less than three months, brother dear. Her performances made us fifteen thousand solidi, and her sale has brought us another fifteen hundred solidi. An excellent return on a slave who only cost us four folles to begin with, even considering the cost of her keep, which was really quite negligible. I salute you, Jovian Maxima! You were correct!”
Jovian smiled broadly. A compliment from Phocas was as rare as finding a perfect pearl in an oyster. “Thank you, brother,” he said.
“You will tell the girl?”
“I will speak to her in the morning. On the nights she gives her performance, she bathes, and goes to her bed immediately following it. She will be sleeping now, and she always sleeps like the dead afterward.”
Sleep. It was her only escape. Cailin had believed she was strong. She had almost convinced herself that she could do what they asked of her. But she did not think she could bear much more. It was not that anyone was unkind to her. Indeed, everyone went out of their way to make certain she was comfortable. She was pampered and fussed over by everyone at Villa Maxima. Jovian was almost devoted to her. Apollo, Castor, and Pollux adored her openly. They had even gone as far as to show her a lion designed in a mosaic, point to it, tap their chests, and then point to her. They were telling her, in the only way they could, that she had the courage of a lion. It was flattering, but it was not enough. She had recently overheard Jovian speaking about a new entertainment he was conceiving for her. It surely couldn’t be any worse than what was happening to her now.
To her surprise, Jovian joined her the following morning for the first meal of the day. “I could not sleep,” he told her, “and so I went early to the marketplace. See the fine melon I have brought you. We will enjoy it together while I tell you that you have had the most incredible piece of luck, Cailin.”
“Fortuna is not a goddess who has been kind to me of late,” Cailin told him, handing the melon to Isis to split.
“She smiled quite broadly on you last night, my dear,” Jovian said archly. “Flavius Aspar, Byzantium’s most powerful man, was in the audience.”
“I thought the emperor was your most powerful man,” Cailin replied.
“Flavius Aspar is the empire’s most famed general. He has personally chosen the last two emperors. Both the late emperor, Marcian, and this emperor, Leo, owe their positions to Aspar.”
“And what has your general to do with me, my lord?” Cailin took a slice of melon offered her by Isis. It was wonderfully sweet, and the juice ran down her chin. She flicked out her tongue to catch it.
“I have sold you to him,” Jovian said, biting into his own piece of the ripe fruit. “He paid fifteen hundred gold solidi for you, my dear. Did I not tell you that your value would increase?”
“You also told me that I should be able to purchase my freedom eventually,” Cailin said bitterly. “Did I not say I should trust no one? But you swore to me that you could be trusted, my lord!”
“Dear girl,” Jovian protested, “we did not solicit your sale. He came to us after last night’s performance and said he wished to purchase you. He is truly the most powerful man in the empire, Cailin. There was no way my brother and I could refuse him and continue to prosper. To deny Aspar what he wanted would have been tantamount to suicide.” He patted her arm. “Do not be afraid, my dear. He will be kind to you. I do not think the general has ever kept a mistress. When he wished to have a woman other than his wife, he would come here, or to some other respectable house such as ours. You should feel honored.”
Cailin glared at him. “How will I ever get back to Britain to take my revenge on Antonia Porcius now?” she demanded furiously.
“A clever woman—and I do believe you are clever, Cailin—would see the great opportunity offered her. Aspar will lavish gifts upon you if you please him. He may even free you one day,” Jovian said.
“I have none of the skills of a courtesan,” Cailin told him. “Those lessons were to come later. All I am capable of doing is.…” She flushed angrily. “Well, you know what I can do, my lord Jovian, for you conceived the