Bertrice Small - Beloved

Marcus smiled broadly. "You may be certain, Caesar, that I shall see that Carissa has everything she deserves," he replied.

The emperor and the empress departed, and with them all of the other guests. Turning, Marcus looked at the beautiful girl who was now his wife.

"We will sleep in the atrium tonight," he said. "I see that the wedding couch is already there."

"Very well," she replied coldly, and walking over to it kicked off her sandals. "Do you want me naked?"

"I don't want you at all, Carissa. Surely you know that I was forced into this marriage. That I am betrothed to another woman."

"Whether you sleep with me or not, I do not care," was her answer. "The child will come anyway."

"What?!" He felt a throbbing begin in his head.

"I am with child," she said. "It will be born in four months." A small smile played about the corners of her mouth. "You surely do not think I wished to marry you?" She laughed her tinkling, irritating laugh.

"Whose bastard do you carry? Why did you not marry him, or is he perhaps already married?"

"Yes, he is married. Unfortunately he could not divorce his dull wife to marry me, for it is forbidden that an uncle marry his niece. My child should be the next emperor of Rome after Aure-lian, his father, but it cannot be. Therefore it was necessary that I have the most patrician of husbands to give my child a name. Aurelian will eventually name our child his heir, for he has promised me that."

"A worthless promise," Marcus replied. "Aurelian will be emperor for a few years if we are lucky, but eventually one of our power-mad generals will assassinate him and declare himself Augustus."

"That is a possibility, of course," she answered coolly, "and that is why this child will be considered an Alexander. He will be safe if his real father should die before he is old enough to take command of the empire. My child will be safe until his time comes."

"Since I have just arrived home, Carissa, there is no one who will believe the child mine."

"It makes no difference. You are my husband now, and therefore my child will be legally yours, heir to this fine, old patrician family! You will never have a child of your own, Marcus Alexander, for I will never couple with you! Never! Nothing shall endanger my child's place in life!"

It was then he slapped her, his big hand flashing out to make contact with her smug, beautiful face. The red imprint of his long fingers crossed her smooth, white cheek. Carissa screamed with outrage, her high voice pealing throughout the entire house again and again until finally the room was filled with Dagian, Aulus, Lucia, and Eusebia, and numerous wide-eyed slaves.

Carissa, the shoulder of her tunic suddenly shredded, flung herself into Dagian's startled arms, weeping wildly. "Oh, Mother Dagian, he tried to make me-make m-m-me-it was foul and unnatural! Nothing like what dearest Aunt Ulpia told me was expected of me on my wedding night." Then she sobbed again, hiccoughing a few times for effect.

"Back to your quarters, all of you!" commanded old Castor, the Alexander major-domo, in an attempt to herd the slaves away from what was obviously a family dispute.

"Oh, no!" Marcus said loudly. "Since my wife has started this thing publicly we will finish it publicly. You will all stay." He turned to his mother. "Don't bother attempting to comfort her, Mother. She is a consummate liar and a skilled actress as well as an obviously competent whore. My blushing bride has just told me that she is some months pregnant, and was married off to me to supply the child with a good name."

"Aurelian will kill you for this!" Carissa hissed, suddenly in full control, her beautiful face contorted with fury.

"I would kill you ," Marcus replied, "but instead I intend leaving Rome tonight. I will divorce you as soon as I reach Palmyra."

"You will never divorce me!" she screamed at him. "Aurelian will not let you divorce me!"

Marcus looked to his two sisters. "Take her out of my sight!" he commanded them. "Lock her in some room far away from the rest of the household where she cannot cause any trouble! I cannot bear the sight of the whore!"

Aided by two strong young slaves, Lucia and Eusebia did as their brother bid them, removing Carissa from the atrium as she screamed threats and curses at them in high fury.

"Now," Marcus said, turning to old Castor, "you may send the slaves to bed."

"You should have let me tell him," Aulus said to Dagian.

"Tell me what?" Marcus asked.

"I knew of Carissa's reputation, for though she and the emperor have been discreet, they have not been that discreet."

"It would have made no difference," Marcus replied. "I went to the emperor, and was told if I did not marry her he would destroy our family."

"I should not have allowed you to sacrifice yourself for us, Marcus. Return to Palmyra this night. We will weather the storm."

He sat down heavily, and his head wearily dropped into his hands. "You are welcome to come to me, Mother, but I somehow feel that you will want to return to Britain with Aulus. Go with him if that be your desire, or live with Lucia or Eusebia, but leave, I beg you, this sewer that has become Rome. When I ride through its gates I shall never return. I swear it! I shall never return!"

"Oh, Marcus," Dagian replied brokenly, "I am so sorry. I am so very sorry!"

"Marcus is correct, Mother," Aulus spoke up. "Rome is no longer a decent place to live. Why do you think I chose to settle in Britain? The immorality and corruption here is worse than ever. Each day the rich become stronger, the powerful more powerful. The simple citizen who would normally be honest and hard-working is being ground into the earth, and the idle are being rewarded for their very laziness. This is not the Roman way, yet mention the old ways of diligence, hard work, honesty, manners, and honoring the gods, and the people mock you. Well, the new ways are not my ways, nor are they better ways, and I will not abide by them.

"Aurelian chose to foist his whore off on Marcus because of the very virtues we believe in, Mother. He knew that Marcus would not, like so many of these new Romans, desert his family or his obligations."

"Mother!" Lucia hurried into the room. "Mother, it is Father!"

"I will come immediately," Dagian replied, and she hurried from the room.

"Is he dying?" Marcus questioned his sister.

"I think so," was the answer.

"Will you and Aulus come now?"

"In a few minutes, Lucia. Where did you put Carissa?"

"In nurse's old room on the second floor in the far back of the house."

"Go now, Lucia. We will come presently."

"What are you going to do, Marcus?" Aulus cocked his head to one side curiously.

"If he is dying then he will want to see us all, and that most certainly includes his new daughter-in-law. I know I can rely on your aid, younger brother."

"You can, older brother," was the smiling assent.

As they went Marcus said, "There will be time for us to talk before I return to Palmyra, Aulus. I intend selling the business here in Rome, but it will be to someone who will broker for us the goods you send from Britain and those I send from the East."

"Agreed, and I think I may know the man we can trust."

They reached Lucius Alexander's room, and when they looked inside Dagian left her husband's side and hurried toward her sons. "It is the end," she said softly. "He will die before dawn."

The two brothers disappeared down the corridor of the upper floor and, stopping before a heavy wooden door at the corridor's end, lifted the heavy bar that lay across it.

"You bastard!" Carissa was across the floor, her nails extended to rake at him.

With a wolfish grimace he caught her wrists and brutally forced her arms down. "Be silent, you bitch, or I swear I will throttle you, emperor's niece or no!"