Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [77]
There was a movement behind the bales of linen. Henet half-turned her head.
Then a great width of linen was thrown over her, stifling her mouth and nose. An inexorable hand wound the fabric round and round her body, swathing her like a corpse until her struggles ceased…
V
Renisenb sat in the entrance of the rock chamber, staring out at the Nile and lost in a queer dream fantasy of her own.
It seemed to her a very long time since the day when she had first sat here, soon after her return to her father’s house. That had been the day when she had declared so gaily that everything was unchanged, that all in the home was exactly as it had been when she left it eight years before.
She remembered now how Hori had told her that she herself was not the same Renisenb who had gone away with Khay and how she had answered confidently that she soon would be.
Then Hori had gone on to speak of changes that came from within, of a rottenness that left no outward sign.
She knew now something of what had been in his mind when he said those things. He had been trying to prepare her. She had been so assured, so blind–accepting so easily the outward values of her family.
It had taken Nofret’s coming to open her eyes…
Yes, Nofret’s coming. It had all hinged on that.
With Nofret had come death…
Whether Nofret had been evil or not, she had certainly brought evil…
And the evil was still in their midst.
For the last time, Renisenb played with the belief that Nofret’s spirit was the cause of everything…
Nofret, malicious and dead…
Or Henet, malicious and living…Henet the despised, the sycophantic, fawning Henet…
Renisenb shivered, stirred, and then slowly rose to her feet.
She could wait for Hori no longer. The sun was on the point of setting. Why, she wondered, had he not come?
She got up, glanced round her and started to descend the path to the valley below.
It was very quiet at this evening hour. Quiet and beautiful, she thought. What had delayed Hori? If he had come, they would at least have had this hour together…
There would not be many such hours. In the near future, when she was Kameni’s wife–
Was she really going to marry Kameni? With a kind of shock Renisenb shook herself free from the mood of dull acquiescence that had held her so long. She felt like a sleeper awakening from a feverish dream. Caught in that stupor of fear and uncertainty she had assented to whatever had been proposed to her.
But now she was Renisenb again, and if she married Kameni it would be because she wanted to marry him, and not because her family arranged it. Kameni with his handsome, laughing face! She loved him, didn’t she? That was why she was going to marry him.
In this evening hour up here, there was clarity and truth. No confusion. She was Renisenb, walking here above the world, serene and unafraid, herself at last.
Had she not once said to Hori that she must walk down this path alone at the hour of Nofret’s death? That whether fear went with her or not, she must still go alone.
Well, she was doing it now. This was just about the hour when she and Satipy had bent over Nofret’s body. And it was about this same hour when Satipy in her turn had walked down the path and had suddenly looked back–to see doom overtaking her.
At just about this same point too. What was it that Satipy had heard, to make her look suddenly behind her?
Footsteps?
Footsteps…but Renisenb heard footsteps now following her down the path.
Her heart gave a sudden leap of fear. It was true, then! Nofret was behind her, following her…
Fear coursed through her, but her footsteps did not slacken. Nor did they race ahead. She must overcome fear, since there was, in her mind, no evil deed to regret…
She steadied herself, gathered her courage and, still walking, turned her head.
Then she felt a great throb of relief. It was Yahmose following her. No spirit from the dead, but her own brother. He must have been