The General's Virgin Slave (14 page)

"Well, now you are free to think. I
want the slave girl, general. I won't wait much longer. How many
gold sesterces do you want for the slave?"

Marcus drained his cup of wine.
"Actually, governor..."

There was a long pause until Gaius
snapped, "What is it, man? Are you addled? Speak!"

"I have agreed to grant her
freedom."

"You did
what
?"

He felt like laughing, but decided it
might be best to curb it. For now. "In exchange for this," he waved
his cup at the silk bench where he'd deflowered his woman, "I
promised to set her free. As of tonight she is no more a
slave."

Gaius stood, veins of fury visibly
throbbing in the side of his neck. "You let her go?"

"She promised she would stay if I gave
her freedom."

"And you believed her? Then you must
be insane, general. She is wild, feral. She will run. When I saw
you had let her off the collar I thought you were making a mistake.
But this...this is madness."

Would she run away now? A sprig of
doubt thrust its way up through his thoughts. Had he trusted her
too much, begun to believe the things she said?

Well, he was so far in now there was
no backing out. There was only one way to keep going. "Besides, I
had to set her free, because I think I might...I
might..."

Another pause. Gaius sputtered, "Are
you drunk?"

Abruptly Marcus laughed. "I think I
might marry her."

The other man glared.
"
What?
"

It had come to him in that moment. He
didn't want her for a mistress. He wanted her for a wife. He wanted
her to bear his legitimate sons— even a few daughters wouldn't go
amiss. Carefully he set his empty cup down. "I set her free so I
could marry her. I will seek permission, of course."

"I won't give it."

"Then I'll go over your
head."

"You wouldn't dare!"

He felt a tight pain in his chest. In
his heart. All he knew was he couldn't lose Axa to Gaius or
anybody. It was rare for soldiers to marry, but not impossible to
get permission. He'd heard of it done more often these days. "I've
been a loyal soldier for fifteen years," he said firmly. "And I
don't care about promotion or land, or riches. I want a wife and
I'm quite sure the empire wants another generation bred of strong,
loyal young men. Especially if we want the Roman Empire to last
beyond another four hundred years, we need to do more than enslave
the people we conquer."

"Now I know you're drunk,
general."

No, he wasn't drunk. He was in
love.

She had promised to stay if he set her
free. She said she wanted to stay with him.

Whatever Gaius thought. Whatever
Flavian thought. He, Marcus Cassius, believed her.

* * * *

After a warm bath, she felt better.
The slave master had told her she was not to return to the feast
tonight, but could go straight to bed and wait there for
Marcus.

"I understand he means to set you
free," Flavian muttered. "You are fortunate."

"Yes." She smiled. "He has set me free
in so many ways. You have no idea."

"You will run away, of
course."

Axa laughed. "No. How can I? I'm in
love with him."

The old man's mouth dropped
open.

"I've been waiting for the right man
all my life," she added, "Now I've found him, I'm not going
anywhere."

He squinted at her, still doubtful, so
she clasped his crumbling face and kissed him on the
cheek.

"Don't worry for your master. I will
love him forever."

She went to her lover's bed to wait
for the end of the feasting. There was still a great deal of noise
echoing through the villa, so Flavian posted extra guards at the
bedchamber door, just to ensure none of the guests wandered there
to disturb her.

She thanked the old man for his
concern and he looked surprised. "As you are special to the
general, lady, you are now special to me too."

He had called her "lady" she noted,
instead of slave. "Well, I shall thank you anyway," she told him.
"I know when to show my appreciation." Then she grinned. "Maybe I
can teach the general how to show it too, once in a
while."

Flavian looked bemused. "I daresay,
lady, if anyone can teach the general anything it will be you. Many
good changes have already been noted." He bowed and left
her.

Axa spent her time alone considering
everything that had happened to her. The past was a vague shadow in
the corner of her eye. It meant nothing to her now. She loved
Marcus Cassius and there were so many ways she could be good for
him. For that reason she'd been sent back in time; she knew it. He
had helped her to know her true self, to untie the ropes of
self-doubt in which she'd bound herself for too long. By enslaving
her, ironically, he had freed her of all that. Axa would help him
in return.

They were made for each other and had
known it from first sight.

That night, before he sent her off to
be bathed, she had told Marcus not to be long. She couldn't wait to
have him to herself. He had laughed, licked the tip of her nose and
then kissed her on the lips.

"That means,
o...kay
," he had said,
smirking proudly that he'd remembered.

Whenever he picked up her modern words
it gave her a thrill, made her giddy. Oh, she loved teaching him
things. And he would teach her plenty too she thought with another
sort of thrill tickling through her body.

As she pulled back the sheepskin to
lie down, she almost jumped out of her skin. There, on the bed lay
her phone. Amanda Adam's phone. It took her a moment to recognize
it and make sense of how it came to be there. Someone had taken it
from wherever Marcus kept it under guard, and they'd placed it
there in the bed.

Why? To cause trouble, of
course.

As she reached for it her hand
trembled.

If Marcus found Amanda's phone there
he would think she'd sneakily stolen it back. He thought it was a
weapon of some sort and therefore its reappearance here on the
night he granted her freedom could only be bad.

Was it dead? It hadn't been charged
for a while. The screen was black. She pressed the power button,
but nothing happened.

Why did she think it would turn on
anyway? This was first century Britannia. No cellphone towers. No
internet. No batteries.

Suddenly she felt confused, hot and
faint.

What the hell was this thing in her
hand? She shouldn't be touching it.

Marcus. She loved him. Her heart
ached.

Who had put this thing in his bed to
harm him? To hurt them both?

Axa was shivering. She dropped the
object and it fell to the marble tiles. The face of it lit up with
an eerie glow and it began to shriek at her. Nausea rose up in her
stomach and it seemed as if the ground was falling away beneath her
feet.

Marcus.
I love you. I will love you
forever
.

She hadn't had the chance to tell
him.

What?

Her knees hurt.

What?

She had a lecture early in the
morning. Had to get an early night. Shouldn't even be at this
party.

Marcus. Fat-headed, arrogant son of a
bitch.

Don't let me
go
.

That carpet was really filthy under
her knees. Cigarette burns and crumbs.

I do not mean to leave. I
will stay, but as a free woman. Not as a slave.

All she needed was a
tampon.

Great time to get her
period.

My virgin pet.

"Why are you so stupid?" She stepped
over the sprawling, jeering "Roman" on the stairs and looked at the
queue for the toilet.

She would love him forever.

Forever.

Someone was banging on the bathroom
door. Banging and banging and banging. It echoed through her head
until it became a roar. Like wind in a tunnel.

* * * *

When Marcus returned to his bed
chamber the girl, Axa, was gone. Not a sign of her remained, but
the sheepskin cover had been turned back, as if to welcome him into
his cold, empty bed.

He ordered a search of the villa at
once, but she was nowhere to be found.

At first he thought Gaius Damianus
might be responsible, but the governor willingly threw his house
open to be searched. He was, of course, greatly enjoying all of
this, for he had warned Marcus, had he not?

Yes. Axa had lied to him, after all.
He granted her freedom and she stabbed him in the back. She did not
want to stay with him. That was a lie.

What a fool he had become to imagine
marrying her.

One of the guards later confessed that
he had seen the woman, Julia, entering the general's bed chamber
during the feast. They had thought nothing amiss of it until later,
once they learned that the female overseer had been dismissed from
her post and should not have been in the villa at all that
night.

So Marcus concluded that somehow Julia
had aided Axa's escape. When that strange weapon was discovered
gone too it was not hard to understand why Julia had slipped into
his room and what she had left there for the other
woman.

He had been betrayed.

Flavian was the only one who refused
to believe Axa left on her own two feet.

"She told me she loved you, master,"
he muttered bewildered.

Marcus swallowed hard and shook his
head. "She had you fooled too, old man." He stared out through the
billowing drapes and up at the starlit sky. "She was a clever
story-teller."

Look at the stars tonight,
Marcus. They are so bright. I don't know if I've ever seen them
sparkle like that.

The pain took his breath away,
wrenched out his guts.

Once the liar had even spun him a tale
of being from the future, he mused bitterly. A woman that beautiful
could say anything and be forgiven. Well, it wouldn't happen to him
again. Ever.

Briefly he covered his face with both
hands and inhaled what was left of her scent.

"It matters not to me," he snapped,
terse. "I've plenty of women."

"Indeed, general."

Talons of pain and sorrow ripped into
his throat and he could not speak again. With shaking hands he
ripped those drapes down and closed the wooden shutters over his
view of the sky. There was no reason to look at it now.

Flavian discreetly backed out of the
chamber and left him alone with his shattered pride and his broken
heart.

* * * *

At the end of the summer Marcus
Cassius heard the news of Rome burning in a mysterious
fire.

That was the night he opened his
shutters again to look up at the stars.

He still didn't believe her, of
course. How could he?

But the stars twinkled down at him in
their knowing, gentle way. And he wondered.

The ache was still there and it never
lessened.

Sometimes he was too busy to think of
it and that was a blessing. Inevitably, when he was alone, the pain
returned.

Look at the stars tonight,
Marcus. They are so bright.

So bright.

He had forgotten the rest of what she
said after that, but his memory clung to those few words. All he
had left of her.

That night he stared up at the stars
until they blurred and his weary eyes grew sore.

"Good night, Axa," he whispered, his
voice hoarse. "Wherever you are, my wife."

However far away she might be, she
would feel his love for her.

These days it was the only thing
Marcus the Invincible knew was real. The one thing he never
doubted.

Chapter
Nine

"Well, you haven't missed much."
Chrissy sat at the side of the bed, morosely picking through a box
of chocolates. "Actually, your appendix explosion is the most
exciting thing that's happened lately." She poked through the cards
on the side table. "Everyone's been asking after you. I didn't
realize so many people even knew who you were. I mean, people who
aren't geeks. Nice flowers. Who sent those?"

"My sister."

"Want one?" Chrissy held out the box,
but Amanda shook her head. "They going to let you out
soon?"

"Tomorrow. Hopefully." She didn't
really feel like talking, but she couldn't sit there in silence and
if she had to have a visitor she supposed Chrissy— who usually did
most of the talking— was the best kind.

"Anyway, you certainly spiced up the
party on Friday."