King and Goddess Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.
“Not yet,” he said, “lady. The queen requires a master of writing and reading,
but not for every hour of every day. When she has no need of him, he may do and
go as he pleases.”
    “And,” said Hat-Nufer, still much too sweetly but with a
return of her wonted canniness, “will there be any . . .
consideration in return? A man must eat, after all, and buy clothing and
ornaments suitable to his station.”
    “It will be seen to,” said the Nubian.
    “Ah, but one does wonder,” she said, “how much a queen
values the man who teaches her the arts of the scribe. If we might have some
inkling . . .”
    Dear gods, she was haggling, and in that cloying tone, too.
For the first time Senenmut saw an expression in the Nubian’s eyes. It must be
amusement. It could not be admiration. “The wages of a royal scribe are not
insignificant,” he said. “You may expect that your son will receive the same.
Bread and beer for every day, a brace of fat geese on festivals, clothing as
needed and as required by his duties, and a wig of his choosing; and in
addition, if he does well, such ornaments and emoluments as the queen deems
appropriate.”
    “And, I expect, all necessities of his art,” said Hat-Nufer
with notable lack of shame. “Inks, brushes, pens, a new palette as befits a
royal scribe. And papyrus, of course, and such books as he requires for his
instruction.”
    “Of course,” said the Nubian blandly. “You may expect that
your son will be well rewarded for his service.”
    Neither clearly had any thought of consulting Senenmut as to
whether he wished to be nursemaid to the queen. His mother could only see the
rank and the title. She did not know the child, spoiled as she was and
imperious, as likely to cast Senenmut off as to demand his service.
    If he had not refused her, she surely would not have wanted
him. But since he had, she had to take vengeance by sending her servitor,
guardsman, bedmate, whatever he was, and disarming his mother, and trapping him
much too neatly for his comfort.
    He had no choice but to follow the Nubian. It never occurred
to anyone to feed him. He was too sulky to demand at least a bite of bread.
Hungry, seething, he went back to the palace that he had approached with such
joy the day before.

4
    Nehsi the Nubian did not see what his lady saw in the boy
from the Temple of Amon. His resistance was naught but puppy-snarling. At heart
he was no more high-minded than his mother, and not much less venal, either.
    He pondered that as he stood guard over his lady in her
lesser garden. She had gone there ostensibly to take the air as a queen might
do, actually to be by herself except for the inevitable and inescapable guard,
    He, who had been standing about in livery since he grew tall
enough to overtop any but the tallest Egyptian, had ample leisure to consider
the queen’s latest acquisition.
    “You are jealous,” Hatshepsut said, reading him as easily as
she had since she was a small princess and he a callow young guardsman. “You
think I might grow too fond of him.”
    “I think,” said Nehsi, “that he is a low and vulgar creature
with lofty ambitions.”
    “And that he’s not pretty enough for me?”
    Nehsi showed her his teeth. “Pretty is as pretty does. And
isn’t he a fine one, with that crooked beak of his?”
    “And you with yours spread half across your face, you can
quibble?” She tossed her head in its wig of many beaded braids. “You’re too
vain of yourself, that’s the trouble with you. Is it going well with the twins?
Are they asking you yet to choose which of them you favor more?”
    Nehsi had always been glad of skin too dark to show a blush.
The queen’s two maids, twins and as like as two eggs in the same nest, were
each a delicious handful, but together they were another kind of handful
entirely. For a fact they were wearing him out; but he would never tell the
queen that.
    She grinned at him, no heed of dignity here where there was
only