"Father! It is so good to see you!" Ardeth looked at the older man with pride and unconditional love.
"Ardeth, my son. It is good to see you as well. Your mother will be down in a moment. She has decided to change, again." Ardeth watched his father's eyes roll back and then look at him again. "It has been so long."
"Yes, there are have been…. Concerns that I had to deal with."
"Concerns?"
"Imhotep." Ardeth clarified.
"Ahh." His father said and nodded.
"Anzety! Why didn't you tell me our son has come home!"
"Because Keket, you were upstairs." He said and rolled his eyes again.
Ardeth's mother was a couple inches shorter than both Ardeth and Anzety but made up for it in her width, her waist was small and petite but her hips and the rest of her body was voluptuously made. Keket swept into the room wearing a purple and rich blue gown that rustled as she walked, she moved right to Ardeth and enveloped him in a hug, he immediately hugged her back with equal fervor.
"I have missed you, mother." He said near her ear.
"I have missed you as well, my son."
It was unorthodox for Ardeth, the son of a ruling merchant, to love one of his father's wives, but he loved her the most, mostly because she had birthed him, but also because she and his father shared a love that nothing could get between. It was a tradition for any of the reigning merchants to have many wives, especially if one lived on the outskirts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Anzety had been 21 when he had married his first wife, a young woman named Layla. By Anzety's 30th birthday he had already lost two wives and had had no children, that is, until he had met Keket, his mother. Keket had been a merchant's maiden daughter, she was to be a priestess for Sharm el- Sheikh, within weeks of meeting each other they were to be wed, both deeply in love.
A love story, Ardeth thought.
"Now Ardeth, I would like you to meet Bahiti, daughter of Badru."
A woman swept into the room, she was tall and slim with long, tanned legs that Ardeth could see through the sheer gold fabric of her dress, her face was small and heart shaped with long black glossy hair that fell to the middle of her back. Her eyes were almost black and were hooded by tanned eyelids, make-up accentuated her wide, plump lips and dark eyes. He stared at her with a blank expression, he felt his body come alive with desire.
"Anzety, Keket." The woman said, bowing to his parents.
"Bahiti, may I have a moment with my son?" Anzety asked the woman, ignoring the usual rules about women.
"Of course." She said, surprise covering her face.
Anzety turned to Ardeth and gestured for him to follow, Ardeth did so immediately and turned to his father.
"You wish for me to marry Bahiti?" he asked.
"Yes." His father answered. "I'm not proud to say it, but Ardeth you are getting older and you must go with tradition, we have picked out your first 3 wives. No one says that you need more than that…"
"Should I forgo love for tradition?" he interrupted his father.
"Never." He whispered. "but here tradition is everything, merchant's marry merchant's, Kings marry queens, and marriages are arranged everyday. I will not have my only son be thrown out because he won't follow tradition."
"Father, if you haven't noticed, you broke tradition when you met mother and never came back to your other wives, and nothing has happened to you."
"I married for love, Ardeth. People understand that, but no one will understand if you don't marry at all, they won't forgive you."
"It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does. No one knows that you are Med-jai, nor do they know that I was once a Med-Jai, that I still am a Med-Jai. Our family would be ruined if they found out. Your sisters would never marry, your younger brother will never gain his rightful place. You will marry, Ardeth. And you will marry Bahiti and the other 3 your mother and I have picked out." His father commanded.
Ardeth thought for many moments then nodded assent. "Fine, does she know?"
"Her father was the one to come forward with the merger."
"When?"
"End of this season."
"Two weeks." He whispered.