Agatha Christie - Death Comes as the End

"In your absence," said Yahmose, "I had to decide on these matters - and I was anxious that all honor should be paid to a concubine for whom you had so great a regard."

Imhotep nodded and patted Yahmose's shoulder.

"It was a fault on the right side, my son. You are, I know, usually most prudent in money matters. I appreciate that in this matter any unnecessary expense was incurred in order - to please me. All the same, I am not made of money, and a concubine is - er, ahem! - only a concubine. We will cancel, I think, the more expensive of the amulets - and let me see, there are one or two other ways of cutting down the fees... Just read out the items of the estimate, Kameni."

Kameni rustled the papyrus.

Yahmose breathed a sigh of relief.

III

Kait, coming slowly out from the house to the lake, paused where the children and their mothers were.

"You were right, Satipy," she said. "A live concubine is not the same as a dead concubine!"

Satipy looked up at her, her eyes vague and unseeing. It was Renisenb who asked quickly:

"What do you mean, Kait?"

"For a live concubine, nothing was too good - clothes, jewels - even the inheritance of Imhotep's own flesh and blood! But now Imhotep is busy cutting down the cost of the funeral expenses! After all, why waste money on a dead woman? Yes, Satipy, you were right."

Satipy murmured: "What did I say? I have forgotten."

"It is best so," agreed Kait. "I, too, have forgotten. And Renisenb also."

Renisenb looked at Kait without speaking. There had been something in Kait's voice - something faintly menacing, that impressed Renisenb disagreeably. She had always been accustomed to think of Kait as rather a stupid woman - someone gentle and submissive, but rather negligible. It struck her now that Kait and Satipy seemed to have changed places. Satipy the dominant and aggressive was subdued - almost timid. It was the quiet Kait who now seemed to domineer over Satipy. But people, thought Renisenb, do not really change their characters - or do they? She felt confused. Had Kait and Satipy really changed in the last few weeks, or was the change in the one the result of the change in the other? Was it Kait who had grown aggressive? Or did she merely seem so because of the sudden collapse of Satipy?

Satipy definitely was different. Her voice was no longer upraised in the familiar shrewish accents. She crept round the courtyard and the house with a nervous, shrinking gait quite unlike her usual self-assured manner. Renisenb had put down the change in her to the shock of Nofret's death, but it was incredible that that shock could last so long. It would have been far more like Satipy, Renisenb could not but think, to have exulted openly in a matter-of-fact manner over the concubine's sudden and untimely death. As it was, she shrank nervously whenever Nofret's name was mentioned. Even Yahmose seemed to be exempt from her hectoring and bullying and had, in consequence, begun to assume a more resolute demeanor himself. At any rate, the change in Satipy was all to the good - or at least so Renisenb supposed. Yet something about it made her vaguely uneasy...

Suddenly, with a start, Renisenb became aware that Kait was looking at her, was frowning. Kait, she realized, was waiting for a word of assent to something she had just said.

"Renisenb also," repeated Kait, "has forgotten."

Suddenly Renisenb felt a flood of revolt overwhelm her. Neither Kait, nor Satipy, nor anyone should dictate to her what she should or should not remember. She returned Kait's look steadily with a distinct hint of defiance.

"The women of a household," said Kait, "must stand together."

Renisenb found her voice. She said clearly and defiantly:

"Why?"

"Because their interests are the same."

Renisenb shook her head violently. She thought, confusedly, "I am a person as well as a woman. I am Renisenb."

Aloud she said:

"It is not so simple as that."

"Do you want to make trouble, Renisenb?"

"No. And anyway, what do you mean by trouble?"

"Everything that was said that day in the big hall had best be forgotten."

Renisenb laughed.

"You are stupid, Kait. The servants, the slaves, my grandmother - everyone must have overheard! Why pretend that things did not happen that did happen?"

"We were angry," said Satipy in a dull voice. "We did not mean what we said."

She added with a feverish irritability:

"Stop talking about it, Kait. If Renisenb wants to make trouble, let her."

"I don't want to make trouble," said Renisenb indignantly. "But it is stupid to pretend."

"No," said Kait. "It is wisdom. You have Teti to consider."

"Teti is all right."

"Everything is all right - now that Nofret is dead." Kait smiled.

It was a serene, quiet, satisfied smile - and again Renisenb felt a tide of revolt rise in her.

Yet what Kait said was quite true. Now that Nofret was dead everything was all right.

Satipy, Kait, herself, the children - all secure - all at peace - with no apprehensions for the future. The intruder, the disturbing, menacing stranger, had departed - for ever.

Then why this stirring of an emotion that she did not understand on Nofret's behalf? Why this feeling of championship for the dead girl whom she had not liked? Nofret was wicked and Nofret was dead. Could she not leave it at that? Why this sudden stab of pity - of something more than pity - something that was almost comprehension?

Renisenb shook her head perplexedly. She sat on there by the water after the others had gone in, trying vainly to understand the confusion in her mind.

The sun was low when Hori, crossing the courtyard, saw her and came to sit beside her.

"It is late, Renisenb. The sun is setting. You should go in," His grave, quiet voice soothed her, as always. She turned to him with a question.

"Must the women of a household stick together?"

"Who has been saying that to you, Renisenb?"

"Kait. She and Satipy -"

Renisenb broke off.

"And you - want to think for yourself?"

"Oh, think! I do not know how to think, Hori. Everything is confused in my head. People are confused. Everybody is different from what I thought they were. Satipy I always thought was bold, resolute, domineering. But now she is weak, vacillating, even timid. Then which is the real Satipy? People cannot change like that in a day."

"Not in a day - no."

"And Kait - she who was always meek and submissive and let everybody bully her. Now she dominates us all! Even Sobek seems afraid of her. And even Yahmose is different - he gives orders and expects them to be obeyed!"

"And all this confuses you, Renisenb?"

"Yes. Because I do not understand. I feel sometimes that even Henet may be quite different from what she appears to be!"

Renisenb laughed as though at an absurdity, but Hori did nor join her. His face remained grave and thoughtful.

"You have never thought very much about people, have you, Renisenb? If you had you would realize -" He paused and then went on. "You know that in all tombs there is always a false door?"

Renisenb stared. "Yes, of course."

"Well, people are like that too. They create a false door - to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority - and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock... And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth - their true self reasserts itself. For Kait gentleness and submission brought her all she desired - a husband and children. Stupidity made life easier for her. But when reality in the form of danger threatened, her true nature appeared. She did not change, Renisenb - that strength and that ruthlessness were always there."