apprehension, or awareness that it was odd that Hormin owned a necklace of gold and precious stones and hadn't given it to her. It was as if she were long used to her husband's miserliness. Perhaps she was. In any case, he couldn't believe she didn't covet such a beautiful piece of jewelry as the missing broad collar.
He was about to dismiss Selket when a crash made the woman jump. He was out of the room and bounding down the stairs before Selket got to her feet. Meren rounded the corner of the dining hall in time to dodge a ceramic lamp that sailed past his head and crashed against a wall.
Barely missing the wooden lampstand, Meren rushed into the hall to see the concubine Beltis lift a wine jar from its pedestal and hurl it at her younger brother-in-law. Djaper was bending over Imsety, who was curled up on the floor nursing his groin. Meren shouted at him, and he ducked. The wine jar bounced off Djaper's shoulder and hit the ground. Pottery cracked, and wine sloshed over the groaning Imsety.
Meren ran to Beltis and caught her before she could lift a stone vase from a table. Knocking the vase aside, he grabbed the woman by the waist and lifted her off her feet. Beltis let out a scream. She kicked backward, catching Meren on the shin.
'Abomination.' Meren grunted under the impact of an elbow to his ribs.
'Dung eater!' Beltis screamed at Djaper. 'Lover of boys, I curse your fea.'
Djaper sprang at Beltis. Meren saw him make a fist and draw back his arm. Swinging so that Djaper missed Beltis, he blocked the punch with his free arm. It was a blow of the force one used only on another man. Djaper fell back as soon as his arm touched Meren.
Beltis was still shouting curses at her brothers-in-law while she clawed at Meren's arms. Losing what pa tience was left to him, Meren hoisted the woman on his hip. When she tried to bite his thigh, he shifted her weight to both arms and threw her to the ground. Beltis landed on her buttocks with a howl and looked up for the first time. Panting, she brushed aside strands of her wig and caught sight of Meren. The panting stopped. Her eyelids climbed high and disappeared. Beltis whimpered and began to crawl toward Meren.
In no mood for groveling, Meren halted the concubine with one word. He looked around and spotted a charioteer near Djaper and Imsety. The man was on the floor nursing a cut above his eye. In the doorways of the hall servants hovered, uncertain and curious.
• Surveying the wreckage, Meren beckoned to the por ter. 'Put the woman in her room and see that she doesn't leave it.'
'Lord, her ka is inhabited by fiends,' Djaper said.
Meren straightened the folds of his robe. 'What hap pened?'
'I told her to go back to her parents' house. We don't want her here.'
Meren surveyed the face of Hormin's youngest son. Clean-shaven, with small features, it was the face of a youth on the body of a man in his breeding years. Djaper met his gaze openly, and Meren was sure that he was meant to see the ingenuous candor of a boy.
'You may both retire to your rooms.'
The men bowed to him, and Meren was left to the ministrations of the household servants. A maid offered cool water and beer. Another brought moist towels and salve for the cuts on his arms. The furrows weren't deep, but they stung. Meren tended to them himself, downed a cup of beer, and headed for the room occupied by the woman called Beltis.
40 Lynda 5. Robinson
She was waiting for him. Meren was surprised at how quickly she had recovered from the battle and shock of having lifted her hand to him. She was wearing a fresh shift, a costly one of transparent drapes and folds that fastened below her breasts.
Meren stalked into the chamber and seated himself in an armchair. Beltis walked toward him, and he realized that she had oiled and rouged her bare breasts and lips and applied fresh eye paint. She held her arms to her sides, but she pressed them inward so that her breasts pointed forward and the nipples danced as she moved.
He almost laughed. He would have, but Beltis reached him, dropped to her knees, and flung her arms about his legs. She began whispering abject regrets. Slick flesh pressed against his legs, and her hand fastened on his bare ankle. It slid up his calf. Fingers reached his inner thigh, and Meren caught them.
'Remove yourself from me.'
Beltis sat back on her heels and clasped her hands in her lap. Meren noticed that she still held her arms close to her breasts. Her chest heaved, and to his surprise, she appeared unable to lift her eyes from his legs. No, they had moved. By the gods, the woman was staring at his groin.
It had been many seasons since he'd been shocked by a woman. He was shocked by this one. Her tongue laved her lips as once more she studied the brown flesh of his thigh visible through his robe. Suddenly Beltis bent low. Meren felt moist lips on the top of his foot. Hot breath tickled his skin as she whispered to him.
'Forgive me, great lord. I was driven to madness by those cruel men, and now I behold the virility of a lion, such beauty.'
'Get up,' Meren said. Beltis raised her head. Her lips were slack. He supposed their open readiness had brought rewards before. 'I said get up. One would think the death of a generous master would have you weeping with the mourners outside.'
Beltis sat up and regarded him as a scribe regards a schoolboy. 'Great lord, I served my master according to a contract freely made. If you could speak to him, he would tell you how I pleased him. But the master was cursed with an ungrateful, selfish wife and sons. They are his family, but they don't grieve. Do they abstain from meat and wine? Do Djaper and Imsety fail to cut their hair and beards? Selket still bathes and paints her face. And none of them have gone to Hormin's mortuary chapel to weep for him.'
'I'm not interested in weeping. I'm interested in what Hormin did on the night he was killed. Mistress Selket says he spent the night with you.'
'Indeed.' Beltis smirked at him. 'Hormin craved me as a bull lusts after his cows. I gave him much pleasure, with my hands and-'
Meren spoke with deliberate slowness and clearly pronounced words. 'When did Hormin leave your bed?'
'I don't know, my lord.' Beltis sighed and lifted her shoulders. 'I was exhausted from our play and slept heavily. I woke after the sun was up, and the master was gone.'
'He told you nothing of where he might go?'
Shaking her head, Beltis cast her eyes down. 'I am only a concubine.'
'Yes.' Meren rose and went to stand behind the chair. 'So you heard nothing during the night, even though your master's office isn't far from this room.'
Beltis's head shot up. 'I didn't need to hear anything. I know one of them robbed my master. They were taking his possessions, and he caught them.' The concu 42 Lynda 5. Robinson bine narrowed her eyes. 'They fought with my master, lord. Those two sons wanted his farm all to themselves. I heard them yelling at each other.'
'How is it that you heard what must have been a private talk?'
'I listened at the door, Lord Meren. I have to protect my son, and you can see why after what happened today. And now they want to blame me for all the evil. They hate me, Selket and Imsety and Djaper. They would like to see me condemned for his death. If he'd lived, Hormin would have given me more of his wealth, and entered my son in his will.'
'You witness against all three. Yet you say you slept the night.' Meren traced the carving on the back of the chair and waited.
Beltis pursed her lips. 'My slave girl, she says the brothers went out after the evening meal and didn't re turn until almost morning. If my poor lord was killed in the Place of Anubis, they could have set upon him.'
'All the servants will be questioned,' Meren said. 'I'll find out where each of you was during the night. Each of you.' When Beltis appeared undisturbed, Meren continued. 'You were screaming about a necklace being taken when I found you all in Hormin's office.'
'Yes, lord, I tell you Djaper took it, or Imsety, or Selket. They all hated it that the master bestowed gifts upon me. This was a broad collar of great beauty and cost. It was of gold and lapis lazuli and red jasper.' Beltis chewed on her lower lip and scowled. 'The master promised it to me, but it's gone.'
Meren said nothing. His men would take inventory of Hormin's possessions and question the household to confirm the family's claims. He resumed his seat, taking care to move the chair so that he was too far away from Beltis for her to pounce on him again. Having basked in the favor of ladies far more sophisticated, intelligent, and
