Keeping his voice level, his sudden interest hidden, he said, “Your ring is beautiful, mistress. May I see it?”
She stiffened, looked about to panic. With an obvious effort, she formed a smile and offered her hand, her movements jerky with tension. “Pretty, isn’t it? Intef found it washed up on the riverbank when the floodwaters receded. It’s of small value, he told me, a bit of bronze and faience not worth selling. So he gave it to me.”
She was offering too much; her voice was too chatty, too strident. She was unaccustomed, Bak thought, to lying. “We found two very old and valuable bracelets and some gold beads hidden on one of his donkeys. This ring is equally old, not bronze and faience but gold and jasper.”
“You err!” she cried, tearing her hand free, clasping it to her breast. “The ring is worth nothing!” Her voice broke, she sobbed, “Do you think us so wealthy we can keep for ourselves a trinket of great value? Something to look at and enjoy, not trade for food?”
Covering her face with her hands, she began to moan, airing a grief deep within her heart. The girl ran to her, held her close, and glared at Bak and Imsiba. “Leave us. My papa is gone, and you’re hurting my mama. How can you be so cruel?”
Realizing how bold she had been, she clamped her mouth shut and stared defiantly at the two men. The stance was foolish, meant to make a lie of the fear they saw in her eyes.
Bak had every right to tear her from her home, to carry her off to Buhen and punish her severely for her impudence.
He chose to turn away. “Come, Imsiba. We’ll get nothing more here.”
“She knows Intef found a tomb,” Imsiba said.
“She may tell us more in time,” Bak agreed, “but now she’s too afraid. Too worried for her children.”
“How desperate is she, do you think?”
Bak’s voice reflected the concern he saw on Imsiba’s face.
“That depends on how much of value Intef found and hid away-and whether or not she knows where he hid it and how to dispose of it to her advantage.”
“You think she does?”
“I pray she does.”
They walked along the raised verge of Intef’s bean field, turning green with new growth. Water trickled from a shallow irrigation ditch, its wall breached to allow the life-giving moisture to spread across the earth. The last good drink the plants would have, Bak guessed, for soon the ditch would run dry and every drop would have to be carried from afar.
“Do you think it important to snaring Intef’s slayer?” Imsiba asked. “The tomb, I mean. The place where he found the jewelry?”
Bak gave a rueful snort. “I wish I knew.”
They stopped at the corner of the field and looked out across the oasis. Less than a week had passed since Rennefer’s attempt to slay her husband, but even in so short a time many more fields had turned bright green with new life.
In the lower-lying areas, the last to give up the floodwaters, men, women, children, and cattle were spread across the land, plowing the rich black earth and sowing the next crop.
Birds dotted the fields behind them, searching for worms and seeds left on the surface.
Bak imagined he could see in the distance Penhet’s farm.
How much had happened since last he had stopped there!
“One day soon Rennefer will stand before Commandant Thuty. He’s putting off the day he must pass judgment, but when at last he summons her, he’ll want a full picture. Let’s go see Penhet, learn of his health and how he fares without his mate.”
“Mate?” Imsiba snorted. “Viper, you mean.”
“I knew she’d be angry,” Penhet said. “That’s why I was so reluctant to tell her of the agreement. But I never expected this.” He made a vague motion toward his back and the bandages swaddling him from waist to neck.
“My wife tends to his wounds.” Netermose sat on a stool beside the pallet on which the injured man lay on his stomach, the orange cat curled up against his thigh, purring. “She counted eleven cuts, most shallow and not serious, but two that could’ve taken his life given sufficient time to bleed.”
“I thank the lord Amon that you came upon me when you did,” Penhet said, patting his neighbor’s foot. “If you hadn’t, if she’d had time to go on…” He shook his head, unable to utter a thought so abhorrent.
Bak glanced at the courtyard, which looked as well tended as the first time he had seen it. Rennefer would not be pleased, he suspected. “Your servants seem conscientious enough.”
“Netermose’s wife keeps an eye on them.”
“You signed your agreement then?” Imsiba asked.
The two farmers exchanged a glance of mutual satisfaction.
“We’ve made a new agreement,” Penhet said.
“He’ll keep the land,” Netermose explained, “even the patch that so angered Rennefer. And I’ll tend to his fields and help him care for his livestock.”
“And we’ll share the proceeds,” Penhet added, smiling.
The arrangement seemed fair, a way to give both men what they needed: Netermose more land and Penhet a means of living.
“You’ve not yet brought Meret into your household?” Bak asked the latter.
“No.” Penhet fussed with the cat’s velvety ears, unable to meet Bak’s eyes. “I’ve lost my taste for her.”
Bak was not surprised. The girl represented the end of a way of life; how could she be a new beginning?
“I keep telling him he needs someone to care for him, a woman who can keep the servants in line.” Netermose scowled at his neighbor. “I have a large household and my 132 / Lauren Haney wife’s a busy woman. She can’t come here forever.”
“My servants are still upset,” Penhet explained. “As I am, for that matter. Maybe later. After Rennefer is…” He shook his head, denying the fate he knew awaited the woman who had for so long shared his life. “But not Meret. Someone else perhaps.”
Bak thought of the woman he and Imsiba had just left, the tiny farm, the many mouths to feed. “I know of someone, a recent widow, who might be persuaded to live here. I must warn you, though, that she has several children.” He thought it best not to divulge the exact number.
“Children?” Penhet’s eyes lit up. “I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard a child’s laughter on this farm. Even my servants are barren.”
Bak sneaked a glance at Imsiba, who was giving him the suspicious look of one who thought the suggestion planned in advance. Maybe it was, Bak thought. Not by me, but by the gods. If so, neither the truth nor a lie would sway Penhet.
His fate was sealed. So he spoke of Intef’s death and of all he and the Medjay had found on the poor farm at the edge of the oasis.
“Five children,” Penhet said, his tone thoughtful, neither pleased nor dismayed.
“You’d have a houseful,” Netermose said in a carefully neutral voice.
Bak remained mute, letting the farmer make up his own mind. Imsiba stood under the lean-to, saying nothing, his expression-his silent laughter, Bak suspected-hidden in the shadow.
Penhet broke a long silence. “Netermose is right. I can’t go on like this, depending on his wife day after day. Yet I do need someone. My wounds need tending; my servants require a firm hand.” He paused, smiled to himself. “And yes: having children in the house will be a pleasant distraction.”
Bak offered a silent prayer of thanks to the lord Amon-and made a further plea that a match would result, one that would last through eternity.
Chapter Nine
Thin ribbons of yellow reached across a pale blue sky, heralding the rising sun. The air was clear and still, pleasantly warm. Feeble trails of smoke spiraled up from dwellings in the outer city, carrying the tantalizing aroma of baking bread and the harsher odor of scorched oil. Men, women, and children jostled each other in the narrow lanes. A dozen black cows, their udders heavy with milk, forced their way through, indifferent to the curses they roused.