Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,159

improved if she has heard the rumours about what the King is requiring Divine Father Ay to do to Smenkhare.

‘Mutnodjme’s mother Great Royal Nurse Tey is ill, perhaps fatally ill. I would have thought that she would be forever preserved by the vinegar that runs in her veins. And… General Horemheb has married.’

‘Oh? That is a surprise. I thought him forever devoted only to you,’ I said idly. ‘Who has he married? Not some shrinking maiden, surely?’

‘No ’Hotep, he has married the lady Mutnodjme. It was the only way he could protect her.’ Kheperren held me down with one hand on my chest.

‘You could have brought her to me,’ I said slowly.

Now I could not marry the woman I loved. I should have married her when I had the chance, but she would not agree.

Now she had married the general instead of me. He was, perhaps, a better choice—certainly stronger and bigger and probably more of a man.

But I had thought that she loved me. Surely I had not deluded myself when I felt her relief and joy at knowing that I was, after all, alive?

‘She would not leave the Widow-Queen, even though Tiye the redheaded woman is locked up, unable to communicate with us,’ Kheperren said. ‘We thought that you were dead; and her father was suggesting that she be married to any of the priests of Aten as long as he would take her away.

‘And did I say we thought you were dead? The general will not keep her from you, ’Hotep,’ he said gently.

‘Has the marriage been consummated?’ I asked, forcing the words out through reluctant lips.

‘Yes, but she lay with me, ’Hotep, because she knows that I love you, too. I felt her as she imagined that I was you, I felt her body open, melt with longing; and I felt her shock when she realised again that you were dead.

‘It was on the general’s order that she lay with me to seal the contract, not with him. He is a kind and just man. He likes her. He would never keep her from her lover. Be comforted,’ he told me, kissing my mouth again.

I could not go to Amarna and see the lady Mutnodjme again, and now she could not come to me, since she was the wife of the general.

But I was comforted. Kheperren lay in my embrace. And I had a potsherd carved with a heart which told me that Mutnodjme still loved me, and it was as precious to me as any jewel.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Mutnodjme

The general returned. Everyone was pleased to see him, including me. Even the elegant cat Mou, lord of the household, descended from the high shelf in the kitchen on which he slept and condescended to wrap his body around the general’s feet. Horemheb tripped and I steadied him. He smiled at me.

‘Mistress of the House Lady Mutnodjme, I can see that you have been busy in my absence.’

He was right. I had. The apartments were scoured clean, everything that could be polished was polished, and I had bought Nubian blankets and felted carpets from Upper Egypt. I did not know the general’s taste, and when asked no one could tell me. So I had consulted my own.

I had not spent his gold like water. The rooms, like all rooms in the palace of Amarna, were decorated with friezes. The outer chamber had duck hunters all round the walls, delicate papyrus-reed craft floating over impossibly clear water teeming with fish. In that room I had blue fabrics. The inner rooms were lined with flying birds, a masterpiece, and all I had added to that was a tall lamp in the shape of an ibis, which reminded me of Ptah-hotep and Thoth god of wisdom, and furnishings in white and pale yellow.

Horemheb kissed me and sat down to have his sandals removed and his feet washed by Ipuy. This was his privilege and I would not think of taking it away from him. While the old soldier knelt down, I introduced my maidens and men. They all behaved well. I had even induced Kasa to wipe his nose.

‘Tell me,’ he said to Ii, who giggled. ‘Does the Mistress of the House treat you well?’

‘Yes, Master,’ she replied. ‘She makes us work hard, but she works hard herself. Your woman is a good woman, Master.’

‘My opinion also,’ he said gravely.

Ipuy dried his feet. Horemheb reached into a little bag and handed out a thin gold bracelet to each servant. They had not