Page 86 of Enslaved
Diana spent the morning in the garden learning how to make a bridal wreath of flowers and verbena, then she had a delicious lunch in the pool. On her way to the library to read to Titus, Tor stopped her to plead for a respite from his unexpected duties. “Lady Diana, please find duties for Livi and the other girls. They won’t leave me alone.”
“You look exhausted. Didn’t you get any sleep last night?”
Tor shook his head. “When you are in the library with the general’s father, I am at their mercy.”
“There is an office next door to the library. I’ll inform them you must write some letters for me.”
“Lady, I cannot read and write,” he said miserably.
“They don’t know that,” she pointed out.
Diana summoned Livi, who was idling behind the pillars, waiting for her to enter the library. “I need Tor to handle some correspondence for me this afternoon. Take your girls upstairs and tidy my chambers.” She winked at Tor. “Rest while the opportunity presents itself.”
Diana found Titus in a talkative mood, full of reminiscences of his own marriage, the birth of his firstborn, and what Marcus was like as a boy. Diana could have listened to him praise Marcus forever, and hoped she would be able to give her husband a child in his own image.
She poured Titus a glass of Setinian and sat down on a stool beside his couch. She was wearing a deep magenta-colored gown that made her eyes a darker shade of amethyst and contrasted so beautifully with her pale gold hair. Titus was admiring her over the rim of his glass. Suddenly, his throat burned like fire. He clawed at it and the glass fell from his fingers.
Diana’s eyes widened in horror as she watched the wine stain his snow white toga and heard the hideous gurgles that came from his throat. She felt paralyzed. She knew he needed immediate assistance, yet she knew also it was too late. She tried to cry out, but it was a silent cry she emitted. She stumbled toward the door to summon Lucas, but it was Petrius who strode into the library with an accusation already on his lips.
“You have poisoned my father!”
“Nay!” she gasped, turning back to Titus, who lay still upon his couch, a grotesque grimace of pain frozen on his face.
Petrius drew his dagger and advanced toward her.
“Tor!” Diana screamed. He burst through the door immediately, his hand upon the hilt of his sword, but before he could even draw it from its sheath, Petrius plunged his long dagger into Tor’s belly and ripped it open.
Diana screamed again as she watched the nightmare unfold before her eyes. As Tor writhed on the mosaic tiles, desperately trying to prevent his intestines from spilling out onto the floor, Petrius knelt and slit the boy’s throat.
Lucas and a dozen household slaves crowded in at the door. Petrius turned to them with cold deliberation. “She poisoned my father! Her slave tried to kill me.”
“No!” Diana sobbed. “He did it!”
Lucas knew that Marcus’ bride and Titus loved each other. “Nay, she would never harm him!” Lucas protested.
Petrius was unbelievably calm. With unnerving calculation, he said, “If she did not poison the wine, it must have been one of the slaves. You know what happens when a slave murders his master … the entire household is put to death.”
Lucas stepped back in horror. Only last month a household of two hundred were crucified for murdering their cruel master.
“Lucas, send immediately for thePraefectus Vigilum.I will secure her in the strongroom until he arrives,”
Diana was grieving for Marcus. He would be devastated over his father’s death. Petrius grabbed her by the hair. He brandished the knife still dripping Tor’s blood.
“When my brother learns what you have done, it will break his heart.” Petrius smiled.
“Marcus would not believe such unspeakable evil of me.” Tears of pain and distress streamed down her cheeks. He dragged her to the cellars where the strongroom was located. It had a heavy door, barred windows, and a set of stocks and manacles for locking up disobedient slaves.
He forced her to her knees and manacled her wrists to the floor. Then he took her chin in his hand, compelling her to look at him.
“You were too fine to spread yourself for me. You and Marcus conspire to rob me of my father’s land and wealth, but I shall get it all, and you, my beautiful bitch, will get your just deserts.”
When he locked the door, fear almost suffocated her. She knew now that he must be insane. He had poisoned his own father for gain and planned it so she would be blamed. When she thought of Tor, lying dead because he had run to her aid, her burden of guilt doubled.
She tried to swallow her fear and think rationally. Marcus would have to be informed of his father’s death. Of course Petrius would fill his brother’s ears with his filthy lies, but Marcus would know she was innocent of murder. Diana could not rid her nostrils of the metallic smell of blood. A sob escaped her lips. Marcus would come. Marcus would protect her, from the entire world if necessary. Hadn’t she told Titus that Marcus was all the protection she would ever need?
Chapter 27
Diana couldn’t stop trembling. Her throat was raw from screaming her innocence, her head throbbed from Petrius’ vicious hair-pulling, and her hopes of being delivered from her nightmare were fading away.
