Agatha Christie - Death Comes as the End

She rose early and went out of the house. Her steps led her, as they did so often, to the Nile. There were fishermen out already and a big barge rowing with powerful strokes towards Thebes. There were other boats with sails flapping in the faint puffs of wind.

Something turned over in Renisenb's heart - the stirring of a desire for something she could not name. She thought, "I feel - I feel -" But she did not know what it was that she felt! That is to say, she knew no words to fit the sensation. She thought, "I want - but what do I want?"

Was it Khay she wanted? Khay was dead - he would not come back. She said to herself, "I shall not think of Khay any more. What is the use? It is over, all that."

Then she noticed another figure standing looking after the barge that was making for Thebes - and something forlorn about that figure - some emotion it expressed by its very motionlessness struck Renisenb, even as she recognised Nofret.

Nofret staring out at the Nile. Nofret - alone. Nofret thinking of - what?

With a little shock Renisenb suddenly realized how little they all knew about Nofret. They had accepted her as an enemy - a stranger - without interest or curiosity in her life or the surroundings from which she had come.

It must, Renisenb thought suddenly, be sad for Nofret alone here, without friends, surrounded only by people who disliked her.

Slowly Renisenb went forward until she was standing by Nofret's side. Nofret turned her head for a moment, then moved it back again and resumed her study of the Nile. Her face was expressionless.

Renisenb said timidly:

"There are a lot of boats on the River."

"Yes."

Renisenb went on, obeying some obscure impulse towards friendliness:

"Is it like this, at all, where you come from?"

Nofret laughed, a short, rather bitter laugh.

"No, indeed. My father is a merchant in Memphis. It is gay and amusing in Memphis. There are music and singing and dancing. Then my father travels a good deal. I have been with him to Syria - to Byblos beyond the Gazelle's Nose. I have been with him in a big ship on the wide seas."

She spoke with pride and animation.

Renisenb stood quite still, her mind working slowly, but with growing interest and understanding.

"It must be very dull for you here," she said slowly.

Nofret laughed impatiently.

"It is dead here - dead - nothing but ploughing and sowing and reaping and grazing - and talk of crops - and wanglings about the price of flax."

Renisenb was still wrestling with unfamiliar thoughts as she watched Nofret sideways.

And suddenly, as though it was something physical, a great wave of anger and misery and despair seemed to emanate from the girl at her side.

Renisenb thought: "She is as young as I am - younger. And she is the concubine of that old man, that fussy, kindly, but rather ridiculous old man, my father..."

What did she, Renisenb, know about Nofret? Nothing at all. What was it Hori had said yesterday when she had cried out "She is beautiful and cruel and bad"?

"You are a child, Renisenb." That was what he had said. Renisenb knew now what he meant. Those words of hers had meant nothing - you could not dismiss a human being so easily. What sorrow, what bitterness, what despair lay behind Nofret's cruel smile? What had Renisenb, what had any of them, done to make Nofret welcome?

Renisenb said stumblingly, childishly:

"You hate us all - I see why - we have not been kind - but now - it is not too late. Can we not, you and I, Nofret, can we not be sisters to each other? You are far away from all you know - you are alone - can I not help?"

Her words faltered into silence. Nofret turned slowly,

For a minute or two her face was expressionless - there was even, Renisenb thought, a momentary softening in her eyes. In that early morning stillness, with its strange clarity and peace, it was as though Nofret hesitated - as though Renisenb's words had touched in her some last core of irresolution.

It was a strange moment, a moment Renisenb was to remember afterwards....

Then, gradually, Nofret's expression changed. It became heavily malevolent, her eyes smoldered. Before the fury of hate and malice in her glance, Renisenb recoiled a step,

Nofret said in a low, fierce voice:

"Go! I want nothing from any of you. Stupid fools, that is what you all are, every one of you..."

She paused a moment, then wheeled round and retraced her steps towards the house, walking with energy.

Renisenb followed her slowly. Curiously enough, Nofret's words had not made her angry. They had opened before her eyes a black abyss of hate and misery - something quite unknown as yet in her own experience, and in her mind was only a confused, groping thought of how dreadful it must be to feel like that.

II

As Nofret entered the gateway and crossed the courtyard, one of Kait's children came running across her path, chasing a ball.

Nofret pushed the child out of her way with an angry thrust that sent the little girl sprawling on the ground. The child set up a wail and Renisenb ran to her and picked her up, saying indignantly:

"You should not have done that, Nofret! You have hurt her, see. She has cut her chin."

Nofret laughed stridently.

"So I should be careful not to hurt these spoiled brats? Why? Are their mothers so careful of my feelings?"

Kait had come running out of the house at the sound of her child's wails. She ran to it, examining the injured face.

Then she turned on Nofret.

"Devil and serpent! Evil one! Wait and see what we will do to you."

With all the force of her arm she struck Nofret in the face. Renisenb gave a cry and caught her arm before she could repeat the blow.

"Kait - Kait - you must not do that."

"Who says so? Let Nofret look to herself. She is only one here among many."

Nofret stood quite still. The print of Kait's hand showed clear and red on her check. By the corner of the eye, where a bangle Kait wore on her wrist had cut the skin, a small trickle of blood was running down her face.

But it was Nofret's expression that puzzled Renisenb - yes, and frightened her. Nofret showed no anger. Instead there was a queer, exultant look in her eyes, and once more her mouth was curving up in its catlike, satisfied smile.

"Thank you, Kait," she said.

Then she walked on into the house.

III

Humming softly under her breath, her eyelids lowered, Nofret called Henet.

Henet came running, stopped, exclaimed. Nofret cut short her exclamations.

"Fetch me Kameni. Tell him to bring his pen case and ink and papyrus. There is a letter to be written to the master." Henet's eyes were fixed on Nofret's cheek.

"To the master - I see..."

Then she asked:

"Who did - that?"

"Kait." Nofret smiled quietly and reminiscently.

Henet shook her head and clicked her tongue.

"All this is very bad - very bad... Certainly the master must know of it." She darted a quick, sideways look at Nofret. "Yes, certainly Imhotep must know."

Nofret said smoothly:

"You and I, Henet, think alike... I thought that we should do so."

From the corner of her linen robe she detached a jewel of amethyst set in gold and placed it in the woman's hand.

"You and I, Henet, have Imhotep's true welfare at heart."

"This is too good for me, Nofret... You are too generous... such a lovely bit of workmanship."

"Imhotep and I appreciate fidelity."

Nofret was still smiling, her eyes narrow and catlike.

"Fetch Kameni," she said. "And come with him. You and he together are witnesses of what has occurred."

Kameni came a little unwillingly, his brow puckered.

Nofret spoke imperiously:

"You remember Imhotep's instructions - before he left?"

"Yes," said Kameni.