Michelle Styles - The Gladiator's Honor

She stepped backwards and her sandal slipped, sending her to the ground and scattering her bathing things. Warm hands gripped her elbow and helped her to stand.

'Are you all right?' His face showed concern, while his hands held her steady and for a breath she rested her head against his chest. 'Your foot landed between two paving stones.'

'I'm fine.' Julia moved her arm and he released her. She dropped to her knees, starting to pick up her scattered belongings—her bath strigil , ivory comb and four carved hairpins. She jammed them back into her shoulder bag. Where was the fifth? She scanned the ground for the hairpin and her alabaster perfume flask. Her heart sank when she saw where the hairpin lay. Julia gingerly plucked it from the top of Valen's sandal. She made a face. Why she had thought today would be different from any other day, she had no idea. Once again she had ruined a perfectly good exit. Try to teach a man a lesson and end up falling at his feet, literally falling. Without a doubt, it could only happen to her.

She glanced over to the portico of the baths, but Sabina and her entourage had disappeared. The litter had probably arrived and her stepmother had left. Julia could already hear Sabina's rising screech of a lecture when she did make it back to the villa. 'I've lost my alabaster jar, but, other than that, I will survive.'

A small gasp of pain came from her throat as she put too much weight down on her ankle. Strong hands grabbed her arm and steadied her.

'You've hurt yourself. You're limping.'

Without waiting for an answer, Valens knelt down and wrapped his warm fingers around her ankle. Julia felt the warmth radiate up her leg. She should object, but the words refused to come. He pushed aside the cloth to reveal her sandal, and the reddened skin. His fingers hovered just at her ankle.

'Have you grazed your knee? Or is it just your foot?'

'Not my knee, you stopped my fall,' she stammered, remembering the feel of his chest against her hands.

'Yes, I remember.' His gaze held hers, until she looked away, pretending a sudden interest in the wool merchant across the road, festooned in an array of brightly coloured cloth. 'I'm not likely to forget. What I want to know is how badly you are hurt.'

Julia's heart turned over. She hated to think how long it had been since anyone had asked a question about her with care in their voice, much less touched her with gentle hands. This stranger asked after her health, with more warmth in his voice than Lucius had had in all the time they were married. She bit her lip and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

'I twisted my ankle in the fall. Nothing to worry about' Her words tumbled out. Her eyes were drawn to the way his black hair curled on his neck just above his tunic as he bent over her foot. Giving her head a quick shake, she attempted to recapture her wit. 'I'm sure I can cope. I wouldn't want to deprive any woman who might be looking to arrange an assignation with you…'

Valens kept his hand on her leg. Instead of letting go, he touched the area above and below her ankle with careful fingers, turning her foot this way and that, but never enough to cause real pain. Julia again felt the heat from his hand course up her leg. It terrified her and excited her.

Now she started to understand why the poets went on about instant attraction. She had never felt this warm melting for anyone before, and she knew little to nothing about this man, this gladiator. She stared at him, wondering how a turned ankle could make her so light-headed, breathless.

'I think I've had my quota for the day,' he said, answering her joke with one of his own. 'Besides, I wouldn't have wanted to miss the opportunity of holding such a pretty ankle.'

The intimacy of his smile made her knees weaken and her hands itch to bury themselves in his hair. She had to take control of the situation or her actions would echo her thoughts, and she'd be little better than the women who stood around the gladiators' entrance after a match, hoping for a glimpse of their hero. And swooning with great long sighs whenever any gladiator appeared.

Julia withdrew her foot from his hand.

'You are an idle flatterer. It is the first time in my life anyone has praised my ankles.'

'Maybe it is time somebody did.' He laughed and then his face sobered. 'How bad is your ankle? Is the pain better or worse than when you first turned it?'

'It is nothing. I'll shake it off in a few steps.'

She forced herself to ignore the pain as she rotated it, but the world blurred in a haze. She could do this. She was strong enough to withstand it. She forced her back straighten

'It looks more than a twisted ankle to me. You can barely put weight on your right foot.' Valens stood up, then reached out and lifted her chin. 'Your lips are white from pain.'

Julia's breath caught in her throat. For a heartbeat, she could only stare at him, watching the rise and fall of his chest. His eyes seemed to swallow her. Her lips ached, parted of then-own volition. He might kiss her.. in public. The thought acted like a plunge into the cold-water pool at the baths, bringing her to her senses. She ducked her head, hiding her face deeper in her shawl and made one last attempt to keep her dignity.

'The pain is lessening.' Julia took a step backwards and forced a smile on her face. She was a Roman matron, not a courtesan or a prostitute. Roman matrons had pure thoughts and a steady heartbeat. Keeping those thoughts uppermost, she folded her arms across her breasts. 'The Forum is only a few streets away, after that it is not too far to Subura and home. It should hold out if I go slowly.'

She shut her eyes and tried to believe her words, tried not to count the number of steps it would take.

'What, and collapse on someone else? Subura is at least a mile from the Forum. And how far do you think you'll get on your own, limping like that? You'll be a target for every thief and cutpurse in the city,' he said gravely.

Julia's heart started to race faster and she clenched her fists to prevent herself from throwing them around his neck. She had help. She wasn't alone.

'Julia, Julia, what in the name of the Good Goddess do you think you are doing?' Sabina said, rushing up to her and grabbing her arm. Julia put out her hands to keep her balance. She felt Valens's hand on the small of her back steady her. 'The litter is here at last. Your father did remember after all.'

'I…that is…' Julia gulped. Sabina would have to appear, just as things were starting to become interesting.

'It came just after you went on your little walk. I have been searching for you everywhere!' Sabina said, her voice rising in a piercing shriek. 'It is bad enough that your father uses our one and only litter on the day I promised Livia I'd meet her at the baths, but you have to go off on some excursion of your own, just when we need to leave. If you won't think of your own reputation, Julia, at least think about your family's.'

'I hurt my ankle and this gentleman has been helping me.' Julia said, hoping her stepmother had not seen Valens's hands on her leg. 'You were obviously too busy to notice.'

Julia watched Sabina's eyes narrow as she regarded Valens, taking in the short tunic and the expensive cloak slung around his shoulders. Julia resisted the temptation to bite her nails.

'And you are?' Sabina's voice could have been chipped out of marble.

'Valens the gladiator at your service, ma'am.' He gave a slight bow. 'Rescuing fair maids in distress is a speciality.'

'Julia, how could you? A gladiator,' Sabina whispered furiously. 'You promised—no more scandals. You're not to give Mettalius any excuse to wriggle out of your wedding.'

'Since when is falling a scandal?' Julia stared at Sabina. An edited version of the truth was in order if she was avoid a lecture—something that skirted around Valens's early banter and her replies to it. At Sabina's narrowed eyes, Julia widened hers. 'It's the truth. Valens kindly helped when others would have ignored me.'