“My name is Nefertiti,” I said. “If you don’t mind coming out of hiding for just a little while, could you help me? I’m new here and I’m lost.”
“I’d be happy to,” he said, eager. “Where do you want to go?”
“Back to my rooms.”
“Yes, but where are they?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be lost,” I replied, but not angrily.
“Well, are they in the north wing, the south? Do you know where they lie in relation to Pharaoh’s great hall of audience, the one where he receives foreign emissaries? Can you reach them from the river? I doubt they’re near the kitchens or the stables. They’d never put someone as important as you there.”
“How do you know if I’m important?” I asked.
“Oh, everyone knows about you.” His thick lips turned up at one corner in a sad smile. “News travels very fast in this house. You’ve been brought here from Akhmin by way of Abydos and you’re going to marry the crown prince.”
“News may travel fast here, but it doesn’t always arrive in one piece,” I said tartly. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to work on preparations for my wedding to Thutmose too soon.”
“Really?” He sounded surprised, then grew thoughtful. “I’ll bet you’ve been lodged in the women’s quarters, then, with the junior wives and concubines. Otherwise you would have been put closer to the royal rooms.”
I shrugged. “I smelled a lot of perfume and I heard a lot of giggling, but that’s all I know about it. There’s a garden with a long pool just outside my door, but this place seems to have a lot of gardens.”
“It does. I think that’s the only thing I like about living here. Well, that and the wall paintings. They’re all beautiful, and all differ—By Amun, I am stupid! My lady Nefertiti. If you can remember how the walls of your rooms were decorated, I can help you find them easily!”
He listened intently while I described the painted marshes, the waterfowl, and the hunting scene, then smiled like the sun. “You are in the women’s quarters! I haven’t been there since I was a child. I can’t take you all the way back—there are things I must do elsewhere before nightfall or I’ll be neck-deep in muck—but I can set you on the right path.”
“Wonderful!” I cried. “Let’s go.” I started back the way I’d come.
“Wait, please.” He dropped to one knee and fumbled for something hidden in the greenery. “You lost this when you fell,” he said, standing up and holding out Sitamun’s crown of flowers. It was badly crushed, and it took him a moment before he realized he was offering me a handful of ruined blossoms. “Oh,” he said apologetically. “I’ve done it again.”
“You didn’t do anything,” I said. “I was the one who ran into you. Leave it.”
As we walked out of the tiny garden, I looked up at my lanky escort and said, “You know who I am, but what’s your name?”
“Amenophis.” It was the last word I got out of him for a long time. It was as if once he’d solved the riddle of where to lead me, he’d taken fright and put up a wall between us. The farther we got from his cozy green refuge, the thicker and higher he built that wall.
Finally he stopped at a place where two palace halls crossed, and pointed. “The women’s quarters are that way. Good-goodbye.” He was gone before I could thank him. So much for making a new friend, I thought.
I had no difficulty making my way back to my rooms from that point. Once there, I found Berett merrily playing her harp in the corner of my bedroom while my three maidservants clapped their hands and danced. They stopped abruptly when they saw me, as if I’d caught them at some crime, and bowed deeply.
“Lady Nefertiti, pardon us,” Kepi said. “We unpacked all of your things and we’ve laid out the dress you are to wear tonight. Since you hadn’t come back to give us further orders and we had nothing else to do—”
“You knew exactly the right thing to do,” I told her, smiling. “Berett, play some more for all of us. I haven’t had the chance to dance for far too long.” I didn’t have to repeat my request. Berett’s fingers skipped over the harp strings and one of the other girls raised her voice in a comical song about a baboon who kept stealing a farmer’s grapes until the farmer tricked him into drinking wine. I did a clownish dance, pretending to be the baboon, Kepi played the farmer, and the others clapped in time to the music until we all fell down laughing.
There was more music and many more songs and dances before it was time for my maids to get me ready for the evening. I was bathed, rubbed with scented oils, and dressed in a flowing white gown that Aunt Tiye sent along with a cedarwood box holding a cascading necklace of gold and crystal beads. Last of all, Kepi painted my eyelids green and outlined my eyes heavily with black. She wanted to add a little red ocher mixed with oil to my lips, but I refused because I’d never used that before. I didn’t want to spend the evening making faces if it tasted nasty.
I had a small pang of worry about leaving Berett behind in my rooms. The maids would look after her, but would she be afraid without me? It was one thing to leave her alone in the daytime, but at night, in a strange new place?
But Isis smiled on me: I was murmuring my concerns to Kepi when I felt a small hand pat my arm. Berett smiled at me, then slipped her fingers willingly into Kepi’s palm. “Well, good,” I said, pleased. I hugged the child and left, lighthearted.
The same older woman who’d brought me to meet Thutmose was waiting to lead me to dinner. My heart thudded louder at every step. This was not just a simple family meal: I was going to meet the lord of all the Black Land, the living god, Pharaoh Amenhotep.