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III
Kait, coming slowly out from the house to the lake, paused where the
children and their mothers were.
‘You were right, Satipy,’ she said. ‘A dead concubine is not the same as a
live concubine!’
Satipy looked up at her, her eyes vague and unseeing. It was Renisenb
who asked quickly:
‘What do you mean, Kait?’
‘For a live concubine, nothing was too good–clothes, jewels–even the in-
heritance of Imhotep’s own flesh and blood! But now Imhotep is busy cut-
ting down the cost of the funeral expenses! After all, why waste money on
a dead woman? Yes, Satipy, you were right.’
Satipy murmured: ‘What did I say? I have forgotten.’
‘It is best so,’ agreed Kait. ‘I, too, have forgotten. And Renisenb also.’
Renisenb looked at Kait without speaking. There had been something in
Kait’s voice– something faintly menacing, that impressed Renisenb dis-
agreeably. She had always been accustomed to think of Kait as rather a
stupid woman–someone gentle and submissive, but rather negligible. It
struck her now that Kait and Satipy seemed to have changed places. Satipy
the dominant and aggressive was subdued–almost timid. It was the quiet
Kait who now seemed to domineer over Satipy.
But people, thought Renisenb, do not really change their characters–or
do they? She felt confused. Had Kait and Satipy really changed in the last
few weeks, or was the change in the one the result of the change in the
other? Was it Kait who had grown aggressive? Or did she merely seem so
because of the sudden collapse of Satipy?
Satipy definitely was different. Her voice was no longer upraised in the
familiar shrewish accents. She crept round the courtyard and the house
with a nervous, shrinking gait quite unlike her usual self-assured manner.
Renisenb had put down the change in her to the shock of Nofret’s death,
but it was incredible that that shock could last so long. It would have been
far more like Satipy, Renisenb could not but think, to have exulted openly
in a matter of fact manner over the concubine’s sudden and untimely
death. As it was, she shrank nervously whenever Nofret’s name was men-
tioned. Even Yahmose seemed to be exempt from her hectoring and bully-
ing and had, in consequence, begun to assume a more resolute demeanour
himself. At any rate, the change in Satipy was all to the good–or at least so
Renisenb supposed. Yet something about it made her vaguely uneasy…
Suddenly, with a start, Renisenb became aware that Kait was looking at
her, was frowning. Kait, she realized, was waiting for a word of assent to
something she had just said.
‘Renisenb also,’ repeated Kait, ‘has forgotten.’
Suddenly Renisenb felt a flood of revolt overwhelm her. Neither Kait,
nor Satipy, nor anyone should dictate to her what she should or should
not remember. She returned Kait’s look steadily with a distinct hint of de-
fiance.
‘The women of a household,’ said Kait, ‘must stand together.’
Renisenb found her voice. She said clearly and defiantly:
‘Why?’
‘Because their interests are the same.’
Renisenb shook her head violently. She thought, confusedly, ‘I am a per-
son as well as a woman. I am Renisenb.’
Aloud she said: ‘It is not so simple as that.’
‘Do you want to make trouble, Renisenb?’
‘No. And anyway, what do you mean by trouble?’
‘Everything that was said that day in the big hall had best be forgotten.’
Renisenb laughed.
‘You are stupid, Kait. The servants, the slaves, my grandmother–every-
one must have overheard! Why pretend that things did not happen that
did happen?’
‘We were angry,’ said Satipy in a dull voice. ‘We did not mean what we
said.’
She added with a feverish irritability:
‘Stop talking about it, Kait. If Renisenb wants to make trouble, let her.’
‘I don’t want to make trouble,’ said Renisenb, indignantly. ‘But it is stu-
pid to pretend.’
‘No,’ said Kait. ‘It is wisdom. You have Teti to consider.’
‘Teti is all right.’
‘Everything is all right–now that Nofret is dead,’ Kait smiled.
It was a serene, quiet, satisfied smile–and again Renisenb felt a tide of
revolt rise in her.
Yet what Kait said was true. Now that Nofret was dead everything was
all right.
Satipy, Kait, herself, the children…All secure–all at peace–with no appre-
hensions for the future. The intruder, the disturbing, menacing stranger,
had departed–for ever.
Then why this stirring of an emotion that she did not understand on No-
fret’s behalf? Why this feeling of championship for the dead girl whom
she had not liked? Nofret was wicked and Nofret was dead–could she not
leave it at that? Why this sudden stab of pity–of something more than
pity–something that was almost comprehension?
Renisenb shook her head perplexedly. She sat on there by the water
after the others had gone in, trying vainly to understand the confusion in
her mind.
The sun was low when Hori, crossing the courtyard, saw her and came
to sit beside her.
‘It is late, Renisenb. The sun is setting. You should go in.’ His grave, quiet
voice soothed her, as always. She turned to him with a question.
‘Must the women of a household stick together?’
‘Who has been saying that to you, Renisenb?’
‘Kait. She and Satipy–’
Renisenb broke off.
‘And you–want to think for yourself?’
‘Oh, think! I do not know how to think, Hori. Everything is confused in
my head. People are confused. Everybody is different from what I thought
they were. Satipy I always thought was bold, resolute, domineering. But
now she is weak, vacillating, even timid. Then which is the real Satipy?
People cannot change like that in a day.’
‘Not in a day–no.’
‘And Kait–she who was always meek and submissive and let everybody
bully her. Now she dominates us all! Even Sobek seems afraid of her. And
even Yahmose is different– he gives orders and expects them to be
obeyed!’
‘And all this confuses you, Renisenb?’
‘Yes. Because I do not understand. I feel sometimes that even Henet may
be quite different from what she appears to be!’
Renisenb laughed as though at an absurdity, but Hori did not join her.
His face remained grave and thoughtful.
‘You have never thought very much about people, have you, Renisenb?
If you had you would realize–’ He paused and then went on. ‘You know
that in all tombs there is always a false door?’
Renisenb stared. ‘Yes, of course.’
‘Well, people are like that too. They create a false door–to deceive. If
they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing
door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority–and, after a
time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody
thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare
rock…And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of
truth–their true self reasserts itself. For Kait gentleness and submission
brought her all she desired–a husband and children. Stupidity made life
easier for her–but when reality in the form of danger threatened, her true
nature appeared. She did not change, Renisenb– that strength and that
ruthlessness were always there.’
Renisenb said childishly: ‘But I do not like it, Hori. It makes me afraid.
Everyone being different from what I thought them. And what about my-
self? I am always the same.’
‘Are you?’ He smiled at her. ‘Then why have you sat here all these hours,
your forehead puckered, brooding and thinking? Did the old Renisenb–the
Renisenb who went away with Khay–ever do that?’
‘Oh no. There was no need–’ Renisenb stopped.
‘You see? You have said it yourself. That is the word of reality–need! You
are not the happy, unthinking child you have always appeared to be, ac-
cepting everything at its face value. You are not just one of the women of
the household. You are Renisenb who wants to think for herself, who won-
ders about other people…’
Renisenb said slowly: ‘I have been wondering about Nofret…’
‘What have you been wondering?’
‘I have been wondering why I cannot forget her…She was bad and cruel
and tried to do us harm and she is dead–why can I not leave it at that?’
‘Can you not leave it at that?’
‘No. I try to–but–’ Renisenb paused. She passed her hand across her eyes
perplexedly. ‘Sometimes I feel I know about Nofret, Hori.’
‘Know? What do you mean?’
‘I can’t explain. But it comes to me every now and then– almost as
though she were here, beside me. I feel–almost–as though I were her–I
seem to know what she felt. She was very unhappy, Hori, I know that now,
though I didn’t at the time. She wanted to hurt us all because she was so
unhappy.’
‘You cannot know that, Renisenb.’
‘No, of course I cannot know it, but it is what I feel. That misery, that bit-
terness, that black hate–I saw it in her face once, and I did not understand!
She must have loved someone and then something went wrong–perhaps
he died…or went away–but it left her like that–wanting to hurt, to wound.
Oh! you may say what you like, I know I am right! She became a concu-
bine to that old man, my father–and she came here, and we disliked her–
and she thought she would make us all as unhappy as she was–Yes, that
was how it was!’
Hori looked at her curiously.
‘How sure you sound, Renisenb. And yet you did not know Nofret well.’
‘But I feel it is true, Hori. I feel her–Nofret. Sometimes I feel her quite
close beside me…’
‘I see.’
There was a silence between them. It was almost dark now.
Then Hori said quietly: ‘You believe, do you not, that Nofret did not die
by accident? You think she was thrown down?’
Renisenb felt a passionate repugnance at hearing her belief put into
words.
‘No, no, don’t say it.’
‘But I think, Renisenb, we had better say it–since it is in your head. You
do think so?’
‘I–yes!’
Hori bent his head thoughtfully. He went on:
‘And you think it was Sobek who did it?’
‘Who else could it have been? You remember him with the snake? And
you remember what he said–that day–the day of her death–before he went
out of the great hall?’
‘I remember what he said, yes. But it is not always the people who say
most who do most!’
‘But don’t you believe she was killed?’
‘Yes, Renisenb, I do…But it is, after all, only an opinion. I have no proof.
I do not think there ever can be proof. That is why I have encouraged Im-
hotep to accept the verdict of accident. Someone pushed Nofret–we shall
never know who it was.’
‘You mean, you don’t think it was Sobek?’
‘I do not think so. But as I say, we can never know–so it is best not to
think about it.’
‘But–if it was not Sobek–who do you think it was?’
Hori shook his head.
‘If I have an idea–it may be the wrong idea. So it is better not to say…’
‘But then–we shall never know!’
There was dismay in Renisenb’s voice.
‘Perhaps–’ Hori hesitated–‘perhaps that may be the best thing.’
‘Not to know?’
‘Not to know.’
Renisenb shivered.
‘But then–oh, Hori, I am afraid!’
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