Chapter 45: Royal fights and royal quarters

Four good months had passed. Four good months in which Dedyet had thought quite a lot about…well, everything. It was a dry night when she entered her bedroom where her husband was already waiting for her.

"Rammy?"

"Hm?"

"How are you?"

Ramses chuckled. "What?"

"I was asking how you feel." Dedyet smiled. "I don't think I've asked you that in quite some time even though it's such an important thing to ask."

"Oh, I feel brilliant. What about you, my love? Do you feel good, too?"

"Well," Dedyet answered, slowly taking her linen dress off. "My belly is getting heavy."

"That's really great! Our little son has been growing so much in these four months!"

"Uh, son?"

"Yes."

Dedyet crossed her arms. "We don't know the baby's sex yet, Ramses."

"Oh, I do."

"How?"

"I just know it. I'm the father, after all."

Dedyet rolled her eyes. "Well, the test said it'll be a girl."

"What test?"

"The pregnancy test Kija helped me take some months ago. A woman regularly pees on a pot with wheat and one with barley seeds. If the wheat grows, it's a boy and if the barley grows, it's a girl. If nothing grows, the woman isn't pregnant. That's how I found out about the pregnancy in the first place."

Ramses seemed angry. "If that woman has helped you, the results are probably incorrect."

Dedyet gave her husband a salty look. "Stop saying this! Kija has five children and her daughter is newly pregnant with her first grandchild!"

"You know these people are servants, Dedyet. They didn't enjoy as much education as we did. Maybe none at all!"

"Stop pretending that the servants are stupid! They are humans, too!"

"I'm a living god. It's literally what our religion says!"

"Ugh." The queen folded her dress in anger and laid it over a chair, knowing this was 'servants' work'.

Ramses seemed to be a little calmer than before. "Dedyet. What is your problem?"

"My problem is your attitude!"

"Oh. I think you have some hormonal problems going on."

"Maybe you have, you- …ugh! Jerk!"

"Dedyet! Please calm down! Your behavior is not at all appropriate."

Expect for a few angry noises coming from Dedyet, there was silence.

"There is no need to be so rude to me," Ramses told her. "I simply said that I dislike the woman you seem to be real close with."

Dedyet, though, was fully angry. "Her name is Kija!"

"Whatever."

"At least she has helped me with my pregnancy, unlike you!"

Yet, the pharaoh was calm. "Pregnancy and childbirth are businesses only women are involved in. But you know that, my love."

Dedyet didn't answer. She didn't give her husband a single look.

"Don't you want to come in bed with me?"

"No! I think you should go back to your own bedroom!"

"Dedyet, tell me. This woman – Kija – what has she done for you?"

Dedyet crossed her arms another time, seeming calmer. "She has given me a lot of advice."

"If you have questions about pregnancy or childbirth, the best thing you can do is ask my mother. She has given birth to four healthy children in the past."

"Kija has given birth to five."

Now he got mad. "What are you implying?!"

"That Kija has given birth more often and might also know more about the topic!"

"You better take that back!"

"Why? It's true. I don't recall your mother sending me any amulets to wear!"

"I don't recall Kija giving you any! That's most likely because she can't and will never be able to afford them!"

"Why does that matter?! Kija has had protection, too, in all of her pregnancies!"

"I don't care!"

"Yeah, that's because you only care about yourself!"

"Ugh!"

"Kija has also helped me to sort out my other amulets."

Suddenly, Ramses' eyes widened. The anger was gone. "Wait… What did you say?"

"Kija has helped me to sort out some of my amulets. That's what I said!"

"You mean the ones in your little chest?"

"Yes."

"The ones from your mother?"

"Yeah."

"The ones in the chest your mother gave you?"

"Ramses, what's up with you?"

"The chest that's in your bedroom?"

"Yeah. The small one."

Ramses looked at Dedyet as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Is there a problem?"

"Kija was here?"

"Ramses, she lives here!"

"She was here? In your room?"

"Yes!"

"OH RAAAAAAAAAA!"

Several male servants opened the door in shock. "Sire, we have heard yellings!" They gasped as soon as they saw a naked woman standing in the middle of the room.

"Leave!" Ramses yelled.

The servants closed the door as quickly as they had opened it.

"Ugh, I'm so tired of living with so many people," Dedyet told her husband while rolling her eyes. "I don't know how many of these men have already seen me without clothes on, and-"

But Ramses' mind was somewhere completely else. "Are you seriously saying that the nurse you call Kija has allowed herself to enter YOUR BEDROOM?!"

Dedyet was still angry. Stubbornly, she told him, "I have allowed her to come in and sit down."

"SIT DOWN?!"

"On the bed."

"OH MY RAAAAAAA!"

"Calm down!"

The door opened slowly. "Sire…?"

"There is nothing here!" Dedyet snapped.

The servant nodded with big eyes and quickly closed the door again.

"This is unbelievable!" Ramses cursed.

"I know, right? They keep coming in and-"

"Entering the royal bedroom! Without me allowing it!"

"Ramses. It's fine. I have allowed Kija to come inside. She didn't want to at first. And I don't know why it matter anyway, since it's my bedroom."

"Our quarters are holy rooms and Kija has - being the peasant she is - polluted them."

"Excuse me?!"

"Dedyet, please. Come in bed with me."

Dedyet sighed in anger. She walked towards the huge bed and lied down next to her husband.

"Please tell her not come inside again."

"Kija is always allowed to enter my private quarters. As well as the other nurses and servants that live here. I trust every single one of them."

"I don't."

"Why not? They do so much for you!"

"Of course. And they should be glad that they're allowed to."