The softness of her touch surprised me. I’d never had anyone touch me like this—I’d been massaged by massive men digging soreness out of my muscles, or women bringing me to a cockstand, but never a light caress that tingled warmth across my skin.
Slowly, slowly, my fingers relaxed, and then they loosened. My thumb unlocked, and with it, my death grip on the sword.
As soon as my hand went slack, Cassia slid the hilt out of my grasp.
Ice cold fear hit me. I started to lunge for the sword, but Cassia had already turned away, and I brushed empty air.
“I will put it here.” Cassia laid the sword on the hanging shelf. “You can reach it at any time.”
She was humoring me, but I experienced a profound sense of relief. The rudis was where I could touch it, and remind myself what it meant.
Cassia came back to me, her hands clasped over her long linen stolla. “What …” The word trailed off, and she swallowed. “What do you wish from me?”
She whispered the question, and I heard, through my haze, her fear return. Fear that went to the bone. I knew such fear, had experienced it myself.
I took the final steps to the pallet and nearly fell onto it. I turned my head so I could look at her with a single open eye. “Do you want dinner?” It was well past time for breakfast.
Cassia had gone wan, but she gave me a faint nod.
“Fetch it from the popina we passed,” I ordered. “Bring me bread if there is any.”
Cassia remained frozen in place, her very dark hair falling in curls about her face. She was pretty, in a way, in spite of her crooked nose and thin lips.
That was the last thought I had before oblivion took me.
I dreamed. Regulus fought me, rage in his eyes. My sword and arm guard were gone, and his blade jabbed and jabbed at me until I bled from a hundred holes.
His sword rose, ready to dive straight into my eye.
I roared up to meet him, grabbing the descending arm in a merciless grip …
And found myself looking into the terrified brown eyes of Cassia.
Chapter 3
I released Cassia in an instant. In another second, I’d have broken her wrist.
“Dreaming,” I said as I sat up, catching my breath. “Never reach for me when I’m asleep. Floriana uses a stick.”
“Floriana?”
“Woman of the house where I slept last night.” I gestured vaguely, reminding Cassia of where she’d met me this morning.
If it was still this morning. The sun slanted into the room, partially blocked by buildings around us. I had no idea of the time or if this was even the same day.
“It is the tenth hour.” Cassia remained very still, out of my reach. “You’ve slept a long time. I brought food for you.”
I rolled up from the pallet, my tunic musty. I needed to bathe. I was also hungry. “Bread?” I recalled asking her to fetch that.
Cassia had backed away when I’d risen, and now she moved to the table. I stumbled after her in bare feet, too hungry to bother with sandals.
The table was now lengthwise near the open door to the makeshift balcony. One stool rested on the side of the table, and the other had been tucked into the corner.
Covered bowls and several baskets had been neatly placed on the table, along with an eating bowl and a spoon. I lifted the cloth from one basket and found a loaf of the round Roman bread we consumed daily. The other basket held olives, plump and shining.
The covered bowls contained lentil stew and another stew with meat in it. The smallest pot held a smelly, fishy concoction called garum.
I immediately dished out the lentils and tore off a hunk of bread, sitting down to enjoy my feast. A handful of olives went into my mouth. I didn’t touch the meat dish or the garum.
“Are you not eating?” I asked once I’d swallowed a few spoonfuls.
Cassia had perched on the stool in the corner, hands in her lap. “You will allow me to eat?”
“Why would I not allow you to eat?” I said around my next mouthful. “If you eat, you stay alive. Besides, you carried all this back. You must be hungry.”
Cassia rose and slid her stool inch by inch closer to the table. She removed a smaller eating bowl and spoon from a sack that had been behind the table and carefully set the bowl in the exact