need an unhappy Queen.’
‘We talked about the Aten, Lady.’
‘The Aten? Ah, religion,’ said the Great Royal Wife, her mouth twisting as though she had bitten a persimmon. ‘Sometimes one questions the wisdom of attempting to penetrate such mysteries. In any case, I am no guide, daughter. My son is philosophical, even whimsical, and perfectly unreasonable on that subject. I have always found it best not to argue with him.’
‘What happens if you do argue with him?’ I asked. Three sets of eyes turned on me. My mother’s glare was as hot as a silversmith’s furnace.
Tiye, however, was looking at me with great interest. She tipped up my chin with a strong forefinger and looked into my face.
‘A good question, little daughter, and one that not many would dare to ask, Mutnodjme. I wonder what your father means to make of you, questioner?’
‘She will be a wife,’ snarled my mother. ‘To an old man who will beat her.’
‘There are worse fates than to be loved by an old man,’ said the Queen gently, who was herself so married, and Tey bit her lip. I had made it possible for her to make a mistake in speaking with the Great Royal Wife, and she was going to beat me until I bled when she got me home, I could tell. But the question had not been answered and I looked at the Queen again. She laughed.
‘What does my son do when he is crossed? He argues, and then if he is further opposed, he screams, and if anyone persists with their opposition, he throws himself on the ground. I recall that his nurse would not allow him to play with one of the guard dog’s puppies, because she was afraid it would bite him. He shrieked until he turned blue and she was afraid and sent for me. I agreed that the prohibition was wise. My son found that he could not move us, and seemed to surrender. But the next day the puppy was found dead, its head beaten in by a stone. If he could not have it, no one could. It is not wise to persist in opposition to his desires.’
I stared at the Queen while my heart slowly chilled. Into what blood-stained hands had my Father delivered my beautiful and innocent sister?
‘If he is…thwarted,’ said my mother carefully, ‘what remedies do you suggest?’
‘Instant compliance,’ said the Queen, still with her bitten-persimmon mouth. ‘And if he is foaming and screaming, an infusion of valerian and reed-heads will calm him. I never expected to raise him,’ she said slowly. ‘When he was thirteen he was struck with a fever which raged for three days. He was as hot as a smith’s brand and no medicine could quench it. All the physicians said that he would die. But then, quite suddenly, he fell into a sweat and then into a sleep, and when he awoke he was…distant. His ka had travelled, he said, to the Field of Reeds and found it empty but for the god Aten, the sun-disc.
‘And then he did not develop like other boys. I thought it was just laziness—he has never liked to run or fight—when he fattened like a heifer, growing breasts and belly. I told myself, he is young and his father is solid and stocky, may he live forever. I thought nothing of it. By the time I knew that it was not so with my son, he was changed into what he is now. You are gentle and beautiful, Nefertiti, and he likes beautiful things. Love him as best you may. I can only hope that this child,’ she caressed the mound of her belly, resting heavily on her thighs ‘is a boy, for if my son Akhnamen becomes sole ruler, I do not know what will become of the Land of the River.’
She clapped her hands and her four suspicious maidservants came through the curtain. They did not look on us any more kindly, and I wondered if they disliked us on principle, or if they were defending their mistress, whom they evidently loved, from exertion. The old one knelt for her orders.
‘The presents for the Great Royal Wife and her mother and sister, Sahte,’ said Tiye gently, and the old woman blushed, muttered something, and gestured to the others,
‘We talked about the Aten, Lady.’
‘The Aten? Ah, religion,’ said the Great Royal Wife, her mouth twisting as though she had bitten a persimmon. ‘Sometimes one questions the wisdom of attempting to penetrate such mysteries. In any case, I am no guide, daughter. My son is philosophical, even whimsical, and perfectly unreasonable on that subject. I have always found it best not to argue with him.’
‘What happens if you do argue with him?’ I asked. Three sets of eyes turned on me. My mother’s glare was as hot as a silversmith’s furnace.
Tiye, however, was looking at me with great interest. She tipped up my chin with a strong forefinger and looked into my face.
‘A good question, little daughter, and one that not many would dare to ask, Mutnodjme. I wonder what your father means to make of you, questioner?’
‘She will be a wife,’ snarled my mother. ‘To an old man who will beat her.’
‘There are worse fates than to be loved by an old man,’ said the Queen gently, who was herself so married, and Tey bit her lip. I had made it possible for her to make a mistake in speaking with the Great Royal Wife, and she was going to beat me until I bled when she got me home, I could tell. But the question had not been answered and I looked at the Queen again. She laughed.
‘What does my son do when he is crossed? He argues, and then if he is further opposed, he screams, and if anyone persists with their opposition, he throws himself on the ground. I recall that his nurse would not allow him to play with one of the guard dog’s puppies, because she was afraid it would bite him. He shrieked until he turned blue and she was afraid and sent for me. I agreed that the prohibition was wise. My son found that he could not move us, and seemed to surrender. But the next day the puppy was found dead, its head beaten in by a stone. If he could not have it, no one could. It is not wise to persist in opposition to his desires.’
I stared at the Queen while my heart slowly chilled. Into what blood-stained hands had my Father delivered my beautiful and innocent sister?
‘If he is…thwarted,’ said my mother carefully, ‘what remedies do you suggest?’
‘Instant compliance,’ said the Queen, still with her bitten-persimmon mouth. ‘And if he is foaming and screaming, an infusion of valerian and reed-heads will calm him. I never expected to raise him,’ she said slowly. ‘When he was thirteen he was struck with a fever which raged for three days. He was as hot as a smith’s brand and no medicine could quench it. All the physicians said that he would die. But then, quite suddenly, he fell into a sweat and then into a sleep, and when he awoke he was…distant. His ka had travelled, he said, to the Field of Reeds and found it empty but for the god Aten, the sun-disc.
‘And then he did not develop like other boys. I thought it was just laziness—he has never liked to run or fight—when he fattened like a heifer, growing breasts and belly. I told myself, he is young and his father is solid and stocky, may he live forever. I thought nothing of it. By the time I knew that it was not so with my son, he was changed into what he is now. You are gentle and beautiful, Nefertiti, and he likes beautiful things. Love him as best you may. I can only hope that this child,’ she caressed the mound of her belly, resting heavily on her thighs ‘is a boy, for if my son Akhnamen becomes sole ruler, I do not know what will become of the Land of the River.’
She clapped her hands and her four suspicious maidservants came through the curtain. They did not look on us any more kindly, and I wondered if they disliked us on principle, or if they were defending their mistress, whom they evidently loved, from exertion. The old one knelt for her orders.
‘The presents for the Great Royal Wife and her mother and sister, Sahte,’ said Tiye gently, and the old woman blushed, muttered something, and gestured to the others,
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