Suzanne Robinson (23 page)

Anqet had always thought Sennefer more concerned with gods than with women. So when he brushed his lips across her own, she gawked at him stupidly. But when he slipped his tongue inside her mouth and cupped her breast in his hand, she exploded. Like a dizzy scorpion, she scrambled backward. Sennefer let her go immediately. He rested his weight on one arm and regarded her calmly while she stuttered a refusal.

“No,” he said, as though admonishing a child. “No, little marsh-cat, he has corrupted you with his lust and his impure seed.” Sennefer took Anqet by the shoulders and pulled her to him, slowly, with unhurried tranquillity. “I’ll make you pure again. That witch’s spawn will not defile my beautiful rose lotus.”

What frightened Anqet most was the contrast between Sennefer’s absolute serenity and the twisted strangeness of his words. She tried to free herself, but Sennefer’s strength was as great as his brother’s. She shouted. Sennefer paid no attention. He turned her around and laid her on her back on the pallet. Anqet cried out and writhed as he lowered his body on hers.

Sennefer paused. “Please, my lady. Don’t shout so. No one here interferes with me. They know better.”

Holding Anqet’s wrists behind her back with one hand, Sennefer pushed her skirt above her waist. Anqet let her body go limp. She couldn’t afford to panic. She would have only one chance to escape. She watched Sennefer loosen his kilt. When he was exposed, she aimed her knee at his crotch and shoved, but he anticipated her, and her knee was met by an arm that slammed her leg aside. When he lunged again, Anqet fastened her mouth on his neck and bit. Sennefer bellowed, cuffed her lightly on the temple, and raised up over her.

“Very well,” Lord Sennefer said, his chest heaving. “We will begin with force and end with pleasure.”

Pinned beneath Seth’s brother, Anqet watched the man draw back his hand for a blow that would end her
resistance. A scream of panic welled in her throat, and she struggled to free her arms. The crushing weight lifted from her body, and at the same time she heard a bellow of rage.

Sennefer flew back, given wings by having been lifted and thrown by Seth. Anqet scrambled out of the way as Sennefer landed on his side. He leapt to his feet. He barely had time to cover himself before Seth regained his breath and charged him. The two collided. Seth’s momentum sent them to the wall where they wrestled until Sennefer got his foot between their bodies and shoved his brother away.

Seth came at him again, his fury renewed by Anqet’s distress. Sennefer pounded at Seth’s head with joined fists. The brothers careened around the small space in a bloody and violent dance. Sennefer tossed the count onto the table and Anqet clutched at the lamp as men and furniture collapsed.

Sennefer gained the upper hand on the ground and fastened his hands around the count’s neck. Terrified, Anqet sprang at Sennefer, clawing at his hands as they squeezed Seth’s neck. The attacker swatted her aside. Anqet landed against a wall, the air knocked out of her, but Seth took advantage of the distraction, twisted sideways, and cuffed his brother on the side of the head. Sennefer crashed to the ground. Seth latched onto him, grabbing the older man’s neck and digging his fingers into the vulnerable windpipe. Sennefer gagged.

Anqet struggled to her feet in time to see the count take hold of his brother’s head and twist. She didn’t know much about fighting, but she knew a death grip. Once more, she flew at the combatants, tugging at Seth’s arm. She might as well have been a moth, so little attention did he pay her Sennefer cried out. Seth winced, but kept twisting. Anqet balled her fist and slammed it into Seth’s arm. He started and looked at her.

“Seth, he’s your brother,” Anqet said. “Let him go.” Seth shifted his gaze to Sennefer’s tormented body. “Seth, let him go.”

The count obeyed her. Sennefer moaned and lay half conscious.

Without taking his eyes from Sennefer, Seth asked Anqet, “Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“Then I won’t kill him.”

She couldn’t help the near hysterical laugh that burst out of her “You certainly won t.”

Seth gave her a worried smile. “No, I won t. You’re right, beloved.”

Moving off Sennefer, Seth knelt beside his brother. He brushed aside the black hair that covered the man’s eyes. Anqet handed the count the water flask, and he sprinkled Sennefer’s bloody face. The older man’s eyes fluttered open, Seth drew Anqet into the circle of his arm as they gazed at his brother.

“I’ll send someone to help you,” the count said. “If I stay, we’ll fight, and the lady forbids it. Don’t come home, precious brother It won’t be safe.”

They left by chariot at once. As they drove back down the avenue toward Annu-Rest, Seth held Anqet to him. His skin was damp and covered with a fine film of dust. There was a bruise at the base of his throat.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Seth said. “Then I realized Sennefer was gone too. Bareka! He’s always been jealous, but I never realized how much until tonight.” Seth hugged her.

Anqet gave herself time to shelter in the safety of the count’s arm, time to recover a little from this most recent shock before she said anything. Somewhere in the hidden reaches of her ka she knew there was a frightened little girl ready to scream. She didn’t want that little girl to escape.

“I’m so tired,” she said. Her whole body ached from Sennefer’s rough handling. “I wish I could go home.”

“We’re almost there.”

Anqet looked up at Seth. In the gray light she could see the tense set of his jaw. “You’re wrong. I’m very far from home.”

They arrived at a house in turmoil. Rennut met them at the door and fired questions at Anqet. Seth answered impatiently, hiding the truth. He sent the house servants and the groggy Uni back to bed and conducted Anqet to her room. Khet met them outside the chamber, chattering anxious inquiries, but the count soothed his brother with promises of a talk in the morning. Anqet smiled at Khet and took refuge in her bedchamber. Seth followed.

Anqet splashed water on her face from a basin and let it dribble down her neck. It felt so good that she began splashing it on her shoulders. Seth watched her in silence. Anqet padded to the bed and slumped forward with her arms on her knees. Her thoughts and emotions seemed buried in hot, stifling sand.

“I love you,” Seth said. He took a step toward her.

“And I love you. I’ll write to Lord Menana tomorrow.”

Seth knelt in front of her and took her face in his hands. “You aren’t asking that adolescent for help. I’m going to take care of you.” He kissed her with autocratic thoroughness.

Anqet allowed the kiss, but did not respond. Seth pulled her head back and stared at her. Anqet met that soft green perusal.

“You will force me to remain here as your concubine. Perhaps Sennefer was right about you. Certainly you can’t pretend to be any different than the man who just tried to rape me.”

Anqet walked to the door and jerked it open to reveal an alert bodyguard. “Good evening, my lord count.”

The door to Anqet’s room slammed in Seth’s face. His eyes opened wide. He touched the wooden surface as if he couldn’t quite believe Anqet had thrown him out. Aware of the guard standing by, Seth gathered his wits and stalked into his own rooms.

He bathed in silence. As water ran over him, he was scourged by images of Sennefer’s body on Anqet’s. By the innumerable gods! He’d almost been too late.

And the rage. Seth shivered in the warm air. Only
once before had he experienced such mindless wrath and hurt at once. Sennefer had been the cause of that too.

She’s all right, Sennefer didn’t injure her She said so. But she’s suffering. I know it. And she won’t let me comfort her. Bareka! I must surely have gray hairs now, with the fright she gave me.

Awakening to find the girl gone had made him panic as no encounter with a rampaging nomad could. He had felt as if some essential part had been ripped out of his ka, leaving him with only a partial, lost soul.

Seth dismissed the servants who attended his bath and lay down on the bed. She had thrown him out. She’d ordered him out of a room in his own house. What was worse, he had obeyed. He dared not stay in the face of her rejection.

She had accused him of being no different than Sennefer, of expecting her to sacrifice her own peace and integrity to his convenience. The look in her eyes when she spoke of his betrayal still haunted him. But what made him cringe with remorse was the gallant way she accepted her own responsibility for their love. Her words came back to him: “I decided to make love to you. I could have said no. I should have. A woman knows the risks of mating without marriage or contract. I let my emotions rule. You see, I’ve never loved anyone before.”

“Never loved anyone before.” He remembered her in the garden beneath him. She had responded to him with a natural, spontaneous eroticism that drove him to a burning frenzy. “Never loved anyone before.” She had given her self, despite her fears, despite the risk. And he had thought so little of her gift that he put his own fears above Anqet’s feelings.

Seth laid his arm across his eyes and tried to sleep. Anqet’s face kept appearing in his mind. He saw her as she had been after lovemaking: flushed, lazily content, her nipples erect, a fine sheen of perspiration covering her thighs.

He was so intent on this image that he failed to hear the footsteps that came in from his private garden.

“Well met, my lord count.”

Seth was up and pointing his dagger at Merab as the words died in the air The thief stood before him, flanked by two henchmen. Merab held up a placating hand. His face was as expressionless as a mud brick. A bag fat with cubelike morsels hung from his belt. Merab fished out a piece of coconut and popped it in his mouth.

“No need
(crunch)
to upset
(crunch)
yourself.” Merab swallowed. “It’s only your old ally.”

Seth lowered his dagger He strolled away from Merab to a clothes chest and took his time donning a kilt. When he returned to the intruders, his face was a smooth mask.

“How did you get past my guards?”

“I didn’t get past them. I killed them. Don’t worry; there were only three of them.”

Seth indulged in a long yawn, stretching his arms wide. Merab scowled at him.

“You weren’t supposed to be here for days,” Seth said. “You forgot we were to meet in the village?” Merab wasn’t supposed to be in the house at all.

“I was ready, so I came,” Merab said. “No sense in waiting around for Pharaoh’s agents to find my cargo. Besides, I hadn’t seen you for too long a time. Your retirement to the country took me by surprise. “Merab stuffed three chunks of coconut into his mouth. “I mished you.”

Seth draped his body across a chair “I’m flattered.” He traced the slick ebony of the chair arm. “This yearning for my company is new. One might think you don’t trust me.”

“One would be correct.”

“Where’s the loot?” Seth asked.

Merab wandered over to a table and picked up a dagger sheath of reddened gold. “It will arrive tonight.”

“Fool,” Seth said in a sweet voice. “You could have warned me. That’s barely enough time to get rid of my stepmother and my pestilence of a little brother Stay here while I make arrangements for their departure.” He got up. “I assume you’re staying here.”

“Of course,” Merab said. “As I told you, I missed you.”

Seth shut the door behind him and motioned for Anqet’s bodyguard.

“There are three men inside. Watch them. They mustn’t see Lady Anqet, but don’t interfere with them.”

He slipped into Anqet’s room. Taking up one of her gowns, Seth crept to the bed and put his hand over her mouth. Her face was damp with tears. She fought him briefly before she recognized him. After he spoke to her, she lay still, dread in her eyes. At first, Seth rushed into an explanation of his intrusion, but Anqet wasn’t listening. Seth stopped in midsentence.

“It’s me,” he said. Incredulous, he took in the girl’s rigidity, the trembling that shook her body. “You think I’ve come to force you. Gods! What have I done?”

Seth took his hands from Anqet’s bare shoulders. He put them over his face and collected his thoughts.

“I have made you fear me. Sweet, beloved Anqet, I could never hurt you. No more could I rape you, or any woman, than I could rape my own ka.” Seth stood up and put his heart in his voice, for he knew that his happiness depended on regaining Anqet’s trust. “I would sooner die than lose your regard. What touches you touches my soul.”

His answer didn’t come in words. He watched Anqet come to him, a dark curved shadow. She stopped before him, placed a hand in his own, and laid her head on his chest. Seth let out the breath he’d been holding. Almost disoriented with relief, grateful, he wrapped his arms around this soft creature who governed his happiness.

They remained entwined for as long as he could risk it. Too soon he was forced to steal out of the main house and into the building beside it with Anqet at his side. Once inside the servants’ quarters, they found Uni, and the three of them went into a storeroom off the kitchen. Lined with shelves that held oil, beer, and wine, the place was a cubicle. Uni brought in a pallet. At Seth’s orders, he went to clear out Anqet’s room.

“Remember,” Seth cautioned the man, “the lady Anqet does not exist. Tell the others. And tell them to keep out of our visitors’ way. I want no confrontations.”

He settled Anqet on the pallet. She hugged her knees to her chest and grinned at him.

“Plans go wrong?”

“Yes, and don’t smirk at me. If Merab finds you, we’re both in danger Curse him. He was supposed to meet me in the village in three days’ time.” Seth nuzzled Anqet’s cheek. “It’s my own fault. I should have sent everyone away, but I lost interest in everything but you.”

“How long will Merab stay?”

“Only a day or two,” Seth said. “You’ll be safe here. This is a spare storeroom, and Uni will see to it that no one wanders in.”

Seth pulled a large chest close to the entry. “Keep this against the door Can you move it? Good. Rest now, and I’ll return soon. Uni will bring food.” He kissed her but pulled away quickly. It wouldn’t do to face Merab with his penis as stiff as a spear.