Page 74 of Enslaved
She ignored the taunt. “I will go to her; you go to him.”
Kell nodded. When he tapped on the chamber door it was thrown open with such violence, Kell stepped back in alarm. Marcus, still fully dressed in a purple-bordered toga, ran a distracted hand through his short curls with impotent fury. “I offered her her freedom and she threw it in my face. By the bloody balls of Mithras, what is wrong with women?”
“It is my fault, General. I knew she needed a beating from the first day she arrived, but I left her chastisement to you. I was too much of a coward to mar her beauty.”
“Sheisexceptionally beautiful, isn’t she?” Marcus asked wistfully.
“Yes, she is. But between us we have created a monster, for now she is willful and spoiled as well as beautiful.”
“What do you suggest I do? Put her back to scrubbing floors?”
“She would relish the punishment so she could throw that too in your face. My advice is to shun her. Neither look at her nor speak to her. Her vanity will not allow such a thing to continue and she will be instantly contrite.”
Marcus paced about the chamber, grim-faced. “Gather her things and take them to her.”
In the apricot chamber Diana catalogued her grievances to Nola. “He thinks me a spy sent by the Druids to seduce him. He refuses to believe I am a Christian. He refuses to believe anything I’ve told him. If he loved me, he would believe me!”
“What did the procurator want?” Nola asked.
“He wants Marcus to go to Rome. Well, good riddance. If he has to do without me, he might come to appreciate me.”
Nola was startled at the news. Had Kell been keeping this visit to Rome secret? “Keep to your own chamber. If you shun him, he will soon be contrite.”
Kell scratched on the door before he entered Diana’s room.
“Thank you for sharing the news that the general is returning to Rome,” Nola said with sarcasm.
Kell’s mask was in place, so the shock of the news did not register on his face. He put Diana’s gowns and hair ornaments on the bed. “The general forbids you his sleeping chamber. He asked me to return your things.”
Diana was outraged. “What the hell is the matter with men?”
Nola explained sweetly. “When they are young, their brains are too soft and their cocks are too hard. When they reach Kell’s age, they suffer from hardening of the brain and softening of the cock.”
“Woman of Gaul, you are enough to induce limpness in any man, regardless of his age.”
“That depends on how I wield my tongue,” Nola said suggestively.
“Your tongue is so sharp, it would draw blood.”
“Briton, my tongue could drain you dry,” Nola retorted, refusing to let him have the last word.
Diana lost her patience with both of them. “I thought this was about my problem, but obviously it is about yours. The pair of you need to go someplace private where you can work off your sexual energy.”
Nola and Kell stared at each other in horrified silence as the truth was brought home to them. Kell bowed stiffly and withdrew. Nola threw her a quelling glance of accusation and followed him.
For the next two hours Marcus paced about his chamber. The pendulum of his emotions swung all the way from self-righteous outrage to self-blame. He had botched it plain and simple. He should have taken a firm hand with her long ago. He should never have agreed to let her say whatever she wished when they were private. The first time she was insolent to him he should have put her across his knee and made certain it was the last time she dared challenge him!
The pronouncement she had flung in his teeth galled him like a burr on his backside.I shall never come to Rome with you!The echo of her taunt lingered in his ears. By the splendor of Jupiter, Kell was right. She needed a beating. She had asked for it and she was going to get it. He was in the right bloody mood to slake his temper!
Marcus selected a short leather flagellum from among his weapons, then hesitated. If he went to her in a roiling rage, he would damage her. She was so delicate and finely boned that he might kill her if he struck her. He reflected for a moment. Where in the worldhadDiana come from? She was so different, he was almost ready to believe shewasfrom another time. Did he love her enough to believe in the impossible and accept what she told him? For his sake as well as hers, he realized he had no choice. The only way there could he truth between them was if he acceptedhertruth.
To vent his blood’s heat and achieve a measure of calm, Marcus went to his desk and opened maps to plot his journey. They would likely sail from the closest port of Silarum on the Sabrina Aestuary into the Oceanus Britannicus, then into the Oceanus Cantabrius, past Gaul and Hispanic. Then they would pass through the narrow strait by the towering rock into the vast Mare Internum and thus to Roma.
It would be good to see his father again. Though Titus Magnus was of noble ancestry, he was not above making money through trade. His olive groves alone brought him vast wealth. His father had always been a shrewd businessman as well as a total authoritarian. Marcus grimaced. He had had discipline knocked into him at an early age, but it had served him well in his military career.
Marcus wanted his father to meet his beautiful bride. Though it was no longer necessary to Marcus to have bis father’s approval, it would be pleasant to have his blessing. Marcus stood up and stretched, then he let his glance travel about the chamber, seeking a way to make it more inviting. He turned down the fur covers on the bed and slipped a small ivory box beneath Diana’s pillow.
He was tired of waiting for her to return. He considered himself a patient man, but his patience was not endless. This was ridiculous! He could feel the small measure of calm he had achieved desert him. Marcus cursed under his breath and strode to the door. He would wait no longer!
