Chapter 9
Marius had reached his horse again and blood was dripping down the side of his face while he mounted and turned the horse back towards the hillside. He had been stupid going after the stranger in the woods alone by himself and unarmed. But he had survived and now he could bring himself to safety and alert the armed men to go out hunting.
He might not consider himself a man of action and he loved the quill more than the sword, but he was a Roman and this demanded action. He needed a sword and some company and then he would go out hunting. Nobody took a swing at him to survive and tell the tale!
As the young man rode back to the villa, he grew angrier and angrier, with himself, with the stranger and with the guards who clearly had not been doing their job. A stranger on the land could mean anything and the familia needed to be safe.
When he rode through the gate of the villa, a stable hand caught his almost rearing horse and stopped him. Marius jumped down and shouted for armed men to come or somebody to fetch them. But he suddenly felt dizzy and lost his balance. One of the slaves stood nearby and caught him. There was shouting in the court, people were calling out for help, that the young master was injured.
Only moments later Aulus appeared, dressed in a hastily donned tunica. He was closely followed by Gaius, his personal servant, who was still in the process of putting on his tunica.
“What happened,” bellowed Aulus. When he turned to his adopted son, he noticed the blood at the side of his head and immediately took a closer look to it.
“Some guy in the woods,” said Marius, “but grant me some armed men and I will hunt him down,” said Marius.
“No,” said Aulus while his fingers moved the hair of the young man aside to discover he had a nasty cut in his scalp. “You,” he said to one of the slaves, “take him to the kitchen and have his wound cleaned.”
“I am fine, uncle, I mean father” Marius protested and tried to get up but he was a bit unstable.
“I will deal with this myself,” said Aulus with a tight face. The pater familias was clearly very angry about this.
“Someone get me a sword!” he shouted while he went up to the horse of Marius and climbed on it. Gaius had already slipped back into the house and quickly appeared again, carrying his master’s cape and a belt with his sword. While he helped Aulus put those on, more orders were issued. Somebody was sent for the armed men that were apparently patrolling near the house of Verius. But two strong men in the villa were more than prepared to get on horseback as well and help their master, carrying spears and clubs. They were liberti of the household and always ready to defend the honour of the familia. Soon the party went off, just when Domitia appeared.
“What’s going on,” demanded the lady of the house to know. Marius told her, filled in with reports from a slave and Domitia then took it upon herself to bring Marius to the kitchen.
“Cornelia,” she shouted when they entered the kitchen, “bring some boiled water and clean cloth. We need to clean his wound.”
“Yes ma’am,” said the matron, who stood up from where she was, sitting on a bench with Julia and Amabilia.
“You can also help,” said Domitia in a firm tone to Julia and Amabilia. “Get me some needle and thread, we probably need to stitch this. She didn’t notice at this point which state the two women were in. Julia got up, but she told Amabilia to stay put. As Julia left, both Cornelia and Domitia started cleaning the wound of Marius, washing the dried blood from his hair and cleaning the wound at the side of his skull.
Marius winced a few times as it hurt, but that was all. In the meantime he was staring at Amabilia. He had never seen the girl before and he had to blink a few times, wondering if he was dreaming. She was by far the prettiest woman he had ever seen and the sight of such beauty made him almost forget where he was. He blinked a few more times, took a deep sigh and drank in the beautiful shape of the girl: her pretty nose, her beautiful eyes, her soft and sensitive mouth, her hair which had become partly undone and was hanging in curls down her front side, her thin neck and her slender hands which moved with such grace as she tried to put her hair back in order. He also noticed tear stains on her cheeks and that her hands were slightly trembling.
“I am fine,” he smiled at her when she looked back at him, “you don’t need to cry for me.”
“Who is crying?” asked Domitia and as she looked at Amabilia, she finally noticed the girl was still sitting there.
“Why are you still sitting there? Go help Julia find something to stich up his wound.”
“I already have it, mistress,” said Julia who just entered and handed a bundle with needles and very finely spun yarn.
“Here,” said Domitia, showing Julia where the wound on the head of her son was, “stitch him up,” she continued and then let Julia do her job. Most women would know how to do this, but Julia was the best. In the meantime Domitia went over to Amabilia and looked her over.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. She had also noticed how the girl seemed upset about something and she could not imagine those were tears on behalf of Marius, who she barely knew. The girl looked up and tried to hide her misery by smiling, but she failed as she gave a little sob at the same time.
Amabilia felt mostly upset about the fact that she had been part of the one thing that had upset her mistress this morning. She had asked if Amabilia had heard anything about the slave her husband slept with. And now Amabilia herself had taken the cock of the master in her mouth and swallowed his seed. She had been worried sick in the past half hour how she could ever face her mistress again and now she was here already, staring her down with a puzzled look on her face.
“I am fine, mistress,” she tried to say, but her voice was unsteady and a tear dripped from her eyes.
“Nonsense,” said Domitia who took the girl by the hand and pulled her to her feet.
“What is upsetting you so?” she said sternly while she started to adjust the girl’s hair and clothes. But as soon as she did, Amabilia’s dress fell open and there was a wet spot on her chest, just above her perky little breasts.
“And what’s this?” asked the lady as she wiped the slippery substance from her skin. She could already smell it and held the finger with the lubricating substance in front of the girl’s eyes.
“What is this? Who’s seed have you been carrying on you? Where did this come from?”
“I… erm… oh…. Uh…” Amabilia was at a complete loss for words and instead started crying again.
Domitia was losing her patience and after wiping her finger on the girl’s face she slapped her.
“You should go help her,” said Marius when Julia finished sewing him up. Julia nodded and quickly went over to Domitia, who was now yelling at the weeping Amabilia.
“It wasn’t her fault,” said Julia, head bowed and eyes turned down. “There was nothing she could do. She was with me when… Gaius summoned us.”
“Gaius?” said the mistress out loud.
“I was there too,” said Cornelia, “both of them were summoned and I had to do all the work here in the kitchen myself. I really would wish somebody had more consideration with me sometimes!”
“Shut up!” shouted the mistress to the matron. Domitia then turned back to Julia and Amabilia, looking from one to the other, while Cornelia was muttering to herself in the background.
“I see,” said the lady of the house and she suddenly reached for Amabilia and while holding her arms with one hand, she reached with her other under her dress to use her fingers on the girl’s crotch.
“She was not fucked,” said Julia quickly while Amabilia was yelping and crying. “I was,” she added as confession, and by this time she too started to tremble a bit, dreading the response of the wife of the pater familias. “Amabilia was just there to help me.”
Domitia gave Amabilia a push so she fell back on the bench and stared in anger at her. She understood all too well what had happened and though her husband had every right to do as he wished with any of the slaves, she felt too infuriated and humiliated to calm down. She would certainly have a word with him when he came back from the hunt, but for now these girls needed to learn their place.
“Take her to the stable master,” she snarled at Julia, “and tell him to whip you both with a knotted rope.” Julia shivered and tears now also filled her eyes.
“Yes mistress,” she said with a soft voice and she bent towards Amabilia to help her up, but the girl had bent over forward and was crying loudly, overwhelmed with grief and misery at this point. Domitia abruptly turned away and swiftly walked towards the door. But before she left, she turned around once more and brusquely hissed “Twenty strokes on the tits! Both of you!”