The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 37

IXILLIUS WOKE UP at his regular time, despite the late hour that he'd finally laid down, the dealings of the previous evening hitting him like physical blows. First Alex, then the letter from his father. In a few hours, he had lost everything.

        Over the years, he had come to believe his father now spoke in jest about believing his son had committed some unknown grievous crime and was hiding in the Legions from terrible punishment. The letter proved otherwise.

        When Ixillius had told his father about his enlistment, the merchant had lamented over the conscription. When Ixillius had admitted to volunteering, quite proud at the time, he'd been questioned by his father over what he'd done that he thought hiding in the Legion was preferable. When he had no crime to admit to, he'd listened through heavy confusion as his father threatened that at the birthing of another son, he would no longer need his oldest – an obvious criminal and a liar...

        As Ixillius had advanced in his career, his achievements growing in number and then his rank increasing, he had really thought his father had acceded to the truth: his son was a soldier. There was nothing behind it. Ixillius's mind functioned on the lines of battle and troop movements with the same ease and efficiency that his father's functioned on trade routes and payment calculations.

        Then Annia had born his father another son. Ixillius had been disowned.

        This morning, Brasus was still curled in his cloak on the floor, sleeping as quietly as he did everything else. The Optio had been Ixillius's voice last night when his own had failed, and had done the things that were required which Ixillius could not do himself after her eventual admission. In his mind, before falling asleep, he'd cursed the name of her father a thousand times over. This morning, his whole body ached with the need to have her here, for her to be his Alexandria again, not her father's daughter. The conversation after her statement of her father's name, reinforced by a drawing of her own hand of her father from memory that was confirmed by Quintus, still burned in his ears.

        "If I leave her here with you, can you vow that her integrity will remain intact from this point forward?" Verus had asked.

        Ixillius again had his arms around Alex where she sat on the stool. She'd pulled him close, her arms wrapped about his neck and shoulders, her cheek resting against his head.

        "I have not – and never would – force myself in rape on her, Verus," he'd replied flatly, indignant.

        "None here question that, Centurion," Verus had said, his voice hard and yet soft-spoken. "But can you keep your dick out of her now that her father is confirmed? Can you stop yourself from nightly filling her belly with your seed and planting a child her father could claim conceived in rape for social gain, rightfully or not?"

        He'd had no good reply, then or now, and so had said nothing.

        "You ask for a vow to adhere to the impossible," Brasus had answered in his stead, truthfully.

        Verus had stared at Alex for a long time, tapping his knuckle against his lips as he thought.

        "I can keep her with me," the First File finally said. "She'll be safe, guarded, and unmolested. I'll compose a letter to Avilius Tacito Severus, explaining our ignorance in this situation. Quintus will, of course, verify it. The 20th has been in Illyria these past ten years after leaving the Germanias, we can return her to him on our arrival. Being moved with the 1st will save her from further injury from attempting any fast travel, and keep her defended from any hostile attacks between here and there."

        "She still leans heavily," Quintus had observed. "It'll be tomorrow before she's able to walk the distance to your rooms, Verus."

        Ixillius had felt his arms tighten around her, protectively, possessively, as all the eyes in the room turned to him.

        "I can carry her," Brasus stated.

        Soon after, Ixillius had been alone. With nothing else to do, he'd opened the letter from his father, expecting another update on the family business and the latest news of Annia, his father's wife, and his younger sister by her, Theodora. When Brasus had returned, he'd found Ixillius still clutching the letter, staring at nothing. Without sitting, the Optio had taken the page and read it, frowning, then tossed it into the chamber pot. He sat on the stool, pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and started shuffling.

        "I have nothing," Ixillius stated, still deeply in shock, and Brasus had only shrugged in reply.

        "I would take anything you did have in three hands or less," Brasus said, dealing out the cards before pulling the full skeins of strong wine from his belt and setting them on the table. "Play," he said, tapping the cards in front of his friend. "Loser has to drink."

        "And the winner?" Ixillius asked, staring at the cards but not yet moving to pick them up.

        "He drinks twice."

END BOOK 1