The Egyptian Royals Collection (69 page)

“But weren’t they in trouble?” I gasped.

“Of course. But nine months later she had two healthy sons!”

Merit glared at me in case I should ever conceive such an idea. We turned into a beautifully kept courtyard ringed by sycamore trees. Aloli announced grandly, “This is where our most important guests stay.” She gestured to the windows that faced the square. “And this is where you will be.” We entered a chamber with blue-glazed tiles that swam with painted fish. Inlaid images of cows filled the western wall, opposite an ebony bed with lion’s-paw feet raised upon a platform. Aloli walked across the chamber and threw open a pair of heavy wooden doors. “And for Lady Merit,” she announced.

The walls of Merit’s adjoining room had been brightly painted, and fresh linen was stacked on a low cedar table. Merit hummed her approval. “This will do well. Now I must go and direct the servants with our belongings.”

When she left, I turned to Aloli. “What am I to do here?” I asked.

The red-haired priestess looked surprised. “Didn’t the High Priestess tell you? She said that you have been brought here to study.”

“To study what?”

“Temple rituals, the harp …” Aloli shrugged. “Perhaps she hopes you might become the next High Priestess of Hathor.” A trumpet blared on the other side of the temple, and Aloli quickly twisted her ringlets into a knot. “I will see you tonight in the Great Hall.” She paused at the door. “It is a pleasure to have you here, Princess. I have heard a great deal about you.”

But before I could ask what she had heard, she disappeared into the hall. I crossed the chamber and stood at Merit’s window, looking out over the groves. On the western bank of the River Nile, Ramesses would be taking his afternoon meal with Asha and Iset. There would be dancing in the Great Hall come nightfall, and the news would spread that I had chosen to become a priestess of Hathor. I wondered if Henuttawy would swallow her sister’s lie.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

I jumped, startled by Woserit’s silent approach. “Yes, very,” I acknowledged.

“Tell me, Nefertari. When you look out on these groves, what do you see?”

I hesitated. The sun was directly over the river, and birds flew between the long stalks of papyrus, calling to one another as kilted men worked in the fields. “I see a small clay model,” I said. “Like the ones in the tombs, only this one is filled with moving people.”

Woserit raised her brows. “That’s very creative.”

I flushed and looked out over the balcony again, to see if there was something else I had missed.

“What about the groves of sycamores?” she asked. “What do they look like to you?”

“They are beautiful as well,” I said cautiously.

“But do you think they always looked so beautiful?”

“Not when they were saplings,” I guessed. “Then their limbs wouldn’t have touched and they couldn’t have formed the tunnel that they are creating now.”

Woserit was satisfied with my answer. “That’s right. It took many years for them to grow and eventually bend into that form. When they were first planted here, I was your age. I can remember visiting the High Priestess of Hathor and thinking that her garden was extremely ugly compared to the ones we had in Malkata. I didn’t see then that she was planning for the future. Do you understand what I’m saying, Nefertari?”

I nodded, because I thought I did.

“You are like a young sycamore right now. The viziers look at you and see a wild and untended garden. But together we are going to shape you for the future, so that when Ramesses looks at you, he doesn’t see a little sister, but a woman and a queen.”

Woserit’s voice grew firm. “However, if you want my help, it will mean following my advice even when you do not understand it. In the past, I have heard that you disobeyed your nurse. There will be no disobedience if I’m instructing you.”

“Of course not,” I said quickly.

“And there will be times when what I’m saying may seem to conflict with advice your nurse has given you, but you will simply have to trust it.”

I looked up to see what Woserit meant, and she explained.

“I am sure your nurse has told you never to lie. But a queen must learn to be a very good liar about many things. Is that something you are willing to do?” she questioned. “Lie when you must? Smile when you’re not happy? Pray when the gods don’t seem to be listening? How much is a place at court, and Ramesses’s love, worth to you?”

I looked out beyond the sycamore groves to the crests of dunes that vaulted one beyond another. If the wind, which only had the power of breath, could make a hill, then surely Woserit could make a princess into a queen. “Everything.”

Woserit smiled. “Come then.”

I followed her into Merit’s robing room, and she indicated the leather chair in front of the mirror. When I took a seat, she watched me from behind in the polished bronze.

“Do you know what they say about you at court?”

I met her gaze and shook my head.

“That your best feature is your smile. Now it’s time you learn how to use it. Pretend that I’m an old friend,” she said, “and you’ve seen me in the market. How would you smile?”

Even though I felt foolish, I grinned widely, and Woserit nodded.

“Good. Now, I’m an emissary that you’ve just met. How do you greet me?”

I smiled widely again and Woserit frowned. “You’re like an easy girl in the harem of Mi-Wer, giving it all away,” she criticized. “Start slow. You don’t know him yet.”

I let my lips curve upward but didn’t show my teeth. This time, Woserit nodded. “Good. Now I’m the emissary and I’ve just complimented you.
My, Queen Nefertari, I never dreamed what a beautiful shade of lapis your eyes were.
How do you respond?”

I smiled so that all my teeth were showing, and Woserit said sharply, “Not so fast! A woman’s smile has to be slow, so that a man knows he must work for it. See?” Woserit let her lips curve slightly. “Now compliment me.”

I searched for a compliment.
“High Priestess Woserit, you … you look lovely today. I’d forgotten what beautiful dark hair you had.”
As I spoke, Woserit’s smile widened, but it wasn’t until I had said my last words that her eyes fixed on mine and she gave me her fullest smile. I felt a sudden hotness in my cheeks.

“You see?” Woserit said. “You want it to feel like a surprise. You want to keep him guessing whether he’ll make you smile entirely so that when you do, he will feel like he’s been given a gift.” She put her arm in mine and led me to the door.

“Watch,” she instructed.

We entered the hall outside her chamber and passed through a courtyard where servants were shoveling and toiling at the heavy work of the garden. As soon as they saw us, they scrambled to their feet and bowed. One man, who looked to be the head of the gardeners from the cut of his linen, stepped forward to greet Woserit. “It’s an honor to see Her Holiness in the courtyard. We are graced by your presence,” he said.

Woserit let her lips curve slightly. “You’ve done beautiful work,” she complimented.

It was true. Myrtle and jasmine grew up around a granite fountain of Hathor, and stone benches had been arranged in clusters beneath the sycamore trees so that the pilgrims to Hathor’s temple could sit and contemplate the goddess’s splendor.

“It is beautiful,” the young gardener agreed. Woserit’s smile widened. “But that is only because it is a reflection of you.”

Woserit smiled fully. “Very pretty.”

She laughed, but the young man didn’t laugh. He was taken by her, and there was a light of new fascination in his eyes. “Come,” Woserit said to me primly. “I will show you the orchards.” When we left the courtyard and passed into the groves, Woserit turned.

“He stared after you until we left the courtyard!” I cried.

“You see what a smile can do? And mine is not even pretty.” I made to interrupt her, but she shook her head at my protest. “It’s true. It’s nothing like yours. You have teeth as white as pearls, and no man who sees your smile will ever forget it.”

“I don’t think that gardener will ever forget yours,” I pointed out.

“That’s because I’ve learned how to use it,” Woserit said. “I don’t pass it out like an old woman giving free milk to the village cats. It’s something that must be controlled, and for you especially. You use it on anyone. You must learn to be more judicious.”

She looked down the path and I followed her gaze to a group of men harvesting figs from the sycamore trees. “Do you see one who is handsome?” she asked.

I flushed.

“Don’t be shy. There will be plenty of men at court, and some will need to be convinced that they are in your special favor. How will you do that? With a look,” she answered. “With a smile. As we walk by, I want you to choose a man,” she said. “Make him feel that he has been chosen. And then make him speak to you.”

“Without using words?” I exclaimed.

“Using only your smile. So, which one shall it be?” she said slyly.

I looked over at the group of men. Sitting down, sorting the good figs from bad, was a young man with dark hair. “The one who is counting,” I said immediately.

I thought a smile alone might not suffice, and the thought came to me to reach for my bracelet.… Quickly, I loosened the clasp, and as we passed the group of men I met the expressive eyes of the dark-haired man and smiled slowly. When his eyes widened with the realization that I was acknowledging him specifically, I let the bracelet fall. “My lady!” He jumped up and fetched my bracelet. “You have dropped something!” He held the bracelet up, and I let him have my fullest smile, the way Woserit had with the gardener.

“How clumsy of me!” I took the bracelet from his hand, brushing his palm with my fingertips, and the group of men watched in silence as Woserit and I disappeared through the groves.

At the bank of the River Nile, Woserit nodded approvingly, “Now you are no longer a giggling child, smiling at whoever comes along. You are a woman with power. Learn to control your smile, and you can control what men will think about you. So, the next time you see Ramesses, what will you do?”

I smiled slightly so that only the top of my front teeth could be seen.

“Good. Slow and reserved. You don’t give him everything, because you don’t know how it will be received. By the time you see him again he may already have decided to make Iset Chief Wife. We also don’t want Henuttawy to realize that you haven’t retreated. You never want to give away everything at once,” she warned. “We are playing a delicate game.”

I looked up, still guessing at her true purpose. “What kind of game?”

“The kind you played when you dropped your bracelet,” she said with finality.

The sun reflected in Woserit’s diadem, and in the golden sun disc at the center of her brow I could see a twisted reflection of myself. “Tomorrow,” Woserit went on, “your temple training will begin. If Henuttawy asks one of my women what you are doing here, it must look as though you are truly planning to devote your life to Hathor. I don’t expect you to join the priestesses in the Great Hall tonight, but tomorrow morning Aloli will summon you to my chamber and I will explain how we are to proceed.”

AFTER THE
sun sank below the hills that evening, Merit sat on the edge of my bed. “Are you nervous, my lady?”

“No,” I said honestly, drawing the covers up to my chest. “We are doing what must be done. Tomorrow, Woserit is going to tell me how I am to spend my year.”

“In a manner befitting a princess, I should hope.”

“Even if I have to swing a bronze censer from dawn to dusk, if it makes Ramesses miss me, then it will be worth it.”