He collapsed back onto the couch pillows, fumbling at the table for a napkin to clean himself. His hands shook, his breathing choppy as he struggled to recover from the explosive climax. He heaved a deep breath. This arrangement with Lucretia was either the best or worst decision he had ever made. Only time would tell.
“You’re late,” Dihya said with a gleeful chuckle as Lucretia entered their office the next morning. “Sleeping in?”
Lucretia blushed. Maybe she had lingered in bed this morning, just a bit. Maybe she had closed her eyes and recalled Felix’s touch on her last night, his focused, studious attention. Maybe she had pleasured herself to the thought of what might havehappened if he hadn’t pushed her hand away at the end of their encounter…
“I’m not late.” She kept her words firm, as if strength of tone could change the reading on the water clock.
Dihya twirled a stylus between her fingers. “You can make up for it by telling meeverything.”
“I will do no such thing!” Lucretia protested. “I’ve never asked you for the intimate details of your nights with Caeso, have I?”
Dihya rolled her eyes. “Caeso and I have anormalrelationship. He’s not my greatest rival whom I’ve convinced to tumble me in exchange for a business truce.”
Lucretia groaned.
“Please,” Dihya wheedled. A significant look entered her dark eyes. “If I’m to be a boring married woman soon, I need something to sustain me.”
“Boring married—?” Lucretia’s mouth dropped open as she comprehended Dihya’s words. “Are you saying Caeso has asked you?”
Dihya jumped to her feet, her hands giving an excited, girlish flutter. “He has. Last night!”
“Oh, how wonderful!” Lucretia threw her arms around Dihya. Then she pulled back, schooling her face into an expression of mock-concern. “He knows he’s marrying you, right? Not Tadla?”
Dihya laughed, tears of happiness gleaming in the corners of her eyes. “This time, we’re quite clear on the matter.”
Lucretia waited several days before contacting Felix again. She wanted to see how Marcus was getting on with him; if the apprenticeship portion of their bargain was not making Marcus happy, then she would have to break off their arrangement.
Marcus visited Felix each day after school, not returning home until sundown. Three days in a row, he returned sweaty and exhausted, with reddened knuckles.
“Are you spending all of your time at the gymnasium?” Lucretia asked after the third day, as they shared an evening meal together. “Felix is supposed to be teaching you about trade.”
“We talk about that in between,” Marcus replied, amid ravenous bites of duck leg. “If I lose, I have to listen to him explain something. Like how the weather affects the olive harvest, or how to tell a real gemstone from glass.”
“Do you lose often?”
Marcus grimaced. “Most of the time. For now.”
“I still don’t like the thought of Felix punching you.” She now trusted that Felix would never hurt her son, but it still seemed like an unnecessarily violent pursuit.
“It’s not punching,” he said with a disdain that reminded her too much of Felix. “It’sboxing.”
Lucretia had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Marcus seemed to be enjoying himself, so she set the matter aside.
“He said one day I might be able to come with him to visit some of the ports he trades with,” Marcus continued, excitement quickening his words. “Like Athens, or Alexandria.”
“No,” Lucretia said immediately, a reflex before she’d even fully absorbed his words.
Marcus frowned. “Why not? I thought you wanted me to learn.”
Her mind flashed back to those lifeless, broken bodies on the beach. She could never countenance endangering Marcus’s life in such a way. “You can learn on land. There’s no need to take such a foolish risk.”
His frown intensified into a scowl. “Traveling by ship is faster and safer overall than by land. Just because a few people get unlucky—”
“A few people, includingyour father,” she snapped.
He flinched, then glared at her. “If Felix invites me on a voyage with him, I will go.”
“You willnot. Not without my consent.” She had little time left to use that power, as all too soon Marcus would come of age and be his own man. But for the time being, he was still her child.
