He agreed and watched her amble away across the garden, her thin legs like a crane’s, her shoulders hunched. Bakmut followed, and the garden was empty once more.
Khaemwaset got up, plunged his head under the fountain’s steady coldness and took a tour around the house, greeting the servants he met, but he was not able either to take his belated excursion on the river or go into his quarters. Returning to his spot on the grass he sat numbly, his head eventually buzzing with the need for sleep, feeling jaded with self-disgust.
At last, as the sun westered and the light in the garden began to soften, Ib came to him The man was grubby and tired. He bowed perfunctorily, his mouth rimmed in grey dust, his nostrils edged in sand that clung to his sweat. Khaemwaset bade him sit, and Ib sank thankfully to the grass. “You had better not let Nubnofret see you in that state,” Khaemwaset said. “What news do you have?”
Ib shook his head, and Khaemwaset’s heart sank. “Very little, Prince,” the Steward admitted. “Thirty of us have been combing the streets and public places of the city all afternoon. Many people have seen this woman, but of those that have seen her, none has spoken with her.” He eased off his wilted kilt and used it to rub his face. “And no one has any idea where she lives.”
Khaemwaset pondered for a moment. “Thank you, Ib,” he said at last. “Take whatever time you need to wash yourself, then organize the thirty into groups of five each. Write a watch for them of four hours each, rotating, and tomorrow they can begin again. One of them will eventually hear or see something.” He felt Ib’s disapproval and sent him into the house, but he himself sat on. I have wasted almost a whole day, he thought dismally. I have sat here like one of the insane, and what other response from Ib did I expect? Yes, Prince, we have found her, she is waiting for you in the reception hall? Khaemwaset hauled himself to his feet and stalked after Ib. The Steward was nowhere to be seen and Khaemwaset summoned Kasa, spent a delicious half hour standing in the bath house while his servant scrubbed him down and doused him with lotus water, then, freshly dressed, he went in search of his wife.
He found her in her quarters with her cosmetician, having her makeup renewed after the sleep. She was obviously pleased and not a little surprised to see him being admitted, and she swung round on her stool. Kohl glistened around her magnificent eyes. The lids had been swept with green paint and her lips freshly hennaed. She was wearing a loose cloak, open down the front and bunched loosely on her knees, and he was struck as he had not been in years by her luscious curves. “This is an odd time for you to be seeking me out!” she exclaimed, smiling. “Is something wrong, Khaemwaset?” He went to perch on the edge of her disordered couch. “Nothing at all,” he said. “Are you busy now, Nubnofret? Would you like to take a turn in the barge before dinner just as far as Peru-nefer, and sit on the deck? We could watch the sun set and play a little sennet?”
“I really shouldn’t,” she said hesitantly. “Mice have got into one of the granaries in the rear courtyard and spoiled the grain, and we will be short of bread. Our farm steward is coming shortly to take my order for more grain from the big granary, and I must supervise the laying of gazelles’ dung to repulse the mice.” She was making her excuses with regret, Khaemwaset saw.
“What do we have a kitchen steward for?” he objected. “Let him oversee the matter. You have trained them all well, Nubnofret. Let go for once.”
She thought. Then, “You are right,” she agreed. “Give me a little time to dress, my dear, and I will join you at the watersteps.”
He did not really want to go on the river with her. He wanted to find an isolated, private spot and stand there, kneel there, lie there, until the moment when Ib came to him to say that the woman had been run to ground. But he knew the dangerous irrationality of that urge and fought it off determinedly. The river would be beautiful as Ra descended into the mouth of Nut, and it would make Nubnofret happy. The thought of making Nubnofret happy brought to him an engulfing guilt and he smiled, nodded and left her apartment quickly.
In the weeks that followed, Khaemwaset went through the motions of his duty with grim and iron determination, while his servants scoured the streets of Memphis. Khaemwaset forced himself to inspect the as yet barely begun excavations in the desert for the Apis mortuaries, and see to the dredging of several canals on his agricultural estate. No news of Pharaoh’s labyrinthine marriage negotiations with the Khatti came from the Delta, and Khaemwaset was relieved. The last thing he wanted was to answer a summons to attend his father in Pi-Ramses when all his inward attention was fixed on the reports of his soldiers each evening.