Cleopatra Confesses by Carolyn Meyer

well-muscled thighs. He is very handsome and amiable, and he quickly becomes the center of attention. I am not surprised to observe my older sisters doing everything they can to catch his eye, smiling up at him from beneath their fluttering lashes, inviting him to come and sit by them. But he maintains a very grave and formal manner, and he treats my sisters with great courtesy even as he ignores their invitations. If Titus is wise, he will avoid their little traps.
    The banquet is one of the most festive yet. Course after course is served, the musicians and dancers perform. Charmion is careful not to glance in my direction. My father plays his aulos . It is as if nothing unusual were happening. Then Father signals for quiet, and everyone leans forward to hear what the king has to say.
    “Tomorrow we leave Thebes and return to Alexandria with all speed,” he announces. “I have important business to attend to there. By the time the great Ra has begun his climb into the sky, we will be on our way.”
    His words leave our questions unasked and unanswered.
    I am ready to go back to Alexandria, and I think everyone else must feel the same. But this great rush makes me uneasy, because I do not yet know the reason for it. Why is Father being so secretive? I wonder if it has to do with the Romans. Are they demanding more money? Has the general Father mistrusts, Julius Caesar, gone back on his word?
    Talk to me, Father , I beg silently. Explain to me what is happening .
    I stay out on deck until very late, watching the preparations for our departure at sunrise and staying alert for rumors. Maybe Father will come out and speak to me. But the only talk I manage to overhear concerns Titus: My two older sisters are arguing about him.
    “I saw the way he looked at me.” Tryphaena sighs. “I can see that he finds me very beautiful.”
    “Beautiful, yes, but he could not help but notice that I have the intelligence to complement my beauty,” Berenike retorts.
    “Are you saying that Titus finds me stupid?” Tryphaena cries.
    Berenike makes a small effort to soothe her. “I’m not saying anything like that. I am only pointing out that Titus is the kind of man who is interested in a woman who has more to her than a pretty face. A woman like me.”
    “Let us see whom he chooses to sit by at the next banquet,” Tryphaena taunts her.
    “Surely it will be me,” snaps Berenike.
    And so it goes, their bickering. Not a word about whatever crisis awaits our father.
    Just before sunrise, Captain Mshai orders the crew to cast off, and we leave Thebes behind us. We are going home.

Chapter 20
    S HIPWRECK
    The sails are permanently furled, and now we move downriver with the current, against the prevailing winds. We have been away for many days, and I am ready to return to Alexandria. The captain has ordered the master of the oarsmen to drive his men to the limits of their endurance. Instead of the drumbeat that set the rhythm at the beginning of our travels, I hear the crack of the whip. After two days, the royal boat and the fleet of smaller craft traveling with it enter the great eastward loop of the Nile. I choose to stay out on the deck. I enjoy the excitement, and I know I will not have to speak to my sisters, who have taken refuge in their rooms.
    Demetrius finds me here. “The river is nearing its lowest point,” he says in that familiar lecture tone. “In another month the harvest will be finished. Already the sun is baking the earth and purifying it. Soon the rains will begin far to the south, andthe river will swell—all part of the natural rhythm of the Nile. But now, with the low water level, it is a dangerous time on the river. It would be much safer for you to stay in your quarters, Cleopatra.”
    I murmur some sort of agreement but stay where I am.
    The sandbars that were submerged earlier as we journeyed upstream just a month ago are now exposed, and navigating around them proves difficult for a vessel as large as the