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Nehesy rummaged in the kitchen, finding some day-old bread, nuts, and a jug of beer. It was midday, and he and Imi had napped after another round of lovemaking. Imi was still sleeping when he’d slipped downstairs, but if she woke half as hungry as he was now, she’d be ravenous.
He smiled as he imagined her waking, her hair a wild tangle, lips swollen from kissing. Naked. In his bed. Like she would be every morning for the rest of their lives.
It felt right. The way it was always meant to be. For the last few years, it was as if the pendulum of his life had swung back and forth in a restless arc. When Imi had said ‘yes’ to marrying him, the pendulum had finally stayed itself. He couldn’t wait to get back upstairs to her.
Nehesy balanced the wooden slab laden with food on one hand and dangled the handle of the beer jug from one finger. He whistled as he crossed from the kitchen through the entrance room, towards the stone stairs that led back up to his bedroom.
Somebody banged on the front door. Hard.
Nehesy set the jug on the bottom step.
The banging continued.
Really, what could be so urgent? Who even knew they were here?
Tray of food still in one hand, Nehesy pulled open the door. A vaguely familiar, sharp-featured man stood on the other side. A few years older than Nehesy but just as tall, well-dressed in a white shenti, clean-shaven with a glossy braided sidelock. The man dropped his raised fist.
“You,” the stranger said, looking down his nose at Nehesy.
“Yes. Me,” Nehesy quipped back, instantly irritated. “You were expecting someone else, perhaps?”
“Nehesy? Who is it?” Imi’s voice called out.
Nehesy glanced over his shoulder. Imi stood at the top of the stairs, tucking the edges of her wrap dress around her breasts. Looking exactly as luscious, sleep and sex befuddled as he’d imagined she’d be upon waking. Her gaze strayed to the open door. Her face transformed, joy suffusing her features.
"Hamset!" she cried.
Nehesy’s head whipped back to the door. Too late. Hamset’s fist drove into his jaw, sending him back a few steps. Pain exploded in his head. The tray went flying. Pottery shattered.
“That’s my little sister,” Hamset growled, stepping into the hallway.
Well, that explained Nehesy’s instant dislike for the man. As children, Nehesy and Hamset hadn’t gotten on well. Not that there was animosity, really, but Nehesy had always found Hamset overbearing and too serious. He had made every attempt to poke the sleeping hippopotamus, so to speak, by needling him with stupid jokes that only seemed to make Hamset pucker up even more.
“Stop!” Imi shouted, pattering down the stairs. “Hamset, stop it!” Imi was beside Nehesy then, hands fluttering in the air. “Are you alright, Nehesy? Holy Hathor, Hamset, what in the underworld was that for?”
Nehesy cupped his jaw, testing it to make sure it wasn’t broken, while eyeing Imi’s brother warily. “Excellent timing, Hamset. About time you showed up,” Nehesy drawled.
Hamset threw Nehesy a dirty look and shook out his hand. Good. Nehesy hoped he’d broken a knuckle or two.
To Imi, Nehesy said, “I’m fine. You needn’t fuss, love.” She inspected him one last time, and he nodded assurance.
“He’ll survive, Imi,” Hamset said in a deeper, raspier voice than Nehesy remembered, but with a touch of exasperation.
Imi marched over to her brother and punched his shoulder. “Where have you been all this time? Father died and you didn’t come home. And what do you think you’re doing, coming in here and acting like an older brother all of a sudden? You better answer me, Hamset, I’m so mad at you right now!”
Nehesy tilted his head back, admiring this little woman as she scolded her much taller, much older brother. This was one of the reasons he loved her. She didn’t need him to stand up for her, she could do it all on her own. Nehesy smirked at Hamset, who had the grace to look abashed.
He could forgive Hamset for punching him – he himself had taken a swing at Amun once when his brother-in-law had hurt Betrest’s feelings – but he couldn’t forgive him for leaving Imi alone with Ludim and his awful mother.
But, of course, being Imi, she loved as passionately as she did everything, and when she was done reprimanding Hamset, she threw her arms about him and hugged him fiercely. Hamset, looking rather bewildered in the aftermath of the whirlwind that was his sister, hugged her back.
“I was so worried about you, you great big idiot,” Imi muttered, her face smushed against Hamset’s shoulder. “It’s been months since we heard from you.”
“I know,” Hamset cleared his throat and disentangled himself. He looked about the room, taking in the shattered crockery and Nehesy still working his aching jaw side to side. He folded his hands behind his back and said, “There’s a lot to talk about, Imi. I’ll tell you on the way back.”
“What?” Imi took a step back. “No. I’m not going anywhere.”
Hamset’s expression darkened. “I have work I must attend to. I’ve come to fetch you with me and return by tomorrow morning. I’ve already taken too much time tracking you down here,” he said this last with evident scorn directed at Nehesy.
Nehesy moved in front of Imi. “Imi stays with me.”
Imi clicked her tongue and pushed past Nehesy. “Enough. I have a say in this, I’ll have you both know. It’s my life and no one is going to tell me what to do with it. We’re all going to sit down and talk about this like adults, not angry little boys.” Her stomach took that moment to rumble. She placed a hand over it and glanced down at the remnants of the food Nehesy had brought out. “Well,” she added sadly, “as soon as we get some more food.”
A short time later, the three of them sat on mats on Nehesy’s rooftop, nibbling sweet date buns and chickpea mash Nehesy had fetched from a local baker. Nehesy ate carefully, his jaw sore from Hamset’s blow. Imi’s brother had a powerful hook, and Nehesy wondered how he’d come by it. He’d never known Hamset to be a fighter in his youth.
While Nehesy had been at the baker’s, Imi had outlined the last few months for her brother. It seemed that her father’s wife – Ludim’s mother – had not, in fact, sent messengers to Hamset. Imi’s brother had only learned of their father’s passing when Nehesy’s messenger found him a few days ago.
“I’m sorry, Imi,” Hamset said. “I would have come right away. I’m sorry I missed the interment, and that you were alone. I should have gotten in touch sooner, regardless. I’ve been... busy. I’ve travelling for work quite a lot.”
Nehesy snorted derisively. “And leaving your sister to bear the brunt of a goat-buggering son of a –” Imi threw him a hard look, and he let the rest of his words trail off. Later, they’d discuss retribution for Ludim and his mother, and their deceptions and attempts to force Imi into marriage.
Hamset cleared his throat, his eyes resting somewhere past Nehesy’s left shoulder. “Yes, well. I suppose I ought to thank you, Nehesy, for sending a messenger after me. And I’m sorry about-” he gestured to Nehesy’s face.
Nehesy lifted a brow. Not much of an apology, but it was all he’d likely get out of the man.
“I don’t understand why father made his imyt-pr so complicated. Why did you agree to it?” Imi appealed to her brother.
Hamset inhaled, his mouth a flat line. “I didn’t want to, but father insisted it was the only way.”
Imi’s brows furrowed. “Way for what?”
Hamset’s disapproving gaze fixed on Nehesy as he answered his sister. “For this idiot to marry you. Which I never thought was a good idea in the first place.”
It was Nehesy’s turn to be confused. He set down his bun on his plate. “What are you talking about?”
Rather than answer, Hamset flicked a glance at Imi, then said to Nehesy, “Do you know about your mother?”
Nehesy reared back, as if struck. Imi reached for his hand and squeezed, bringing him back to the moment. Finally, he managed to say, “My birth mother? I know my father had an affair. Imi knows about it, too,” he said, when Hamset looked to his sister. “What do you know of it?”
Rubbing his jaw, Hamset said, “Do you know why our fathers arranged the marriage between you two?”
Nehesy and Imi shared a glance, both shaking their heads. Nehesy had never really questioned it, in fact. Arranged marriages were so common. It was usually about money, connections, forging alliances. Granted, he and Imi were of different classes, and their families weren’t exactly friendly, but he’d always assumed it was convenience, and because Imi’s family had considerable wealth and land, if not nobility.
Hamset sighed. “Your mother was our father’s ward.”
“What? When?” Nehesy couldn’t have been more shocked. “How do you know this?”
Hamset turned his cool eyes on Nehesy. “I’m older than you. I was six when your mother came to live with us.
“What was her name? What was she like?” Questions flooded Nehesy’s brain in a jumble. Here, finally, was someone who could answer the things he’d wondered about for years.
“Who was she? Why didn’t I hear of this?” Imi demanded at the same time.
Hamset’s mouth pursed, his eyes narrowing, as if pained. Nehesy was afraid Hamset would deny him the answers he sought, but then Hamset drew in a swift breath, and said roughly, “Mert. Her name was Mert. And she was-” Hamset cleared his throat, and if Nehesy didn’t know any better, he’d swear Hamset was feeling emotional, “she was very pretty. And kind. Too good for the likes of your father,” Hamset said, faintly accusing. As if Nehesy were to blame.
“I won’t argue there,” Nehesy said. “My father was not known for his kindness. How did they meet? Who are her people?”
Hamset held up a hand. “Let me start from the beginning. Mert, your birth mother, lived in a small town south of Thinis. Your father met her there when she was barely more than a girl. She was a servant in the household he worked in.”
This made sense, as Nehesy had recently learned from a friend of his father’s recently that, in his youth, his father had worked as a lowly scribe in a noble’s home before returning to Thinis. But the friend had little more information about that time in his father’s life.
Hamset said, “Your father made promises before he left Mert. He said he’d come back for her when he’d made his fortune. But then he met your other mother, the one who raised you. She decided she wanted him. She had the family connections and wealth to elevate your father, and so he married her instead.”
Nehesy could well imagine the woman who’d raised him setting her sights on his father and using any means necessary to obtain what she wanted. His father had been ambitious, too, and must have decided it was in his best interest to marry up, rather than a poor servant girl. Had he ever loved either of Nehesy’s mothers? Or had it just been opportunity? Loss and sadness swept through him. He reached for the beer jug.
Hamset continued, “Mert’s father had been close friends with ours once. So when her parents died, she came to Thinis, and our parents took her in. She sought your father out, not knowing he’d already married and had your sister.” Hamset added tightly, “And so their relationship was renewed.”
“Huh,” Nehesy inhaled deeply, trying to dispel the hollow feeling in his belly. “So she had no family.”
“None left living. She trusted your father,” Hamset said roughly. “Until the very end, she still thought he would marry her. Even after she learned the truth. He’d told her he’d leave his wife, but months passed. When Mert’s condition became obvious, my father was furious. Not at her. She was... like an innocent, really. Too trusting. He made your father promise he’d take care of her. That he would marry her.”
“How did father do that?” Imi interjected. “And what about Nehesy’s mother? The one who raised him?”
“Oh, she objected,” Nehesy said bitterly, recalling his mother’s words from the day he’d asked about his birth mother. “She told me she refused to be set aside for another woman.” Especially not a common woman. But then, if Ramla – the woman who raised him – hadn’t taken him in, he wouldn’t have grown up alongside Betrest. His sister was one of the only people in the world who’d cared for him. Her and Imi. All the more reason to love this woman sitting stoically next to him through this painful retelling. To be grateful every day that she was willing to forgive him his youthful idiocy.
Hamset nodded. “Yes, but our father threatened to make an absolute scandal if Nehesy’s father didn’t marry Mert. He was to take Mert as a second wife, alongside Ramla.”
Ramla would have hated that she’d been presented with such awful options - Allow the man she wanted to divorce her for a common woman, accept that woman as a lesser wife, or live through the scandal of her husband having an affair made so public.
“In the end, it didn’t matter, though,” Hamset said. “You were born early, and Mert passed before anything could be resolved. Before she died, though, she made your father promise to raise you as his and give you all the benefits of his station. And my father promised he’d see it through. Truth be told, he wanted to raise you in our home. He didn’t like your father, or his wife. But he recognized the benefits of your father’s status and wealth.” Hamset shook his head, suddenly looking weary. He was old enough to remember Nehesy’s mother, and what must have been a sad time for his family.
That hollow sense of loss grew. Nehesy wished he’d had a chance to know the woman who naively loved his father and put her faith in him. “If only she’d made a smarter choice, and fallen in love with a better man,” he murmured. He must be older now than she’d ever been. How shocking. How sad.
“For what it’s worth,” Hamset said gruffly, “I think your father did love her. In his own selfish way. Enough to continue to see her, and he was there when you were born. I believe he mourned her.”
That shocked Nehesy. But then maybe it shouldn’t have, considering how vindictive Ramla had been when she spoke of Nehesy’s birth mother. By telling herself – and him – that the affair meant nothing, it made it easier for her to accept the infidelity. To think that his father had given his heart to another woman would have infuriated her to no end.
How tragic for all of them. And how grateful he was that he had not made the same mistake his father made, in giving up the woman he loved for something – or someone – else.
“But why did they arrange our betrothal, then?” Imi asked. “If Nehesy’s father and mother – Ramla, that is – agreed to raise him as their own?”
“Ah, right,” Hamset said. “Father, again. He wanted to keep an eye on Mert’s son. He felt the best way to do that was to make Nehesy’s father agree to a betrothal in the event he and mother had a daughter. So when you came along, Imi, it was already agreed upon.” He gave Imi a tight smile. “That’s why he made the stupid arrangements in his imyt-per, too. He couldn’t force Nehesy to marry you if you both chose to dissolve the betrothal, as you did years ago. But he thought if he tied up your inheritance, Nehesy would do the honourable thing and marry you. If either of us knew how awful Ludim and his mother were, I swear we wouldn’t have done it.”
Imi’s mouth opened and closed. “I thought it was because father didn’t trust me to manage things on my own. I thought...” her eyes grew glassy, “so all along it was because he wanted me to marry Nehesy.”
Hamset nodded. “Because he thought that was what you wanted. And he believed it was the best thing for Nehesy, too. That Nehesy was acting out and would eventually come to his senses. He believed all that even after this idiot broke your heart,” he jerked his head to Nehesy. “By the way, Nehesy, you’re an idiot.”
“You wouldn’t be the first to say so.” Nehesy shrugged. He’d berated himself so much over the last few days, Hamset’s words held little sting.
Pointing a finger at him, Hamset said, “The only reason I didn’t beat you back then for leaving Imi was because my father forbade it, and Imi insisted she’d agreed to it. Which is the biggest load of donkey scat I’ve ever heard. She was miserable for so damned many moon cycles afterwards.”
That did sting. Nehesy hated to think he’d upset her so badly.
Ignoring them both, Imi pounded a fist on the reed mat. “What a backwards way father had of doing things! I thought he didn’t trust me. And what if Nehesy hadn’t come back? What if he didn’t marry me? He put me in an awful situation! Argh!” She made a strangled sound, her fists clenched.
Nehesy gave Imi’s hand a sympathetic squeeze. Thinking of how close he’d been to not marrying Imi was like looking into a dark abyss. She was right. What if he hadn’t been here for her, and she’d fallen into Ludim’s clutches? Or if she’d married some other man? The consequences were unthinkable.
He gave her a lop-sided smile. “It was incredibly reckless of him. But it sounds like he was trying to ensure we would be happy. It didn’t work out so bad in the end, though, did it?”
She swiped at a tear that tipped over her lower lid and heaved a great breath. “I’m finding it very hard to forgive him right now.”
Hamset’s gaze narrowed on their joined hands. He said, “Father never thought you couldn’t manage things, Imi. He was very proud of you. But you don’t have to marry Nehesy now. We’ll go to the seru and fix everything so you can have your fields. And Ludim and his mother will be punished for their part in trying to force your hand in marriage.”
Anger, tinged with panic, cut through the sorrow that had cloaked Nehesy throughout the telling of his parents’ history. He turned to Imi. “Your brother’s right, you know. You don’t need to marry me.” Imi opened her mouth, but he held up a finger. “But I love you. And I want to marry you. And-”
It was her turn to cut him off. She put a finger on his lips. “I know,” she smiled. “Me too.” She turned to Hamset. “I’m marrying Nehesy. I hope you will give us your blessing, and that we can visit you before we travel to the cinnamon gardens in Eelam.”
The older man’s jaw bunched, his sharp features growing even sharper as he looked from Imi to Nehesy. Nehesy held his breath. For the sake of Imi’s happiness, he wanted Hamset’s blessing.
Finally, Hamset gave a long-suffering sigh. “Well, father’s ka will be pleased, at least. If he’s watching over us, he’ll be positively gleeful that he was right in the end. But I swear to Ra and all that’s holy, Nehesy, if you break my sister’s heart again, there will be no safe place in the living world for you to hide from me.”
Imi launched herself at her brother, nearly knocking him onto his back and strangling him with an enthusiastic hug. Nehesy suppressed a chuckle. When she untangled herself, and Hamset attempted to restore his dignity by smoothing his sidelock, Imi hugged Nehesy, too.
He held her while sending a silent prayer of thanks to her father. It seemed that, all along, the man had known him better than he’d known himself. And Imi had been right, too. He’d finally stopped running from himself and come full circle back to Imi. And now, he was going to spend the rest of his life ensuring her happiness.