the palace Tuya could hear the sounds of chisel and cudgel,
ax and saw. The laborers worked from the rising of the sun
till the setting of it, and as his house rose from a hilltop near
the palace, Zaphenath-paneah conducted his affairs from
Pharaoh’s throne room.
Egypt had known viziers before, but never one with this
much power. With Pharaoh’s full authority, Zaphenath-paneah
divided the kingdom into tracts of land and classified them
according to their fertility. He specified three categories: lands
that regularly received the Nile’s fertile flood, lands that some-
times flooded, and lands that seldom or never did. For the next
seven years, Zaphenath-paneah proclaimed, taxes would be
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calculated according to the flood state at various locations
along the river, beginning at the isle of Elephantine near the
first cataract. Based on this measurement, crop quotas would
be assigned. Four-fifths of the land’s expected bounty would
belong to the people who worked it, but one-fifth would
belong to Pharaoh, and must be surrendered for storage in
Pharaoh’s granaries.
Tuya wondered how well Asenath had come to know her
husband, for almost immediately after his appointment Yosef
set off on a tour of Egypt to determine if the present nomarchs
would be capable of gathering the harvest from the coming
years of plenty. A corps of scribes, accountants and engineers
accompanied him on his travels, and Pharaoh received daily
reports of his vizier busily collecting records of all the houses
and estates in Egypt. While the scribes questioned the
nomarchs about their past administration and the collection
of taxes, engineers surveyed the land to determine where the
huge, cone-shaped granaries should be built. In cities where
the vizier found the nomarchs resentful, unscrupulous or
inept, new officials were appointed to oversee the gathering
of the earth’s bounty.
Tuthmosis had been wise, Tuya realized, to appoint a vizier
to handle the complicated details of taxation, for now the
young king was free to concentrate on the work he loved.
Already he had restored the ancient Sphinx to its former
grandeur; now he concentrated on raising the fallen obelisk
of Tuthmosis III at Karnak. Many ancient temples and monu-
ments had fallen into disrepair, and Tuthmosis the dreamer
was far happier restoring the glory of the past than working
out the details of a complicated present.
Not only did Yosef have to contend with the coming fam-
ine, but to him also fell the traditional duties of a vizier. The
viziers of Egypt’s past had filled at least thirty major func-
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tions, including Manager of the King’s Palace, Guardian of
the Public Works, General of the King’s Army, Commander
of the King’s Peacekeepers, Patron of the Royal Artisans,
Dispenser of Justice and Keeper of the Law, Judge over the
High Court of the Land, Overseer of the Royal Farms and
Granaries, Hand to Distribute Food to Laborers and the King’s
Officials, and He Who Gathers in the King’s Taxes.
Perhaps, Tuya thought as she listened to one of the reports
Yosef sent to Tuthmosis, the Almighty God prevented her
from marrying Yosef because Egypt’s second in command had
no time for a wife. But still her heart leapt with joy when she
heard that Zaphenath-paneah had finally returned to Thebes.
With difficulty she curbed her eagerness and waited two ten-
day weeks before joining the others who assembled each
morning at the palace in the hope of gaining an audience with
the king’s vizier.
“Dress me carefully,” she told her handmaid, but she dared
not speak the reason for her concern:
because this morning I
have decided to face Yosef.
Knowing Yosef’s preference for simple things, from her
wardrobe chest she selected a gown of cream-colored linen
and a narrow band of gold for her throat. Modest leather
slippers completed her outfit, and in her hand she carried a
single lotus blossom, a symbol of their hours together in
Potiphar’s garden.
Leaving Yosef in the care of his nurse, Tuya slipped out of
her chamber and down to the hall that had been designated as
a temporary reception room for the vizier. A throng of digni-
taries and nobles waited outside the chamber’s closed doors,
yet the crowd parted like the petals of a flower as she ap-
proached. No one dared question her presence, for anyone
might approach the vizier and offer a word of advice or con-
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gratulation, but Tuya spied more than one lifted brow. Intui-
tively, she knew it would not be wise to speak with Yosef
alone. The more witnesses to her audience with him, the safer
they both would be.
Every morning the vizier went first to Pharaoh’s chamber
for an intimate council, so the esteemed Zaphenath-paneah had
not yet arrived to face his visitors. Tuya waited, hoping Yosef
would not leave her long with the men who cast furtive glances
in her direction, and within a few moments she heard the steady
tramping of an approaching entourage. Surrounded by a host
of scribes and nobles, Yosef swept past her, but his eye caught
hers and his lips mouthed her name:
Tuya!
She caught a
glimpse of fondness in his gaze as his guards pulled him away,
and her heart fluttered at the knowledge that he remembered.
For an hour, she waited. Those who had previous appoint-
ments came and went, then finally a servant dipped his knee
before her. “Queen Tuya, the vizier bids me call for you,” he
said, motioning toward the reception chamber. Tuya rose and
followed the servant.
Yosef sat on a gilded chair not unlike Pharaoh’s throne. A
thick carpet lay under his feet, the baton of state across his
hands. The books of Egypt’s laws, forty-two volumes contain-
ing all the wisdom of the world, stood open on stands behind
his chair. An assortment of Pharaoh’s officials and ministers
clustered around the vizier, expressions of curiosity on their
faces as Tuya approached.
She smiled at her husband’s ministers, then turned to Yosef.
On the night of his release from prison he had appeared as
wild as an unbroken horse. Today he seemed no less powerful,
but Zaphenath-paneah looked as Egyptian as any man born
along the Nile. He wore a fine pleated kilt and a mantle of
leopard skin, the traditional garb of a prince. A handsome wig
covered his head, and his paint-lengthened eyes crinkled at
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the sight of her. “I am honored, Queen Tuya,” he said, his
voice reaching her as if from worlds away.
If not for the memories that came crowding back at the
sound of his voice, she would have thought Yosef the Hebrew
a figment of her imagination. She could see little of him in
the king’s vizier. Gone was the thick, unruly hair, the falter-
ing accent, the boyish laugh. This stranger was an exquisite
man, but he was not the youth she had known and loved.
He gave her a careful smile. “To what do I owe the honor
of visiting with Pharaoh’s wife?”
“One of Pharaoh’s many wives,” she said, searching for the
meaning behind his greeting. Had he chosen those words as
casually as his tone implied? Or was he trying to gently
remind her that they were not the people they once had been?
“I come, my lord vizier, to welcome you to the palace.” She
bowed her head in a gesture of respect, grateful for the op-
portunity to lower her eyes as she forced out her next words:
“And to congratulate you on your marriage.”
“Thank you.” He hesitated. “I hoped we would have a
chance to speak, gracious lady.”
“Truly?” She lifted her head. His eyes snapped with some
urgent message he could not speak before the ministers who
listened to every word. She tightened her hand around the flower
she carried.Yosef wanted to speak freely—what would he say?
With a graceful economy of movement he stood and
clapped his hands. “Clear the room of all who await business
with the vizier,” he ordered. “Queen Tuya should not have to
speak before the common crowd.”
“Let your servants remain, my lord,” she whispered, catch-
ing his eye. Rash actions would arouse suspicion, and as
much as Tuya wanted to speak with him alone, she knew she
did not dare. Pharaoh’s court was quicksand; she had seen
how petty jealousies and ambitions could flare to injure the
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innocent. Amenhotep’s court had been rife with strife, and
Tuthmosis was young enough to be easily misled.
“Of course. My servants shall remain, but my scribes—”
Yosef gave the three men who sat at his right hand a deter-
mined smile “—will wait in the anteroom. The words of
Pharaoh’s wife do not need to be recorded.”
The grumbling men gathered their pens, parchments and
books and left the room, casting curious glances over their
shoulders as they exited. When everyone had gone but the two
servants who lingered at the door, Yosef stepped from the dais.
The stiff guise of the Egyptian vizier fell away, and the ex-
pression in his eyes brought heat to Tuya’s cheeks. For a
dizzying moment the room whirled around her.
“Steady,” Yosef murmured in a low voice. “You must
remember where you are.”
“I’m all right.” She pressed her hand to her throat and
breathed deeply, aware that servants watched from the far
side of the room. No doubt other faces were pressed to the
narrow opening between the doors.
“I have wanted to thank you, Zaphenath-paneah.” She
strengthened her voice so the eavesdroppers could hear. “You
have done my husband and the kingdom a great service.”
“God has brought us to this place,” Yosef answered. “But
I am enjoying the work.”
She turned her back to the spies at the door. “I have prayed
to your god,” she confessed in a whisper. “I prayed for
Taharka’s release. When I saw that your god could deliver
him, I prayed for you, too.”
Yosef laughed. “And I thought my prayers did all the
work.” He thrust his hands behind his back and regarded her
with what looked like honest affection. “It is comforting to
know I was in your thoughts.”
A feeling of glorious happiness warmed her heart. “I nearly
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gave up. But when I heard Potiphar had spared your life, I
knew your god would preserve you. Even though I thought
you guilty at first—”
“Speak no more of the past.” Yosef lowered his voice. “I
have prayed for you these many years, and I have begged God
for an opportunity to speak to you.”
His words stole her breath. Was he about to confess he still
loved her? Would he suggest a rendezvous? For what pur-
pose? If they were to meet, even as friends, questions would
be asked. She stared at him, her mouth agape.
“I have dreamed again.” His eyes darted toward the doors
at the rear of the room; his voice became a thin whisper in the
space between them. “The vision was another warning from
God, Tuya. You and your son are in danger.”
“Yosef?” she cried, momentarily forgetting everything else.
A corner of the vizier’s mouth curled in a half smile. “Your
son is called Yosef?”
“It is his baby name,” she answered, feeling heat rise in her
face. “Pharaoh does not know what it means. I thought that
since I couldn’t have you, at least I could love my Yosef—”
“You must take care, Tuya,” he whispered, his voice dark
with warning. “I don’t know where the danger lies, but this
evil would not hesitate to destroy Pharaoh as well.”
Tuya gave him a rueful smile. “Like Tuthmosis, you are
always dreaming. Is there danger in the court? Certainly, for
even the suggestion of impropriety could spell exile for me
and my son. But I am no threat to anyone. I hold no ambi-
tions, I do not take much of Pharaoh’s time. And Tuthmosis
is a good king. He wants to do right and he has surrounded
himself with wise counselors.” She lifted a brow. “As you
should know.”
Yosef ignored the compliment. “Even so, you must be
careful. When I first had the dream, prison walls hindered me
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from warning you. And now—” he grasped his hands “—I am
hindered in other ways.”
“I know,” she cut him off. Again the conversation threatened
to pick up the strings of time, and emotion choked off the
words she wanted to say. She took a step toward him, hoping
he could read her heart, but he lifted his hands in warning.
Tears stung her eyes. “Yosef—” she stared at the floor
as she strained to push her embarrassment aside “—you
need not fear me. I will not bait you as Sagira did. I will
not touch you, I will not linger in the hall for a glimpse of
you. I will not give anyone cause to say I am unfaithful to