"In other words," said Esa, "you were merely giving them a fright. Is that it?"
"My dear mother, does that matter now?"
"I see," said Esa. "You did not know what you meant to do. Muddled thinking, as usual."
Imhotep controlled his irritation with an effort.
"I simply mean that that particular point no longer arises. It is the facts of Nofret's death that are now in question. If I were to believe that anyone in my family could be so undutiful, so unbalanced in their anger, as wantonly to harm the girl - I - I really do not know what I should do!"
"So it is fortunate," said Esa, "that they all tell the same story! Nobody has hinted at anything else, have they?"
"Certainly not."
"Then why not regard the incident as closed? You should have taken the girl north with you. I told you so at the time."
"Then you do believe -"
Esa said with emphasis:
"I believe what I am told unless it conflicts with what I have seen with my own eyes - which is very little nowadays - or heard with my own ears. You have questioned zhaiyuedu.com, I suppose? What has she to say of the matter?"
"She is deeply distressed - very deeply distressed. On my behalf."
Esa raised her eyebrows.
"Indeed. You surprise me."
"zhaiyuedu.com," said Imhotep warmly, "has a lot of heart."
"Quite so. She has also more than the usual allowance of tongue. If distress at your loss is her only reaction. I should certainly regard the incident as closed. There are plenty of other affairs to occupy your attention."
"Yes, indeed." Imhotep rose with a reassumption of his fussy, important manner. "Yahmose is waiting for me now in the main hall with all sorts of matters needing my urgent attention. There are many decisions awaiting my sanction. As you say, private grief must not usurp the main functions of life."
He hurried out.
Esa smiled for a moment, a somewhat sardonic smile, then her face grew grave again. She sighed and shook her head.
II
Yahmose was awaiting his father with Kameni in attendance. Hori, Yahmose explained, was superintending the work of the embalmers and undertakers who were busy with the first stages of the funeral preparations.
It had taken Imhotep some weeks to journey home after receiving the news of Nofret's death, and the funeral preparations were now completed. The body had received its long soaking in the brine bath, had been restored to some semblance of its normal appearance, had been oiled and rubbed with salts, and duly wrapped in its bandages and deposited in its coffin.
Yahmose explained that he had appointed a small funeral chamber near the rock tomb designed later to hold the body of Imhotep himself. He went into the details of what he had ordered and Imhotep expressed his approval.
"You have done well, Yahmose," he said kindly. "You seem to have shown very good judgment and to have kept your head well."
Yahmose colored a little at this unexpected praise.
"Ipi and Montu are, of course, expensive embalmers," went on Imhotep. "These canopic jars, for instance, seem to me unduly costly. There is really no need for such extravagance. Some of their charges seem to me much too high. That is the worst of these embalmers who have been employed by the Governor's family. They think they can charge any fantastic prices they like. It would have come much cheaper to go to somebody less well-known."
"In your absence," said Yahmose, "I had to decide on these matters - and I was anxious that all honor should be paid to a concubine for whom you had so great a regard."
Imhotep nodded and patted Yahmose's shoulder.
"It was a fault on the right side, my son. You are, I know, usually most prudent in money matters. I appreciate that in this matter any unnecessary expense was incurred in order - to please me. All the same, I am not made of money, and a concubine is - er, ahem! - only a concubine. We will cancel, I think, the more expensive of the amulets - and let me see, there are one or two other ways of cutting down the fees... Just read out the items of the estimate, Kameni."
Kameni rustled the papyrus.
Yahmose breathed a sigh of relief.
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 live concubine is not the same as a dead 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 inheritance of Imhotep's own flesh and blood! But now Imhotep is busy cutting 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 disagreeably. 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 mentioned. Even Yahmose seemed to be exempt from her hectoring and bullying and had, in consequence, begun to assume a more resolute demeanor 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 defiance.
"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 person as well as a woman. I am Renisenb."
Aloud she said:
