Heart of Gladiator

An Unexpected Sight

The dinner had been taking place peacefully, without any further clashes between Gwenor and Raya, who managed to stay away from each other by Gwenor keeping silent throughout the feast, and Raya chattering away with Bernardo who, on the other hand, had his eyes hungrily on Gwenor.

  “What’s the matter?” Maroon nudged at Gwenor’s arm, attracting her attention. “The whole evening you’ve been looking unusually low. Are you tired?”

  “No, I’m fine. I’m just not really in the mood.”

  He looked closely at her, not saying anything, but he knew that her unusual quietness was due to Bernardo’s presence.

  “Come out with me,” he said, offering her his hand.

  She looked up at him with big, wondering blue eyes.

  “Let’s just go for an evening stroll,” he said, smiling softly at her. “I know you’re bored here.”

  She let herself smile at the good nature of her brother. No matter how reckless and foolish he was sometimes, he was still a boy with a sweet humor that could melt any girl’s bad temper.

  When they were out in the garden, ambling hand in hand along the stony path under the full moon, he took her mind off her own troubles and talked to her about the slave, Tatiana, whom he assumed he was falling in love with.

  Gwenor inwardly thought about herself too, and how she was falling in love with Aurelius, a slave as well. Looks like they were both having the same problems, but she didn’t dare to mouth it out. More than enough that Raya already figured it out, than to have her whole family know about it.

  “Father’s going to let Aurelius leave soon,” Maroon told her while they made a turn round the central fountain.

  “Leave?” she asked, glancing up at her brother with surprise. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Aurelius was out today looking for a house. He will soon be leading a life like any other citizen in Rome.”

  She could feel her heart beat rapidly and heavily in her chest out of panic. Aurelius would leave and that might be the end of it. But then she thought again. Maybe it would be better that way, before anything even started. “How about his pledge to work for us?”

  “He living in his own home will not break the pledge,” Maroon explained as he thoughtfully looked beyond them, not recognizing the look of concern on his sister’s face. “He will continue to serve us according to whatever father commands. But you know father, he is a man of great kindness. He’d want Aurelius to have a home of his own. He wouldn’t like to tie a man down to anything unwillingly. It’s not father’s style. And especially after the display of Ruther’s disagreement to Aurelius’s presence in our home, father was more than ready to keep Aurelius away from any further conflicts.”

  When Maroon finally looked down to see the expression of worry on Gwenor’s face, he tilted her chin upwards till he was looking seriously into her innocent, troubled eyes. “Now take those lines away. They’re distorting that flawless beauty of yours, my lovely Gwenor.”

  She smiled up at him compassionately and took hold of his hand before squeezing it. At least for the time being, she could just enjoy the company of her brother. Thoughts of Aurelius she would keep for later. She had all the time in the world to think about a man she would never have.

  “Good evening,” a firm masculine voice called out from behind, as the stranger’s steps were approaching closer to them.

  “Good evening, Aurelius,” Maroon replied once noticing him in the darkness. “You’ve returned on time for the feast.”

  As soon as Aurelius stepped out of the neighboring shadows and into the light before them, Gwenor was once more overwhelmed by his sight and shocked by his unexpected presence. He was not a man, but a beast of the most handsome nature which clawed at her heart.

  “I might have to excuse myself for the night,” Aurelius began to say before he was being stopped by Gwenor’s unanticipated presence.

  For a moment he stared at her flushed face, and the way she was cradled in Maroon’s arms, resting her head against his shoulder, allowing the wild golden curls of her hair scatter over his chest. A shock of jealousy and fury shot up his spine right from his loins, and for a split second he was out of the realms of sanity and would’ve probably stroke Maroon  if he’d not managed to remember that he was her brother.

  Standing still for another second as he retained his composure and state of equanimity, and underwent a phase of shame for the fact that he could lose control over his emotions this way, he cleared his throat. “Gwenor,” he said, addressing her in a greeting.

  “Aurelius,” she answered him more in a whisper, once seeing the transformation in his eyes from normality to wildness and then back to calmness with a flame still burning there in those dilated pupils. She didn’t expect that seeing him again after what had happened yesterday would turn out to be so awkward, but it did. All so suddenly she felt extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed, as well as hurt. Did he not care for her feelings at all?

  “Are you certain?” Maroon asked, not seeming to the both of them that he’d noticed anything strange between them.

  Taking his eyes of Gwenor’s bewildered face, and meeting the gaze of Maroon, he let himself smile. “No thank you, Maroon. I have had my supper already while I was out. Give my greetings to your parents, and please inform your father that I will surely meet him tomorrow at noon.”

  “Alright then,” Maroon finally agreed. “I guess you know what’s best for you.”

  “Goodnight,” Aurelius said with a friendly laugh as he gently tapped Maroon on the shoulder and continued walking towards the house without giving any one more glance in Gwenor’s direction. And she saw that.

  “He’s probably having company tonight,” Maroon secretly gossiped with her.

  At once she gazed up at her brother with astonish. “Company?” she murmured in question.

  He let out a chuckle when he saw her dazed expression. “Don’t look so surprised,” he told her, still smiling from the laugh. “He is a man after all. And all men have needs.”

  Turning to see Aurelius’s retreating figure, she caught a glimpse of Raya approaching him in the corridor and leading him out into the balcony. Baffled by what she’d seen and keen on knowing what Raya had in mind to discuss with Aurelius, Gwenor was about to leave her brother and make her way to them before Bernardo made his presence and stopped her from going ahead with her actions.

  “What have the two of you been chatting about out here?”

  Gwenor looked up at Bernardo’s face, smiling pretentiously at him. “Nothing you would be interested in really, Bernardo.”

  “How are your children?” Maroon asked him.

  “Oh they are okay,” he answered rather a bit indifferently. “They ask a lot about you Gwenor.”

  “They do?” Gwenor remarked surprisingly. “Well I know that Raya asks about them all the time too.”

  A look of dissatisfaction settled on Bernardo’s face when she said it, and she was only pleased that he was beginning to get the message.

  After a few more minutes of talking with Bernardo and her brother, Gwenor finally excused herself, and rushed down the corridor. When she reached the doors of the balcony, she was quick to rush in and see Raya’s lips against Aurelius’s.

  For a moment she was frozen in place out of complete confusion and bewilderment, but as soon as Raya moved away with a triumphant smile on her face and passed Gwenor by without another word said, Gwenor was filled with the most passionate rage ever, and not daring to disgrace herself another second more before Aurelius, she charged out of there, leaving him standing where he was.