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“So,” drawled Felix, “you could not contain yourself.”
“I’m sorry. I interfered,” Rufus said. “It won’t happen again.”
“You took her in the mouth. The Romans consider it lowly.”
“The Gauls don’t,” Rufus responded with a shrug.
“We shared her.”
“I liked it.” More than that. Felix had realised he no longer wished to confine his passion for Bethan to the altar. He craved her beyond there. He wanted to lie with her as Rufus did each night. But he had given that privilege to Rufus and he didn’t want to deny his friend, especially as he was convinced Rufus had fallen in love with her.
Rufus’s troubled face brightened a little. “You did?”
“I am starting to feel differently about her.”
The pensive expression remained.
“Ever since she submitted during the storm.” Felix leaned forward, lowered his voice. “I know you love her.”
Rufus flinched, but stayed quiet.
“You fear if I love her, I will take her from you. Well, although my feelings toward her have shifted, I don’t think I love her like you do. She is special, and has a place in my heart, but not my soul. I think she has occupied both your heart and soul.”
“It is true. She lives inside me. You wish to lie with her? As I do?”
Felix nodded, then swiftly held up his hand to silence Rufus. “I have decided she will remain my slave. Unlike you, I’m bound by the need for rules and rituals. Therefore, I shall make a new rule for her. She will sleep between us. You can claim her heart, and I shall claim her body. Together, we shall make her ours.”
When they were both under the authority of the Romans, they shared women, because they were told too, and not just one. Two women in the bed of two men. This time would be different.
“And Bethan? Is she free to choose?” asked Rufus.
Felix glanced across at the cart. Bethan was not free. She was his, and by his command, Rufus’s too. Given how strongly she came, he had no concerns about Bethan’s desires. She had relished their combined attentions.
“If you doubt her feelings, you should say.” Felix raised a questioning eyebrow.
“I don’t.” Rufus spoke with clarity. The flames flickered and formed shadows across his friend’s face. The worried look had evaporated. In its place was a bolder, confident expression. Rufus, his eyes bright, rose to his feet.
“I’ll lie with her while you take first watch.”
Felix draped his cloak across his shoulders. Rufus disappeared inside the wagon. He murmured something to Bethan and then fell quiet.
Felix counted the stars that peeped between the foliage. Nothing else stirred. When the moon appear
ed, he reached under the curtain and prodded Rufus’s foot.
They swapped places, careful not to awaken Bethan. Felix lay alongside her slender form, uncertain at first how to embrace her. She squirmed, sliding her body against his. He spooned her and immediately their warmth melded.
The omens were good. He was sure this outcome befitted the seer’s foretelling. As she nestled in his arms, breathing softly, sleep found him easily.
He woke to the sound of chirping birds. Disengaging himself from the tangle of her limbs, he brushed the hair from her face and she opened her eyes. She didn’t appear surprised to see him there.
“Good morning, Master,” she said with a smile, then yawned. “Where is Rufus?”
Felix poked his head out. “Rufus!”
From behind a tree emerged Rufus with a string of fish over his shoulder. “Finally you’re awake, sleepyheads.”
Bethan clambered out of the wagon, stretched her arms up into the air, then remembering her place, picked up the gourd and went to collect water from the nearby stream. She skipped over the roots of the trees.
