Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [60]
Before the look in his eyes her own fell. Kameni could always disturb her. His nearness affected her physically. Her heart beat a shade faster.
‘I know why you avoid me, Renisenb.’
She found her voice.
‘I–was not avoiding you. I did not see you coming.’
‘That is a lie.’ He was smiling now, she could hear it in his voice.
‘Renisenb, beautiful Renisenb.’
She felt his warm, strong hand around her arm and immediately she shook herself free.
‘Do not touch me! I do not like to be touched.’
‘Why do you fight against me, Renisenb? You know well enough the thing that is between us. You are young and strong and beautiful. It is against nature that you should go on grieving for a husband all your life. I will take you away from this house. It is full of deaths and evil spells. You shall come away with me and be safe.’
‘And suppose I do not want to come?’ said Renisenb with spirit.
Kameni laughed. His teeth gleamed white and strong.
‘But you do want to come, only you will not admit it! Life is good, Renisenb, when a sister and brother are together. I will love you and make you happy and you shall be a glorious field to me, your Lord. See, I shall no longer sing to Ptah, “Give me my sister tonight,” but I shall go to Imhotep and say, “Give me my sister Renisenb.” But I think it is not safe for you here, so I shall take you away. I am a good scribe and I can enter the household of one of the great nobles of Thebes if I wish, though actually I like the country life here–the cultivation and the cattle and the songs of the men who reap, and the little pleasure craft on the River. I would like to sail with you on the River, Renisenb. And we will take Teti with us. She is a beautiful, strong child and I will love her and be a good father to her. Come, Renisenb, what do you say?’
Renisenb stood silent. She was conscious of her heart beating fast and she felt a kind of languor stealing over her senses. Yet with this feeling of softness, this yielding, went something else–a feeling of antagonism.
‘The touch of his hand on my arm and I am all weakness…’ she thought. ‘Because of his strength…of his square shoulders…his laughing mouth…But I know nothing of his mind, of his thoughts, of his heart. There is no peace between us and no sweetness…What do I want? I do not know…But not this…No, not this–’
She heard herself saying, and even in her own ears the words sounded weak and uncertain:
‘I do not want another husband…I want to be alone…to be myself…’
‘No, Renisenb, you are wrong. You were not meant to live alone. Your hand says so when it trembles with mine…See?’
With an effort Renisenb drew her hand away.
‘I do not love you, Kameni. I think I hate you.’
He smiled.
‘I do not mind you hating me, Renisenb. Your hate is very close to love. We will speak of this again.’
He left her, moving with the swiftness and easy gait of a young gazelle. Renisenb went slowly on to where Kait and the children were playing by the lake.
Kait spoke to her, but Renisenb answered at random.
Kait, however, did not seem to notice, or else, as usual, her mind was too full of the children to pay much attention to other things.
Suddenly, breaking the silence, Renisenb said:
‘Shall I take another husband? What do you say, Kait?’
Kait replied placidly without any great interest:
‘It would be as well, I think. You are strong and young, Renisenb, and you can have many more children.’
‘Is that all a woman’s life, Kait? To busy myself in the back of the house, to have children, to spend the afternoons with them by the lake under the sycamore trees?’
‘It is all that matters to a woman. Surely you know that. Do not speak as though you were a slave–women have power in Egypt–inheritance passes through them to their children. Women are the life blood of Egypt.’
Renisenb looked thoughtfully at Teti who was busily making a garland of flowers for her doll. Teti was frowning a little with the concentration of what she was doing. There had been a