Slave Girl: Chapter 50 (Patreon)

50 chapters.  Nearly 100,000 words!  Not bad for something that was originally started as a short.  lol  I hope everybody is enjoying the pace.  I have been loving the journey so far.  Thanks for reading.

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Except for the quality of the road and the lighter traffic that evening passes much like any other.  We make good time through miles of farms and vineyards before we come across a path leading off into a dense thicket of lush green trees and foliage with a massive old cypress tree right in the middle.  I go to walk by it but Rosa places a hand on my arm.

“Mmm?”

She peers down the narrow path.  “Here.  Can we rest here Master?”

Looking off to the West I see the sun about to dip under the horizon.  We would be loosing light soon and being off of the easily traversed Appian meant night travel would be that much harder.  The thicket, while sizable, was surrounded by cultivated land on all sides.  There was a very slim chance of any predator or bandit group making their home here.  And being away from any farm or villa meant no rude awakenings from the locals.

“Perfect.”

To my surprise Rosa leads the way.  Walking cautiously, alert to danger, but seemingly drawn forward by a keen curiosity.  I follow close behind scooping up old dry twigs and branches along the way for a fire.  The trail ends up being a path to nowhere.  In the center of the thicket it just ends in a small clearing at the base of the might evergreen.  It towered over us like a steep green mountain, it’s trunk so thick that Rosa and I together wouldn’t be even close to getting our arms around it.  We look up at the behemoth.

“Wow.”  I say.

Rosa giggles.  “Hello old timer.”  She says.  “Hope you don’t mind us sleeping by your feet tonight.”

I smile and shake my head.  Setting down the pack I pile what wood I had and head out for more.  There was plenty to find around the edge of the clearing.  

“I saw some rabbit pellets back along the trail.  I’m gonna put out a few snares before we lose our light completely.”

“Good idea!”  Rosa says, then continues to address the old tree.  “I’m sorry old lord.  I don’t have my flute to play for you today.  Perhaps my voice will do?”

“You think this is another sacred grove?”

“Yeah.”  She says brightly, looking up through the boughs of the towering tree.  “I think so.  I think he’s close.  It…feels the same, doesn’t it?”

“Uh, I guess.”  I shrug.  “Could be for another god.”

“No, I don’t think so.  This is Silvanus’ tree.”  She says with an odd surety as she runs her fingers over the rough gray bark of the trunk.  “I’ll feel better knowing he’s watching over us.”

“Well…good.”  Odd as it was for a lifelong city girl, Rosa seemed to have found something in Silvanus and I wanted to encourage it.  Anything that made her feel more at home in the country was a good thing.  “Maybe take a cone.  We can plant a seed from it when we get home, like I’m doing with those lemon seeds.”

“That’s a wonderful idea!”  She says.  “I’m going to sing for him and pray for safe passage through the wild lands.”

“Good plan.”  I look at my slave then quip.  “Hey…and tell him we’re hungry too.  We could use another bounty of food.  A nice fat hare would do nicely.”

Taking my words to heart she replies.  “Okay Master, I’ll try.”

“I wasn’t actually serious.”  I say, but Rosa was already singing gaily and dancing around the tree.  “Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

Working quickly I am able to get two snares set and get the fire going before our surroundings descend into pitch dark.  Under the boughs of the huge tree and surrounded by woods the light of the moon and stars had no chance of reaching us.  Rosa and I sit side by side, me watching the hypnotic flickering flame and Rosa fiddling with the bracelet Drusilla had given her.

“How long until we get a rabbit?”  She asks.  “I’m hungry.”

“If we even get one, which is unlikely, not until morning.  They’ll be sleeping right now.”

“Mmm.”

We were both tired yet not quite ready for sleep.  The night was warm, the breeze soft, and the pleasant aromas of evergreen and campfire surrounds us.  It is nice to be able to enjoy some quiet time, an opportunity to let our guard down to think, unwind and introspect.  No walking or fishing or teasing or sex, just peaceful comfortable together time.  I am not sure if it was her getting more used to camping wild or the presence of the big cypress but Rosa is more at ease than I would have expected.  Or perhaps she was simply lost in thought.  I slip my arm around her and she shifts in even closer, pressing right up against my side.  In her fingers she continues to turn and spin the gift she had received, the silver glimmering in the yellow firelight, looking at it without really looking at it.

“Are you thinking about Drusilla?”  I ask.

“No.”  She whispers and rests her head against me.  Assuming she didn’t wish to share her thoughts I don’t follow up, but after a time she continues.  “No.  I’m…thinking about Danae.”

Danae, her sister.  In all of our time together she had only once brought up her sister’s name, and that was in the context of telling me about her parents’ deaths.  It was a topic she simply never brought up, until now.

“Did she have a bracelet like that?”

“No.”  She laughs sadly.  “She would have hated this.  Too common, she would have said.  She wore nothing less than gold.”  She looks up.  “She would have hated all of this.  The travel.  The hardship.  The walking.  She would have insisted on a chariot at least.  Of course…she never would have put herself in that slave market.  She was too smart, too proud, too strong to give up like I did.”  I give her a supportive squeeze.  She sighs and looks back down to the ring of silver.  “A prideful woman who enjoyed her comforts and luxuries.  She would have hated this.”

“She was wealthy?”

“No, but her patrons were.  They loved to lavish her with gifts to compete for her attention and she enjoyed receiving them.  She was a Meretrix as well.”  Rosa falls quiet though I knew she had more to say.  I hold her close and let her speak on her own time.  The next thing I hear is a sob, a sob of raw soul searing anguish.  “I miss her so much Quin.”  

I pull my Lady in to cradle her as she had done for me so many times.  The pain in her weeping voice told me that Danae was not still back in Alexandria.  Rosa’s sister, like her parents before her, had crossed over the Styx.

“I’m sorry.”  I whisper as I stroke her long hair and soothe her and hold her tight.  “I am so sorry.”

“I miss her so much.”  She grips the bracelet with all of her strength.  “It hurts Quin.  It…it’s been over a year…it never stops…hurting.”

“I know.  I know Rosa.”

“I…I never told you why I left Alexandria.”  Rosa gasps.

“No.”

“Danae…my beautiful…baby…sister…”  The blubbering words come between heavy heaving sobs.  “…she was pregnant Quin!”

“Shhh.”  I try to calm her.

“He…he…didn’t…want…the…child…he…he…he…killed…”  Her voice is lost once more to bitter tears.  I hold my hurting slave girl as a pain that had been held inside for so long comes flooding out.  “I couldn’t…protect her…I couldn’t…  He took her from meeee!”

Clinging to me she cries for many long heart rending minutes.  I do the only thing I can.  I hold her close and let her know that she isn’t alone.  Her burden shared I could now help her carry this pain.  When eventually she could speak again I wipe her tears with my tunic.

She continues, her voice hushed and shuddering but with an almost eerie calm to it now.  “She was all I had Quin.  My only family.  My only true friend.  She was everything to me.  Everything.  She and I, we had been through it all together.  Our isolated childhood.  The death of our parents.  The trek through the dessert.  Being trained as meretrix by the courtesans who found us and took us to the city.  Singing together, playing together, entertaining our patrons together.  We’d been through it all.  Ianthe and Danae, the succubus sisters, the vixens of Venus, we were quite a pair.  We were…sisters.”

“I don’t blame you for leaving.”  I kiss her head.  “That man did a great evil Rosa.  A great evil.  The gods will see him punished for what he did.”

She says in a cold halting voice.  “I…murdered…him.  I killed…him.”  She gazes into the fire, the flickering flame dancing in her haunted eyes.  “It wasn’t quick.  He…”  She swallows hard.  “…he suffered.  He suffered.”  A shiver runs through her.  “I…hated what I became that night.  I still have nightmares of what I did to that man.  But…I couldn’t…”  She closes her eyes and takes a long deep breath.  “I was running from the law Quin.  That is why I left Alexandria.  I…should have told you sooner.  I’m sorry.”  Another deep breath.  “I understand if I cannot be your Lady anymore.  A Lady should always be honest with her boy.  I let you down Quin.”

I sit stunned by what I had just heard.  I didn’t know what to think.  Rosa had blood on her hands.  She was a fugitive.  A violent criminal.  I never could have guessed my adorable gentle Lady was capable of the crime she just described.  And yet…would I have done any differently?  If somebody took one my loved ones from me I cannot even guess what I would do in my rage.  I could not judge her for what she’d done.  The only thing I knew for sure is that my feelings for Rosa had not changed one bit.

“Ianthe.”  I say softly.  “That is your real name.”

She nods.  “Yes.  But…please, I am Rosa now.  Just Rosa.  Master Quintus’ slave girl Rosa.  That is all I want to be.”

“Of course.”  I say.  “You did not let me down Rosa.  Not even a little.  I cannot imagine how difficult this has been.”

“You are the first I’ve shared this with.  I’ve…never trusted anyone like this before, outside of my sister.”

“Thank you.”

Looking back down to the bracelet she lets out a soft laugh.  “She would have hated this.  She would have said it doesn’t befit a woman as elegant as me.”

“Hmm.  I kinda like it.”

Rosa laughs a bit more.  “Me too.  Danae was always the fussy one.”  She goes quiet for a time before asking.  “This won’t change things between us?”

“Not a chance.”  I say without hesitation.  “I am your boy for as long you’ll have me.”

She snuggles in closer.  “I don’t deserve you.”

I wrap my arms around her.  “Respectfully my Lady…I disagree.”

Chapter 51