Slave Girl 2: Chapter 28

It is only when I am out on the main road that I realize the trouble I might have left behind me.  For reasons that sounded right to my head but wrong to my heart Rosa wanted me to get married and I had just left her alone with a woman whose grandma practically offered me her hand in marriage within minutes of meeting her.  Like me Cassie was in her prime as a marriageable prospect and in the country single men and women of our age did not remain that way for long.  Out here where the real work of the empire got done we commoners hadn’t the time for the protracted courtship written about by poets and playwrights nor the luxury of years to wait for the May-September pairings of the nobility.  Simply by Cassie being Cassie and me being me there would already be forces in play to assess our suitability.  It is with this realization that it also hits me that Cassie’s father requesting to meet me was about far more than simply needing an extra hand for the harvest.

My jog slows to a walk as I look back over my shoulder.  

“Gods damn it.”  I mutter, feeling as if I had just walked blithely into a trap that literally everybody involved but myself knew was there.  They didn’t just know it was there, they set the damn thing!  I pause and wonder if I ought to go back and nip this whole silly thing in the bud.  The very thought of having a woman at my side that wasn’t Rosa or my mother made my insides queasy.  Cassie seemed a fine lady, just not my Lady.  After a moment though I put that thought to rest.  I wanted this work, I needed this work, and we sure could use some friends in the area.  It’s not like anybody could force me to marry.  Not even my Lady could command me to do that.

Stopping at the marker that separated my dense forest from the neighboring grain field I look down from the rise over the land that I had initially mistaken for my own when Rosa and I first arrived.  In the distance the bright white villa and out buildings with their red roofs hadn’t the quiet grandeur of my estate but it was hardly a gathering of hovels either.  Seeing the people, like ants, bustle this way and that I could appreciate that this was a busy and successful working farm.  Ungrateful as it was I couldn’t help but harbor just a bit of jealousy for my neighbor’s land.  After just a few days with my own place there was also some humility as well.  I was nowhere near ready to run an outfit like that.  But still, how vastly different my life could have been had uncle Paullus left me this lot instead.

Straightening my tunic I set off at a brisk stride.

Eyes are drawn from the stead and heads are turned from the fields around the moment I turn from the road onto the well worn cart trail leading from the villa.  I could see a a dozen people in total.  Three of them were women, three of them slaves, and the rest working class freemen.  A distinct family resemblance ran through at least half of them.  The main villa sat facing the trail directly while a large barn and storage building sat to the left and a smaller house with attached worker’s quarters to the right.  Other smaller shacks were dotted about these main structures.  I could just glimpse a long garden of herbs and vegetables to one side of the main villa.  Once beyond the straight borders of the surrounding wheat fields the central area is a dusty hard packed expanse.

The sounds of voices and laughter, the clack of wood, the clink of metal.  The smell of dust and dung and hay and herbs.  The sight of weather worn smiles and hard tanned men.  All of it took me back to my childhood.

A stout man, his shoulders half as wide as he was tall, is the first to approach me.  “Lookin for work stranger?”

Before I could even answer I hear a voice I’d heard before come from the house.  “Quin.”  Cas, the middle of the Cassia’s, calls to me from an open window.  Wiping her hands on her apron she beckons me forward.  “Come in, come in.”

“Ah, so this is Quin.”  The man shakes my hand with a hard grip and an equally hard look up and down.  I return a grip to equal his.  There is a moment, an awkward moment that I knew only too well as the large man that I was, where the smaller man assesses whether he might best me or not.  “Welcome.”

“Thanks.”

After a few seconds too long the shake finally breaks and I make my way toward the house.  By the time I get there Cas was at the front door.  “Come on in young man.”  She says.  “Lucas.  Tell your father that Quin’s arrived.”

“You got it Ma.”  Then he exclaims.  “HEY!  This guy’s armed!”

Instantly every eye that had since wandered snaps back to focus on me.  For a second I’m confused before realizing that in my haste to get here I’d forgotten my father’s dagger tucked into the back of my belt.  Reaching back I pull it from my belt, scabbard and all.

“Gods, Cas.  I forgot I was wearing it.”

“It’s okay.”  She laughs.

“No it isn’t.”  Says Lucas approaching me.  “Hand it over.”

I shield the pugio and glare at the oncoming Lucas.  After yesterday I was in no mood for anybody grabbing at my stuff.

“Lucas…”  Cas says.

“That’s a soldier’s weapon.  Where’d you get it, huh?  Stole it off a body probably.”

“Lucas!”  Cas snaps with a mother’s anger.  “Go get your father.”

“Men aren’t allowed to wear weapons into the house.”  He grumbles.

“And he respects that.”  Cas says as she opens her hand toward me.  “Isn’t that right Quin?”

With another scowl toward Lucas I hand the dagger to Cas.  “It was an honest mistake.”

“I believe you.”  She says.  Once Lucas begrudgingly wanders off she rolls her eyes.  “Too much of his grandma in him.”

Cas welcomes me into her home.  As we walk through the atrium to the tablinum I thank her profusely for the welcoming gift and in normal country fashion she assures me that it was ‘no trouble at all’.  The walls of the small farm office were lined with shelves of stacked sheets of papyrus and rolled up scrolls.  Unfurled on a table at the opposite side was a map of the property along with little notes pinned to it here and there.  Cas leaves my dagger in plain sight on the table and asks that I sit down.  I am left to wait only a few moments before Cas returns with a tray upon which was a pitcher of spicy cider along with a couple of clay mugs.  She is still pouring them out when a balding man around her age joins us.  He wasn’t tall and had the same solid build as Lucas.  He hugs his wife from behind and kisses her cheek before coming to address me.

I get to my feet and offer my hand.  “Master Horatius.”

“Master Quintus.”  We grab each others forearms and shake as equals.

“I was just admiring your library.”  I say as an icebreaker.  “A fine collection.”

“Mmm.”  He looks to the shelves.  “You can read then?”

“Yes Sir.”

Cas excuses herself to leave us alone.  After a few cordial comments and welcomes the pater familias cuts right to what was on his mind.

“How’d a man your age come by the old palace?”

“Inherited from my uncle.  It was a surprise to everybody.  Me most of all.”

“Your uncle was a wild one.”

“So I hear.”  I say.  “I never met the man.  He and I couldn’t be more different from what I am hearing.  Things will be quieter with me there.”

“Mmm.  Heard you got into a bit o’ trouble in town.”  He says as he walks to the map and picks up my dagger to study it.  “Got yourself locked up in the clink.”

“Yes Sir.”  I sigh.  “I was…ignorant of the local situation.  I know better now.”

He nods, surprisingly understanding of the arrest.  “I heard who pulled ya in.  No shame in it.”  He says.  “Also heard you made light work of some real hard men.”

“They were just a couple of bullies.”

“They’re trouble is what they are.”  He says.  “You like stirring trouble?”

“No Sir.  Avoid it whenever I can.”  I say.  “But I won’t be disrespected either.”

He turns to me.  Setting down his mug he takes the scabbard in one hand and unsheathes the blade with the other.  “You’re too young to be done your service.  You a deserter?  A thief?”

“No Sir.”  I say.  “That was my father’s.”

“He was a soldier?”

“Yes Sir.  He gave his life for the Empire when I was twelve.  That’s all I got left of him.”

He looks to me then back at the gleaming steel.  He gives a slow nod then sheathes it again and hands it over.  “It’s a fine blade.”

“He was a fine man.”  I gratefully take it back and tuck it into my belt.  “He taught me how to hold and look after a weapon.  He taught me a lot of things.”  I then add more solemnly.  “When I got to see him.”

“Mmm.”  He nods.  “So you’re a fighter.”

“No Sir, I’m a farmer.”  I say.  “A Ceres man through and through.  That’s why I’m here.  Cassie told me that you had some work that needs doing.”

“Aye.”  He motions to the seat I’d gotten up from.  “Sit.”  I take my seat and enjoy a pull of the delicious pear cider.  The sharp spices far were more intense than what I was used to but I liked it.  Horatius pulls a stool from under the table and drags it closer.  He sits down, his keen brown eyes taking my measure.  “I’ll only need ya for the harvest.”

“That’s fine by me.”  I say.  “I got plenty to keep me busy at my place.  The old house is near falling down on our heads to say nothing of the grounds.”

We continue to chat, Horatius asking the same questions that his daughter had along with a few more.  He accepts my answers at face value as I do his.  He runs down what is expected of me and I assure him that I would be up to the task.  From just beyond the open door Cas adds in that Rosa was free to come help around the house while I was working.  Horatius chuckles and shakes his head at his nosy wife as I tell her that I very much appreciated the offer.  A wage is agreed upon and with another shake the deal was done.

“I hear it’s just you and that slave over there.”

“Yes Sir.”  I say.

“No family?”

“I’m an only child.”  I say.  “And we couldn’t spare any cousins.”

“You didn’t have a wife back home?”

“No Sir, it was just me.  Never been wed.”

“This Rosa, she’s a blind demon.”

“Yes.”  I say.

“Can’t be a lot of help.”

“She helps.  More than I can say.”  I say.  “And she is…a very good friend.”

“You close then?”

“Yes.”

He raises a brow.  “Close as family?”

I hesitate…then nod.  “Yes Sir.  Close as family.”

His hard features soften with a look of respect.  “That’s good.  That’s good.”  He drinks.  “A man needs a family, even if it ain’t kin.  Even if it’s just one good woman.  A man without faith, courage, and family is a man without a purpose.  And that’s a dangerous thing.”  He finishes his mug in one long chug then wipes his mouth.  “By where I’m sittin I’d say you got all three.”

“Thank you Sir.”

He slaps my knee.  “Your Ma and Pa raised ya right Quintus.”

“I like to think so.”

He gets up and waves me to remain seated.  “Finish yer drink young fella.  I gotta get to work though.”  He says.  “I leave things to Lucas too long and my worker ants soon turn into grasshoppers.”

I stand and shake his hand one last time and say with honesty.  “It was good to meet you Sir.”

“I’ll see you again in two days.”  He says.  “Bright and early.”

“I’ll be here.” I continue shaking his hand.  “Thank you for the opportunity Sir.  Thank you!  I very much appreciate it.”

He claps my shoulder.  “And I thank Ceres you showed up when you did.  With another experienced hand we might just get this thing done.”

“I won’t let ya down.”

Chapter 29