Was he waiting for a signal from his mistress? Ready to beat down the drunken gladiator and add him to the dead?
Severina took my cup of wine from me and swallowed the last dregs in it. Her lack of worry about drinking it made me conclude that perhaps Ajax and Rufus hadn’t been poisoned after all, only made so drunk on potent wine they’d been unable to fight.
My hostess threw her leg over mine and slid herself onto my body. Her stola hoisted itself to her hips, but her tunic beneath shielded her bare skin from me.
She began to kiss me, then to slither back and forth on my torso, as though she knew the theory of what to do with a man but hadn’t had much practice. I realized, as Severina went on, that she was simply drunk. She’d imbibed even more wine than I had.
I clutched her as she started to slide from me, fearing she’d smack her head on the table or the floor if she fell. Severina laughed, believing me amorous.
She covered my face and my neck with honey-sticky kisses, then she laid her head on my shoulder, stilling.
The bodyguard stared from the darkness, unmoving. I tensed under my intoxication, eying the table for any knife I might use for defense. We’d eaten with fingers only, however, the food cut into bite-sized portions in the kitchen, as was done in polite households.
After a moment, Severina began to snore.
I glanced down to find her eyes tightly closed and her mouth half-open, her breathing sonorous. A minute line of spittle trickled from the corner of her lips.
Footsteps sounded in the dark doorway. The bodyguard came to attention, then stepped back, fading from sight.
Severina’s husband, Tertius Vestalis Felix, entered the dining room. He approached the tables in a slow shuffle, as though he didn’t notice his wife draped over a huge gladiator on the dining couch. A shaky hand, skin almost transparent, reached for the almonds and scooped up a few.
“Sir.” I gently untangled myself from Severina and laid her on the cushions as I rose from them.
Vestalis munched his almonds and plunked heavily down on the couch as far from Severina as possible. He peered at me in indifference.
“Never mind, boy.” His eyes sharpened as he studied me. “If you get a son on her, though, I will claim it as mine. I need an heir.”
I shot a glance at Severina, now curled up on the pillows, sleeping the sleep of the guiltless.
“I do not believe that will happen tonight,” I said.
Vestalis slid his gaze to his wife. “She reminds me of a wild animal, like a monkey one brings back from Africa as a pet. She runs about and plays then falls asleep.”
Watching Severina now and recalling how she’d behaved at her mother’s house, I considered it a very good description.
I bowed, my legs unsteady. “I will go.”
Vestalis waved a hand filled with almonds at me. “No, no. Sit down and partake. All this food shouldn’t go to waste. She’ll simply throw it out.”
When a patrician commanded me, I was obliged to obey. I sat next to him and lifted a few grapes from their basket. My belly was full, but I could have a few morsels if he insisted.
We didn’t recline, simply sat with our feet on the ground, as we would at an informal meal at a popina. Vestalis’s teeth ground the almonds to bits, the crunching sound nearly drowning out Severina’s snores.
“You’re a gladiator no longer, I hear.” Vestalis reached for the dates. “Given therudis. Felicitations on surviving the games. They are brutal. But you were a champion.”
“I fought to survive,” I said without rancor. “I was glad to leave the life behind.”
Vestalis chuckled, his face softening. “Modest too. A gladiator is the very picture ofvirtus,is he not? Strong, powerful, lauded, courageous. Everything the soft-bellied senators want to be.”
Virtus—the elusive word meaning honor, courage, fortitude. The highest achievement a Roman man could obtain was to be known for hisvirtus.
“I fought because I had no choice.”
“Of course you didn’t. But old consuls who haven’t led men in battle in these peaceful days envy those in the arena. Wouldn’t want toactuallyfind themselves there, you know.” More thin laughter.
“No, sir.”
“I found my glory in the provinces.” Vestalis ate dates with a sucking sound, then returned to almonds. He lifted a jug of wine, shook it to see if any remained, then trickled it into a spare cup.
