Aurelia || SERIES ROMANA I

Chapter 27 ~ Country Life

Vespasian's estate in Cosa was a little paradise on earth. It was so peaceful and secluded that no important family lived nearby to visit or entertain. Aurelia was deeply surprised at the joy and passion with which Vespasian devoted himself to the management of his property. The man was a walking calculator.
For the first few days she had searched in vain for a library. But soon she had been disappointed to discover that Vespasian did not even own Caesar's Gallic War. After only three days, Aurelia knew each of the slaves by name, and on the fourth day, a rather dumbfounded slave girl, Munica, had agreed to tailor some trousers for her. Vespasian had promised her that as soon as he had finished checking the finances, he would teach her to ride, and she definitely didn't want to do that in one of her good dresses. On the fifth day, letters arrived from Rome from her adoptive father and Gaius' sisters. Vespasius, as always, was very understanding and had already forgiven them for their little deception. Drusilla told her the latest gossip, Agrippina complained about her husband and Julia inquired anxiously about Aurelia's health. These letters were easy for her to answer. It was a different story with Gaius' letter, which was delivered a day later by Vespasian's elder brother Sabinus.
Sabinus and Vespasian could not have been more different. Although outwardly they bore a strong resemblance with their rounded faces and pronounced noses, Sabinus was more profligate and moodier than his younger brother. He also brought his pretty wife Clementina with him to his younger brother's estate. It was with her that Aurelia spent most of her time, while the men mysteriously put their heads together or went for a ride. Vespasian had postponed her riding lessons until his brother's departure, so she had to use her time differently. So, the two women walked for hours through the garden or had couches brought to the covered terrace and sat together there. The two women hit it off right away and the better they got to know each other, the more they appreciated each other. Clementina's dark hair contrasted strongly with the paleness of her skin, which gave her something delicate. She reminded Aurelia strongly of her brother Clement.
The evening after Sabinus' and Clementina's departure, Aurelia finally plucked up the courage to read Gaius' letter. Nervously, she unrolled the scroll and bristled.

Because I love you, I will wait for you.

Nothing more. Aurelia blinked away her tears. She would have loved to rush to the stables and travel back to Rome immediately. But she was not ready. As soon as she closed her eyes, she saw his cruel smile and perverse joy before her again. How could such a cultured person as Gaius take pleasure in something so cruel?
Determined, she rolled up the letter again and placed it under her pillow. What could she answer when everything had been said?

The next day, Munica appeared excitedly in her modest room and proudly handed her the trousers made of soft but durable fabric. Happily, Aurelia put them on - they fit like a glove. Silently she thanked the gods that underwear had already been invented. Then she threw on a short tunic, put on her new pair of leather boots and hurried to Vespasian, who was having breakfast. Irritated, he looked up as she sat down beside him. His mouth dropped open. Puzzled, he looked her over and over from head to toe, as if his image of her and her clothes didn't match. Giggling, she clasped his jaw shut again with her hand.
"Are you going to teach me how to ride today?" she asked impassively, and he nodded, perplexed. Satisfied, she took bread and cheese and began to eat leisurely. Soon Vespasian overcame his surprise and turned his attention back to his food. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept catching him furtively eyeing her. It was only a pair of trousers, after all.
As soon as they had finished their breakfast, they set off for the stables. It took almost an hour for Vespasian to choose a suitable horse for them: a good-natured black mare. Her first lesson was to make friends with her horse, who was named Nox. After a week, she no longer had to whistle for Nox, because as soon as Aurelia approached the stables, the mare came up to her and nudged her playfully. Suddenly Vespasian stepped out of the shadows, smiling contentedly, and threw a pair of gloves over her. Confused, Aurelia caught them.
"An instruction from your father, so that your hands do not lose their feminine delicacy," Vespasian explained matter-of-factly. Reluctantly, she slipped the gloves on. Then she looked at him expectantly. Vespasian's smile widened.

For the next few weeks, Aurelia learned every gait of her horse, and a month after they began their training, they took their first ride together around the estate. For Aurelia, it was a dream come true.

In May, she asked Vespasian to teach her how to defend herself. For although she would never make an excellent rider, her skills had become quite passable. Of course, Vespasian initially refused her request.
That same evening, Aurelia wrote in a letter to Julia: "If I did not know better, I would think my dear cousin had spent a large part of his life in Germania and not me. He cannot enjoy poetry, rhetoric is for him only a means in the Senate, and when it comes to literature, he prefers Caesar's sobriety to the intricacy of Cicero's polished sentences any day. Yet one can hardly find any fault with him other than that he is perhaps too anxious to keep his money together.

A week later, Vespasian agreed to teach Aurelia self-defence. He had not wanted to teach her such a controversial art without the permission of his uncle, her guardian. Fighting was masculine and so it was also the men's job to defend the women. Again, those silly gloves were Vespasius' condition for teaching. Soon her day took on a routine again. At the crack of dawn their self-defence classes would begin, and around noon they would stop and have a snack before riding out in the afternoon or holding another combat session.
Vespasian was a patient but merciless self-defence instructor. In the units he showed no mercy. Time and again he would lash out at her with a wooden sword and every evening she would fall into bed exhausted and drained. But Aurelia worked hard and after two months she was still vastly inferior to Vespasian, but no longer defenceless. Now he too bore some bruises. Because of the rising temperatures, they had to shorten their exercises and eventually it got so hot that they had to give up even their rides. Nevertheless, Aurelia had never felt so carefree and free since she had landed in antiquity. She felt safe in the seclusion of the small estate. But as soon as she closed her eyes, his face appeared before her, and she longed to return to him in uncertain, carefree Rome.