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natron and sickly incense and balms. It’s a messy business.’
    Meryt-Re wasn’t convinced. There was no need for the girl to be so miserable, just because of her workplace. ‘Well, perhaps,’ she agreed, doubtfully. ‘But if that’s the problem, her step should lighten when she leaves.’
    The sun was rising higher in the sky. Its heat was intensifying, so Meryt and Kenna clambered back on to the donkey and trotted up to Set Maat before the fish could begin to rot. There, they went to their separate homes.
    The smell of burning incense greeted Meryt as soon as she stepped inside: the smell of an offering in the first room. Tia was there, alone, burning incense before the bust of Peshedu. She jumped when sheheard Meryt, and turned guiltily.
    â€˜I’m just …’ she started, then trailed off, swinging the burner nervously.
    Meryt moved into the room and squatted by her aunt. ‘Is Peshedu troubling you?’ she asked.
    Tia nodded. ‘It was he who burnt the bread yesterday,’ she told Meryt. ‘I had only left it for the usual amount of time. I am trying to appease him. Baki has his ritual next weekend – I should hate there to be any trouble.’
    Meryt frowned. Much as she hated Baki, she could not see any reason why Peshedu should interfere with his rite of passage to manhood. ‘Why would my father make trouble for Baki?’ she asked. ‘I thought he was a good man. You have always told me he was.’
    â€˜Oh!’ said Tia hurriedly. ‘You need not fear about that. Peshedu
was
a good man. I loved him so much – he could not have been a better brother to me. He …’ she trailed off again, her voice trembling. She stood, and gained control of herself. ‘We just need to keep him happy, that’s all,’ she said firmly. ‘When I neglect him, he quickly reminds me of his presence.’
    The subject was clearly closed. Tia went out to the courtyard and Meryt followed her, puzzled. Her aunt sat down at the loom and started to weave, an expression of determined concentration on her face. Meryt picked up a handful of flax strands from the pile in the corner of the courtyard. She sat down next to Tia and began to tease them into thread with thespindle. The two worked in silence for a while.
    â€˜Where is everyone?’ asked Meryt, when she grew bored.
    â€˜Henut is sleeping,’ Tia answered her. ‘Mose went with Nauna to deliver the kilts to Harmose’s wife. They’ll be back later.’
    Weaving and sewing provided the family with extra income, and, like Dedi’s mother, Wab, Harmose the doctor could easily afford an extra kilt or two. Meryt enjoyed joining in with the whole process, for it made her feel less of a burden on the household.
    â€˜Senmut has gone to work,’ continued Tia. ‘He has taken Baki with him. They are staying over at the tomb huts until the weekend. Senmut wants to make sure that Baki is ready for the ritual.’
    Meryt nodded, and concentrated on the spinning, thinking of Baki. The ritual he would undergo was welcomed and dreaded in equal measure by boys of his age. Their side-lock was shaved off, to allow a full head of hair to grow in its place; but far more painful was circumcision, the removal of the foreskin, an operation carried out by a priest of Amen-Re. Meryt shuddered to think of it. She was glad that girls did not have to suffer anything similar – apart from childbirth, of course.
    She worked steadily for an hour, then she and Tia ate some bread and lay down in the cool of the back room to sleep through the midday heat. Before doing so, Meryt went and fetched her ostracon, and laid it next to her head.
    Tia looked at it curiously. ‘What’s that?’ she asked.
    Meryt showed her the painting and Tia studied it thoughtfully. ‘It’s the goddess Hathor,’ explained Meryt. ‘I am consulting her about Ramose.’
    Tia nodded,