A Perfectly Good Man

The widow Imila has turned down six proposals in ten years and has a reputation for being impossible to help. Khenti son of Pahery has come home after fifteen years as a soldier with a bad shoulder and no plan at all. Auset, Imila's housekeeper, has quietly arranged three marriages in her time, and she decides to arrange this one. It ought to be easy. But Khenti does exactly what he's asked and then goes home, every single time. In a town where everything gets done sideways, nobody knows what to do with a man you can only reach by saying it straight.

This story stands on its own in The Inner Yard. It is the third story in the Imila and Khenti universe, set in a Delta town, nowhere near the palace.

The Inner Yard is a romance set in a world built from late 18th Dynasty Egypt. It takes liberties.

Contents

Chapters 1-3

Chapter 4-6

Chapter 7: Sailcloth

Chapter 8-11: Tanefer, What Auset Could Not Do, Four Months and Eleven Days, The Ox Later

The Ox Scene