The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 19

Content warning - NSFW at the end of the chapter.

QUINTUS ATE COMPANIONABLY for the rest of the meal, leaving once his plate was empty to take all the dishes back to the lodge and return to his duties. Ixillius resisted the strong urge to try and get more history from Alex after the Legionnaire was gone, instead trading out the blanket for his cloak and tucking her into his bed as her eyes grew heavy after the meal. The little crow perched on her and she absently cradled him to relieve the constant strain on his single leg. Soon, they were both asleep.

        Ixillius settled at the table to attend to the reports he'd been neglecting the past two days. There weren't many, the 6th and 4th nearly ran itself. The men were all seasoned, excepting a few with less than five of their twenty-five, but those were each honourable in their duty.

        Ixillius's thoughts flashed to Quintus and his behavior toward Alex, how he'd unabashedly followed her commands and thought nothing of it afterward. It was odd to think of the older Legionnaire being enamoured with her so quickly. Ixillius would have to get Brasus to listen in on the rumours around Bonna and see what was being said that wasn't meant for the Centurion to hear about his collared witch. Or rather, he thought, looking over at her, his uncollared witch.

        As he finished his duties to Rome's paperwork, he found the letter he'd started composing to his father, the one in which he'd intended to request Annia – his father's wife – find him a wife on his brief return to Rome. He'd forgotten about it. He decided to finish it while he had time waiting for Brasus to report in about the morning preparations, and the result of his formal complaint around the events at the public bath. His mind worked on the preparations he and his men would need to perform this evening while he was finishing the letter, and he completely forgot to frame the question to Annia.

        The little kite woke up when a messenger arrived and quickly went back to his good-natured attack on the collar. Alex woke up just enough to smile at the odd bird, and then dozed again. Ixillius stepped into the hall and closed the door to his room as the messenger tried to peer around him at the strange scene.

        "Centurion Ixillius Traversi, 6th and 4th of Minerva's 1st?" The boy asked once the door was closed.

        "Yes."

        "A message for you from Centurion and First File Verus Celsus Calix, of Minerva's 1st," the boy paused, recalling the words as accurately as possible. "You and your slave woman, as the cause of the complaint, are to attend the First File in his quarters at your earliest convenience this afternoon to address the matter. Optio Brasus Nazario Albus adds I am to notify the 6th and 4th Legionnaire involved to attend also, on your permission, such that he may provide the pertinent details to the complaint."

        Ixillius withheld the scoffed laugh of good humour that accompanied Brasus's vague description of Quintus and paid the messenger, knowing his Optio was torturing the First File by withholding a name. He promised a further double payment for delivering the message to Quintus Abelardus and leading the Legionnaire back to Verus. The boy pocketed his coin and, waiting for a moment to see if Ixillius would open the door again, turned away disappointed and took off at a run to the encampments.

        Ixillius smiled and shook his head once the messenger was gone. The rumours racing though Bonna must already be pretty good for the boy to be so interested. He could hear clanging, and then Alex's laughter, through the door as she started laughing at the antics of the one-legged kite. When he came back in and closed the door behind him, she smiled at him and nodded for him to look at the little bird as it flew up a bit and dropped the collar in the washbowl, cawing delightedly at the clattering clang it made and diving back into the bowl to pick up the collar again.