Pharaoh Akhenaten was born in the same year, albeit in the following spring, in the sowing season when Sirius had risen. That is how I remember it.”
Her words froze me with horror so that I could make no defensive movement, nor did I even feel anything when her wine- wet mouth touched my cheeks, nor when her mouth and cheeks painted my cheeks tile red. She also put her arm about me and pressed me to her anxiously, calling me her little bull and her he-dove. I held her at bay absentmindedly, and my thoughts were in a turmoil, and my whole being revolted against this terrible knowledge so if what she said was true, then the blood of the great Pharaoh might run in my veins, and I was Pharaoh Akhenaten’s half-brother and might have been Pharaoh before him had not the guile of Tiye overcome my dead mother’s love. I stared before me and thought to understand why I had always been alone and a stranger in the world for the royal blood is alone amongst people. I also thought to understand why I had felt so weird in the land of Mitanni and why the shadow of death dwelled on that beautiful land.
But Mehunefer’s importunity brought me to myself, and I was forced to exert myself to the utmost to withstand her caresses and chatter for her hands and words were repugnant to me like everything in the golden house was now. However, my sense forced me to tolerate her, and I urged her to more wine, that she might become too sodden to remember what she had told me. But when she got drunk, she became altogether abominable, and I was compelled to drug her wine with poppy juice to send her to sleep and so to be quit of her.
When at last I left her room in the women’s house, night had fallen, and the guards and servants of the golden house pointed at me and tittered amongst themselves but I fancied this was because I staggered in my gait and my clothes were crumpled. At my house, Merit was awaiting me, being uneasy at my long absence and wishing to learn the particulars of the Queen Mother’s death; and when she saw me, she clapped her hands to her mouth and Muti did the same, and they exchanged looks. At length, Muti said to Merit in a bitter voice, “Have I not told you a thousand times that men are all alike and not to be trusted.”
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But I was worn out and desired to be alone with my thoughts, and I said to them angrily, “My day has been wearisome, and I cannot endure your giggling.” Then Merit’s eyes grew hard and her face dark with anger, and holding a silver mirror before my face, she said, “Look at yourself, Sinuhe! I have never forbidden you to take pleasure with strange women, but I could wish you might at least conceal the matter so as not to wound my heart. You cannot claim that you were lonely and sorrowful when you left your house today.”
I looked at my face and was greatly shocked, for it was smeared with Mehunefer’s facial pain, and her mouth had left red patches on my cheeks and on my neck and my temples. To hide her ugliness and wrinkles, she had painted her face so thickly that colour on her face was like plaster on the wall, and in her vanity she had spread new colour on her sallow lips each time she had drunk wine from the cup. Now I appeared like a victim of the plague and I felt ashamed from the bottom of my heart and quickly wiped my face while Merit mercilessly held the mirror before my face.
When I had washed my face with oil, I said repentantly, “You must misunderstand the whole matter, Merit, my darling. Let me explain.
But she looked at me coldly and remarked, “No explanations are needed, Sinuhe, and I do not wish you to soil your lips with lies for my sake since after seeing your filthy muzzle, it is not possible that anyone misunderstands this matter. You probably thought I would not stay awake and wait for you since you didn’t even bother cleaning your face. Or did you want to brag to me about your conquests and show how the women of the golden house are weak like rushes before you? Or did you simply get drunk like a pig so that you have no idea any more how inappropriate your behaviour is?”
I had much ado to soothe her, and Muti burst into tears out of pity for her and covered her face and retired to the kitchen in great contempt for all men. I had more difficulty in pacifying Merit than I had had in ridding myself of Mehunefer so that at last I cursed all women and said, “Merit, you know me better than anyone and should therefore be able to trust me. Believe that if I so wished, I could explain the matter to your full satisfaction, but it is a secret of the golden house and so for your own sake it is better that you should not learn it.”
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