The barge captain had run out a ramp and Khaemwaset, hands still curled tightly in upon themselves, watched Amek come striding up it, across the deck and in under the shade of the awning. He bowed. Khaemwaset fought for air, for his voice, and found both.
“Well?” he croaked.
Amek grimaced. Drying mud was beginning to flake from his legs and he wiped at a streak of it on his cheek. “I made the request,” he said. “I put the question with great tact, Highness.”
“Of course you did!” Khaemwaset snapped impatiently. “I know you, Amek. What did she say?”
The man looked uncomfortable and his eyes slid away from Khaemwaset’s. “She said, ‘Tell this presumptuous man, your master, that I am a noblewoman and no mean person. I am not for sale.’”
Khaemwaset’s mouth suddenly filled with saliva. “You pressed her. I saw it!”
“Yes, Prince, I pressed her.” Amek shook his head. “She simply repeated, ‘I am a noblewoman and no mean person. Tell that to your rude and arrogant master.’”
Rude and Arrogant. Khaemwaset heard a string of curses go reeling through his head. “Did you at least try to find out where she lives?”
Amek nodded. “I told her that my master is a very rich and powerful man who has been seeking her for a long time. I thought that she would be complimented and thus soften her stance. But my words made no difference at all, in fact she smiled rather coldly into my face. ‘Gold cannot buy me and power cannot frighten me,’ she said. I did not want to exceed my instructions and arrest her, Highness. I had to let her pass.”
Khaemwaset’s fist came up and caught Amek on the side of the jaw. Amek, unprepared, went down and lay for a moment, stunned. Then his head lolled and he fingered his mouth. Arrest her! Khaemwaset’s mind was yelling. Arrest her, beat her, you should have dragged her on board and thrown her at my feet! Then all at once reality collapsed upon him and he knelt, aghast at what he had done. “Amek!” he said urgently, helping his guard to his feet. “I am sorry. I did not mean to strike you…. By Amun I did not …”
Amek managed a weak smile. “I have seen her face,” he said. “I do not blame my prince for striking me. She is very beautiful. I am the one who must apologize. I have failed my prince.”
Yes, you have seen her face, Khaemwaset thought, sick to the heart. You have felt her breath on you, you have noted the flicker of her eyelids, the rise of her breast as she drew breath to answer you with such scorn. I want to hit you again. “No,” he said shortly. “No, you have not.” And with that he swung abruptly on his heel and disappeared into the cabin, pulling the curtains closed savagely behind him.
He had not given the barge captain further instructions. He sat in the blue-tinged dimness of the cabin with his knees drawn up, eyes jammed shut, rocking to and fro in humiliation and the anger that had become directed now at himself. I have never struck a member of my staff before, he thought in agony. I have reprimanded, I have shouted. I have come close to losing my temper on many occasions, but never, never have I hit out. And at Amek! A man of silent loyalty, great efficiency, a man who has shielded and protected me for many years. He bit his lip, feeling the barge slip off the mud of the bank with a slight jerk, hearing the captain shout an order. It will do no good to apologize again, Khaemwaset’s thoughts ran on. The harm has been done. I can never take back that moment of sheer insane fury. And at what? He leaned back against the cabin cedar-fragrant wall and opened his eyes. A woman. A woman who got away from me. Amek did his duty then refused to break a law of Ma’at by compelling her into my presence.
He heard Kasa’s hesitant knock on the outer wall and pulled himself together. “Come!” The man opened the curtain, entered and bowed. “In the absence of any command to the contrary, the captain is proceeding to my lord Si-Montu’s watersteps, Highness,” he said. “Do you desire anything?”
Khaemwaset suppressed an urge to burst into hysterical laughter. I desire that infuriating mirage of a woman. I desire to wipe out the last hour. I desire the balm of soul I used to take entirely for granted. “Bring me water,” he said, “and the dates.” He had been about to order the barge to return home but suddenly the idea of pouring everything into the ears of his favourite brother was irresistible. He drank the water Kasa brought, nibbled on a few dates and brooded.
Ben-Anath greeted her brother-in-law with her usual affectionate embrace and installed him in the garden under the shade of a giant spreading sycamore, After assigning him a servant and apologizing for having to leave him temporarily unentertained, she bowed and went back into the house. Khaemwaset was relieved. Ben-Anath was an easy woman to be with, but in his present state of mind he did not think he could make an effort at polite family conversation. He asked the servant for beer and when it came he forced himself to sip it carefully. He wanted to gulp it down and ask for more. He wanted to get drunk on this hot, completely frustrating afternoon. But the need to talk to Si-Montu was greater.