Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda S. Robinson Read Free Book Online

called Beltis.
     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 concubine 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