I snatched it from the air before it could hit me. “Did you bother to read the whole message?” I said. “That’s no love note. Amenophis and I are friends, friends, friends! He helps me spend my days in this place happily, seeing new sights, learning interesting things, opening doors for me when everyone else keeps trying to seal me up behind stone walls! He talks to me.”
Thutmose’s upper lip curled. “He would. He’s got nothing better to do with his time, and he’s so soft, he might as well have been born a girl. What delightful times the two of you must spend, gossiping, dabbling with perfumes, trying on each other’s jewelry! Don’t let him wear anything too heavy, Nefertiti, none of the big pectoral necklaces, no thick gold bracelets. The weight would snap his flimsy bones.”
The same flimsy bones that master a team of spirited chariot steeds? I thought, fuming. The flimsy bones that can bend a strong bow and send an arrow through the heart of a distant target? I wanted to shout those words at Thutmose but thought better of it. If I lie down with pigs, I’ll get up covered in the same muck as they. I won’t let his cruel words turn me into someone just as cruel.
“You don’t know your brother very well,” was all I chose to say.
“I don’t want to. He’s useless to me. No, he’s even worse than that for stealing your attention from me.”
“My attention? ”I was flabbergasted. “If you wanted that, why did you leave me alone except when your mother forced you to keep me company?”
“Pffff! My brother’s given you a false idea of your own importance. You are a beauty, Nefertiti, and it will do me good to have someone as lovely as you for my Great Royal Wife, when the time comes. Meanwhile, it will please Father and keep his favor with me. But you’re the one who’s got the most to gain from this marriage. Marrying me will make you somebody. You’re the one who should be courting me.”
I was so angry by this point that I could feel hot tears rising. I won’t let him see me cry, I thought, clenching my fists. But O sweet Isis, what I really want to do is kick him again, and I can’t—I shouldn’t do that. With intense restraint, I answered him: “I see. So I have no one to blame but myself for my past loneliness?”
He smiled. “Well! So you are a smart girl. Maybe we can make a fresh start. I’ll make sure that Amenophis doesn’t take up any more of your time, and you can turn your attention to better things. You know, if you’re so terribly bored, all you have to do is agree to marry me immediately. Once you become the crown princess, you’ll have plenty of new duties to fill your time, and if you’re a good wife and give me a son as soon as possible, I’ll see to it that you get a nice present.”
I wondered how he’d react if I’d asked for a chariot of my own, then and there. He’d probably gape so much that his eyes would pop out of his head. The thought made me smile, and he took it for a sign that I’d conceded the quarrel.
“You agree with me. Good.” The passion he’d shown during our argument was gone; the old, familiar coolness was back. “All will be well between us from now on. Where is Ta-Miu?”
I motioned for him to step into my rooms. As I’d imagined, Nava and Ta-Miu were under the bed. When I called to the child, she and the cat poked their heads out side by side, four green eyes peering up at me.
“There you are, my treasure!” Thutmose exclaimed, kneeling. He turned to me and added: “You won’t need to look after her again.”
“Oh, but I don’t mind,” I said anxiously. The memory of how close I’d come to hearing Nava speak taunted me. “She’s a lovely cat, so sweet, so well-behaved!”
Thutmose beamed. “She is; all the more reason to guard her. I didn’t think things through. I forgot that there would be times when neither you nor I would be free to keep her out of the wrong hands. Tonight, for instance, both of us must attend a banquet honoring the ambassadors from Kush. If Mother’s agents wanted to seize Ta-Miu then, who’d stop them?”
“Nava could take care of Ta-Miu for both of us,” I said, indicating my little musician. “She loves her.”
“Nava—?” Thutmose glanced at the still-cowering child. “Oh yes, very formidable. I’m sure she’d be able to protect Ta-Miu against whole armies!” He snorted. “I’ve entrusted the task to one of my strongest slaves, a Nubian with hands that can crush baked bricks. He won’t fail me—he has a wife and children to think of.”
With that, Thutmose scooped Ta-Miu into his arms and stood up. The cat was still a little unnerved from the shouting match she’d just overheard at such close range. She squirmed, which only made him hold her more tightly. The cat made a low, warbling noise deep in her throat—half meow, half growl—and lashed out viciously with her hind legs. Thutmose uttered a sharp cry of pain and dropped her. She was back under my bed with Nava before the first drops of blood oozed from the gash she’d opened on his arm.
“This is your fault!” he bellowed, whirling to confront me. “My Ta-Miu has never hurt me before. Never! What did you do to her? How did you turn her against me?”
“I won’t listen to this nonsense,” I said, keeping as calm as I could. Nava didn’t need to witness any more uproars. “As if I could make a cat do anything it didn’t want to do? As if anyone could do that? You’re not being rational, Thutmose.”
A dangerous look came into his eyes. “So that’s his plan.” And before I could ask him what he was talking about, he threw himself flat on his belly, wormed under my bed, emerged with a struggling Ta-Miu in his grasp, and stormed out, leaving me to cope with a silently weeping Nava.
I sat on the floor and held her in my lap, rocking her like a baby. I was trying to cheer her with silly songs and funny stories when I heard someone rapping on the wall just outside of my bedroom doorway. “May I come in?” It was Amenophis.
“Why are you here?” I asked sharply, still upset from all the nasty things Thutmose had said.
“It’s not forbidden,” he said, taken aback by my hard words. “The only reason I haven’t done it before is … is I was afraid.”