“Lucius.”
She frowned. “What?”
“I am not your tribune and you are not a soldier. My name is Lucius.”
She wanted to look away, but a will stronger than her own wouldn’t allow it. “I am only a servant,” she told him firmly.
The darkening of his eyes warned of a rising temper. “Has anyone suggested such to you?”
She frowned again. “Well...no...but...”
He stopped her with a finger to her lips. Cupping her cheek with his palm, he moved even closer and Anna found it hard to breathe.
“You are no servant, Anna,” he told her, his eyes intense. “You are my mother’s friend and, therefore, my friend, as well.”
They stared into each other’s eyes for some time until a movement from inside the bedroom caught their attention. Leah was awake.
Lucius leaned back against the concrete step behind him and watched Anna in amusement. She sat next to him twisting the belt hanging around her waist until it was knotted so much he doubted she would ever unravel it.
He had brought her with him to the Hippodrome to watch the chariot race scheduled for today, although it had taken a lot of persuasion on his part to get her here. It was patently obvious that she didn’t want to be here, but just as obvious that she was reluctantly enthralled.
He had chosen seats three rows above the interior wall that protected spectators from the animals that were often brought in for amusement. The frescoes of plants and animals were innocuous enough, but she wrinkled her cute little nose at the paintings of the gladiators.
The sea beyond the stadium was rushing against the shore, its soothing rhythm slowly disappearing under the sounds of the increasing crowds.
“I shouldn’t be here.”
He glanced down at her and was suddenly sorry that they had come. He didn’t want to undo all the inroads he had made toward gaining her trust.
“It’s just a chariot race.”
That was certainly true enough. He only hoped her Jewish prudishness wouldn’t be offended by the opening ceremonies.
Andronicus joined them, nodding at Lucius and smiling at Anna. He searched the arena for a particular chariot whose colors were well known by everyone who enjoyed the games.
“I heard that Quintas will be racing today.”
“I heard the same,” Lucius agreed, joining in the hunt. “Do you see him?”
“There he is!” The enthusiasm in Andronicus’s voice invoked an equal excitation in Lucius. “In the green. Secundus is in red.”
“It should be a good contest,” Lucius remarked as the other charioteers lined up.
He glanced again at Anna and noticed her chewing on her bottom lip. He decided to try to put her at ease by engaging her in conversation and keeping her attention away from the half-clad dancers gyrating around the arena.
“So you’ve never seen a chariot race?”
She shook her head slightly.
He continued to watch her, noting the color blooming in her cheeks as he did so. Was she remembering their time on the balcony as he was? It had been the only thing on his mind for the last several hours. He had come close to taking her up on the unintentional invitation he had seen in her guileless eyes, but he knew that would have surely destroyed what little faith she had in him. But it had been a battle to bring into subjection the intense feelings she had invoked in him at that particular moment.
What was it exactly that fascinated him so about her? She wasn’t pretty, but her skin was like smooth marble, and the desire to touch it was a temptation he had been fighting for some time now.
And those eyes of hers. He was bewitched by the paradox of innocence that at the same time allured. It had been a long time since he had seen such purity in a woman, something many men in Rome would pay a high price for.
Trumpets announced the beginning of the race. Andronicus leaned forward, excitement glittering in his eyes.
They all turned to watch the chariots get into their final positions. Even with the screams and excitement all around him, Lucius found it hard to take his eyes off Anna. He was more interested in watching her expression than in the race, and right now that expression was one of awed fascination with the beauty of the horses stamping and pawing the dirt in the arena.
The charioteers slowly began making their first round of the arena behind the flag bearers. The crowd cheered them on, everyone yelling for their favorites.
When Quintas passed in front of them, Andronicus leapt to his feet, cheering enthusiastically. Lucius had to grin at the disconcerted look Anna gave Andronicus before turning a questioning one to him. He just shook his head. She would have to wait to see what made crowds of people willing to sit for quite some time in the hot sun eating the dust flung from flying hooves.
He bent closer so that she could hear him. “Which one would you choose?”
She studied the horses again. “The golden ones with the cream-colored manes and tails.”
Lucius smiled. “You have a good eye. They are a matched pair and belong to Petronius, by the way.”
She turned sharply to face him, her features going from surprise to delight. “Then I will cheer for them.”
“Shall I make a wager for you?”
She shook her head adamantly, and shrugging, he settled back in his seat to watch as the charioteers reached the end of the arena and prepared for the race.
The crowd grew quiet when the proconsul rose from his seat and dedicated the race to Caesar.
Anna turned to Lucius and it was the first time he had ever seen such intense anger on her face. Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought her here, but he thought it best to have her Romanized as soon as possible before they actually reached the great city, and the chariot races were the least offensive sport. Many Jews attended the races.
Anna’s unfriendly look settled on him and he felt a prism of guilt, but at what exactly, he wasn’t quite certain. Living in Rome, she was going to have to get used to hearing Caesar’s name wherever she went.
The starting flags dropped and the race began. The crowd came to their feet, roaring their approval. There would be eight rounds to the finish, yet of the ten charioteers, it would be unusual if more than five survived to the finish. Remembering past races, Lucius really began to worry that he shouldn’t have brought Anna here.
After three rounds without mishap, Lucius began to relax. Anna was cheering as enthusiastically as the rest of the crowd. She and Andronicus were trying to outdo each other in their encouragement of the charioteer they had chosen. Regardless of his friendship with Petronius, Andronicus favored Quintas, as did most of the mob.
At the fifth round, one chariot pushed another into the wall, causing it to flip and crash. The crowd cheered wildly, but Anna stared horrified at the people around her. She settled back into her seat, no longer interested in the race. She was watching as arena slaves hurried to remove the debris and the injured man. She closed her eyes, her mouth moving silently and Lucius realized that she was praying for the injured man. He glanced uncomfortably around at the surrounding crowd, but no one was paying attention.
The other racers were coming around the end of the track at breakneck speed. The slaves who were trying to remove the debris from the other chariot were having a problem. It was soon obvious that they would never get the broken chariot out of the way in time. The closest charioteer realized it at the last minute and tried to move his horses out of the way. Although the horses cleared the overturned vehicle, the chariot did not and its wheel caught. At the speed he had been going, the wheel of his chariot broke off and began bouncing across the track. It hit a piece of the overturned chariot and bounced into the air.
Lucius saw what was about to happen and knew he had no way to prevent it. With lightning reflexes, he pushed Anna to the floor and wrapped his body aro
und her. The wheel slammed against his back, pushing the breath from his body in a long whoosh.
Chapter 10
For a brief instant, all sound receded into the background. Lucius shook his head, seeking to hold off the darkness that was trying to take him down. He could hear, as though from a distance, Andronicus’s panicked voice calling his name, and then the sound rushed back in upon him in a frenzy.
Slowly lifting himself onto his forearms, he anxiously studied the woman beneath him. Her eyes were huge in a face made white by alarm. With a trembling hand, he gently pushed the hair out of her face.
“Are you all right?”
Lucius was still shaken. He had never been so afraid in his life. In the split second it took to realize that Anna would be killed, he knew that she had become too important to him for him to lose her.
Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “I am well. And you?”
Lucius pushed himself to his feet, flinching as the pain in his back brought on another wave of dizziness. He reached down and helped Anna to her feet. She adjusted her tunic, which had become skewed, brushing off the dirt and sand.
“I am just a little bruised. Nothing to worry about,” he told her.
“Tribune!”
Lucius glanced at his bodyguard and noticed that his face was as white as the marble columns of the Hippodrome.
“I am well, Andronicus.”
Andronicus blew out a slow breath as his tense body visibly relaxed.
Lucius took note of the damage around him. He and Anna had been lucky. Two others had not. They lay crushed beneath the wheel, which had bounced off his back and landed on them. Several slaves were moving through the crowd to reach them and remove the bodies. Only those people closest to them gave them any notice. Everyone else was still busy cheering on the charioteers. He should have been amazed at their lack of concern, but he was not. It was the way of the people.
As for him, the race no longer held any appeal nor, he suspected, for Anna, as well. He took the shawl she was shaking out and helped her to situate it around her head and shoulders. Placing his palms on each side of her face, he quietly studied her.
“You are certain you are all right?” he asked, his heart rate only now beginning to subside. When she nodded, he told her, “Then let us go home.”
Anna sat at Leah’s bedside watching her sleep, a worried frown marring her face. Leah appeared to be growing weaker but Lucius didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he attributed it to a different cause than what Anna suspected.
Lucius believed that the physicians in Rome could help his ailing mother. What he didn’t understand was the attachment the Jews had for their homeland. They drew their very life from the soil and the air that they breathed. It was an attitude that Rome had never understood.
Leah obediently followed where her son wanted to lead, but it was a terrible wrench having to choose between leaving her home and, most especially, her father or leaving her son.
For Anna there had been no choice. She owed this woman and her son her life. She would never be able to repay them for what they had done. And if that wasn’t enough reason to follow them into the very heart of paganism, her love for both of them was.
She watched two doves on the balcony without really seeing them. Her mind was caught up in the wonder of her discovery.
She frowned. Was she merely grateful for the kindness that had been shown to her, for Lucius having saved her life twice now? Since she had never been in love, she had no way of knowing if these feelings were of a lasting nature.
Whenever Lucius looked in her eyes the way he had at the arena today, her heart raced faster than the speeding chariots. When he touched her, heat coursed through her. But these were mere physical signs of something she had yet to understand. How did one know when it was really love?
Lucius strode into the room, his countenance darkening with worry when he took note of his mother’s white face.
“How is she?”
At the sign of his distress, Anna forgot her own worries. He needed her reassurance, not her uncertainty.
“She is a little better today, I think. She had a good night.”
He carefully settled himself on the bed next to Leah so as not to awaken her, his face softened with his love.
“I can’t lose her.”
Anna’s heart broke for him. She knew what it was like to lose a beloved mother. Before she could respond, Leah’s eyes fluttered open and she stared hard at her son. “We all have to die sometime.”
Various expressions chased themselves across Lucius’s face—surprise, fear, love. He cupped one of her hands in his as though he could pass some of his strength on to her.
“Not you. Not now. I need you too much.”
“Elohim decides the hours of our life. If it is my time to go, then nothing you can do will stop it.”
“Mother,” Lucius told her quietly, “do you not know that my life would be a wasteland without you?”
Leah’s lips turned down into a frown, the paralyzed side of her face making her look somewhat grotesque. “I have been a stumbling block to you.”
Lucius scowled. “How so?”
Releasing his hand, Leah adjusted herself on the pillow until she was sitting up.
“I should never have allowed myself to force you to replace your father’s spot in my life.”
“What are you talking about?” Lucius visibly tensed at her admonition.
“You should have a wife and a family by now, not be waiting on a selfish mother.”
Anna thought it time for her to leave the room. She moved to do so, but Leah held out her hand.
“No, Anna, don’t go. We are finished.”
Eyebrows flying upward, Lucius told her, “We most certainly are not finished.”
“Well, I am.” Leah pushed at Lucius to make him get off the bed. “I have rested enough, now let me up. It is almost time for supper and I, for one, am starving.”
Anna hid a grin at Leah’s returning spirit and Lucius’s helplessness in the face of it. Leah’s body might be growing weaker, but there was certainly nothing wrong with her tongue.
Heaving a protracted sigh, Lucius gave way, but his look warned that their discussion was not at an end. Leah chose to ignore him. When she leaned against his shoulder for support, she noticed his wince of pain.
“You are hurt?”
Neither Lucius nor Anna had apprised her of the afternoon’s events. Their eyes met over Leah’s head and Lucius shook his head ever so slightly in caution.
“It is nothing. I am fine.”
Leah glanced from one to the other, her eyes narrowing in speculation. “Tell me.”
“Mother...”
“Tell me.”
Mother and son glared at each other for several long seconds, two powerful wills facing off against each other. Lucius was the first one to give way.
“Fine, I will tell you, but will you please sit back down?”
Leah did as asked, waiting for an explanation.
“It was just a little accident.”
Anna made a slight noise of protest and they both turned her way. She dropped her eyes to the floor, afraid that Leah would be able to read into them her horror of that afternoon. Even now, she could feel the color draining from her face at the memory.
“Perhaps Anna should tell me,” Leah suggested drily.
Before she could do so, Lucius told her, “We went to the chariot races and there was a slight accident.”
“How slight?”
Anna interrupted. “The tribune saved my life.”
She hadn’t meant to let that slip out, and from Lucius’s glare he certainly didn’t appreciate it. There was nothing to do now but fill his mother in on the details, though he did it in such a way as to
relieve her of any worry. Still, his mother read between the lines, hearing more from what he didn’t say than from what he did.
Anna was glad Leah was sitting down when she saw her waxen color.
“We are fine, Mother,” Lucius assured her.
Leah slowly rose to her feet. “Sit down and let me look at your back.”
“It is nothing, I tell you.”
Again, that face-off of wills. It was clear from whom Lucius had derived his stubbornness. Rolling his eyes upward, Lucius sat.
Leah tugged down the back of his tunic, sucking in a sharp breath at what she saw. Curious, Anna moved to where she could see also. Her eyes grew wide with dismay.
A huge blood-red bruise covered the upper portion of Lucius’s shoulders, with a deep laceration across the top. His eyes met Anna’s.
“It’s all right. It’s not your fault.”
How had he known what she was thinking? If not for her... She left the thought hanging, refusing to dwell on the possibilities.
“Anna, bring me that bottle of salt,” Leah commanded, and Anna hastened across the bedroom, retrieving the vial from the dresser.
“I am fine,” Lucius told his mother, starting to rise. She pushed him none too gently back down with her one good arm.
“You have a laceration, Lucius. It needs to be treated before it becomes infected.”
Anna started to hand the vial to Leah, but she motioned for Anna to apply it. “You’ll have to do it, Anna.”
Anna reluctantly moved forward, knowing that with Leah’s one paralyzed arm it would be difficult for her to administer the salt. The look in Lucius’s eyes set her to trembling. Anna took courage from the fact that Leah seemed to notice nothing amiss.
Leah held down the collar of Lucius’s tunic with her good hand while Anna gently applied the salt to the partially open wound on his shoulder. Lucius sucked in a breath between his teeth, his body tensing as the salt burned for several long seconds. Anna could almost feel his pain.
“Now, the aloe,” Leah told her.
Anna picked up the vial of aloe mixed with myrrh. Pulling the stopper from the amphora, the scent quickly permeated the room. Pouring some into the palm of her hand, Anna then began carefully working it across the wound on Lucius’s shoulder. His muscles relaxed under her ministering touch as the balm soothed the stinging.
Love's Pardon Page 10
