"Oh, dear, this is a bad business - a very bad business.
What will become of us all?
What would my dear mistress say?"
"Where is Nofret, Henet?"
Renisenb cried: "Don't tell him," but Henet was already answering:
"She went out the back way.
Down towards the flax fields."
Ipy rushed back through the house and Renisenb said reproachfully: "You should not have told him, Henet."
"You don't trust old Henet.
You never have confidence in me."
The whine in her voice became more pronounced.
"But poor old Henet knows what she is doing.
The boy needs time to cool off.
He won't find Nofret by the flax fields."
She grinned.
"Nofret is here - in the pavilion - with Kameni."
She nodded her head across the courtyard. And she added with what seemed rather disproportionate stress:
"With Kameni..."
But Renisenb had already started to cross the courtyard.
Teti, dragging her wooden lion, came running from the lake to her mother and Renisenb caught her up in her arms.
She knew, as she held the child to her, the force that was driving Satipy and Kait.
These women were fighting for their children.
Teti gave a little fretful cry. "Not so tight, Mother, not so tight. You are hurting me."
Renisenb put the child down.
She went slowly across the courtyard.
On the far side of the pavilion Nofret and Kameni were standing together.
They turned as Renisenb approached.
Renisenb spoke quickly and breathlessly: "Nofret, I have come to warn you.
You must be careful.
You must guard yourself."
A look of contemptuous amusement passed over Nofret's face.
"So the dogs are howling?"
"They are very angry - they will do some harm to you."
Nofret shook her head.
"No one can harm me," she said with a superb confidence.
"If they did, it would be reported to your father - and he would exact vengeance.
They will know that when they pause to think."
She laughed.
"What fools they have been - with their petty insults and persecutions!
It was my game they played all the time."
Renisenb said slowly: "So you have planned for this all along?
And I was sorry for you - I thought we were unkind!
I am not sorry any longer... I think, Nofret, that you are wicked.
When you come to deny the forty-two sins at the hour of judgment you will not be able to say,
'I have done no evil.' Nor will you be able to say,
'I have not been covetous.'
And your heart that is being weighed in the scales against the feather of truth will sink in the balance."
Nofret said sullenly: "You are very pious all of a sudden.
But I have not harmed you, Renisenb.
I said nothing against you.