A Stray Drop of Blood (45 page)

She moved slowly through the house, knowing it would be a few minutes before Titus arrived. As she went, she looked at every piece of furniture she passed, making sure all was clean and perfect. She was not disappointed. She arrived in the front room just in time to hear the commotion that preceded the opening of the massive door.

Her calm fled when her son’s form filled the entrance. She flew to embrace him. “My son!”

“
Mother. I have missed you.” He held her close, then drew back enough to look at her, his smile genuine. “You are a vision of loveliness.”

Aquilia smiled at the compliment, but then another figure caught her eye. A woman. Her smile fell from her lips. “Who is that?”

Titus turned to include the woman, giving Aquilia a clearer view of her. She lifted her chin. Had she expected her son’s habits to change while he was away? Obviously they had not. He cleared his throat. “Mother, this is Jason’s widow, Abigail, and their son Benjamin.”

Not what she assumed, but no better. Aquilia did not return Abigail’s smile, and she did not reach out to make any greeting. She just shifted her words to Latin. “This is the Hebrew slave that ruined your friend? Why did you bring her here?”

Titus glanced at the girl, though her face revealed no emotion. “She needed to come to claim the estates for her son. I told her she could stay here until the matter is settled.”

Her mouth fell open. “Have you lost your senses, Titus? Are there not enough women in my house for you and your father to entertain yourselves with? Must you bring in another to tempt him into shame?”

Titus’s face turned instantly into the granite creation Aquilia saw more often than not. “She is Jason’s widow, Mother.”

Aquilia sliced a hand through the air. “She is a slave. And while your father respected your friend, you know well he will not consider a claim on such a creature now that he is dead!”

Her son rolled back his shoulders into the fighting stance she knew all too well. “Mother–”

“
If my presence here is going to cause problems, I will simply stay elsewhere.” The words startled Aquilia not just because the girl dared to interject herself into the conversation, but because she did so in Latin. She even smiled. “I am certain there is either an inn nearby, or the steward of the Visibullis estates would consent to me staying there.”

“
No.” Titus folded his arms across his chest. “You will not stay in a public house with no guard, nor will you throw yourself on your servant’s mercy. We will claim Benjamin’s inheritance through the legal channels, and when you go to his estates, it will be as mistress, not beggar.”

The girl looked at him with amusement. Amusment! In the face of her son’s determination? Had Aquilia not seen the stone of his countenance, she would have though he had softened while in Israel. Perhaps this slave was just too stupid to know when not to argue.

“
Titus, I will not allow you to be generous at the cost of your home’s peace.”

His eyes gained an ironic glint. “There is no peace in this home, and there never was. You will cause no more trouble than would find us anyway. My father may be lecherous, but he is not the worst of the men I know. You would not be safe in the city unescorted.”

“
She will not be safe here, either.” Aquilia threw her shoulders back. Her son respected the woman, it was clear. Which meant that unless she wanted to antagonize him his first hour home, she had better aid his efforts to protect her. “Not as an independent woman. You must let your father think she is yours, Titus, it is the only option.”

Titus did not look shocked by the suggestion, but he did not look convinced by it either. “She is Jason’s widow.”

Aquilia sighed. “And since when does that affect your desires? Was not Aria Flavius’s betrothed? Was not Cornelia Lusius’s sister?”

Titus said nothing, just clenched his jaw.

Aquilia lifted a brow. “If she stays here it will be as your protectorate. She can stay in the procoeton attached to your chamber.”

“
The only way out of that room is through mine,” Titus objected.

Aquilia rolled her eyes. “Precisely. It is the only way in, as well.”

He considered for a moment. Sighed. Nodded. “Let it be as you suggest, Mother.”

Aquilia inclined her head, then looked at Abigail once more. “Whatever is she wearing?”

Titus and Abigail both looked at her garment with surpise on their faces. It must have been traditional Hebrew apparel, but it would not do here.

Her son cleared his throat. “Jason bought you some things after the Roman fashion, did he not?”

The girl nodded. “Shall I change?”

“
Please.” Aquilia made no attempt to hide her distaste.

The girl once again proved she had no sense by smiling. She put a hand behind her back. “Come, Samuel. Titus will show us to our chamber.”

Aquilia drew in a sharp breath when a boy emerged from behind her. He was a lovely child, all golden curls and large eyes filled with trepidation. As for what he was doing here . . .

“
Titus, tell me you have not gained a taste for boys.”

Titus laughed. She had not honestly thought he had, but such beauty raised questions. Her son shook his head. “Jason bought the boy to save him from such a fate. Although Samuel has become more a son than a slave.”

Aquilia made her thoughts on that clear with another pointed look at the girl, but she only shrugged. “I speak Greek more than anything. Child. Slave. They are the same word. The lines become blurred.”

Titus choked back a laugh.

Aquilia let out a repulsed breath and turned away. She had not seen her son so jovial in fifteen years . . . and knew not what to think about seeing him so now. With
her
. “Settle in, my son. Come see me once you have had a chance to refresh yourself.”

~*~

Abigail had never seen a home the likes of this one. She trailed Titus through the vestibulum and fauces, through the middle of the atrium, and toward the peristylium. The fact that his chamber was off the garden told her it would be larger, more ornate.

It certainly was. She had heard Jason once complain about how close the bedchambers could be in a Roman house, but she felt none of that in this cubiculum. The ceiling was vaulted, the air flowed in from the garden, and bed and windows were dressed in fabric she knew well had cost a fortune.

Titus grimaced when he opened another door, presumably to the servant’s quarters attached to his. “This will be far too cramped for all three of you.”

She came up beside him, Samuel still holding one hand while Benjamin nestled against her chest. She smiled. “It is larger than the room I grew up in. We will be fine here.”

“
I will have a more comfortable mattress brought in. And arrange for a pallet for Samuel. Are you certain?”

“
Quite.” She stepped out again and looked around her in appreciation. “Titus, your home is beautiful.” Her eyes landed on a small statue on a table in the corner of the room, then moved as if drawn magnetically to the gardens outside.

“
It is. That is about all it is, as I think you will soon discover.” He surveyed the room as if for a flaw. “It will do, I suppose. Are you sure you will not mind the lack of an exit?”

Abigail shook her head, but still she had to sigh.

Titus’s face softened. “What is bothering you, my friend, if not that?”

Abigail hesitated only a moment. “Titus, are you going to tell your parents? You have changed, and they will notice.”

Titus sighed, sitting down absently on one of the chairs. “I should, I know. But it will be difficult to explain to them.”

“
Especially if your father thinks I am your lover.” She held his gaze firmly, though she felt heat stain her cheeks. “I appreciate the delicacy of the situation, that you feel I must be protected. But promise me that after I leave, you will clear up this fallacy.”

Titus nodded, looking relieved. Probably at the permission to put off the task until then.

She was not finished, though. “Besides, I am not convinced he will believe this. My seventy days of mourning will not be complete for another fortnight, not to mention the forty days of purification following the birth.” When he smirked she narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“
My father is hardly educated in the laws of your people, Abigail. Such things will not occur to him, I assure you.” But it did, at least, cause him to study her. “It has only occurred to
me
that you have not been wearing mourning.”

“
One of the physicians said we should not,” Abigail said softly. “He said it was only furthering Ester’s depression. And I did not think about it once Benjamin was born.”

Titus nodded, then stood. “Well, take a few moments to get settled, and I will do the same.”

Abigail nodded. But she had no idea how to settle into this place.

~*~

Caelia gasped when she heard that Titus was returned. She hurried from the room she shared with two other women and dashed in the direction of her master’s chamber. To say she had missed him in the past year would be an understatement; she had counted the days until his return once Caius had announced he would be back soon. To be sure, she hoped he had thought of her with less frequency. She was still less than anxious to be the cause of a deeper rift between Titus and his father. But now that he was back, perhaps it would signal the end of her nights with Caius. Perhaps she would be his alone again.

Something within her told her it would not happen that way. Before, Titus had been the only man she had known, and that was why he kept her to himself. But now she had been defiled by another, by many others if truth be told, and he would probably not be so eager to claim her as solely his. But at the very least, she would get to enjoy his arms once more, feel his lips warm against her flesh. . . she closed her eyes in delectation, opening them again quickly so she could speed to her destination.

Perhaps now his friend would return soon, as well. She smiled. The single kiss she had bestowed on him had told her that Jason Visibullis would appreciate a chance to spend some of his time in her company, and she would not mind spending some of hers in his, either.

She came to the doorway and smiled anew when she saw Titus within. He was even more handsome than she had remembered, with that darkest brown hair, muscles tanned from working outside, the proud bearing that struck fear into every heart that came across him. He was the epitome of what a man should be, a model of the gods. She stepped into his chamber.

“
Master.”

Titus looked up, something indiscernible flashing in his eyes. She was suddenly aware of the way she was dressed, more provocatively than he had ever permitted. No desire flashed in his eyes, but surely that was just his usual Stoic control. “Caelia.”

She took the acknowledgment as invitation, closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him. She kissed him soundly, but he did not respond. Instead of crushing her against him, he held her a few inches apart.

“
Titus.” She had expected his distance . . . but still it pierced. “I have missed you.”

He seemed amused by the statement. “Were you lonely, Caelia? I find it hard to believe, knowing my father.”

Heat flooded her cheeks even as she lifted her chin in pride. “You knew what you were forfeiting by leaving. But you are back now, Lord, and I welcome you eagerly. I will come to you tonight–”

“
No.” He disentangled her arms from around his neck and forced her a step away. “You will not come to me tonight, nor tomorrow, nor the day after.”

“
But my lord, you never refused the others, though they were shared. Why should you refuse me?”

Titus sighed, his jaw clenched. “It is not that.”

“
Then what is it?” She planted her hands on her hips.

A melody of laughter rang out, decidedly feminine. Caelia walked a few steps until she could look through the doors and into his servant’s room. A woman swayed into view, bouncing a baby on her hip. “Who is
that
?”

The woman looked up, revealing a face that made Caelia’s blood boil. Of course Titus would have found the most beautiful woman in Israel. But why did he bring her home with him? The child? Was it his?

Titus looked that way even as the woman wandered back out of sight. “Abigail Visibullis.”

Caelia spun to him, eyes wide. “Visibullis?”

“
Jason’s widow.”

Her amazement only grew. “Widow?”

“
And their son, Benjamin.”

“
Son?”

Titus bit back a grin. “Have you forgotten your command of Greek in my absence, Caelia?”

She opened her mouth, but it took a moment to find words. “It is only that I did not know, master, either of his marriage or his death.”

He nodded. “I brought her here to claim the estates for her son.”

Her eyes narrowed. “She is lovely.”

“
She is indeed. Jason was quickly the envy of us all.”

Anger made her shake. “Well, you never waited long to take what you wanted.” She spun to the door. “When you tire of her, Titus, you know where I will be.”