gruff voice, poising his knife over the spine of a horse he was carving for Kasa. ‘I was beside the general when he fought his first battle. Ay, I was there with him, climbing along a ridge with a scared boy—what was his name?—beside me.’
‘I haven’t heard of this battle,’ I said. ‘Go on, Ipuy.’
‘They were aiming to take us in ambush, but he out-foxed them, my general. No one can outmanoeuvre Horemheb. That’s why they call him Cunning in Battle. He had authority, Mistress, like you have. He made his charioteers dismount and climb the mountains in case the enemy were lurking; and he was right and they were, and we came down on them like falling boulders and killed them all, and the boy fought like a lion, saved Horemheb’s life, and then was sick as a lizard. Kheperren, the general’s scribe, that’s the name. Brave and faithful, lady. A good boy.
‘But that’s where I got a spear through the leg, and it never healed right. It got so I couldn’t march any more, and the general said I could live here and mind his household, and that’s what I’m doing.’
‘And I am glad to have you,’ I said truthfully, for he was faithful and valiant and that, said Horemheb, is what one wants in soldiers and in dogs. I quoted the saying to Ipuy and he laughed aloud, a strange sound from his old throat, and said ‘He chose well in choosing you, Mistress. The general, he chose well.’
I was beginning to think that he had chosen well for me, as well as, perhaps, for himself. His household was showing distinct signs of domestication. I felt sanguine enough about them after another decan to go back to the House of The Great Royal Scribe to ask Bakhenmut whether I could resume my lessons in cuneiform.
The old men, Menna and Harmose, were still there, with a basket of clay tablets at their feet. Khety and Hanufer leapt up to greet me. Bakhenmut remained seated in his chair of state and inclined his head nervously to my bow, which was to a carefully calculated depth. I had brought a maiden with me, in case proprieties were to be observed. It was Ankherhau, who could once read and write. Ii of the roving eye would not be a safe person to introduce into an office full of men.
‘Wife of General Horemheb,’ said Bakhenmut. ‘Greeting.’
‘Great Royal Scribe, greeting,’ I replied, ‘Lord, I was once allowed to learn the mysteries of the square writing from one of your scribes. I have the general’s permission to ask of the Great Royal Scribe that he allows me to continue this acquisition.’
‘Lady, the general spoke to me about this before he left. I am honoured by your presence. Menna, I entrust this task to Harmose and you. The lady Mutnodjme is to learn as much as she wishes.’
Bakhenmut returned