“By the gods,” the Hun said loudly, “you give us a difficult choice, my lord. Both of these women are real beauties!”
“Which do you favor?” Gabras asked him.
“I am not certain,” the net man replied. He turned to his companion. “What about you, Wulf Ironfist? Which do you prefer?”
“The one I catch,” the Saxon replied, and his eyes met Cailin’s.
Casia quickly looked to her friend. Cailin was paler than she had ever seen her. Her great violet eyes mirrored both pain and shock.Is it he?Casia mouthed silently over the laughter that greeted the Saxon’s remark, and Cailin nodded. If anyone catches Cailin, Casia thought, it must be the Saxon. She looked straight at the Hun and smiled her most seductive smile.
“Are you as good out of the ring as you are in it?” she purred suggestively. “If you are, then I shall be happy to be caught in your net.”
To Casia’s surprise, the Hun turned beet-red as his companions whooped with amusement. So he was shy. But her bold words had certainly made it plain to the others that he was her choice. None of the others would dare to come after her now, for shy though he might be, the Hun would want her. They would not confront him over a woman, she knew. She could see the puzzled way in which the Saxon was looking at Cailin. Now she must make certain of him.
“Cailin Drusus.” She said her friend’s name loudly. “Do you have a preference among these fine men? I think the Saxon would suit you admirably.”
“I think he would,” Cailin replied, having caught on to Casia’s little game.
“So you are no better than the rest of them,” Justin Gabras sneered. “Why is it that all women are born whores?” He did not see how pale the handsome gladiator had become, nor the tightening of the Saxon’s lips and the flash of anger in the Saxon’s eyes at his words.
Without waiting for an answer to his question, Justin Gabras dumped the two women from his lap. “Run into the garden and hide yourselves, my beauties. I will count to fifty, and then loose these lusty beasts on you. Go!”
The two women ran from the room, through the marble pillars, and out into the early evening twilight. When they had gone a ways together into the dimness, Casia stopped a moment and said, “Hide yourself well, Cailin, and do not come out unless you see the Saxon!” Then she was gone down a grassy path. Cailin fled to the depths of the gardens, finally climbing into the branches of a peach tree. It was unlikely that anyone would think to look for her up there.
“Fifty!”she heard Justin Gabras call out.
The gladiators began to thrash through the gardens, noisily seeking the two women. Within a few minutes she heard the rough voice of the Hun crowing triumphantly, “I’ve caught a little rabbit, lads!” and Casia’s coy shriek of false surprise. The hunt for Cailin grew more intense, but she felt safe amid the branches of the tree. She could even see some of the men below, looking under bushes, behind the fountains, and among the decorative statuary for her. They will never find me, she thought smugly, but then what? How could she escape Villa Maxima without her clothes, without a litter? Suddenly the branch upon which she was perched gave way, and Cailin fell with a cry to the grass below. Two men loomed forth from the darkness as she desperately scrambled to her feet. A bolt of pain tore through her right ankle, but she struggled to remain standing.
“Stay back!” she ordered the two men.
“Don’t be afraid, lambkin,” she heard one say, and then, “She is mine, Greek! Touch her, and I’ll kill you!”
“No woman is worth death, Wulf Ironfist,” the man called Greek said, and he faded into the darkness.
“Are you really the most exclusive whore in Byzantium, Cailin Drusus?” Wulf asked her solemnly.
“No,” she said softly, “but you had best treat me as if I were. Your host is my mortal enemy.”
“Can you walk, or is your ankle seriously injured?”
“I twisted it when I fell from the tree,” she answered, “but it is not broken. Nonetheless, you will have to carry me, and I will struggle to escape you. Justin Gabras would think it odd if I did not.”
“Why?” he demanded.
“We will talk when we have found a private spot. Now quickly! Pick me up before someone else comes along and wonders why we are not already engaged in passion’s battle.”
He came to stand directly in front of her and reached out to touch her face. “Antonia said you were dead, and our child, too.”
“I suspected she might have told you that,” Cailin answered.
“I want to know what happened,” he said.
“Wulf!Please!” she pleaded with him. “Not now! Gabras will soon come after us. He is a terrible and dangerous man.”
There were so many questions swirling about in Wulf’s head. How was it she was alive? And here in Byzantium? But he saw the genuine look of fear in her eyes. Reaching out, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She immediately began to beat at him with her little fists as he carried her through the garden and back to where the others waited.
“Put me down! Put me down, you great brute!” Cailin shrieked. The blood was going to her head and making her dizzy.
“So, our other little rabbit has been caught at last,” she heard Gabras say, and then he came into her line of vision. “You have given us all quite a chase, my dear. Where was she?”
