Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [45]
‘A servant, perhaps?’ suggested the priest, watching the boy.
The boy shook his head positively.
‘She was not a servant…She had a wig on her head and she wore jewels–a servant does not wear jewels.’
‘Jewels?’ demanded Imhotep. ‘What jewels?’
The boy replied eagerly and confidently as though at last he had overcome his fear and was quite sure of what he was saying.
‘Three strings of beads with gold lions hanging from them in front…’
Esa’s stick clattered to the floor. Imhotep uttered a stifled cry.
Mersu said threateningly: ‘If you are lying, boy–’
‘It is the truth. I swear it is the truth.’ The boy’s voice rose shrill and clear.
From the side chamber where the ill man lay, Yahmose called feebly: ‘What is all this?’
The boy darted through the open door and crouched down by the couch on which Yahmose lay.
‘Master, they will torture me.’
‘No, no.’ Yahmose turned his head with difficulty on the curved, wooden headrest. ‘Do not let the child be hurt. He is simple, but honest. Promise me.’
‘Of course, of course,’ said Imhotep. ‘There is no need. It is clear the boy has told all that he knows–and I do not think he is inventing. Be off with you, child, but do not return to the far herds. Stay near the house so that we can summon you again if we need you.’
The boy rose to his feet. He bent a reluctant glance upon Yahmose.
‘You are ill, Lord Yahmose?’
Yahmose smiled faintly.
‘Have no fear. I am not going to die. Go now–and be obedient to what you have been told.’
Smiling happily now, the boy went off. The priest examined Yahmose’s eyes and felt the rate at which the blood was coursing under the skin. Then, recommending him to sleep, he went with the others out into the central hall again.
He said to Imhotep:
‘You recognize the description the boy gave?’
Imhotep nodded. His deep, bronze cheeks showed a sickly plum colour.
Renisenb said: ‘Only Nofret ever wore a dress of dyed linen. It was a new fashion she brought with her from the cities in the North. But those dresses were buried with her.’
Imhotep said:
‘And the three strings of beads with the lions’ heads in gold were what I gave her. There is no other such ornament in the house. It was costly and unusual. All her jewellery, with the exception of a trumpery string of carnelian beads, was buried with her and is sealed in her tomb.’
He flung out his arms.
‘What persecution–what vindictiveness is this! My concubine whom I treated well, to whom I paid all honour, whom I buried with the proper rites, sparing no expense. I have eaten and drunk with her in friendship–to that all can bear witness. She had had nothing of which to complain–I did indeed more for her than would have been considered right and fitting. I was prepared to favour her to the detriment of my sons who were born to me. Why, then, should she thus come back from the dead to persecute me and my family?’
Mersu said gravely:
‘It seems that it is not against you personally that the dead woman wishes evil. The wine when you drank it was harmless. Who in your family did injury to your dead concubine?’
‘A woman who is dead,’ Imhotep answered shortly.
‘I see. You mean the wife of your son Yahmose?’
‘Yes.’ Imhotep paused, then broke out: ‘But what can be done, Reverend Father? How can we counteract this malice? Oh, evil day when I first took the woman into my house.’
‘An evil day, indeed,’ said Kait in a deep voice, coming forward from the entrance to the women’s quarters.
Her eyes were heavy with the tears she had shed, and her plain face had a strength and resolution which made it noticeable. Her voice, deep and hoarse, was shaken with anger.
‘It was an evil day when you brought Nofret here, Imhotep, to destroy the cleverest and most handsome of your sons! She has brought death to Satipy and death to my Sobek, and Yahmose has only narrowly escaped. Who will be next? Will she spare even children–she who struck my little Ankh? Something must be done, Imhotep!’
‘Something must be done,’ Imhotep echoed, looking imploringly at the priest.
The latter nodded his head with calm assumption.
‘There