The Barbarian's Mistress Read online

  Vali stared at the girl in shock. Where had that idea come from? He wasn’t old enough, nor experienced enough, to manage a property, even in the farthest reaches of the empire.

  Bibulus must have felt the same astonishment, but he hid it well. ‘My darling lamb, I know you think highly of Vali. He is a very talented young scribe, and valuable assistant, but he is a slave, a very young slave. I cannot entrust my holdings to someone like him.’

  ‘But father, you could free him. And he might be young, but he has sorted your finances out far better than anyone before him. You have said as much to me.’

  Bibulus looked skyward for patience. ‘To place him in such a position would do him a disservice. Those who worked under him would not respect him, and he would have nothing but trouble and dissent. It takes more to manage land than a good head for figures.’

  ‘But he’s the son of a Norse chieftain. He was raised to manage his father’s land…’

  ‘Young mistress, please, your father is right. I am not the person for such a responsible role. I am merely a slave,’ Vali interrupted hastily, seeing Bibulus’ suspicious expression.

  ‘But mother will sell you to that horrible Julia Agrippina. I heard her talking.’ The girl’s eyes grew large with concern as she looked from Vali to her father and back.

  ‘Why would your mother want to sell Vali? He is the best assistant I’ve ever had.’

  ‘She gets annoyed when he won’t do things for her, when he has so much work to do for you. She says she bought him, and so she can dispose of him. Please father, don’t let her.’

  Bibulus frowned, and rubbed at his receding hairline. ‘Your mother is just venting. She makes all kinds of threats that she doesn’t mean, lamb. You have too soft a heart to be worried about every slave we own. Come come, calm yourself. Let us go and find Ninia, and have her bring us something cool to drink. I’m quite parched after my day.’

  ‘But father, she means it. Please, you can’t let her do it…’

  ‘Enough of this, Anniana. I will not have you pleading for a slave. It is time you started to realise your position in this household. Slaves are not your friends, they are your property. Treat them as anything more and they will no longer respect you. In a few years you will marry and have a household of your own. How can you expect to run it successfully if you are at the beck and call of those who are meant to serve you?’

  ‘But father, you don’t know what she’s like when you aren’t here. Slaves have feelings too, and mother treats them so cruelly. They are all scared of her, except Vali. And that’s probably why she wants to get rid of him.’

  ‘Enough, daughter. I will hear no more of this. Come. Vali has work to do, and I need a drink.’

  With that, Bibulus drew his daughter from the stuffy little office, leaving the stunned Vali staring after them.

  ‘He rejected the idea out of hand,’ Anniana said as she threw herself down onto the stone bench set into the alcove at the far end of the garden peristylium. From this sheltered spot, which the friends had managed to claim as their domain since they were very young girls, they could watch the comings and goings of the household without being seen. The vined trellises provided the perfect cover.

  ‘I told you as much. Vali is a slave, and a young one. And he belongs to your mother.’

  ‘Technically all the slaves in the paterfamilias belong to father.’ She spoke up more fiercely than was necessary. Ninia knew as well as she did the workings of the household.

  ‘Technically. But you know your mother is in charge of the purchase of house slaves. It is her domain.’ Ninia might be small and dark, compared to her young mistress, but she was feisty. And she knew that she could argue freely with Anniana without being punished for disrespect.

  ‘Vali isn’t a house slave,’ her mistress argued sulkily. ‘He’s father’s assistant.’

  ‘In this house. Give up Anni, you know you can’t win. Your mother will do as she chooses.’

  Anniana huffed loudly, and crossed her arms over her budding breasts. Ninia couldn’t help smiling. Her mistress was her best friend, but for all her sweet temperament, she could be amazingly stubborn. It was probably the gods’ gift to their sorely tested, beloved child. If not for her determination to not let Publius win, she would have been a shattered wreck by now.

  Ninia shuddered at the thought of her mistress’ brother. Short, weedy and sly, he had been a thorn in the household’s side from the moment he could walk. How many slaves had been punished for his crimes over the years? How much pain and fear had he been responsible for, with his penchant for torture?

  But lucky for the rest of them, from the time it became apparent that their master’s heart belonged to his youngest child, Anniana had borne the brunt of Publius’ cruelty. And for such a sweet and fragile creature, she had held up well, over the years.

  ‘You know I can’t give up. He’s so good, Nin. I know Annia says awful things about him. About what he does to mother. But I can’t believe it. She’s just trying to get at me. He doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.’

  ‘Did you see that huge pimple on her chin this morning?’ Ninia tried to distract her friend by pointing out one of her sister’s flaws. Annia Major was no beauty at the best of times, but when she broke out in a fresh batch of pimples, she was a truly horrendous sight.

  Not falling for Ninia’s ploy, Anniana stayed on topic. ‘He wouldn’t hurt anyone.’

  ‘He would if he was told to. He has to do what he’s told, as we all do.’ She sighed, uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was going. Anniana was too innocent to know about her mother’s proclivities.

  ‘But why would she make him do something like that? She’s the one who likes to hurt people, not the other way around.’

  Ninia understood what drove their mistress, slaves always did. But she couldn’t explain it to her friend. Salvia was her mother, after all.

  ‘The dream is getting more intense, Nin. I see him being dragged away by monsters, as he reaches out to me. But I can’t get to him. I … can’t save him… because mother steps in the way. And I hear her laugh. That cruel laugh she uses when…’

  ‘You should have woken me if you had a nightmare.’

  ‘I’m used to it. There was no reason to disturb your sleep.’

  Ninia prepared to argue, but thought better of it. You couldn’t change a tiger’s stripes, so why try to make the selfless Anniana think of herself for once.

  ‘I’m frightened, Nin. I’m frightened for Vali.’

  ‘Vali is a man, and he can look after himself. They say he was once one of those cruel barbarians from the north.’

  ‘He was fifteen when he was captured. He told me so. How much of a barbarian can a boy be?’

  ‘Your brother is fourteen.’

  Anniana stared at her in shock, her ripe lips forming a moue of displeasure. ‘Vali is nothing like Publius!’

  ‘All I’m saying is that you don’t have to waste your kind heart on him. He’s a survivor, that one. He’ll do whatever he has to…’

  ‘Why don’t you like him? He’s always kind to you?’

  ‘I don’t dislike him. But he’s too good looking, and he knows it. And he doesn’t make friends with the rest of us. Thinks he’s superior because he… he just does. Your mother has had slaves like him before. They’re always a little bit broken. Not quite right.’

  ‘Vali isn’t broken!’

  ‘Not that you can see. Not when he’s around you or the master. It’s better that he’s sent away, Anni, you’re falling in love with him and …’

  ‘I am not!’

  ‘You are too. You think I don’t watch you mooning over him when he’s not looking. He’s big and strong and handsome, but he’d never be interested in you. He sees you as a child.’

  ‘You’re just being mean. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I’m going to play my lyre.’

  And with that Anniana flounced off, her brown hair, shot with warm chestnut highlights,
flowing loose behind her.

  ‘Your kind heart will destroy you one day…’ Ninia said softly to her beloved friend, knowing she couldn’t hear her.

  She packed up her sewing with a heavy heart, and prepared to follow her mistress. By the time Ninia settled in at her side again, Anniana would have forgotten her momentary annoyance with her. She could never stay angry with anyone, no matter how much they might deserve it.

  It was her best quality, and her greatest curse.

  Chapter Two

  20 August 79 CE, Rome, LATIUM

  Vali spat out a mouthful of blood as he carefully eyed his opponent – a gladiator armoured and equipped as a thraex warrior. The brawny male before him was scarred on every uncovered surface of his body, and his dark skin was tanned even darker by long hours of practice in the sun-scorched arena of the ludus, the school for gladiators. Bloodshot eyes studied him coldly, weighing up his strengths and possible weaknesses.

  The thraex’s last blow to Vali’s head, with the side of his wooden sword, had driven Vali’s teeth into the soft flesh of his mouth, cutting him. Hence the blood. The metallic taste was not new to him. Years of fighting, as a youth in his homeland, and then in the last six months in the ludus, had made the taste as familiar to him as food.

  He motioned for the thraex to approach him, staying light on his bare feet. The man lunged forward, preparing to heft his sword into Vali’s right arm, to make it useless for manipulating a sword. But Vali twisted to the side, blocking the thrust with his shield. The thud was hard and punishing, and he fell back a step under the pressure.

  Letting his shield fall away to his side, he spun around until his opponent lost his balance. Then he came at him from the opposite direction, striking the other male a sharp blow to his spleen. The man doubled over from the pain.

  A sharp shout had him looking over at the doctores, the teacher in charge of the day’s practice. With a gesture, the man indicated Vali was to come to him. For some reason, his practise was to be curtailed. He didn’t like it. He needed all the practise he could get. An inexperienced gladiator was a dead gladiator. He may have been sold into the gladiatorial theatre by a bitter dowager he couldn’t service, but he wasn’t planning on dying for his lack of libido.

  ‘The Lanista wants you in his office,’ the doctores told him as soon as he reached him.

  Vali broke into a jog to cover the length of the arena as quickly as possible. Whatever this was about, needed to be dealt with fast, so he could get back to training. Although his first match wasn’t yet scheduled, he knew it wouldn’t be long. He might have size and muscle on his side, and half remembered skills from his youth, but that meant little in this world of expert, stylised killers.

  How he killed was as important as the kill itself. If he didn’t give the audience a show, he wouldn’t gain the popularity he needed to win favour. In three years, if he was well supported and won dramatically, he could gain his manumission papers that granted him freedom. He could become a free man for the first time in eight years. Or eleven, by the time he won his freedom. If he survived that long.

  At the end of the arena, he ducked into the cool darkness of the walkway that surrounded the dusty oval. The doors of each gladiator’s cell were left open to let in fresh air. The musty stench of sweat, blood and urine wafted from these rooms, and he knew his wasn’t any different to any of the others. His fastidious cleanliness of his youth had finally been beaten out of him by circumstances. He no longer cared how he looked or smelled. He didn’t even care that his face, once giggled over and called handsome by girls who saw him, was now scarred and swollen from innumerable blows his fish-shaped helmet hadn’t been able to save him from.

  As a murmillio he was only partially armoured. This meant that he had speed, but it also put more emphasis on his shield for protection. His Norse skills with a shield did not suit this kind of fighting. He was having to learn afresh how to wage battles.

  At the small office, Vali slowed to a standstill, panting hard. In the next moment, the lanista owner of the school came out of the room, with a familiar figure at his side. Vali was too stunned to react for a moment. Then, questions began to fight each other for dominance in his confused mind.

  What was Gaius Annius Bibulus doing here? He hadn’t seen his old master in four years. In that time, the man had lost more of his already thinning hair, and he looked to have lost weight. His thin shoulders seemed to be hunched, as if he was an ancient, not someone just approaching his sixtieth year.

  ‘Vali, it is good to see you!’ The man’s eyes drifted away from him, as if he didn’t like to see the mess his face was in.

  ‘Annius Bibulus, I never expected to see you again.’

  ‘Yes, well, it took me some time, but I did finally track you down. Now get rid of that gear, clean yourself up, and come with me.’

  His stunned expression must have registered, for the lanista explained. ‘You belong to the Senator, and your time as a gladiator is over. Be grateful, that pretty face wouldn’t have remained pretty for very much longer.’

  Vali continued to stare at the two men, unable to properly process the news. How could a man he hadn’t seen for four years just walk back into his life and buy him… again. He would rather stay as a gladiator than go back to being the bed slave of Salvia Bibuli. Of all the women he had been forced to bed, she was the one who left the foulest taste in his mouth. His body might have been able to respond to her, unlike his last mistress, but he had hated her more than any other. What she had forced him to do had degraded him. That he had often enjoyed it, humiliated him. No, he would rather stay in the honest world of the gladiator school than go through all that again.

  ‘No.’

  The men stared at him as if he was insane. The lanista cleared his throat nervously, and snapped, ‘You can’t say no. Your master commands you. That is the end to it.’

  ‘My daughter needs you,’ Bibulus said, his voice strained.

  ‘Little Anniana?’

  ‘Yes. Come quickly, there isn’t much time.’

  Vali was moving toward his cell before he had properly processed the new information. He was needed by Anniana. Whatever was happening must be serious for Bibulus to have come for him here. Divesting himself of his equipment, he quickly washed off the worst of the blood and dirt in a bucket, and donned a tunic over his loincloth. Once his sandals were strapped on his feet, he was jogging back to the office and his new master.

  No words were wasted as the two men walked hurriedly away from the school. Vali’s long strides might normally have meant he outdistanced the shorter man, but he was exhausted from his sparring session and still reeling from the change in circumstances. Several times he slowed up, trying to gather his scattered thoughts. Bibulus urged him on.

  Finally, they reached a horse-drawn cisium, and his new master climbed in, directing Vali to do the same. The driver whipped the two horses into a fast trot, and they quickly left the seedier area of the city behind as they headed toward the southern gates of the city.

  This surprised Vali. He had expected to be taken directly to Bibulus’ residence on Palantine Hill above the forum, a place Vali had come to know so well during his time in Rome. How many residences on that hill had he lived in? Six all told, including Bibulus’ own. He wondered what Salvia would say when she saw him looking as he did now. It would probably turn her on – the idea that he had been, even for a short time, a gladiator.

  But the cisium wasn’t heading to Bibulus’ home. Instead, they headed toward Capena Gate, where the poorer residential areas were located, next to the southern edge of the Servian Wall. Filthy, misshapen beggars crouched in corners here, crying for alms from those who passed them by. They were largely ignored, like stray dogs underfoot. The heat and smell of this part of the city was overpowering.

  The vehicle came to a halt outside a lowly home that had a shop front onto the busy street. Bibulus led the way into the dark shop, and through to the atrium of the house itself. There he was
greeted by a serious looking, elderly man who led them into a Tablinum, or reception room, off the atrium.

  Here Bibulus lowered himself onto a couch, and took up a goblet of wine that stood waiting for him. The room was dark and small, tiny in comparison with his house further up the hill. Vali didn’t understand what they were doing here, and what this had to do with Anniana.

  ‘My wife is planning to divorce me. If she does that she will take Anniana with her. It is her right under the marriage contract. Unless I can marry my daughter off to a suitable husband before that time. If Salvia has her way, my sweet little girl will be given to a man not much younger than I am. A disgusting pig of a man who will treat her badly, I have no doubt.’

  Vali took in his words, assessing the information. He still didn’t understand what he was there for.

  ‘I deeply regret letting Salvia sell you off as she did. I had other concerns at the time, and it seemed the path of least resistance. Since then my holdings have suffered. No one was as good at handling my finances as you. That is as it is, and I cannot undo what has been done. Anniana never forgave me, I must admit. She knew better than I did the nature of her mother. If I’d paid attention to her that day in my office, things might have turned out very differently. But that is as it is.’ He shifted uncomfortably on the horse hair couch. It was obviously not up to the standard he was used to.

  Vali shifted his stance too, transferring his weight from one leg to the other, as if preparing for a fight. He studied Bibulus as he would an opponent, looking for strengths and weakness.

  ‘You are the only one I can think to trust with my daughter’s safety. She must disappear tonight, before my wife has a chance to gather her seven citizens together, and make the announcement of her divorce. I want you to take her to Pompeii. There is a young nobleman called Gnaeus Papirius Severus there. He has asked for Anniana’s hand, and she is fond of him.

  ‘Up until now, I considered her too young to marry. But with her mother taking her current position, I have no other recourse open to me. She must get to him, and complete the marriage contract immediately. I have already sent the signed contract with the dowry by special messenger. It went by sea two days ago, and should be there tomorrow. I should be able to keep Salvia from realising Anniana’s missing until the contracts are signed at the other end. All that will then be required will be Anniana’s physical presence to complete the marriage.