CHAPTER 4Senmut and his brother Senmen had been introduced into the royal household by their uncle, one of the old Pharaoh’s scribes, who had stayed on after his death to serve his successor, Aa-kheper-en-Ra.
Senmut’s first professional appointment was as confidential scribe to the young King. He was young also and eager to advance. He worked long hours to please his master and he soon noticed the contempt Hatshepsut, the Queen, had for her husband, and the frustration the Pharaoh suffered in consequence of this. He was turning more and more to minor wives, and to Ast in particular, and the children born to them were soon occupying the royal nursery. Hatshepsut herself became pregnant, though Senmut wondered how the coupling had taken place with so much antipathy between them.
At first t
