Read Online The Sekhmet Bed by L. M. Ironside - Free Book Online Page B

plain green gown. She said doubtfully, “Perhaps Mutnofret thought you would want to be with your friend when she went to the gods.”
    Ahmose shook her head, at once denying her cousin’s words and trying to push the image of Aiya bleeding, Aiya dying, from her mind. All through the morning’s marriage, making offerings at the Temple of Amun, receiving the blessings from the High Priest, she had seen Aiya. While she stood back to watch Thutmose place the salt of marriage on Mutnofret’s tongue, tasting the salt on her own, she had heard Aiya’s dying words. As their litter carried them back to the palace through a throng of cheering rekhet, Ahmose had a mind only for planning Aiya’s tomb, Aiya’s funerary rites. Her wedding day had been one long blur of sadness, with Mutnofret’s radiant smile and coy laugh the only things of real clarity.
    “ She did it on purpose, Reni, to throw me. She planned to break my spirit so Thutmose would only love her today.”
    Reni sighed. “I know Mutnofret is jealous and angry. But you cannot let her win. Don’t let her ruin your wedding feast for you, Ahmose.”
    With shaking fingers, Ahmose managed to untie the knot of the simple white linen dress she had worn to the temple. She let it fall to the floor. She felt the need to spin flax, to center herself, lose herself in the rhythm of the spindle and distaff. But there was no time. In less than an hour she was expected at the feast, where she would sit with Thutmose and Mutnofret while drunken nobles fell all over each other and bad poets caterwauled for her approval. There was nothing she felt less like doing than feasting. Aiya’s tomb needed planning, and Ahmose should check with the embalmers to be sure the preparation of the bodies was going as planned.
    But duty called. It always did.
    Resigned to the feast, she held out her arms so Renenet could dress her. It was kind of her cousin to see to her today, when her heart was broken. It was kind of Renenet to advise her, to care. She would do her best to make Reni happy. Thutmose, too. Though her heart was with Aiya and the baby boy, she would do her duty.
     
    ***
     
    Ahmose left her apartment at the House of Women reluctantly, trailing her hand along one of the beautiful painted walls all the way to the door. She glanced back only once, looking through her open chamber doorway out to the garden. After the feast, she would be shown to her new rooms in Waset’s royal palace. Who will have this room now? Will it stand empty until I have a daughter to fill it? Have a daughter – no, not that. Nor a son. The thought of her home remaining quiet and unloved through all the years to come filled her with regret. Before she could cry she left her old apartment, closing the door behind her resolutely.
    Renenet waited for her in the hall. “Are you sure you won’t wear more jewels, Ahmose?” The woman had been trying to force rings onto Ahmose’s fingers and chains about her neck all afternoon. Ahmose had given in on only a few pieces: simple turquoise studs for her ears and nose, a wide bracelet of unadorned gold, and a bloodstone ring carved with the face of Iset.
    “ No, Reni. I want to be understated.”
    “ Where did you get an idea like understated ? This is a wedding feast!”
    Ahmose felt ill. Another of Mutnofret’s deceptions?
    What did it matter? She was resolved to be a good queen – the best queen Egypt had ever had. She didn’t need trappings to make the court see her as Thutmose’s Great Royal Wife. If Mutnofret had tricked her into looking shoddy, then Ahmose would turn the deception around on her sister. She could be as confident and splendid as a goddess, even in her plain green dress. Mutnofret would see.
    Ahmose would have preferred a chariot ride to the palace, but it was such a short distance it could hardly be justified. She and Reni climbed into the waiting litter. Renenet drew the curtains, then turned to Ahmose with a look that said words were on