Roman Flowers Grows in the Sun

3. And so it begins

As usual Azalea sat down at her windowsill while the sun slowly sunk into the ocean making the waves burn with the skies. Absorbing the last warmth she let her gaze wander over the horizon automatically searching for the dark shapes of the soldier bearing ships.

"Not tonight." She sighed, just as she had done the night before that and all of the nights these past 9 years.

"You know..." startled Azalea turned around to see Didilla limping up the small set of stairs leading to her room, "he won't come back any faster just because you sit there" the old woman finished.

"How do you move so quietly? It doesn't make any sense at all! And also!.. I-I don't know." She admitted embarrassed that the older woman had guessed why she sat there.

"Do you look to see if he's coming back to you? Or are you looking to make sure he isn't?"

"Don't go all 'wise old lady' on me Di!" she jokingly pointed a warning finger at her beloved slave.

"Old? OLD?!? I'm 53 years young! Thank you very much! And it WAS a real question, why are you still looking my child?"

"I don't know Di, I really don't. Do you... What do... How.. Do you think he's changed? All I remember is a tall man who told me to stop climbing trees and gave me goodnight kisses, that's all. What if he comes back and ruins everything?!" it was true, all she remembered was someone with power who would yell at her one moment for not being like the other girls and give her kisses and call her Flower the other.

"Your father is a good man Azalea but I won't lie to you, there will be changes when he comes back, IF he comes back and you know that." That IF scared her but it also soothed her, she could keep on living the way she was as long as her father was gone but not dead. If he died Septimus would have the power to marry her of but as long as there was no words of her father's death he, and only he, had that power. A power he couldn't use.

"Maybe he'll let me choose, like the millers daughter" positivity wasn't really her strongest attribute but still, there was a chance.

"Maybe" Didilla said with a smile on her lips that didn't reach her warm honey colored eyes. "We'll talk about this when the time comes, right now you need to sleep. Come here and change child."

With one last glance at the darkening waters she closed the shutters, dropped her light blue stola and thin under-tunic to the floor and let the older woman dress her in the coming night's clothes.

"You'll stay with me when he comes, right? Even if he ships me off to the end of the world?" knowing but not caring if she sounded like a child she clung to Didillas hand as she tucked the thin duvet around her curves.

"If I so have to escape this house and disobey my master!" as a slave Didilla had no right to even think about giving Azalea a kiss, but she was more than a slave to the girl so even if it killed her, she placed a gentle kiss on her hair and left the room with a hidden tear in the corner of her eyes. Because she knew, she knew it was coming, HE was coming and he wasn't alone. 

***

A few days passed without any changes. Azalea idly strolled through the market of the little town looking at nothing in particular, smelling the food, touching the soft furs and fabrics, lightly tugging on Davius leash.

"You want something tasty for tonight Davi?" she said patting the large dog's head. Sometimes she got the feeling he understood her because his tail started wagging dangerously fast at the mention of food. Laughing she told him that "then we have to get something for Maximus too!" which in turn caused the tail wagging to subdue. The dog and horse had never quite gotten along sense what they all referred to as "The puppy incident" had occurred.

She ended up getting some rich red apples for Maximus and the hoof of a goat for Davius. Satisfied with her investments she mounted the black stallion and took the long way through the woods back to the villa with a happy hound chewing on a hoof trotting irritably close to the horse's legs.

***

Not many used this path through the woods and she had always seen it as her own little secret. There were times where she got at face full of leafs but she didn't mind, these were the only moments she got where she was truly comfortable. No one telling her to sit properly or talk in the right way. She felt untroubled and safe in the soft light with the sound of hooves and occasional grunts form Davi lulling her to a sleep like state.

Sooner than she wanted the white villa disturbed her peaceful daydreaming, making an impressive view with the ocean as its backdrop.

But the horizon wasn't as smooth as it usually was, the fishing boats were still there and so was the trader ships. The difference was the small row of dots so far out in the water that only someone who had spent hours every day for 9 years watching that same horizon would see them.