Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [27]
‘I wrote no more than truth,’ Kameni persisted. ‘There were no lies set down, that I swear to you.’
‘No,’ said Renisenb. ‘There would be no lies. Nofret is too clever for that.’
Old Esa had, after all, been right. That persecution over which Satipy and Kait had gloated had been just exactly what Nofret had wanted. No wonder that she had gone about smiling her cat-like smile.
‘She is bad,’ said Renisenb, following her thoughts. ‘Yes!’
Kameni assented. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘She is an evil creature.’
Renisenb turned and looked at him curiously.
‘You knew her before she came here, did you not? You knew her in Memphis?’
Kameni flushed and looked uncomfortable.
‘I did not know her well…I had heard of her. A proud girl, they said, ambitious and hard–and one who did not forgive.’
Renisenb flung back her head in sudden impatience.
‘I do not believe it,’ she said. ‘My father will not do what he threatens. He is angry at present–but he could not be so unjust. When he comes he will forgive.’
‘When he comes,’ said Kameni, ‘Nofret will see to it that he does not change his mind. You do not know Nofret, Renisenb. She is very clever and determined–and she is, remember, very beautiful.’
‘Yes,’ admitted Renisenb. ‘She is beautiful.’
She got up. For some reason the thought of Nofret’s beauty hurt her…
IV
Renisenb spent the afternoon playing with the children. As she took part in their game, the vague ache in her heart lessened. It was not until just before sunset that she stood upright, smoothing back her hair and the pleats of her dress which had got crumpled and disarranged, and wondered vaguely why neither Satipy nor Kait had been out as usual.
Kameni had long gone from the courtyard. Renisenb went slowly across into the house. There was no one in the living-room and she passed through to the back of the house and the women’s quarters. Esa was nodding in the corner of her room and her little slave girl was marking piles of linen sheets. They were baking batches of triangular loaves in the kitchen. There was no one else about.
A curious emptiness pressed on Renisenb’s spirits. Where was everyone?
Hori had probably gone up to the Tomb. Yahmose might be with him or out on the fields. Sobek and Ipy would be with the cattle or possibly seeing to the cornbins. But where were Satipy and Kait, and where, yes, where was Nofret?
The strong perfume of Nofret’s unguent filled her empty room. Renisenb stood in the doorway staring at the little wood pillow, at a jewel box, at a heap of bead bracelets and a ring set with a blue glazed scarab. Perfumes, unguents, clothes, linens, sandals–all speaking of their owner, of Nofret who lived in their midst and who was a stranger and an enemy.
Where, Renisenb wondered, could Nofret herself be?
She went slowly towards the back entrance of the house and met Henet coming in.
‘Where is everybody, Henet? The house is empty except for my grandmother.’
‘How should I know, Renisenb? I have been working–helping with the weaving, seeing to a thousand and one things. I have not time for going for walks.’
That meant, thought Renisenb, that somebody had gone for a walk. Perhaps Satipy had followed Yahmose up to the Tomb to harangue further? But where was Kait? Unlike Kait to be away from her children for so long.
And again, a strange disturbing undercurrent, there ran the thought:
‘Where is Nofret?’
As though Henet had read the thought in her mind, she supplied the answer.
‘As for Nofret, she went off a long time ago up to the Tomb. Oh well, Hori is a match for her.’ Henet laughed spitefully. ‘Hori has brains too.’ She sidled a little closer to Renisenb. ‘I wish you knew, Renisenb, how unhappy I’ve been over all this. She came to me, you know, that day–with the mark of Kait’s fingers on her cheek and the blood streaming