Sharpie

Aulus had the wit to dismiss his lictors before entering the house - Horatia had despaired when she'd learned he was not only entitled to twelve lictors as a Consul, but couldn't dispense with them. He had promised to try to make it easier for her by not having them in the house when they weren't needed, although the domus was certainly big enough for them - they had families of their own, anyway, and probably appreciated being able to see them from time to time. Aulus and the new slave, Tacita, were therefore alone as the ostiarius opened the door to admit them. He caught the eye of one of the house slaves in the atrium and bid him fetch his mistress, and Felix. He hoped Horatia wouldn't mind his gift, however odd she might think it. "This is your mistress, my wife, Horatia Justina," he said as his wife made her way towards them, Felix behind her. "And my body slave, Felix." He smiled at his wife, urging Tacita forward. "Horatia, I've brought you a gift. This is Tacita - she doesn't speak, but she does write, and is learning to read. I thought she might be useful." @Sara @Jenn @Chevi

"I don't! I don't hate you, Charis," he said, startled into the declaration. "I just - it feels like a knife in my heart when I see your son, because of what he means for me, and I can't bear to be near you because of it, but I don't hate you. It wasn't your fault, none of it." He thought he could have loved her, once, and now he didn't know what he felt. He hated her son, as much as anyone could hate a baby who hadn't done anything at all in life, but not for that fact of who or what he was. If his own place had been secure, he probably wouldn't have felt anything. He didn't even really hate the baby, he couldn't feel any sort of emotion at all for anything any more. "I wouldn't do anything to you. You don't have to be afraid of me." It was just words, really, easy to say. "I won't even be in the house much longer, you won't ever have to see me again." It wouldn't make it right for her, but it might make it easier for both of them. "Fortuna go with you," he said, and took a breath, pushing himself upright and turning for the street they had just left. @Sara

"You're perfect," Horatia informed him, stepping back in and pulling his arms around her waist, an action he didn't object to in the least. Her words made him chuckle, though. "I'm not, really - but you are, my dove," he told her. She was a perfect fit in his arms, warm and a solid reality, the fabric of her gown soft under his hands, and the scent of her hair in his nose. There was no need to rush anything, this was just right, perfection in fact. Her hair was flowing loose down her back and he raised one hand to run his fingers through it, marvelling at it gleaming in the lamplight. "Utterly divine, you are," he told her. She could be a model for a statue of Venus, to his mind. @Sara

Why had he come after her? He didn't know, now. All he knew was that things had gone wrong, very wrong, between them and it had started since before his manumission. "You need a friend. What's happened... wasn't your fault." He felt wrung out, drained and tired, with no emotion left, just a numb feeling like being swathed in a cold wet blanket. He sagged a little, held up by the wall behind him, the rough painted plaster cold under his hands and against his tunic. "I'm sorry. If it means anything to you, I'm sorry." He should have let her go without following her. "I'm sorry for what my father's done to you, sorry for - everything." He sighed. "What I said, earlier - I didn't mean, don't do it. I just meant, don't get caught doing it. I wish - I wish you could be happy." Whatever happiness looked like, he didn't think he'd ever really known for himself. But Charis had, she'd been happy once. Maybe she could be again? @Sara

"Well, you can't go sleeping in them, it would be like trying sleep with a rose bush as a pillow," Aulus said lightly, running his fingers over her hair to try to locate the hair-pins holding the braids in place on her head. "I'd rather not have to summon a slave to do it, if we can help - surely even two patricians can manage to take your hair down without a slave?" How many pins did she have in? He thought he had got them all, and the six braids were swinging loose - he had no idea how to take those out and wasn't about to attempt anything further without direction. Her neck was right there, and very tempting, so he bent to press a kiss there, just under her ear. @Sara

"It helps me sleep," Well, that made sense - everyone ad their own ways of settling in and making things easier on themselves, and it wasn't easy to transition to a new owner (not that Volusa herself had ever really done that, she'd just gone from a general skivvy in the Palace to the service of one member of the Imperial Family in particular). She turned away a bit, to try to give the other as much privacy as possible - unpacking things was a private moment when you had few possessions, after all, but couldn't help seeing the cithara. It would be nice to have some music in the evenings some time. "Have you got any other questions, while we've got the time?" she asked. @locutus-sum

"Yes - it looked lovely, earlier, by the way." Several of the flowers had started to droop now, of course, and it was bound to make an awful mess everywhere. And he had no clue about how it was attached to her hair, nor how the veil was pinned in place, which didn't stop him asking, "Do you need a hand with it?" Surely two of them could figure it out without having to call in her slave to undo it. There was bound to be talk among the slaves as it was without encouraging it. @Sara

"Please wait!" But she didn't, merely lengthening her stride, determined to be away from him, from anything and everything that he represented, disappearing around a corner and out of sight. He reached the corner, expecting her to be long gone, but she was leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath. He slowed, trying not to spook her into running off again, not that there was really anywhere to go - it seemed to be a dead end, and she would have to pass him. "I just want to talk, we haven't talked since... Charis, please don't be angry with me." @Sara

"Oh - got it. Silly thing, I was pulling the wrong end," Aulus said after another moment, laughing at himself, and looked up into her face. "Of course I will show you - it's quite easy, really." He unfastened the pallium he was wearing and unwound it, letting it drop to the floor before his hands went to his own belt. "Um... I'm going to undress us both, if that's all right with you?" he said - if she knew as little about sex as all that, she might not have realised what it entailed, and of course she wouldn't ever have been naked in front of a man before (he hoped, anyway - she wasn't giving the impression she knew what men looked like under their tunics, at least!) "I promise, I won't do anything before you're ready for me to," he added, wanting to make this as pleasant as possible for both of them. @Sara

"Aww," Rufus said, finding a beaker and pouring Didia a cup of water, wholly uncaring of the fact that he was as naked as the day he was born. He returned to the bed with his offering, before grinning at Theo. "Anywhere, you say? That could be fun." He wound a strand of Didia's hair around his finger before trailing his hand down her shoulder to her breast. "It's still officially Saturnalia, surely you don't have any produce to sell today?" he said. It would be far more enjoyable to spend the whole day together, after all, just the three of them, experimenting to find the very best position for all of them in the narrow bed. Or anywhere else. @Chevi @Sara

"They're coming along - I promise I will take you to see them once it's possible to show you exactly what area is which, right now the walls are about as high as my shoulder and there are heaps of rubble everywhere - anything less like thermae would be hard to imagine," Aulus said. "I thought you were bored with hearing me talk about them, anyway?" He smiled down into her face before dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose. "What of your own projects, or do you not have anything in hand at the moment?" he asked, pressing another kiss to the corner of her mouth. @Sara

"Of course you're nervous, you haven't done this before, columbina mea," Aulus said, the endearment slipping out unconsciously. He was going to do his best for Horatia, whatever that took. Once they were undressed, he would take his time, as much as he could, but he wasn't about to rush it - half the fun was in the build-up, after all, and he began peppering tiny kisses along her jawline and throat. "Don't worry about, just let me..." he murmured, his hand going to the knot of Hercules at her girdle. And of course it was designed to frustrate the eager bridegroom - stupid traditions! @Sara

A joke - of course it was! How silly of him to have taken it any other way! She must think him awfully stupid, though to be fair to her, he had sounded stupid, even to himself. She seemed nervous, even though he didn't know her very well yet. Of course she was nervous - she was the well brought-up daughter of a senator whose family lineage was as old as gens Calpurnia - and she was as chaste and pure as a Vestal. Her wedding attire was designed to recall the Vestals to mind, indeed, to remind him of that fact. And Aulus himself was a soldier, who had looked on death and had first been with a woman several years before, shortly before taking his toga virilis, although he had not done so with any frequency in the years since. But of the two of them, he was the one with the experience, and he vowed to himself that he would make it as pleasurable for his bride as he could. "This way," he said quietly, opening a door and leading her into a room with a comfortable bed, and a chest that held Horatia's clothes - he had had her father's slaves bring it during the day, knowing that she could not wear her bridal gown tomorrow. She would probably prefer her own familiar clothes as she settled into her new life, anyway. He put his arms around his bride, and bent his head to kiss her, softly. @Sara

"I didn't mean to suggest that I..." Aulus said. "I meant, about the household specifically - I like talking with you about... whatever we talk about, why would we stop having conversations at all?" Had he sounded as if that was what he'd meant? "Shall we - it's late, it's probably time we, uh, went to bed." And now he was sounding like a boy who didn't know anything about that side of things, which he did. He'd just never slept with a good, well-brought up patrician girl like Horatia, and found that he was nervous simply because he didn't know what she was expecting. Or not expecting, more likely. @Sara

"I don't have many slaves, so it's not a big household," Aulus said, giving her hand a squeeze. "And - anything you want, you can have, within reason. I have my pay, I haven't spent much of it over the last few years, and we can afford another slave or two, or whatever you want to make it more comfortable for you." It was probably just as well they weren't expected to move in to his father's house - he honestly didn't know how brides could stand it, coming under their mother-in-law in household matters. "I can't really advise you on household matters, but if you want someone to talk to and what advice I can give, you can talk it over with me," he offered. Maybe it was an unusual offer; men generally had very little to do with the running of the home, but he was acutely aware that Horatia was many many miles away from her mother, who would doubtless be the person she would turn to first for help and advice. Anyway, if she had issues with a slave, Aulus had experience of dealing with people. @Sara

And with a few quiet words, Wulfric simply got up and left. Teutus watched him go - for someone whose existence he had been unaware of only this morning, and who wasn't even Roman, he had seemed a nice enough man, one who thoroughly deserved to have found a better family in Rome than the disaster that was gens Quinctilia. Teutus sat up from the formal reclining position, narrowly avoiding kicking his cup over. "You - this is your fault, all of it," he told his father. "If you wanted to keep me in the dark about everything, you shouldn't have freed me. If you want me for your son, talk to me - I didn't even know he existed this morning and you expect me to walk in here and be fine with discovering I have another brother, you expect me to go along with whatever you have in mind without telling me what those things are. I can't read your mind, none of us can, so don't be all surprised and angry when we don't act the way you want us to. At least slaves expect to be kept in the dark, but you have said over and over that I'm your son. Yet you still treat me like a slave - oh, you've given me the money and means to start my business and I am grateful for it, but in everything else I'm expected to bend my head and not do anything you don't approve of, and just accept when I find I have yet another brother, a freeborn brother - if he wasn't a barbarian, you'd have your heir and screw the rest of us. And then you act all surprised when I am less than gracious towards him - I had no warning at all. How can I act the way you want me to when you keep me as much in the dark as if I were the meanest house slave, domine?" Was it any wonder he'd moved out, that he'd started a business that meant he was expected to spend time away from Rome to build that business? His father was about to disown him completely on the tail of that little speech and he was vaguely surprised to discover that he really didn't care, that he'd just stopped caring about things like that a while ago. He had no emotion at all on the topic, one way or another, and just felt numb, as if someone had put his emotions out the way he would put a lamp out at night. @Atrice @Sara

"A tour would probably be best, I think - we can always have wine afterwards," Aulus said. The house was not particularly a large one, not by the standards of most domi owned by the senatorial class, back in Rome, but it would do for them, for now. It was on two floors surrounding a courtyard that Aulus automatically thought of as the atrium, although there was no impluvium below the opening in the roof. The stairs up to what was probably meant for the women's quarters were tucked away in one corner, probably because the men and women were kept separate according to Greek sensibilities. Aulus had no intention whatsoever of keeping his new wife tucked away out of sight. He was Roman not Greek, after all, and so was she. "I hope it's to your liking," he said, feeling unaccountably nervous in case she didn't like his attempts to make it a welcoming space for her. She was the woman, she was far more likely to have the touch than he was - especially after ten years living in a small bare room in military quarters, whose only decoration was a striped blanket, and a tiny rosemary sprig in a pot. (He liked the scent.) @Sara

"We just escaped from that party," Aulus objected, much taken by the thought of Horatia's hitching up her wedding gown and running back through the streets for the bridal torch. Apparently, he wasn't quite as sober as he'd thought because it was an amusing picture. That would be a fine start to their marriage, though he wasn't prepared to actually witness the act. The torch from outside the door would have to do - it was at least a torch and not a common oil lamp. And they were in Greece rather than Rome, anyway, so the gods would hopefully allow them some concessions in the rituals. He went back outside, hoping that he wasn't breaking some unknown rule about leaving the bridal pair's new home before the marriage was consummated, or something (the gods knew there were enough traditions and rituals already that he did know about!) and took the torch from its bracket, which would have the added bonus of disguising which house belonged to the happy couple. "Here," he said, bringing it in. The circle of firelight would show more of the house, although perhaps not a lot of it. "There isn't a proper lararium, seeing as it's a Greek house not a Roman one, but I tried, here." There was a proper oil lamp for Vesta in one corner, with the votive statues to the Lares and Penates standing on a small marble table in the corner. @Sara

At Jocasta's entrance with the screaming Peregrinus, Teutus closed his eyes, gripping his bronze winecup in a death grip tight enough for his knuckles to go white. He looked towards Wulfric, an expression of apology on his face. It was not the visitor's fault, not in the least, but he was caught in the middle of this disaster of a dinner just as much as Teutus and Charis, like fish in Tertius' net. "It isn't your fault," he said quietly to Wulfric, ignoring the baby as much as he could. "I wasn't told - I didn't even know you existed until now. My - he doesn't tell me anything. It's not your fault, and I am sorry you've come to Rome and found your family is like this." He could not bring himself to say 'my father', not when the man was also Wulfric's father, and the father of the baby who had supplanted him - supplanted both of them. He set the cup down. There was no point in taking anything to eat, he thought he would choke on it if he tried. @Atrice @Sara

"'We'?" Attis asked, amused. "Who's the 'we'?" He guessed Sulpicius Rufus, who would be the one actually making the decision, but probably Tranquillus would be going with him, the privilege (or otherwise!) of being the man's body slave. Attis would forever be grateful that they'd each ended up where they had; Tranquillus would bore Longinus to tears, and if Attis had been in Sulpicius Rufus' household for much longer, he would have managed to talk himself into serious trouble and probably a whipping that Rufus wouldn't have shied away from administering personally. Doubtless the gardener would end up staying in Rome, of course. Relationships between slaves, even slaves in the same house, could be tricky. He nipped into the kitchen and returned with two beakers of wine and a couple of honeycakes on a chipped plate. "Let's find somewhere out of the way - and no, Licky, not for you." @Chevi

So she was still learning. That was fine, there was definite potential there, if Horatia would agree with his assessment - if not, he was sure he could find something useful for her to do. And he was intrigued, and that meant that he'd hopefully found the right gift for his wife. If Claudus was willing to sell, anyway, and if not, well, Aulus wouldn't push him too hard. "Would you accept an offer of..." he named a fair price for her. "Shall we go back to my office and discuss it over another cup of wine, Consul?" Aulus acquiesced to the suggestion. @Jenn

"No - I mean, you're an imperial slave, you'll be allowed out to visit places and all, and I'm sure you can have access to the library when she doesn't need you. You'll want to keep up with what's being published, and all the new ideas, surely, especially if you're supposed to discuss things like that with her. She's a pretty easy-going mistress, really - I'm the one who's got the least free run of things because of being her body slave, and she doesn't keep me cooped up indoors all the time. We're allowed into the gardens if we want, or down to the market, if she knows where we're going, though of course we have to get permission for that. Hanging around in Mistress Claudia's rooms with nowhere to go and nothing to do sounded every bit as dull as watching laundry dry, to Volusa's mind, although she had a fair amount of her own work to do, and was expected to accompany the mistress when she went out. There was no reason at all that Antheia could not be part of the perty on such occasions, too. @locutus-sum

"Good thing my master's a senator - you have to be a rich bugger to be a senator, after all." Attis grinned. "It's good to see you again, too, Tranquillus. Can I get you a drink after that welcome - I ought to try to make up for the dog's lack of manners, after all." If a burglar broke in and somehow avoided waking any of the members of the household, they'd probably come down in the morning to find the dog licking him and generally being pleased at meeting yet another new friend. Attis had no idea how to train a dog to learn that not everyone was a friend, and indeed some people were the very opposite. Tranquillus was firmly on the 'friend' side of that equation, though Sulpicius Rufus was nearer being a 'not friend' except that he was as thick as thieves with Attis' own master, which complicated things. "How is everyone else back at your master's house?" he asked, putting out of his mind all thoughts of training the dog to specifically knock down Titus Sulpicius Rufus and lick him to within an inch of his life every time he came around. It would be fun and not something that anyone would believe was a deliberate act of sabotage. @Chevi

"I went for you, didn't I?" Attis replied with a grin. She was just like a cat in many ways - she seemed nice and friendly and soft and all, but if you got on her wrong side, you knew about it! He hadn't done that, not so often, and when someone else did, he just stood back and watched the sparks fly. "You just think Dominus is a big kid, some of us know he is - but he's not so bad, not really. There are worse masters out there. But yes, he likes things to be nice and simple. He's that sort of uncomplicated man - I think that's why he doesn't really want to go back into the Senate. Too much bickering and trying to get one up on the others, it's not him. He'd be more than happy if he got another military post somewhere, I think." He was a good Legate, from what Attis had seen (though he knew about as much about running a legion as he did about flying, personally, but he'd watched his master do it and thrive). "I don't know if he's going to manage to get another military posting any time soon, though. Isn't he trying to find a wife?" The dog was fun, and Attis dared anyone to sulk for more than a moment or two if they got Licky anywhere near them, but he wasn't the sort of companion that their master needed. Nor, really, was Attis, though he tried his best. @Chevi

"Quite a number of families were affected by the civil war," Gaius said. He was not about to embarrass the girl by saying that yes actually they had been quite badly impacted by it as they had lost their father. "Someone needs to take it seriously," he said to Lucius, and as his brother definitely wasn't going to do so, that only left Gaius. "Well, I'm grateful for your support even if you can't vote for me," he said to Ovinia. "And no, we have a sister, but she is married and with her husband elsewhere. I am sorry you won't be able to meet her today." @Chevi @Sara