Page 44 of Enslaved
“What sort of interest?”
“A fervent interest, filled with detail. He wants you in robes that will bring him pleasure, garments that will enhance your delicate beauty.”
Diana wanted to curse. Always, someone had chosen her clothes for her. Had she escaped from Prudence only to find she still had no choice in what she wore? She was about to protest, vehemently, when she remembered that she was his slave. He could dress her any way he chose!
Diana made a token protest. “I know best what colors suit me.”
“Marcus is more interested in style and texture. He desires only the costliest materials for you. There will be much leeway for you to select things that please you too.”
“Will I be fitted here in the villa?”
“Yes, but we shall buy outside as well. A profusion of shops spreads itself along the streets of Aquae Sulis. Merchandise spills out onto the colonnaded walkways. Shopping is one of life’s pleasures for a female. There are perfumers, jewelers, goldsmiths, floras, cookshops, ornatrices—”
“Ornatrices?”
“They fashion and arrange the hair,” Nola explained.
“One of the female slaves has been dressing my hair. She is most talented.”
“That is Sylla. You may take her for your personal slave to do your hair and makeup.” When Nola saw Diana hesitate, she said, “It will elevate her to a higher status in the household, and if you choose her to serve you, it would please her so much.”
“Then I would love to have her,” Diana said, accepting her first slave.
“Have your bath, then you can be fitted for some new stolae and robes.”
On her way to the bathing suite, Diana sought out Kell. Before she told him she wished to watch Marcus instruct the men at the river, he said to her, “The general left orders for me to take you to him after lunch.”
“I will obey,” she said softly. Diana was delighted that Marcus had remembered her request. He must have wanted it too, or he would have forgotten it. It would be a thrill to be taken to him before all the legionaries under his command. It showed how much he valued her, and how much he wished to show her off. It also showed that he needed to see her at some point in his day and that night was too long a time to wait.
She must wear something to make her beautiful. Something that would heighten his desire for her!
After her bath, Nola took her into the solarium. She had never been in this chamber before, but it was as lovely as all the rest of the villa. One entire wall from floor to ceiling was windows. On impulse she asked Nola, “How is the glass made?”
“It is made by casting in flat molds. It is one of the many Roman skills that they have taught the Britons.”
The decorative floor was spectacular. It depicted a life-size Bengal tigress lying amid tall grasses. It was made from pieces of brilliant orange, black, and green marble. The couches in the room were covered with fine linen, interwoven with gold thread and dyed to pick up the colors in the floor.
Two merchants awaited them and each had female slaves to assist them because their customer was female. They had brought their wares in large trunks made of basketweave so they would be light to transport. The first was a cloth merchant, the second a jeweler.
One by one the baskets were opened and the lengths of cloth within were displayed before her. Every color, every texture, every material, some from as far away as Egypt and China, were spread about the couches. As Diana caressed the silks and stroked the fine wool, Nola ordered the garments Marcus had requested.
“I need something to wear when I go out today. Can it be made in time?”
“Of course,” Nola replied. “The toga is simply a length of material, draped in various ways and fastened with a brooch. A mantle, even a hooded one, takes little more than draping and fastening. A simple stola and matching palla can be sewn in minutes by an experienced cloth slave.”
“I would love a scarlet mantle like Marcus wears,” Diana decided. “This white silk would make a lovely classical toga. A garment we imagine a goddess would wear,” Diana said wistfully, rubbing the heavy silk between her thumb and forefinger. She drew in her breath as the lid of another basket was lifted to reveal lustrous material in a shade she could not begin to describe. “What color is this?”
“It is ultramarine. The vivid blue pigment comes from powdered lapis lazuli.”
“May I have a stola made of this?” she asked Nola.
“Of course you may. The cloth merchant has recorded everything you have ordered.”
“Ah Nola, look at this. The design is copied from the skin of a tigress, but it is as fine as a spider’s web.” She draped the transparent material across the marble floor and seemingly it disappeared.
“Exotic animal prints are the very latest fashion. There is much demand for them in Rome,” the merchant told them proudly.
From the jeweler, Nola and Diana selected brooches, clasps, hair ornaments, and a wide golden girdle to define the waist and emphasize the breasts. When she admired a pair of amulets fashioned after snakes with ruby eyes, Nola nodded to the jeweler. Then he opened a cypress box holding things Diana had never before seen. There was a set of rings attached by fine chains to matching bracelets. There were anklets, some with bells, and finally there were toe rings set with jewels. To Diana the jewelry was so exotic it seemed decadent and she absolutely lusted for all of it.
