Slave Girl 2: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

With Rosa staying right behind me we wind through garden, me making double sure there were no jagged pieces of pottery or anything of the like in our path as we go, and soon we are ascending the stone steps.  At the first landing I bring her around to my side so that she might take my arm instead.  She does so happily.  I study her a moment.  She was different I could see it in her posture and I could sense it in her gentle expression.  Rosa had always had this incredible ability to effortlessly float from noble Lady to adorable slave girl as she wished but I’d never seen her embrace the latter so completely before.  Everything in her demeanor and body language signaled only willing compliance.  She looked radiantly beautiful as always.  Her sightless stare now gave her this air of innocence and vulnerability that made every masculine fiber of my being want to lay down my life before seeing a single strand of her violet-pink hair be touched by harm.

But…I already missed my Lady.  I wondered when I might see her again.

Seeming to sense that she was being looked at Rosa brings a hand to her face.  “Do I look okay?”

“You look beautiful.”  I sigh.  “You take my breath away Rosa.”

“Do my eyes look funny?”  She asks.  “I met a blind man once and his eyes were, um, different.”

“Your eyes are lovely.”  I say.  “Except for the pearly green glimmer to the centers they look just the same as they did.  Perfect.”

She smirks.  “You flatterer.  You would tell me if they didn’t, right?”

“Yes.  I would tell you Rosa.  I will be your mirror and your eyes, just like you asked me to.”

She nods appreciatively.  “Thank you Quin.”

“Of course.”

Out in the forest we hear the distant playful yap of a fox which makes us both smile.  Keeping her close to my side I lead onward and upward.  We walk around the tiled porch and back to the front door.  As we step through to the entry hall with the labyrinth mosaic on the floor I remind myself to properly repair the door before I bed down for the night.  Another entry on my growing list of chores.

Once inside she stops me.  “I can go from here.”

“Okay.  You sure?”

“Mmm.”  She nods.  

“I understand if you don’t want to be alone right now.  I’ve got a lot to do but it can wait.”

“I’ll be okay baby.  You’re busy.  Go do your thing.  I’ll manage by myself in here.”  Reaching out she walks cautiously forward until she finds the side of the doorway leading into the peristyle.  “Kitchen is this way.”  She points.  “Stairs over that way.  Courtyard straight ahead.”

“Yep, all correct.”

She puffs her chest out and clenches her fist, summoning both her courage and determination in equal measure.  “Okay.  I got this.”

“You got this Rosa.  Just keep your sandals on until I can really sweep this place out properly.”  I say.  “Call me if you need me.  I won’t be far.”

“I will.”

I watch as she feels her way around to the other side of the wall and disappears from sight.  My heart was full of worry about her but also full of pride.  If our roles were reversed I wasn’t sure I could be so accepting of the situation this quickly.  Rosa’s strength of spirit made me love her all the more.

With Rosa doing her own thing I set back to work again, picking right up where I left off.  I was famished but I wanted to get some more done before taking another break.  Having real work to do not only took jobs off of my plate but it was also the easiest way I knew to ease my troubled mind short of submitting to my Lady.  For me there was nothing so calming as some good honest labor.  The first thing I do I clear the bedroom of broken pottery and wooden furniture.  Beside the heap of clay vessels I start a new pile for anything burnable.  I avoid any more conversation with the inert Mercury watching my front yard.  If this place truly was cursed that wily trickster was the last being I wanted to draw the attention of.

Along the way I start to make note of the items and furniture that were still in good enough condition to use.  For a place as big as this it was a surprisingly small assortment.  My uncle and his friends, as well as the revelers that had used the place since it was abandoned, had trashed the place thoroughly.  If not for the sturdiness of the old construction there might not have been a villa left here at all.  I lift knocked over chairs and right upside down tables and line a few of the lounging sofas against the wall.  Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, I find the confined slave quarters to be in the best shape of the whole villa.  The beds were well used but sturdy, the furniture simple but in good repair, and unlike in much of the rest of the house it was absent of graffiti.  With the refuse and arranging sorted I then set to work on giving the place a good sweep using a stiff bristled broom I find in a storage room.  It only had half a shaft but it would work for now.

I was just finishing up sweeping out the main bedroom and attached balcony when I hear Rosa call out.  “Master!”

I was through the door before the broom handle had even hit the ground.  “Rosa!  Are you okay?  Where are you?”

“I’m in the kitchen.”  Her upbeat tone quells the irrational panic that had seized me.

Slowing to a trot and then a walk I make my way to her.  As I near I could hear her speaking to someone.

“Drusilla said that country men aren’t so bothered about presentation as long as the food is good and plenty of it.”  She says.  “Maybe once I have a herb cabinet maybe I can…”  She cocks an ear my way as I enter the room.  “Hello Master.”  She says brightly.

The room was bright and fresh.  Rosa had pushed the heavy drawbar that secured the thick wooden window back into its housing in the wall and opened the window wide.  There was no glass leaving the room open to the outside.  Beyond the window and past the roofed portico I could see the softly swaying trees of our forest.  Curled up in the center of the sill is a familiar little fox.  To my right some of our supplies were opened on the far end of the counter.  Between them and I there are two plates laid out with bread, olives, and cheese upon them.  It was easy to see whose was whose as one had easily twice the amount of food as the other.  Drizzled over the bread and cheese was some oil and a bit of honey.  Between the plates was a bottle of light table wine.

“What’s all this?”

“Lunch of course.”  Rosa smiles, an excited glimmer in her pretty eyes.  “I would have poured the drink but I don’t trust the goblets until I get a chance to clean them.  We’ll have to drink from the bottle, I hope that’s okay.”

“Rosa…this is…this is…great!”

Rosa’s beautiful smile grows and her pointed ears lift higher.  The food wasn’t laid out perfectly and there was little ropes of honey all over the counter and some on Rosa’s dress, but it was easily as good as anything I would have made myself.

“You’ve been working so hard without a bite to eat.”  She says.  “You are a silly man Master.”

I laugh.  “You got me there.”  

“I hope you didn’t fill up on figs!”  She teasingly scolds.  “Too many will rot your teeth you know.”

“I didn’t.  I’m starving!”  I rush to her and sweep her up into my arms.  She laughs and holds to my neck as I spin around once and lay kiss on her.

“It’s true Danae.”  Rosa giggles.  “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  My goodness, all this just for lunch.”

Danae yips in reply.

I kiss her again, literally with tears in my eyes I was so damn proud of her.  Others might have wallowed in their misery, and understandably so, but not Rosa.  That vivacious spark inside of her simply could not be extinguished.

Chapter 10