"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."
Renisenb said childishly: "But I do not like it, Hori.
It makes me afraid.
Everyone being different from what I thought them.
And what about myself? I am always the same."
"Are you?" He smiled at her.
"Then why have you sat here all these hours, your forehead puckered, brooding and thinking?
Did the old Renisenb - the Renisenb who went away with Khay - ever do that?"
"Oh, no.
There was no need -" Renisenb stopped.
"You see? You have said it yourself.
That is the word of reality - need!
You are not the happy, unthinking child you have always appeared to be, accepting everything at its face value. You are not just one of the women of the household.
You are Renisenb who wants to think for herself, who wonders about other people..."
Renisenb said slowly: "I have been wondering about Nofret..."