[Neferet's POV]
A week later, Haruw payed them another visit, saying he'd found her khener and they would be coming over as soon as possible.
Another week and a half later, a servant finally came rushing over, saying that they'd arrived.
Neferet raced over to the audience hall where her khener had gone to pay their respect to the pharaoh. It took some time, considering Amon's house was purposefully removed a little distance from the other buildings, for privacy purposes.
When she finally arrived and stormed into the hall, she found all the members of her khener bowing deeply to the ground in a neat row in front of an annoyed looking (bordering on angry) Amon.
"What happened here?" she asked confused. Amon scoffed.
"They refuse to stop bowing and stand up, even though I said they could," he said gesturing angrily towards the people bowing deeply towards him.
"Eh?" Neferet voiced surprised as she looked between the two parties and couldn't help but laugh. Her laughter made some heads bob up in curiosity, but they immediately dived down again, too afraid to aggravate the ruler of Egypt even more.
She went over to where Amon was sitting on his throne. He was still glaring angrily at his "precious guests" and barely spared her a glance. He was probably doing it unconsciously, so she purposefully sauntered in front of him, breaking his line of vision and sat on his lap.
In doing so, she had successfully created a barrier between Amon and her khener. His eyes were now on her, but he hadn't moved and he looked confused to what she was doing. More heads looked up this time, but instead of diving back down, they kept staring.
"What a silly thing to get angry over," she laughed and pressed a feather-light kiss on his lips. His eyes fluttered shut, the frown disappearing from his face and he sighed against her lips contently.
"Sorry," he whispered as he leaned his head against hers, an arm wrapped possessively around her. It looked like he'd realised what he'd been doing. "I may be a little nervous to meet your family."
Neferet chuckled and whispered in return: "The almighty pharaoh is nervous, how cute."
Then she took his hand and stood up, pulling him along. She noticed a few of them sitting in a kneeling position, others were peeking up for the first time. She spotted her father first and went straight to him, still pulling Amon along.
"Papa!" she yelled exhilarated as she let go of Amon's hand and tackled her father in a big hug. "I've missed you so much."
"My daughter!" he cried as he hugged her tightly. "My beautiful daughter! I'm so glad to see you alive and well. Setka'd told us you had died?!"
Neferet looked up surprised. "He TOLD you that I died?"
"Yes, a month ago I went to his house and demanded to meet you. He wouldn't let me in and when I insisted, he said you had gotten lost in the dessert and died."
She glanced over at Amon to see if he was listening, but he was busy brushing of unwanted affection of one of the older female dancers, Tuya. It looked like she had finally dared to stand up and come closer.
"I nearly did die, papa," she said. "I was lucky that Amon found me when he did."
Her father frowned and was about to say something, when he got interrupted.
"You," someone said as a male arm wrapped around her neck and knuckles were rubbed roughly over her wig. "Marrying one crazy guy who tried to kill you wasn't enough, huh?! You had to move on straight to the next crazy guy, huh?!"
"Sapar! Stop it! You jerk!" Neferet complained and tried to escape his hold, but couldn't. When she finally did manage to escape, she noticed Amon was holding his wrist and she hurriedly hid behind him.
"Please stop it. She's still healing from her burns," he said seriously, not batting an eye over the fact that the other guy was trying to pull his wrist free. Right now, he looked every bit like the pharaoh he was.
"Let go!" Sapar snarled angrily.
"Fine," Amon said and let go. It was so sudden that Sapar lost his balance and flew backwards, almost falling on his but. The whole scene induced excited squeaks and some giggles from the people around them.
"That's another thing!" Sapar yelled angrily, absolutely set on convincing everyone that this guy was just as bad as the previous one. Sweet little sister, Amtes, was trying to calm him down, to no avail. "Look at the shape she's in?! Where has her beautiful unblemished skin gone? She looks like a roasted duck! Is that how you take care of her?"
"Hey now," Neferet started to scold him for insulting her, but Amon's voice overruled hers.
"She is beautiful," he stressed angrily, "and if it weren't for me, she'd be dead! You left her with that madman! He'd raped 12 servant-girls and murdered 3 of his previous wives before she'd even set foot in that house and you left her there! If you're trying to pinpoint a scapegoat, I'd say you think very hard before you start pointing fingers."
That shut Sapar up. In fact, she saw Sapar and the others swallow really hard. She would have swallowed too if she hadn't noticed how upset the knowledge made Amon.
It made her realise that her escape hadn't been because of a mistake, or goodwill, or even pity. It had been her husband, or no ex-husband, Setka, who had opened the door as an easy way to get rid of her. She would have been the fourth woman he'd murdered.
And Amon knew it.
For a moment, she was glad Sapar had confronted him. Otherwise, Amon never would have told her.
She looked up at him with sad understanding eyes and rubbed his arm gently. A shiver ran through him at her touch and he smiled over his shoulder towards her, squeezing her hand gently with his free hand.
"Well, well. It seems I have misjudged you," Neferet's father suddenly broke the silence and came over to stand in front of Amon. Then he clasped both his hands on Amon's shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.
"Thank you!" her father said with teary eyes. "Thank you for saving my daughter! She's everything I have left and I've regretted marrying her to Setka the second I agreed to it."
"That's quite alright, old man," Amon said with a relieved smile as he glanced her way briefly. "Honestly, I understand your reasoning. I'd give her anything in the world just to see her smile."
"So cheesy," her father laughed as he winked her way. "You sure know how to pick them, don't you, Neferet. And, who are you calling an old man? There will not be any old manning me! My name is Sabu. Remember it, because there won't be any exceptions from now on!"
"Ok, Sabu!" Neferet answered cheerfully, knowing that he hated it when she called him anything but "papa".
"Ok! One exception and it is papa," he said in immediate response.
"On the same note," Amon said, acting nervously. "I would very much like to marry your daughter. Would you please give us your blessing... papa?"
The second Amon had said the last word, he noticed how awful it sounded and cringed. Otto couldn't help but chuckle.
Sabu turned pale.
"The pharaoh himself is actually asking for my blessing to marry my daughter. I never thought I'd see this day," he mumbled disoriented.
"Papa!" Neferet interrupted his train of thoughts. "Answer him."
"What?!" he asked. "You really want me to answer? Well then, what about your marriage with Setka? Won't you be in trouble for marrying a second man, Neferet?"
"Their marriage has already been nullified," Amon said. "You don't need to worry about the paperwork."
"Then what do you have to say, Neferet?" Sabu turned to his daughter. "Do you think he'll try to kill you too?"
"Papa!" Neferet warned her father to watch his words, even thought she knew he was joking. Then added: "I love him, papa."
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Sapar turn a shade greener every time they made a cheesy remark. He wasn't good with those, and never did use them himself. Unlike Nebet, the second youngest female of the khener, who had made sensual dances and love songs her speciality.
"I can see that," Sabu laughed. "You made that very clear the second you entered this hall. Well then, I have just one question left. Mind you, it might be the most important of all!"
He paused for dramatic effect. "What's in it for me?"
"You're welcome to come and live with us," Amon replied without missing a heartbeat. This left Sabu dumbstruck.
"Neferet, sweetheart, help me out here," he said. "I can't tell if he's joking or not..."
"He's serious," she chuckled. She watched his eyes grow wide as saucers and then he started jumping nervously from foot to foot.
"He's inviting me to live at THE big house? The pharaoh himself?!" he asked in astonishment. "I must have died, I must have arrived at the field of reeds."
"Old man, that's the second time you've called me pharaoh," Amon said. "Please refrain from doing so."
"Hmm, I see your point. Ok! What would you have me call you? Mentuhotep? Son?"
"Pops, you can't be serious... You're going to agree?" Sapar complained, but his words were ignored as Neferet answered: "Amon! His name is Amon."
A huge grin appeared on Sabu's face and he nodded his head once in a strong and made-up way. After that, the whole khener cheered: "Hooray! Long live the happy couple!"
"Come on, let us feast to the happy occasion!" Amon yelled, smiling from ear to ear. Neferet smiled happily too. It felt good to see him in such high spirits. It would take time for him and the members of her khener to get to know each other, but for once everything felt just right.