Read Online Shadows of the Nile by Jo Franklin - Free Book Online

We both fell asleep, and I awoke before her and slipped out.” She wasn’t going to say that the girl had gone to meet her lover.
    â€œShe’ll be severely beaten,” Ptah said coldly. “She’ll be yelling in pain. Then she’ll be dismissed.”
    â€œPlease don’t hurt her, it was my fault.”
    Ptah grimaced. “You’ll have to learn how you end up hurting people if you do just what you want. Now do as you’re told and go to your room, and stay there until I call you.”
    She crept off. She felt very distressed. But she was determined to help her servant if she could. To do that she needed to hear what her parents were saying. So when she thought they’d forgotten her, she crept back to a spot where she couldn’t be seen and yet could hear them quite clearly.
    â€œYou’re too hard on her,” Masika was saying. “You should let her lead her life in the normal way like her sisters. They’re all married. She’s fifteen and should have been married long before this.”
    â€œShe’ll never be married,” Ptah hissed. “I have different plans for her. She’s not ordinary. She was given to us by those travellers, you remember, given to me by that beautiful woman. She stays with me until I die. Do you understand, woman? She belongs to me, to do with as I like.”
    â€œAnd what happens when you die,” Masika flamed. “What do we do with her then?”
    â€œI have that all worked out,” Ptah said quietly. “You don’t go against my wishes. Now take the servant girl to be flogged and sent on her way with nothing apart from the clothes she wears. I will deal with Tadinanefer.”
    Tadinanefer heard her mother prepare to leave and quickly returned to her room.
    She started to think. She knew Ptah and Masika were not her true kin. She only had to look at the lightness of her skin and her brown hair to know she hadn’t been born into the family. But she’d only just learned that Ptah never intended to marry her off. That was why he’d always been over-possessive with her. He’d always hidden her from everyone, by shrouding her in many robes. She thought it was because of her skin colour but now she wasn’t so sure. She’d only ever been allowed to show her strange beauty to close family and personal servants.
    She sat down and folded her hands in her lap with her head held low. She awaited her punishment – she hoped it wouldn’t be a flogging.
    *
    Ptah appeared. “Put your outer robe on,” he said abruptly, “and follow me.”
    She did as she was told, following in his footsteps. The hood fell over her eyes. She couldn’t really see where they were going, but it was out of the house and quite a long way towards the perimeter of the farm, near the cliffs.
    After a while they stopped. Ptah took out a key and unlocked the door to something carved in the rock. At first she thought they’d come to visit someone, but she suddenly realised it was no ordinary place. It smelt of paint and was cold.
    Ptah closed the door and lit one of the torches. He tore off her robe so she stood only in her thin shift.
    She could at last see around her.
    â€œDo you know where we are?” he asked.
    â€œIt’s a tomb,” she answered fearfully.
    â€œIt’s my tomb. I’m having it prepared for my afterlife. It has several rooms and in each room I’ll have something I’ve owned during my life which I’ll take with me. The men have just left and they won’t be back until I tell them. They’re doing work to the walls and making paintings of things I do in my leisure time, my work and my family. Come this way.”
    He took the torch and led her towards some steps carved in the wall.
    â€œWe’ll go down these to where my tomb will lie. When I’m entombed the steps will be removed and there will be a sheer drop. No one will get in or