The Mark of Rome

xii / song of seikilos

Cassia sought me out, finding herself lonesome without her twin soul for once in her life. Celine was a wife with a household now and sweet Cassia was the only one left at our father's house. She stayed in the rooms adjourning to mine to give each of us our privacy, though we were together most of the day.

"They talk of you, these patrician women," Cassia murmured across the table. She smiled softly in quiet adoration, "They say he loves you very much. No matter how women throw themselves at him, he may look but he is never swayed. He defends you, he always seeks to be near you. He ranks well enough that people expect him to take a mistress, but all have failed. In any room, he only ever looks for you."

Her words elicited a smile on my face. Marius and I made unlikely partners, but I was glad to have this new development. We never fully addressed it, but I could expect surprise visits whenever he had the time. He was eager to think of anything but the work that was to be done and our moments together increased tenfold.

He stole me away frequently either to ride or to sit on a hill with only our own company. Anything but the duties we held. Our getaways were a reprieve that we relished in, and Cassia's words reminded me of the latest one.

Marius rushed into his study, brooding and red in the face with irritation. There was no greeting or warm smile. He simply held my gaze and blew a sigh with his hands on his hips. I suppressed a laugh at the defeat in his stance as he took a beat to compose himself. It was a simple plea. "Let's take a ride, yeah?"

I nodded enthusiastically and his lips seemed to lift gently, weighed down by whatever was troubling him now.

"Good," he nodded without any following movement, and I knew it must have still been irking him. Marius wrestled with it in his head for a moment more, before he took a deep breath and offered me his hand. His green eyes glinted with the slightest look of hope and we brushed quickly down the halls.

Marius avoided every person that came into view and in turn, they avoided standing in his way. I felt like I was following a moving block. I could hardly see where we were headed and everyone stepped back to yield to his will. I struggled to catch up to his long, lumbering strides. Whatever it was that was keeping him so tense, it did its job fairly well. There was only his skin keeping him from flying far far away from here.

At the stables, he didn't allow the stable boys a word in edgewise and he helped me up onto his horse before he swung himself briskly up behind me. I sat with two legs slung over one side. We agreed that I wouldn't ride alone anymore until the baby came and Marius had every intention of keeping his promise. Every milling passerby was frozen in mute intimidation and Marius's demeanor did nothing to dissuade them against their impression.

Once we were out of earshot, his lips touched my ear and the simple motion elicited a shiver up my spine. "You're a breath of fresh air. As you always are."

I turned my face towards him as much as I could, smiling in question. "You haven't told me anything. What are we escaping?"

"Responsibility, mea vita. The fucking weight that's been holding me my entire life," Marius replied gallantly, the endearment rolling off of his tongue like he'd said it all his life. "Back there, my father's wife is campaigning to put my half-brother on my consul seat, but up this way, we can have peace."

He bristled with the disrespect, but he didn't dwell on it and I was proud of him for it. He would have men on crosses if it had been done in his old way.

I processed his words as he settled on a grassy knoll. The wind whipped through my hair, filling my nose with clean air and the carried scent of grain from the farmland beyond. There was a single tree that sat at the top and he helped me off of his horse when he finally tied him to the trunk.