Page 26 of Enslaved
Her fair skin was unblemished, her body more beautiful than any goddess. She cowered upon a slatted wooden bench with excessive misplaced modesty. His body quickened in response to the loveliness before him. Beside the other women, the comparison was so marked he could hardly believe his eyes. She was like fine Italian glass set among thick stone jars.
“By the gods!” he murmured huskily. “Have her bathed and sent to my couch.” Then he strode from the villa to his own private bathing pool at the end of the garden.
Diana stared at Kell with loathing.
“You are indeed fortunate. The master liked what was hidden beneath your rags. Your body has saved your life— at least for the present.” Kell was greatly surprised that Marcus showed such a marked interest in a woman. The general did not normally waste his time with the opposite sex. He was a stern military man with little time for women. He visited a prostitute or used a slave a couple of times a week, but had never shown a preference for any female slave in particular, though everyone in the household was eager for his attention.
“Please give me something to cover myself.”
“Romans find no shame in the naked body. In fact they display it every chance they get,” Kell said somewhat dryly.
“I am not a Roman,” Diana said, using her hair to cover her bared breasts.
Kell said to one of the women, “Summon a bath slave, better send two; the female is capricious.”
Two girls entered the room almost as soon as the serving woman had departed. They were young and muscular, their hair shorn close to their heads. They wore short white tunics and sandals.
“Bathe the new slave, then return her to me. I will select a stola for her.”
Diana’s head went up proudly. “I am no slave!” she said defiantly.
Kell sighed. He approached the wooden bench and spoke quietly, summoning infinite patience. “You need a good flogging. My instincts tell me that if I give you one now, at the outset, I will save myself much trouble. The master, however, will enjoy your body more if it is un-marred by my flagellum.”
Diana gasped. “You must be mad!”
Kell continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Life will be infinitely simpler for both of us if you and I reach an understanding. Your speech and your manner tell me you are a highly intelligent female. My position in this household is secure because my word is law. My word is law because I mete out discipline to everyone beneath me. This household runs as smoothly as warm honey, therefore it is a happy household. That is exactly the way the general wants it, and what the general wants, I want. Ergo, what I want, you should want. Am I making myself clear to you?”
Diana answered him in the same tone he used. “Perfectly clear. I find no fault with your logic, but I abhor your gutlessness and your lack of moral fiber!”
His eyes glittered dangerously. “Proceed.” His tone clearly told her that if she proceeded, she did so at her own risk.
“I am naked. I refuse to bandy further words with you.”
Kell knew exactly what she meant. He was the slave driver of his own people at the bidding of a Roman. Her ideals were most lofty and noble only because she had never experienced slavery. He was interested to see how long her principles would stand up after she’d had a taste of it. He wouldn’t have to wait long.
“I hoped we could reach an understanding, but all we have reached is an impasse. So be it.” He motioned for the bath slaves to take her.
They did not go in the same direction the general had taken, so she assumed there was more than one bathing area. They took her through a door covered by a heavy canvas curtain. Diana felt a great relief that there were no longer male eyes upon her.
The room, not overly large, was tiled in spotless white; the square sunken bathing pools in turquoise. Steam rose in vaporous clouds from the larger pool. The steaming water looked most inviting to Diana.
“I shall bathe myself,” she said imperiously, going down the steps into the water.
The bath slaves exchanged a look but made no protest. One of them poured something into the water from a beautifully shaped flacon. Clouds of scented steam rose up to fill Diana’s senses. “What is that?” she asked.
“It is frankincense, an aromatic,” came the reply.
The warm water felt heavenly. Diana closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the turquoise tiles. She breathed deeply and it seemed to Diana that the worries and fears that had threatened to overwhelm her began to melt away along with her tension. Suddenly she heard people in the water with her.
Her eyes flew open and she was gripped by fear as she saw a bath slave on either side of her, each holding a dangerous-looking weapon in her hand.
When she cried out, the girls tried to still her fears. “It is only a strigil,” one said, holding it on the palm of her hand.
“A strigil?”
When the girl saw she was puzzled, she explained, “It is a scraping tool to cleanse the skin. It won’t hurt. Come.”
Diana felt too tired to protest. She left the water and lay down on a marble surface as they indicated she should. It sounded like an unpleasant experience to have your skin scraped, but Diana realized she would encounter a myriad of strange customs in this villa and in Aquae Sulis. The quicker she could adapt to new and untried things, the easier it would be for her.
