Khaemwaset had the uneasy feeling that she knew already. She was staring at him with what seemed like equanimity, her breath coming in slow deep movements of her breast. “Not a princess,” he was forced to admit, “but definitely a noblewoman. It is Tbubui, Nubnofret. Tbubui. I have wanted her from the first!” His last words shot from him in a desperate effort to shake her aplomb, but she merely raised one feathery eyebrow.
“Tbubui. I did wonder about her, Khaemwaset. That day she almost fell into the water and panicked, you tensed to rush to her before she had even begun to topple. Well, I suppose I like her a little. We are friends on a superficial level, but she is not my social equal, and I do not intend to treat her as such, particularly now that I suspect she sought my company even as she was secretly inveigling to join this household. I regard such duplicity as a personal betrayal. You understand.”
“Yes, of course.”
“I am quite sure that she sealed the contract with great eagerness,” Nubnofret went on. “You are, after all, no minor princeling buried in Egypt’s backwaters. Now what of her son? Is he to live here also? Do you want me to give orders for a large celebration, and if so, when? What has your father had to say about the match?” Her questions were dutiful and clinical, but Khaemwaset at last sensed the terrible rage that he had mistaken for indifference, a rage so great that it had rendered her frozen.
“The contract does not become valid until Penbuy returns from Koptos with verification of her noble bloodline,” he assured her hastily. “He left a few days ago and I have not yet received word that he arrived safely.”
“No one told me.” For a moment she looked bewildered, then she leaned forward, flushing. “No one told me! All this behind my back, Prince, as though you were ashamed, as though you were afraid of me! I am insulted! How do you regard me, Khaemwaset, if you cannot come to me about something like this? How long? How long?”
“I am sorry, Nubnofret,” he confessed. “Truly sorry. I wish that I could make you understand.” He spread his hands before her. “If I had taken another wife for dynastic reasons or because my father thought it necessary or even for a little variety, I would have come to you, discussed it with you. But this …” He put his hands on her rigid shoulders. “I am consumed with wanting her, Nubnofret. I cannot rest. I concentrate on nothing. And that makes me feel like a foolish young man, like an infatuated child before you. Therefore I hesitated to suffer your amusement, your condescension.”
“By the gods!” She tore herself out of his tentative grasp. “She is a nobody from the south, Khaemwaset! If you want her, take her! Toss her in with the other concubines until you become tired of her or make love to her in her own house, it does not matter! But do not, do not marry her!”
The utter contempt in her voice made Khaemwaset wince. “This is no idle craving,” he broke in. “I know that I will still want her in five, ten, fifteen years, and I intend to make sure that no one else can have her. I will marry her. It is my right!”
“Your right!” she scoffed, and Khaemwaset saw that she was shaking all over. Her bracelets jangled with the tremors in her arms, and the hem of her gown was quivering. “Yes, it is your right, but not her, Khaemwaset! You have taken leave of your senses! Your father will never allow it!”
“I think he will,” Khaemwaset said, trying to gentle his voice and thus calm her down. “Tbubui is a noblewoman. Her character is above reproach. Penbuy will bring me the confirmation Ramses will request.”
“Well that is something, at least,” she said more quietly. Her gaze met his, and now he read speculation there. She began to play with her bracelets, pushing them up her arms, and letting them fall, but her eyes never left his. “Tell me,” she said. “Do you love me?”
“Oh Nubnofret!” he cried out, reaching for her, but she deftly stepped aside and his gesture died. “I love you very much. I always will.”
“But not as much, it seems, as an upstart from Koptos,” she murmured. “Very well. I demand to see the terms of the contract. That is my right. I must protect myself and the children. Apart from that, I shall conduct myself as befits my position as Chief Wife and Princess.” She stood taller. “Have you told Hori and Sheritra?”
“Not yet, and I beg you to leave that task to me. I will do it in my own way.”
Nubnofret smiled harshly. “Why?” she asked. “Are you ashamed, O my husband?”
They fell silent and stood staring at each other The heaviness between them grew, and with it Khaemwaset’s anger, until finally he said, “That will be all, Nubnofret. You are dismissed.”