Beloved (72 page)

They rode beneath a tall, roofed gatehouse and into a pleasant courtyard. From the open portico of the house came a tall and lovely woman in a pale-blue tunic dress, her long yellow braids bound up at the back of her head, upon which rested a sheer white linen cloth held in place by a plain gold fillet. Aulus was off his horse in a minute to sweep the woman into his arms and place a resounding kiss upon her lips.

Laughingly she chided him, but her light-blue eyes were soft with love. “For shame, my lord, and before our guests!”

Marcus dismounted and carefully lifted Zenobia down from her horse. Drawing her forward, he said to the blond woman, “Eada, I am your brother-in-law, Marcus, and this is my wife, Zenobia.”

“You are most welcome to Britain, brother and sister, and to our home!” was the cordial reply as Eada came shyly forward and kissed them both on the cheeks.

Dagian now stepped forward and stared at Eada. Eada stared back, and then the two women embraced. They had never before met, but they knew in an instant that they would be friends; and Dagian knew that her old age would be a safe and pleasant one in this young woman’s house. “Where are the children?” Dagian begged.

From the portico eight youngsters came forth, and Eada, the
love and pride shining from her eyes, proudly introduced her children to their grandmother. “My eldest son, Graf-ere. He has seventeen summers; and this is Leof-el, who is fifteen; and Aelf-raed, thirteen; and his next brother, Ban-brigge, eleven. They are the four eldest, Mother Dagian.”

Dagian hugged each of the boys, admiring their healthy good looks. All were blue-eyed, but three were dark-haired like their father, while Leof-el was a blond like his mother.

Eada continued her introductions. “Here are my daughters.” She drew forth two pretty blond girls, their long hair in two neat plaits on either side of their heads. “This is Erwina, who is nine, and her sister, Fearn, seven.”

Dagian knelt and, holding out her arms, embraced her two newly found granddaughters, who shyly kissed her in return. “Mavia? Where is my little Mavia?” Dagian asked.

Mavia stepped from her hiding place behind her father, and came before Dagian. “Yes, Grandmother?”

“Dearest child, these are your cousins, Erwina and Fearn. I know you shall have good times together!”

The three little girls looked at one another, and finally Erwina spoke. “I have a pony,” she said with the importance of the eldest.

“I have a kitten,” little Fearn piped. Then the two sisters looked to their cousin.

“I am a princess,” Mavia said, settling the matter.

The sisters’ blue eyes grew round with wonder. “You are?” Erwina said. “A
real princess?”

“Of course,” Mavia replied. “There are no other kind. Take me to see your pony, cousin! My papa will give me a pony too, and we shall ride together.”

Marcus chuckled indulgently, but Zenobia was mortified. “She must not do that, and you must not encourage her, Marcus! Palmyra is gone, and Mavia is just a child.”

Eada laughed, and tucked her arm companionably through her new sister-in-law’s. “She is clinging to the past because this is all so strange and new to her. It cannot have been easy for her, either. She will soon forget she was once a princess, and she will be running barefoot in the fields with her cousins. Come now and meet my two youngest.”

A sturdy apple-cheeked nursemaid came forward holding by the hands two tow-headed little boys with mischievous and twinkling dark-blue eyes.

“These two scamps are Gal, who has managed to reach five, and his baby brother, Tam-tun, who is now three.”

Dagian bent to kiss the littlest boys, but tears flooded Zenobia’s eyes as she remembered her sons, now lost to her. Marcus put his arms about her, and she wept softly into his chest as he soothed her gently. “We will have our own sons,” he said.

“I am past thirty,” she sobbed. “Oh, why did I not wed with you years ago?!”

“Because you were stubborn, and proud, and Queen of Palmyra, beloved. You had so much responsibility, my darling. You could face nothing more, and how were we to know that it would end this way?”

“How old are you, Zenobia?” Eada asked, and when Zenobia told her Eada laughed. “Tam-tun was born when I was only a year younger than you are now, and I suspect that I am breeding again with another child. It is not as if you have never had a child. Come on now,” she said briskly, “and I will take you to your room.”

The interior of the house was like nothing Zenobia had ever seen. They entered into a vast hall with three fireplaces, the floors of stone. On either side of the main fireplace were corridors, leading to a bath on one side, and the kitchen wing on the other. Off the entry of the house, which was located before the main hall, were staircases leading up to the sleeping quarters. Zenobia and Marcus were led to a large, airy, comfortable room, which was to be theirs during their stay with Aulus and his wife. Mavia was somewhere with her cousins, probably already running barefooted, thought her mother.

In the days to come Zenobia began to learn a way of life that was quite different from the life she had led as the Queen of Palmyra; nor was it like that of the proper Roman wife whom Marcus liked to tease her about. If it resembled anything it was somewhat similar to her childhood within her father’s tribe. Aulus and his family were very close, and that closeness extended to the members of the Salinae Dobunni tribe of whom he was chieftain. He looked after those who could not look after themselves, settled their arguments, approved marriages between families, kept the peace, and administered the law. It was not always easy, although Aulus was a popular leader. His loyalty was clearly to Britain, for he had long ago cut his ties to Rome. Britain, however, was a large land peopled by many tribes, some more civilized than others, and it was necessary to be constantly vigilant.

Zenobia still felt pursued. She could not escape the feeling that the Roman authorities were not about to let an important imperial captive simply walk away. As much as she enjoyed being with Aulus’s family, she was anxious to gain the safety of their island, for instinct told her that she would have no peace until they were there. One afternoon she and Marcus rode out across the vast estate owned by Aulus, stopping to dismount upon a little hill. About them spikes of purple lavender scented the air. They sat upon the ground, the sun warming their backs, and looked out over the valley below, the river winding its way across the green landscape.

“When will we go to the island?” she asked him.

“Soon, beloved. I want to go on ahead of you, and see what must be done to make it habitable.”

“You have paid your brother for it?”

“He did not want the gold, but I made him take it. I could not feel the island was really mine if I did not buy it. I wanted no charity from Aulus.”

“The rivalry is still there, isn’t it?”

“Yes. And so it shall always be. I cannot forget it, and neither can Aulus. We are better friends when we each have our own territory.”

“I shall be glad when we have our own home at last,” she answered him. “Eada is kind, but it is her house … and the walls are thinner than I would wish. Last night when you slept I could hear Graf-ere and Leof-el with a servant girl in the room next door to ours. One of them, and I am not sure which, grunted like a boar in rut when atop the girl.”

“So that is why you have been so reluctant, and so restrained,” he chuckled.

“If I could hear them, Marcus, then surely they could hear us!”

“There is no one to hear us now,” he said slowly, and then he ran a finger down her arm.

“Here?”

“And now,” he said softly, and then he reached up, took down her dark hair, and began to undo the braids. “I far prefer your beautiful hair loose and flowing, as you have worn it in the past.” His fingers threaded themselves through the waves, undoing them, spreading the hair like a dark silken mantle over her shoulders.

She felt a surge of joyous pleasure at his sensuous action, and rising to her feet, she loosened the girdle at the waist of her tunic dress and drew the gown and its undergarment off, letting them
fall into the sweet-smelling grass. She stood tall and proud, her beautiful golden body with its softly blowing black hair swirling about her. The air caressed her body, and it felt good. “When and where you are Gaius, I then and there am Gaia,” she said, repeating her wedding vow to him.

Marcus looked up at his golden wife outlined against the blue sky, and said, “Oh, Zenobia, how very much I love you!” Then he stood, quickly disrobed, and pulled her into his strong arms. Her hands caressed his back gently as he drew her against him. They stood, bodies pressed tightly against one another, for several long moments, and then he lowered his head to kiss her.

It was a deep kiss, a passionate kiss; a kiss that demanded and gave no quarter. His mouth bruised hers, but she kissed him back fiercely, her heart soaring wildly as the passion of his lips and the warmth of his hard body communicated to her their intense need of each other. Her hands ran down his long, smooth back to cup his buttocks, to fondle them, to feel the hard muscles within them.

He groaned, shifting against her, murmuring lover’s thoughts against her lips. “Beloved! My beautiful beloved! The gods, how I want you! How I long to possess you—and be possessed by you!”

Her hands slid back up his frame to tangle themselves within his chestnut hair. She held his head with her hands, and pressed feathery kisses across his face. “I love you,” she said. “I think I always have from the moment that we met in the desert outside of Palmyra!” Then her mouth found his again, and they kissed once more, hungrily, eagerly, greedily. Like bumblebees seeking the sweetest nectar from a rose, they drank of each other’s mouths.

His big hands sat firmly upon her hips, and now he began to draw her down to the sweet grass. The earth was warm beneath her back as she drew his head to her glorious breasts. “Love me, my Marcus,” she said low. “Love me as you have always loved me!” And then she lay quiet, her head thrown back.

He leaned over her, tenderly looking deep into her silvery eyes as they mirrored back his love of her, and then he kissed her gently, fleetingly upon the lips before moving slowly from the corner of her mouth to the soft hollow beneath her ear, just above her jaw. He lingered there for a few moments, enjoying the sweet perfume of her fragrance and the tiny pulse that leapt beneath his lips. Moving lower, he slipped along the side of her neck and down to her rounded shoulder, which seemed to him to be begging to be nibbled. Gently he nipped the firm flesh before returning to
her throat, which beckoned him onward to the deep valley between her breasts.

One of his arms cradled her with tenderness, while his other hand moved to caress her breasts, trembling at the silky fineness of her skin. He had touched her this way a thousand thousand times, and yet it was as if this were the first. His touch brought a little cry of pleasure, which excited him greatly. Swiftly bending, he captured a trembling nipple and sucked deeply upon it while his hand kneaded her breast. For several long and wonderful minutes he gave all his attention to her one breast, and then he moved on to the other lest it feel neglected. Zenobia now began to writhe slowly beneath her husband’s expert lovemaking, her excitement rising fast now.

Finally he laid his head upon her belly, and his fingers began a delicate teasing of her Venus mount, stroking, probing tenderly between the plumpness of her nether lips; finding the sweet, hidden bud of her womanhood; taunting it with a clever finger; bringing his dark head down to taste of her honeyed sweetness, coaxing the bud into blossom. She shuddered forcefully, and he swung a leg over her, mounting her gently.

She reached out to caress his manhood, her long fingers brushing him, exciting him with her very touch. Softly she cupped the pouch of his sex in her hands, her warmth communicating itself to him as she lightly fondled him. Then she guided him into her waiting body, sighing as he buried his lance to the very hilt. She wrapped her legs around him, allowing him to go farther, rejoicing in his skill as he began to find the rhythm.

For a moment her eyes focused upon the blue sky above her, and then Zenobia began to soar with the glorious pleasures he was unleashing throughout her body. She became one with the sky, floating free above the troubled earth. She became one with him, and they were invincible! Her cry startled the horses, who snorted and danced about the tree to which they were tethered. Her nails raked down his back, making thin bloody weals in the flesh, and he reveled in the sharpness, groaning his delight as his seed overflowed her parched and throbbing womb. Her hot sheath clutched at him, drawing the last drop from him, and then he fell exhausted upon her chest, their wild hearts matching beat for beat.

They both lay semiconscious for some minutes, and then he rolled off her and pulled her into his arms in a bear hug. “If I had died then, beloved, it would have been a glorious death.”

“I thought I
had
died,” she murmured back.

They lay a few minutes longer, the warm sun and the breeze lightly brushing their skin, and then he said, “We will have to go back, Zenobia, although I should far prefer to remain in this outdoor bedchamber of ours.”

“It is the first time I have felt relaxed since we arrived in Britain,” she answered him. “Please, Marcus, do not leave me when you go to our island. I should prefer to live roughly than to be without you.”

“I don’t want to leave you, beloved, but how can I take you when I do not know what I am going to find?”

“Then go tomorrow! Go tomorrow, and return quickly to me, for I cannot even bear the thought of being separated from you!”

They rose from their bed of sweet grass amid the lavender spikes and quickly redressed.

Together they rode back toward the villa of Aulus Alexander. They were almost there when a Dobunni tribesman stepped from behind a tree along the path. “Marcus Alexander Britainus,” he called. “Do not go back to the villa! The Romans are there, and they seek you and your wife! You are to come with me to a place of safety.”