The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 16

ALEX WAS INDEED still in his bed in the early morning. Well before Brasus arrived with the morning meal, he coaxed her awake and tried to pull her on top of him for more sex. Alex groaned in complaint and attempted to deter him, but to no avail. She finally relented, but instead introduced him to oral sex. It was fairly obvious he wasn't overly familiar with what she was proposing, and that made it funny to her. His indignation at her quiet chuckles soon evaporated as she employed all the things he pressed for in her kisses on more interesting body parts.

        Once Ixillius was dressed, had eaten, and was gone for the morning, Alex washed and crawled back into bed. Her body hurt from too many activities the day before. She was on the verge of dozing off when something woke her back up. She didn't know what it was, or why it had woken her, but she slid out of bed and padded on bare feet over to the door. There were just the regular noises from this time of day. Overly alert, she wrestled the heavy wooden brace as quietly as possible into the rests, effectively locking the door to everything short of an axe or battering ram. When the feeling didn't pass, she hung the blanket from the bed over the window slit – usually covered by Ixillius's cloak at night but open for new air during the day.

        She pulled one of the larger furs out of the pile she'd been sleeping on and used that as a blanket when she lay back down. Not feeling the least bit sleepy, but still exhausted, she felt around the top of the mattress, a spot that her gigno used to keep his favorite hunting knife while he slept. Grinning, she pulled a wicked looking dagger from the top of the bed frame and settled it on the mattress in easy reach. She put her back to the wall, pleasantly surprised at how warm it was, and finally started to doze off again, this time falling asleep.

                                                                ***

        Ixillius rode easily on the patrol that morning. It was a different circuit than yesterday, in the typical scheduling style of Aquilus Naevius, and Brasus had quickly assembled a group of men more pleasing to the socially ranked mind of the arrogant patrician for the morning inspection. The Optio had then been dismissed to begin organizing marching orders of the rest of the Century, and Brasus's second, the Guard Commander to the 6th and 4th, Marcus Lucilius, accompanied for the patrol. The jovial mood of the men on patrol didn't affect their attention to the surrounding forest, but it was definitely evident. Tomorrow, they would leave the edges of Bonna for the long march to Rome.

        Once they'd returned back to the encampments, the men started singing a bawdy tune that quickly had the surrounding people laughing and clapping and singing along. On checking in as returned and dismissing his men to see to Brasus and the final preparation orders, Ixillius returned to his room. He was trying to think of a way of moving Alex without causing further damage to her broken rib, an injury he'd suffered through four years ago, but without having to request some type of transport accommodation similar to what he'd been put in for the first week. He was almost in front of his door before he realized it was open.

        A cursory glance told him Alex was missing. The blanket hung over the window slit and the fur on the bed were not reassuring, especially with his pillow sack pulled half-way down the bed. The breakfast dishes were stacked strangely, neatly cleaned on the washstand. The door bar was on the wrong side of the door frame. The fur bed Alex had been sleeping on was disturbed from the tight roll she'd left it in.

        He crossed to the bed and stared hard at it, willing himself to see what it was that troubled him about it. The fur that wasn't supposed to be there was folded back neatly, but the pillow was askew and the top end of the mattress rumpled. He suddenly leaned down and felt along the bed frame where he always kept a spare knife. It was missing.