“Then tell him I haven’t gone far and that I’ll return quickly,” I told her. “He can wait for me for a change.”
She shook her head and looked miserable. “He won’t believe me. When he gives a command and it looks as if it hasn’t been obeyed, he won’t listen to explanations or excuses. If you try to tell him anything about it, he turns the matter over to Uni, and then—” She said no more but discreetly held out her left arm. The wrist had the crooked look of bones that had been broken and not healed well.
I gritted my teeth. I knew that slaves were beaten, even servants. The more powerful and high-ranking a master was, the freer he felt to treat the common people of his household worse than his hunting hounds and chariot horses. It infuriated me.
But what could I do about it here and now, for this one frightened girl, except comply with Thutmose’s orders so she wouldn’t suffer for my disobedience?
That really infuriated me.
“Never mind, then,” I said, putting on a pleasant expression. “I’ll wait until he arrives; then I’ll get a different dress. Ha! Maybe I’ll see if I can cut one of my dresses short enough to be a tunic and that’s what I’ll wear to run. I’d love to see the face Thutmose—Prince Thutmose—will make when he sees me like that!”
“Yes, Lady Nefertiti,” the girl replied. She looked deeply relieved.
I rested my hands on my hips. “What is taking him so long?”
“He … I heard …” The maidservant sidled nearer and spoke in a nearly inaudible whisper. “I heard that he wanted to bathe and to have his head and face shaved, and that he’s called for the finest scented oils for his skin, and a fresh kilt, perfectly pleated, and then he wanted Uni to lay out all of his best jewelry so that he could choose what to wear.”
“Hathor save me, he sounds like he’s getting ready to be married.” One corner of my mouth quirked up. I lifted the hem of my dress and wiggled my toes in the dirt. “He’s going to be very disappointed.”
There was a stir from the prince’s apartments and a chain of torches emerged. The line of slaves moved slowly around the garden, dropping off individual light-bearers at regular positions, like a broken necklace slowly shedding its beads one by one. I crossed the garden to follow their course from the doorway, all around the raised stones bordering the lotus pool, under the rustling leaves of a line of sycamores, around the corner of the pool where willows grew, past a magnificent doum palm crowned with fronds like daggers, and through a stretch of the garden where small white myrtle blossoms glowed like stars in a sky of lustrous, dark green leaves. I wanted to examine the path I’d have to run, studying it step by step for any places where it might not be level, where I might discover large stones or loose pebbles underfoot, or where a wayward root, snaking its way out of the carefully maintained beds, might become a hazard.
I had nearly completed my walk around the garden when I heard Thutmose calling my name. He stood outlined in the doorway to his apartments, and the change in him was stunning. There was no denying what a handsome man he was. Even when he’d lain unwashed and unkempt in his self-imposed prison, anyone could still see the perfection of his face and the strong yet graceful shape of his body. Now that he had regained an interest in his appearance and was bathed, scented, groomed, and adorned with a wealth of gold and polished gems, he did look fit to be called a god-on-earth.
If I didn’t know what he was like behind that thin layer of beauty, I would have called myself crazy for rejecting him as my husband. But I did know better, and I thanked Isis it was a lesson I’d learned in time.
The future god-on-earth was eating a pomegranate. When I approached him, he spat out a mouthful of pulpy red seeds at my feet.
“Oh, that’s nice,” I said, taking a step backward and making a face at him. “Does your nursemaid know what a rude little boy you are?”
He laughed, took another bite of the scarlet fruit, and this time spat the seeds well to one side. “Pardon me, Nefertiti, but I’ve been confined to these rooms for so long that my manners have gathered dust. We’ll begin our race soon. I just want to finish this. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I haven’t eaten properly for a long time.”
“Who are you planning to blame for that?” I couldn’t help myself; he had no right to keep up the pretense of being the eternal victim. “A royal prince doesn’t go hungry in the palace unless that’s what he wants to do.” I tried to push my way past him through the doorway.
He sidestepped to block me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m not running away, if that’s what you think,” I replied. “I’m going to my rooms to change my dress for something with more room.”
“No, you’re not. You’ll run our race in what you’re wearing now. I don’t have the time to wait for you.”
“You mean you’re afraid that if I’m free to run at my best, you won’t have a chance against me.”
He glowered at me so viciously that there was no denying I’d hit the target. Then he smiled stiffly and said, “When you consented to let this contest decide things between us, you agreed to the conditions I set for our competition. My race, run under my terms, or no race takes place at all. If you leave now to return to your rooms, you can stay there. Nothing will change from the way things are now. Is that what you’d like?”