Bertrice Small - Beloved

"With pleasure, Majesty," the emperor's aide said.

"I bid you good day, Marcus Claudius Tacitus. I have enjoyed your company greatly, and if I am permitted visitors I hope that you will visit me often at my villa in Tivoli."

The elderly senator rose and bowed in a courtly fashion to Zenobia. "My time with you has been far too short today, Majesty. I will come and visit you whether you are allowed visitors or not. I have a villa in Tivoli myself, and the heat in Rome will soon be too much to bear. I will see you soon, I promise you."

When Zenobia had left the emperor's box the senator turned to Aurelian, and said, "You are right, Caesar. She is too lovely and too intelligent to die. What a waste had we followed Valerian Hostilius's obscene suggestion."

Ulpia turned to Tacitus. "And just what did Senator Hostilius suggest?" she asked.

"His suggestion was that we dress Queen Zenobia in animal skins, give her a spear, and have her fight a pack of wild beasts in the arena."

"Hostilius was ever a fool!" the empress snapped in a rare show of irritation.

"Then you are glad that the senate spared the queen's life, my dear?" Aurelian asked.

Ulpia looked directly at her husband, and said, "Yes, my lord. I am glad that they spared her life." Her level gaze told the emperor what he wanted to know; that she was giving him permission to amuse himself with Zenobia. Dearest Ulpia! Aurelian mused in a generous burst of fondness. She was so thoughtful! So discreet! He regretted that she was dying, but then perhaps he would take Zenobia for his second wife. He was certainly not going to let anyone else have her. He saw the envy in the eyes of the men who looked upon her. He knew that they hoped he would toss her aside, as he had done with so many others; and when he did, then they would vie for her until she chose another protector. It would not happen, though. He would marry Zenobia when Ulpia died. There was no need to divorce his wife, for she would be dead soon enough and Zenobia was going nowhere. She was his imperial captive, and would be safe in Tivoli.

The imperial captive could hardly wait to leave the city. She found Rome overwhelmingly dirty and noisy. She would be happy to live in a quieter setting, one much better suited to raising Mavia.

"How long will it take us to reach Tivoli?" she asked Gaius Cicero.

"It will take several hours, Majesty," he answered her. "It is almost twenty miles from the city, and the litter bearers can only go so quickly."

"What about a chariot, Gaius Cicero?"

"A Chariot, Majesty?"

"Yes, a chariot. I drove my own war chariot in Palmyra, and if I might have a chariot now we could get there in half the time or less, couldn't we?"

He thought a moment, and then said, "Indeed we could, Majesty. The emperor only ordered that I escort you. He did not say what sort of vehicle we should use."

Gaius Cicero drove as they left the city, but once they were safely on the Via Flaminia, he let Zenobia have the reins. The horses, however, almost drove themselves, as the road was straight and well paved.

Zenobia was fascinated by the landscape around her. It was so very, very different from what she had known all her life. The desert was endless; but here the land was broken up by hills and rivers. The desert landscape was golden and blue; but here the land was lushly green with summer as well as gold and blue. Here and there were patches of bright-red roof tiles, or black earth in newly tilled fields where second crops were already being planted. Even the air was different. The desert air was dry, but this had a soft moistness to it that felt good on her skin.

They drove in silence for what seemed a very short time, and then Gaius Cicero was taking the reins from her. "We will soon be entering Tivoli," he said loudly over the wind that rushed past their ears with the speed they were making.

She nodded. The road now wound up into the mountains, the Sabines, he told her, and below them stretched the Campagna di Roma: a vast and undulating plain filled with many jewel-like little lakes, most within the craters of extinct volcanoes. Zenobia caught her breath at the beauty of it all. Then they were entering the town of Tivoli, perched on a slope of the Sabines with a magnificent view of the Campagna and, beyond it, Rome itself.

Zenobia was delighted, for Tivoli was exquisite, a white-marble town surrounded by olive groves. Tivoli, Gaius Cicero told her, was famous for its vast deposits of Travertine marble. The quarries were located in the mountains just behind the town, and although the marble was exported to the rest of Italy, the entire town had been built of it. Zenobia was pleased to see that it was a busy place with several attractive open-air markets, an arena, and a theater located along the River Anio, which edged one side of the town.

"Your villa is located just outside the town, Majesty," Gaius Cicero told her. "It is on the river itself. All the imperial villas are."

They were shortly there. As Zenobia was dismounting the chariot, Bab and Adria appeared, and Mavia, who came running with her arms outstretched to her mother. "Oh, Mama, it is so beautiful here!" the little girl exclaimed. Mavia was now six. "It is not at all like Palmyra."

"Can you be happy here, my pigeon?" Zenobia asked, hugging her daughter.

"Oh, yes, Mama!"

"Then we will have to stay," Zenobia teased, taking the child's hand and entering into the house. "Gaius Cicero, you will take some refreshment with us, and if I may I will offer you hospitality for the night."

"The wine I will accept, Majesty," Gaius Cicero said, "but your hospitality I must decline. The emperor said I might go home after I did my duty by you. I have not seen my wife and children in over a year, Majesty."

"I understand, Gaius Cicero," Zenobia said politely, and then she nodded to Bab to see that the emperor's aide had refreshment. He quaffed it down with almost indecent haste, and quickly took his leave. Zenobia chuckled. She did not doubt that he wished to be with his wife tonight. Gaius Cicero was one of the few imperial officers who did not indulge himself with the camp whores. Neither had he kept a mistress. Then, too, she could imagine his position if he should spend the night under the same roof as her and Aurelian found out. His military career would be destroyed, not to mention the danger to his personal safety.

"Well," she said to her servants, little Mavia having been taken off by her nurse, Charmian, "is it livable?"

"It is not the palace in Palmyra," Bab said, "but we are lucky not to be in prison or in our funeral urns."

"Is it habitable?" Zenobia said, looking about, for it certainly appeared a pleasant place.

"It is somewhat smaller than we are used to, Majesty," Adria said. "There are two stories to the house," she continued. "On this level is the atrium, where we stand, and there is a nice interior garden beyond. It should be a pleasant place on winter days. There is also a fine large garden out back that goes down to the river. There is a kitchen, a dining room, and a small library. On the second level there is a bath and two bedchambers."

"What of the servants' quarters?" Zenobia asked.

"They are separate from the house, Majesty."

"It will not do," Zenobia said. "You and Bab cannot live in slave quarters."

"There is a nice room off the kitchen, Majesty, but the cook tells me that the slaves use that room to eat and rest when they are not going about their chores."

"More than likely they use that room to hide from their duties," Zenobia noted.

"Just what I thought," old Bab said. "They're a lazy lot from what I've observed so far, my baby."

"Then we shall have the emperor replace them," Zenobia said with a laugh. "That room off the kitchen sounds just perfect for you and Adria. I hope you will not mind sharing a room, but we are obviously cramped, and I want you both here with me."