On An Adventure

[Sharpie]

"Any time we get to meet - Latin's an easy enough language once you get the hang of it," Rufus said and followed her. "I could teach you the basics now - or go over them, anyway. If you want."

He'd taught Azarion enough in their one conversation for the boy to write his own name, and it must be easier for someone who could talk and sound things out. He followed her out to the sadly-overgrown garden.

"Dominus doesn't even have to know, if we just do it when we meet." It wasn't as though they often had the chance to spend time together, though, not like this. A few minutes at a time was about all that Rufus could realistically hope for. "I'm sure I could get one evening every week or so, if you wanted something more regular."

It would be a crying shame if they couldn't, though perhaps she could find someone else to teach her, someone whose time was less constrained than Rufus.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Didia nodded as she glanced at the garden with sadness. She bet in its heyday this place was beautiful but now its as overrun by weeds and dead flowers littered the borders.  The fountain had long been clogged up and the benches covered in muck. Such a shame. "If you're happy to," She smiled over her shoulder at him, "I'm hardly going to turn you down Rufus and you can guarantee I'll be in the domus every week on a Monday for deliveries so...we could get started there?" She arched a brow. She didn't have long in the mornings, but long enough for a thirty minute conversation if she structured her deliveries right. 

"Or an evening would be even better, you could come to the insula although there's some...colourful characters who live in our building." She chuckled. She should really think about some sort of social gathering for them all. With the new twins that had moved in, she was sure it would be fun although her parents might murder her if the place got ruined. 

She turned to leave the garden and walk back into the house but as she did her sandal caught on something and she had to reach out to Rufus to steady her balance. "What the..." She muttered and glanced under the swathes of fabric from her palla. This part of flooring wasn't as intricately decorated as the others and was just some flagstones, no intricate mosaic's in sight. One stone's edge was a little lifted above the rest and Didia frowned, immediately getting down on her knees to examine it. She'd been told in one of the other houses she'd delivered at that the rich had some form of fancy underfloor heating - the hypocaust if she remembered rightly (the slave that had told her about it had been incensed because one of the men whose job was to stoke the fire had gone off sick). She glanced at Rufus, "If I was a rich person, and I was fleeing Rome and couldn't take all my valuables with me and had to find somewhere quickly to store them, where nobody else would think..." She glanced down at the loose stone again, "Help me lift this?" 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"I can't be guaranteed to get evenings regularly," Rufus pointed out, although surely Didia would be aware of that even if she didn't know the precise nature of Rufus' job in the house that meant he was to be available to be called at any hour of the day or night. "Even a few minutes a week will be better than nothing, and you're intelligent - it shouldn't be any problem for you once you know the basics. Like I said, you can practise when you're out and about, anyway - there's writing all over the place from graffiti to temple inscriptions."

The garden looked a sad sort of place now, overgrown and with weeds making themselves known, winding around columns and creeping to poke up between flagstones.

"The hypocaust? Nobody would look there," he added, realising what she meant and hurrying over to help. The pallium he was wearing was in the way and so he pulled it off, more comfortable in just his tunic if physical exertion were to be needed.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Didia nodded and took one edge of the loose stone, gesturing for Rufus to grab the other. She groaned through gritted teeth as they slowly wiggled the stone out of the gap. It was a flagstone the size of her forearm squared and was as heavy as anything she'd ever tried to move. Her arms were shaking by the time they finally managed  to manoeuvre it out of its gap. They were left with a dark gap, filled with dust and she coughed, sitting back on her heels as she tried to catch her breath. She was a fit woman - somebody that walked all  over the city and loaded and unloaded produce into carts and stalls for a living couldn't not be fit, but she was still exhausted. 

Once the dust had settled and she'd regained her breath, she glanced upwards to Rufus. What if they found something? 

Before she lost her nerve, she moved to lie on the floor and swung her arm down into the hole to fish around. She was disappointed for a moment as all she felt was the stack of tiles of the hypocaust system. She sighed and shook her head at Rufus before her eyes widened and her fingers caught on something else. Oh gods please don't let it be a rat. But as her fingers continued to probe she found a seam and realised it was a bag. With effort and another groan through her teeth, she managed to fish it out and as she did, the bag split. More gold coins than she'd ever seen in her life spilled out on the floor between them. 

Now what?!

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Oh... Juno!"

Didia's instincts had been right. She lay down on the ground to fumble around in the hole revealed by moving the chunk of stone, as if she knew precisely what she was looking for and where to find it. And as she lifted the bag out, the seams gave way and it spilled coins, bright shining gold coins, into the grass at his feet.

A half dozen or so of those could buy Rufus. The bagful could probably buy half the slave market.

"Well. Now what?"

It wasn't as though they had a good explanation for having come into such riches so fast - especially Rufus, but presumably Didia.

"I don't suppose you can say you won it betting on the chariot races?"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Didia choked and exclaimed before she could stop herself, "Shit!" That was more money than she'd seen in her life, and she stared up at Rufus wide-eyed in equal measures of fear and awe. Her first instinct was to push the collection back down into the hole from whence it came and she did with a few coins, as if the very fact that she'd seen it would taint her. But she stopped herself quickly and sat back on her heels. 

"No...no I don't suppose I can." She winced and glanced repeatedly between Rufus and the coins. She dropped her voice to a whisper, as if there was somebody waiting to catch her out just around the corner. "We...we could bury it again?" She glanced at him. The money would change her family's life; they could move out if the insula into a little house somewhere, her father could retire, she could have a dowry...but it would change Rufus' even more. He could be free. She swallowed, "But...but it could do so much good..." She buried her head in her hands. If they had been found to have stolen the money they'd be executed before they'd even protested at a trial. 

"You're a good person," She glanced up at Rufus from between her fingers, "What would you do?" 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

There was one problem with such riches - well, two. One, it wasn't theirs (but the real owner hadn't come back here in years) and two, all the coins Rufus could see were gold. Sestertii or even denarii would be easier to explain - easier to spend - being silver coins, but gold... Rufus hadn't ever even seen a gold aureus from across the room, let alone from as close as this.

"Um. I'm not that good," he said. Even one of those coins would put him further ahead in his savings than he could probably get in a year. One aureus was a hundred sestertii - the largest value coin he had in his peculium was a denarius, and one of these was twenty-five times that. It was a fortune that shone up at them from the ground.

"I don't know. I'm not good enough to want to leave it all, but I'm not criminal enough to want to take it." If they took it and were caught, he'd end up on a cross without a trial. Didia would at least have a trial, of sorts.

"It belongs to the owner of the house, though. Um. Could you even explain away a few of these coins? We could take a couple and leave the rest - a few would be easier than all of it, after all."

 

@Sara

Edited October 25, 2020 by Sharpie

[Sara]

Didia groaned audibly and then moved to sit cross-legged. This would be a lengthy discussion, she could feel it, and her feet were going numb. She removed her fingers from her face though and winced a little at his words. Whatever he said, Rufus was one of the best people she knew. The fact that he was even debating the merits of taking the money versus leaving it, spoke to that. 

"I...don't think so. Not easily." She sighed. Her father paid her a wage for her work in the business, but it was a pittance compared to the amount on the floor now. It would take her years and years and years to save up even one of the coins, she was sure of it. Especially at the rate she spent her money (what point was there in saving it?). "But you could...you could say you went to a banker and converted some of your savings into an aureus so it was easier to store?" It might just work. But people often called her naive. 

"But...I could take one or two, I suppose. For a rainy day?" She looked up at Rufus with a bit of a wince, as if trying to justify thievery, "In case anything happens to the business...it'd be enough to keep us afloat..." Because really...what else was she going to spend it on?

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"One of those is a hundred sestertii," he said, giving voice to his thoughts of a moment before. She had sat down in the ground, arranging herself to sit cross-legged, and Rufus felt he was towering over her, which wasn't helping his train of thought. He dropped to the ground to have this conversation more on the same level. "If we're trying to justify how to explain it away how we got one of these, then the only thing we can do is put it all back and not take anything."

Which was the most honest course, but also hurt because he knew how that sort of money could change his life, and presumed it would be the same for Didia - if they had an honest, justifiable explanation for coming into possession of it, which they didn't because they were trespassing even being in this house at all.

If Didia could ever buy the house they were sitting in, she would then have the right to all its contents, including that money, but somehow Rufus couldn't see that happening.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Didia glanced between him and the coins and then sighed. She could see the hurt on his face, and wished she'd never brought him here (although, granted, she didn't know such temptation lurked underneath the floor!). "You're right." She nodded and glanced up at him with a soft smile. "Besides, we don't need it now." She wouldn't have the faintest clue what to spend it on, and with Rufus' station as a slave he hardly needed the luxuries that even one of the coins could buy. 

She began scooping back the golden coins into the torn sack, their glinting surfaces falling through her fingers as she did. To try and lighten the mood, she glanced up at him and then reached out to nudge him in the leg in a playful way, to get him to help. 

"But," She said as she continued to shove the unimaginable wealth back into the bag, "You know...if you...sorry," She chuckled, "When you are freed - you better knock on my door with a big grin on your face, we'll come here, take a handful of the coins and then get a boat from Ostia down to Napoli and rent a villa and live like the rich for a week, on  holiday. We'll say we're foreign senatore and have come to enjoy the delights of Italia." She chuckled as she worked. "Deal?" 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"There's not much point putting them back in that bag, not with the state it's in now," Rufus pointed out. "Though I don't suppose we'll be able to find anything better, that'll keep them together. Oh!" 

He shifted so that he could unwrap the pallium he was wearing. "This might do - and why don't you take one or two of them, for... for a rainy day?" 

He spread the cloth out and began heaping coins into it, many time his own worth pouring through his fingers and shining in the sunlight as he did so. 

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"Ever the smart one, Rufus." She chuckled and took the pallium as he unwrapped himself from it, decanting handfuls and handfuls of the coins into it. There were too many for her to even consider counting. 

But she shook her head at his suggestion. "Nope. No, if you won't, then I won't. Besides," She sat back on her heels, "If there's ever an emergency I know where to come for some gold. I mean it looks like it's been buried for at least a decade, and nobody comes in here and thinks to link under the floor. I'm sure it'll still be here in another decade." She offered a slight smile and glanced at him cautiously. "And I have a good feeling, you know, that we will take that trip to Napoli one day." Which was another way of saying, I'm sure your freedom is coming some day soon. 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Well, if - when - I do, you'll be the first person I tell," he told her, with a shy smile. He held one of the coins up, looking at the portrait and inscription. It was at least a decade old, but gold was gold, and an aureus was worth quite a bit regardless of whose head was stamped on it.

"They'll all think you're a fine rich lady, coming from Rome," he told her. "We'll take that trip - though you might end up with other people in your life who might not want you to, not with a nobody freedman." 

She'd said before that there wasn't really anybody she was interested in, not like that, but surely no man could leave her if he had a chance with her, and she should be allowed the chance of happiness in her life. He couldn't see her waiting until he was freed, somehow, even if she was interested in him in that way at all, which she probably wasn't - and he liked her too much as a friend to introduce awkwardness by asking her whether she'd consider him like that. The answer would have to be no, anyway, before he had his freedom.

 

@Sara

Edited November 22, 2020 by Sharpie

[Sara]

"Good!" She said with a grin, "After we're finished here I'll take you home, nobody'll be in at this time and you can see where the other half of Rome's population live, and that way, when you have good news, you'll know where I live and can come and visit." She wondered if he'd be horrified. Even as a slave, he lived in a fancy house. She lived in a squat, upper story apartment with her whole family. She could just imagine the nobles wrinkling their noses at the thought of the 'squalor'. She tried to keep it as neat and tidy as she could, but it was bound not to live up to the standards of those that had spent time in the great and the good houses of Rome. 

She eyed him as he tried to comment lightly that she might not be able to take the trip. Ah. She suddenly felt a flush come to her cheeks and shrugged. 

"I don't wish to be with a man that forbids me from seeing friends." She countered, but continued, "And I'm not sure if I even want another man, the last was such a disappointment." She grinned. "So no need to get all moody about it," She reached to nudge him. Of course she'd had dalliances, and flirted...Theo was the latest although it felt...different with him. But there was something about Rufus too. They were very different, but neither better or worse than the other. She tried not to dwell on it. 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"I'm sure I wasn't getting moody," he said, and dropped a couple of coins in her lap. "There. So you can take that trip without anyone telling you that you can't!"

His smile grew. He'd seen some of the insulae but never from up close, and his previous home had been a humble villa near the sea, with its own small farm around it, nothing like the huge sprawling estates his current master probably owned. The prospect of seeing an insula didn't worry him; it wasn't as if the part of the house inhabited by the slaves could compare with the fancy mosaics and fine frescoes of the public areas of the house, even if that's where Rufus spent most of his time while serving his master. 

"Whatever happens, Didia Nonia, I hope you're happy," he told her quietly.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"Oh and I'm quite sure you were." She retorted back with an arched eyebrow and then, without warning, launched the coins back at him and into his lap. "And if you don't take some I'm not taking some! We're both the owners of this gold, so we should divide it equally when the time comes." She narrowed her eyes on him and crossed her arms across her chest, signalling that she wouldn't be moved. 

She blinked, however, at his odd little comment and frowned with a quizzical look at him. "Why...why do you say that?" She arched a brow, "I'm happy now." She nudged him again, "What more could I girl want, really?" She had no great ambitions in life, no desire to be famous or rich, she just wanted to be happy and for her family to be happy and besides her quarrelsome eldest brother, she had exactly that.

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"You're a good friend, Didia," he told her, and shrugged. "I don't know. You just... Didn't sound happy when you spoke of maybe being married, that's all." 

He was pretty sure that the majority of people in the city wouldn't be so insistent on cutting a slave in on the treasure they'd found, much less giving them equal shares in it. Though, to be fair, right now that was theoretical or hypothetical shares in a very real treasure. If they could buy the house, there would be no question about who owned it but as it was...

"If you take two now, I'll take one, that's all I can reasonably manage to explain away later, I think." And one coin in the secret hoard he was saving was better than a hundred times his own value in gold under the floor of a deserted house.

@Sara

[Sara]

"Oh..." She sighed and tucked a strand of dark black hair back into the linen strip that held it all up. "I'm happy I just...my first marriage was not ideal," She chuckled, "And I have no desire to go through it again with the wrong man. I guess I'm lucky though," She shrugged, "I can marry because I like the bloke at least, I don't reckon the people that live in these sorts of grand houses can marry for love or because they want to." She wrinkled her nose, "I'd hate that. To be foisted onto somebody else just because it's good for the family. My last marriage wasn't ideal, but I at least liked him when we got married." 

She rolled her eyes again at his bargaining. "I always thought you were clever Rufus, but this is taking a while for you to get. You can take one, and I'll take one. Okay?" She reached across to his hand and pried open his fingers, taking one of the coins out. She stashed it away in the little pouch at her belt and then sat back on her heels, w with a contended sigh. "Well...at least we know where to come if there's another civil war or riot in Rome. Nobody's been here for years and we'll be the richest people left in the city." She chuckled. 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

Rufus grinned. "I'm glad you're not most people, Duda Nonia," he told her, carefully stowing his one aureus away where nobody would get at it. 

"If there's another civil war, you'll do all right, I'm sure - the people who don't are the senators who get caught up in everything. At least, from what I can work out, that's how it goes."

He was sure she'd find someone who would treat her right. He hoped she would, anyway. She was too thoughtful and kind a person not to, after all. "I'm sorry he wasn't right, he must have been an idiot not have treated you the way you deserve," he told her. 

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"Oh I'll be fine I'm sure. What would anybody care about a market stall girl in a war?" She snorted. She wasn't important enough to be worried. The only plebs that would get harmed were those either foolish enough to get involved in the inevitable rioting, or unlucky enough to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and if it ever happened (though she prayed to the Gods it wouldn't), she was resolved to be in neither situation. 

She did cast a worried glance at Rufus though, "But you'd be alright? Isn't your dominus important?" She bit her lip, "Would he make you...stay with him? if he was in danger?" it was all hypothetical of course. Rome was peaceful, with no sign of imminent trouble brewing as far as she was aware, but then fortunes could change in an instant and the whole empire could be cast into disarray. 

She smiled at his comment on her husband, a blush colouring her cheeks, but said nothing. She swallowed the butterflies back down into her stomach. 

 

TAG: @Sharpie

[Sharpie]

He was glad she'd be all right should anything disturb the peace of the city. As for himself, well... "I'll be alright," he said, though he couldn't be completely sure of that. "I don't know - but things aren't likely to end up like that. Quintus Caesar is a good emperor, there's no need for anyone to revolt. He's got a firm grip on the reins, and there isn't the sort of space for power-hungry people to rise to the top."

He hoped, anyway. Slaves in his position were expected to be loyal to the death. There wasn't the instability that would lead to riots and revolts and coups and civil war, so it was unlikely Rufus would face that kind of test.

He could hope, anyway.

"I'd ask if anyone's caught your eye but I wouldn't want to pry, or to embarrass you," he said. "So, let's talk about something else if you'd rather."

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Didia chuckled, "You don't want to ask or pry, but you did ask..." She grinned and shook her head, a faint rosy hue coming to her cheeks. "It's fine I..." was it fine? She suddenly felt very oddly embarrassed over her silly little crush on a neighbour. Which almost definitely wasn't reciprocated and definitely wasn't real. One day shed see Theo as a friend, somebody that made her laugh and the next moment she had flashes of 'what if...' but that wasn't love, or lust, was it? It was definitely nothing. Especially when she had vaguely similar thoughts over the man sat opposite her now. 

"I haven't found anybody yet." She affirmed with a shrug that attempted to bely nonchalance. "Too high standards me, that's my problem." She grinned again and got to work pushing some of the dust back from where it had been dragged about with the bag and the coins. "What about you?" She didn't know why she asked, it just sort...blurted out. "I mean? Any ladies you're after? I know some masters let their slaves have partners and things..." Although she wasn't sure how it worked in Rufus' household.

 

TAG: @Sharpie