Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [36]
‘Yahmose is a dear,’ cried Renisenb, indignantly. ‘He is kind to everybody–and as gentle as a woman–if women are gentle,’ she added, doubtfully.
Esa cackled.
‘A good afterthought, granddaughter. No, there’s nothing gentle about women–or if there is, Isis help them! And there are few women who care for a kind, gentle husband. They’d sooner have a handsome, blustering brute like Sobek–he’s the one to take a girl’s fancy. Or a smart young fellow like Kameni–hey, Renisenb? The flies in the courtyard don’t settle on him for long! He’s got a pretty taste in love songs, too. Eh? Hee, hee, hee.’
Renisenb felt her cheeks going red.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said with dignity.
‘You all think old Esa doesn’t know what’s going on! I know all right.’ She peered at Renisenb with her semi-blind eyes. ‘I know, perhaps, before you do, child. Don’t be angry. It’s the way of life, Renisenb. Khay was a good brother to you–but he sails his boat now in the Field of Offerings. The sister will find a new brother who spears his fish in our own River–not that Kameni would be much good. A reed pen and a papyrus roll are his fancy. A personable young man, though–with a pretty taste in songs. But for all that I’m not sure he’s the man for you. We don’t know much about him–he’s a Northerner. Imhotep approves of him–but then I’ve always thought Imhotep was a fool. Anyone can get round him by flattery. Look at Henet!’
‘You are quite wrong,’ said Renisenb with dignity.
‘Very well, then, I’m wrong. You father is not a fool.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I meant–’
‘I know what you meant, child.’ Esa grinned. ‘But you don’t know the real joke. You don’t know how good it is to sit at ease like I do, and to be done with all this business of brothers and sisters, and loving and hating. To eat a well-cooked fat quail or a reed bird, and then a cake with honey, and some well-cooked leeks and celery and wash it down with wine from Syria–and have never a care in the world. And look on at all the turmoil and heartaches and know that none of that can affect you any more. To see your son make a fool of himself over a handsome girl, and to see her set the whole place by the ears–it made me laugh, I can tell you! In a way, you know, I liked that girl! She had the devil in her all right–the way she touched them all on the raw. Sobek like a pricked bladder–Ipy made to look a child–Yahmose shamed as a bullied husband. It’s like the way you see your face in a pool of water–she made them see just how they looked to the world at large. But why did she hate you, Renisenb? Answer me that.’
‘Did she hate me?’ Renisenb spoke doubtfully. ‘I–tried once to be friends.’
‘And she’d have none of it? She hated you all right, Renisenb.’
Esa paused and then asked sharply:
‘Would it be because of Kameni?’
The colour rose in Renisenb’s face: ‘Kameni? I do not know what you mean.’
Esa thoughtfully: ‘She and Kameni both came from the North, but it was you Kameni watched across the courtyard.’
Renisenb said abruptly:
‘I must go and see to Teti.’
Esa’s shrill, amused cackle followed her. Her cheeks hot, Renisenb sped across the courtyard towards the lake.
Kameni called to her from the porch:
‘I have made a new song, Renisenb. Stay and hear it.’
She shook her head and hurried on. Her heart was beating angrily. Kameni and Nofret. Nofret and Kameni. Why let old Esa, with her malicious love of mischief, put these ideas into her head? And why should she care?
Anyway what did it matter? She cared nothing for Kameni, nothing at all. An impertinent young man with a laughing voice and shoulders that reminded her of Khay.
Khay…Khay.
She repeated his name insistently–but for once no image came before her eyes. Khay was in another world. He was in the Field of Offerings…
On the porch Kameni was singing softly:
‘I will say to Ptah: Give me my sister tonight…’
III
‘Renisenb!’
Hori had repeated her name twice before she heard him and turned from her contemplation of the Nile.
‘You were lost in thought, Renisenb, what were you thinking about?’
Renisenb said with defiance: