Page 34 of Enslaved
After a moment’s reflection, Diana reluctantly used the cold water, then donned the ugly garment. A young boy of perhaps eleven or twelve brought in a small loaf of bread and a cup of drinking water. Diana almost flung the offering at the wall, but a small voice inside her told her it might be all the food she would see that day.
The youth was on the thin side and had obviously not yet reached puberty. His dark eyes seemed far too large for his small face. “You must hurry,” he urged.
“I shall do just the opposite,” Diana informed him.
His thin shoulders sagged.
“If you do not hurry, Sim will be flogged,” the female slave told her.
Diana’s anger flared. “Take me to Kell!” she ordered.
The trio made their way to the first-floor kitchens, then into a rear kitchen with a huge hearth, big black ovens, and an enormous cistern with steaming water. When Kell saw her coming, he ordered a slave to fill a bucket with hot water. “You are late. You may start with the bathing rooms. First you scrub the tile with the lye soap, then you rinse thoroughly, and wipe dry with a chamois cloth.”
“And if I refuse?” Diana demanded.
“Let me introduce you to Sim. He is to be your whipping boy.”
For a moment she thought Kell had given the boy permission to whip her if she did not obey, then the terrible truth dawned upon her. If she did not do exactly as she was told, the boy would be flogged instead of her!
Her eyes flew to Sim, to his thin shoulders and large, sad eyes. “That is monstrous!” In an accusing tone she demanded, “Is he a Briton?”
Kell raised his eyebrows. “Do you suppose they let me flog Romans?” he asked dryly.
Diana took the wooden bowl of lye soap and bucket of steaming water and took them through to the rooms where she had bathed last evening.
When Kell was sure she was out of earshot, he winked at Sim and said, “You evoke pathos so well. Go to the kitchen and get your reward.”
“That was a devious trick,” a woman’s voice accused.
“Mind your own business,” Kell said coldly.
“What happens in the general’s household is my business,” replied Nola, a freedwoman the general had brought with him from Gaul while she was still a slave. These two were ever at odds regarding the running of the household. When Kell had first arrived, Nola was in charge, but once Marcus had freed her for good service, Kell had been appointed to her post. He had authority over everyone in the household, save Nola, and womanlike, she delighted in her ascendency over a male.
“You are only happy when you are poking your nose into men’s affairs. Women, whether they are slaves or not, should be seen and not heard!”
Nola laughed in his face. “Are we such a threat to you, Briton? If I were you, I would treat the new female with a little more respect. Once she gains favor with Marcus, she could make your life a living hell.”
“You already do that, woman of Gaul!”
“Really?” Nola drawled. “I had no idea my barbs pierced your thick hide. Be so good as to have my breakfast sent up to my chamber.”
Diana worked off her fury scrubbing the tiles, then as her anger began to dissipate and she moved on to the floors of other chambers, the beauty of the mosaics caught her imagination. She took pride in her work, making the vibrant colors spring back to life, rinsing off the lye soap until they were spotless, then polishing them with the chamois cloth until they gleamed.
After she had completed six floors, however, her scraped knees hurt, her back ached, and her hands were puffy and stinging. With dogged determination she traipsed back to the outer kitchen to change the cleaning water, then made her way to the atrium, which was in actuality the magnificent entrance hall to the villa. She had never been in this chamber before because she had been brought to a back entrance when she first arrived.
It had rained in the night, but now the sunshine flooded through the glass skylights, making rainbows dance about the splashing fountain. Brilliant flowers spilled from huge terra-cotta pots around the oval room. A fresco of birds, from waterfowl to brilliantly plumed exotic varieties, adorned the pale green wall. With a sigh of appreciation for its beauty, she washed the floor, making the entire chamber sparkle like a jewel.
Suddenly, two great mastiffs came lunging through the front door. They were so big and ferocious, Diana screamed. Her fear quickly turned to anger when she saw that their huge paws were covered with black mud, which they were tracking all over her freshly scrubbed tile.
“Romulus, Remus—heel!” a deep voice thundered. The pair of mastiffs rushed to the side of Marcus Magnus, panting with adoration for their master. Diana sat back on her heels with utter disbelief. All her painstaking work was undone in seconds!
The general’s black eyes swept over her without interest, as if there were nothing to distinguish her from any other female slave in his household. Last night he had looked at her as if she were a prize to die for. Then, later, when he had come to her sleeping chamber, even though he had done an obscene thing to her, his hands had handled her as if she were a piece of priceless porcelain. Now, he looked through her as if she didn’t exist!
Diana wanted to fling her bucket of dirty water around the delicately painted walls. She had the urge to kick his dogs and hold the Roman’s head beneath the water of the fountain until he gurgled his last breath. What she did was sink back on her haunches and clench her fists in impotence, as her eyes slowly filled with tears. When he swept back out with a map in his hand, he did not spare her a glance.
Kell was right. She was an utter fool. He had told her that last night she would have been able to seduce the Roman with the flutter of an eyelash. Because of pride she had let her opportunity slip through her fingers and now Marcus Magnus was completely indifferent to her. She would be scrubbing floors for the rest of her life!
She dashed the tears from her eyes and set to work cleaning up the mud that the ugly beasts had tracked all over the atrium. With each pawprint she obliterated, she became obsessed with the need to get back at the arrogant Roman who thought he ruled the world.
