Falling for the Pharaoh

Atemu - [The Proposal]

It was late in the evening, and finally, I was almost asleep and beginning to dream. It was a strange dream though. Nathifa walked into my room... she then just stood there and watched me.

I decided that I had no reason to wake up. It was not a wonderful dream, but it was not a bad dream either... so I decided to go with it.

But then a chill from the cool Egyptian night blew into my room from the balcony, making me shiver and waking me up completely.

And then I jumped.

I lifted myself up, moving back right against the headboard and narrowed my eyes at Nathifa. “What are you doing here?” I asked. My voice had betrayed me, I sounded as startled as I really was.

“I need to speak with you.” She stepped closer to me.

“Can it not wait until the morning?” I asked as I pulled my covers up over me. Was this a dream?

“No. It’s important. It can’t wait.”

“Then out with it.” I frowned as I looked outside from the balcony. The moon was high up in the sky.

She suddenly bowed, surprising me. “First, let me beg for your forgiveness. I understand that I did cause a lot of trouble.”

I was going to say: “Good. I’m glad you figured it out.” But decided that might be too rude. So instead, I said: “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Then will you hear me out?” She looked at me.

I took a deep breath and then nodded. “Go ahead.” I wondered what she had to say.

She stood there, hands awkwardly placed at her sides. I then noticed the way her hair was done and suddenly felt a little strange. My mother did this to girls whenever she had a chance to get to their hair. Had my mother said anything to her? Was that why she’s here?

“Listen.” I said, before she spoke. “If my mother told you to come and talk—”

“No! She didn’t.” She said. Her eyes then widened, as if she had just noticed something. “F-forgive me for interrupting...”

Oh yes, people could be killed for interrupting their Pharaoh.

I closed my eyes and opened them again to acknowledge her apology and waved my hand as a way to tell her to continue.

“I am in love with another man...” She started. “But my father will never let me be with him.” She waited as if she wanted me to say something, but when I didn’t, she continued. “My father threatened me... and now I know that if I continue to love him then my father will never accept me... and my family is more important to me.”

“So?” I asked, not really understanding what she meant.

“Your mother spoke to me...” She said.

And then I started to get upset. What had my mother said to her?

“Your mother... she is wonderful.” She said as a smile graced her face.

I was starting to get more and more confused.

She then shook her head and looked back at me. “She offered me a chance to get out of here... so I can be back with him.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“She was willing to risk the respect that people had for her, for my sake.”

“What did she say she would do?” I asked.

“She said she would help me make everyone believe that she was hurting me... treating me badly.”

I took a deep breath, rolling my eyes and held my hands together as I leaned forward. That woman. I thought.

“But I decided that I would not take that offer.”

I looked up at her.

“One reason was because I couldn’t bear to make her risk her dignity and two, my family would be horrified.” She paused. “Also because I heard something from Anat, my maid. She had told me something about your stepmother, and how she would do anything... even use me, to ruin you.”

I let out a small laugh. She had gotten that right.

“So... I have a proposal.”

I waited but she didn’t say anything. “What is your proposal?” I asked.

Her cheeks turned slightly pink and she took a deep breath, opening her mouth to do so. “We are to pretend that we are in love.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”

“Yes, my Pharaoh, we both have no choice now.” She said. “You refuse to marry again and I refuse to let my family down.”

I placed my thumb and pointer on my temples and sighed.

“Plus, your stepmother wants to ruin you. We have to pretend if we don’t want any attention. And your mother too, I do not want her to have to do something like what she suggested.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I was agreeing with her. How much of a choice did I have?

“And maybe... if we’re both really... accepting of this... then who says that I can’t continue to love Ausar... the man I love. And you can find the woman that you love, I mean, even if you refuse to marry her, you can at least keep her as your mistress or something! You are allowed to do that... I’d have to keep my affair a secret though, since I’m not exactly allowed to do this.”

I shook my head. “You’re crazy.” I said as I adjusted myself on my bed, turning my back to her, and pulled my covers over me.

“My Pharaoh!” She called. Running to the other side of the bed so she could look at my face. “Do you accept this proposal or not? You know you can’t deny it so you might as well—”

“Fine.” I said. “Now let me sleep.”

I opened an eye and looked at her, she was smiling. Well, at least I made her happy.

But after a moment, I noticed that she was still standing there. I looked at her. “What are you waiting for? Is there another crazy proposal you have?”

“No...” She hesitated. “Well... if we’re pretending then I’m supposed to stay here... in your room.” She stood in her awkward pose again, hands at her side, shoulders slightly up.

Oh. I thought. I then lifted myself up, sighing loudly. But suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw her lift her dress.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

She froze. “I-I... we...” Her cheeks were completely red now. “We’re supposed to have a b—”

“No.” I said as I got out of my bed. “I already told you, I refuse to have s*x with a woman who doesn’t want to be here.”

“But... we’re pretending—”

“I’m not sleeping with you.” I repeated.

“People are going to ask—”

“Well tell them you can’t have children.” The second that came out of my mouth, I started to regret it. But I didn’t say anything else. For now, having a child was not on the first thing on my mind.

The first thing on my mind was my fear of waking up tomorrow morning.

The last time I woke up from sleeping on the floor resulted in shoulder pains for days.

Whati was a little nervous with this ‘proposal’... but it had clearly resulted in destroying some of the gossip roaming around the palace grounds.

And the fact that Nathifa and I walked out of my room together that next morning was enough to do that.

That morning, Nathifa and I had made it clear that we would not tell both my mother and her parents the truth, along with anyone else in our families... or Egypt for that matter. The only people who were allowed to know were Whati and Nathifa’s maid.

Of course, this was going to be harder than it seemed.

Nathifa had officially taken the role of being the wife of the Pharaoh. Which meant she was the queen of Egypt, which also meant that she had many more responsibilities. I was worried about what this meant to her. When I asked her though, she told me that she could handle it.

Did I believe her? No. Not really.

But I had no other choice but to trust her. Besides, she did have my mother’s guidance.

My mother... she was obviously suspicious at first. But when I told her that she was being paranoid, she laughed and agreed.

I never really realized, however, how complicated things were going to get.

I sat next to Whati on our wall and looked at him. “You never told me what happened with the Nubians?”

He shrugged. “I thought you already had too many things on your mind, so I didn’t bother to say anything else.”

I laughed. “Tell me, Whati.”

“They want reforms. To rebuild.”

I looked away. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. “Is that really... a big problem?”

“Yes. Unfortunately. If we don’t do something, they’re going to start rebelling. And if they start, others will too.”

I sighed and then thought for a long moment.

“They want change. They never did like the way your father treated them—”

“Then why don’t we give them that change?”

Whati looked at me. “Atemu, if we give them what they want, all the other regions under Egyptian control are going to want reforms too.”

“We’ll take it slowly.” I smiled, liking the idea of that. “Start with the rebuilding in the Nubian region... then move on to Palestine...”

“How are we going to afford—”

“We’ll increase the taxes... only slightly though. Father did lower them to a great extent when he was alive... if we raise it a bit and our people know that we have good intentions—”

“That might work.” Whati said. “But—”

“Whati, I do believe that it is better to spend a fortune to improve people’s lives... I mean... the other option is to waste more than a fortune on trying to repress any rebellions.”

Whati nodded. “You’re right. But we need to talk to Lord Asim first, get his opinion...” He paused. “Speaking of, how’re things with Nathifa? I haven’t seen her recently.”

“She’s with my mother... she has been with her for a while.”

Whati hesitated and looked away. “What about her maid. Haven’t seen her in a while either.”

I smiled. “She’s been staying with another maid, apparently she’s learning how to make soaps.”

“Soaps...” Whati said. “Who told you that?”

“Nathifa.”

“You two are getting along very well.”

I laughed. “I guess.”

“Well that’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yes... but my stepmother wants to send us on a honeymoon.”

Whati snorted a laugh and I frowned. “She doesn’t believe any of this.”

I nodded. “She’s trying to get it out of us.”

“Well, you’re going to prove her wrong, right?” He asked.

I shrugged. “We’ll see.”

He smiled and punched my arm. “Tem... you need to spend more time with her.”

“Why would I want to spend more time with my stepmother? She’s a witch who—”

“Not your stepmother, you fool. Your wife.”

“Oh.” I said.

“You two are married, pretending that you love each other, but making sure you’re always on opposite sides of the room.”

I sighed. “Yes, you’re right. I’m not good at making this look real.”

“That’s not what I meant, Atemu.”

I looked at him. “Then what do you mean?”

“Maybe if you spend some more time with her... this fake stuff could become real.”

I let out a small laugh. “For some reason that seems more than impossible.”

“It could happen.”

I thought about it, but pushed the thought aside. “Whati... forget about this. I want to know something.”

“What?”

“Why do you keep asking about that maid?”

“I do not keep asking about her.” He scowled.

I grinned. “Yes, you do.”

“No I don’t.”

We continued to argue about that for the rest of the evening. He didn’t admit that he did till the very end.