Rapture's Slave

by Becky Lee Weyrich

  For days after the betrothal festivities, Octavia refused to leave her apartments. She stated most emphatically that she wished to be alone, without even her faithful companion. So Acte was left to herself to try to work out her problem while Octavia lit candles before the shrines and spent most of her time praying. The only person Octavia would see other than Acte was Britannicus, still a mere shadow about the palace and ignored by all. Brother and sister seemed to be drawing closer together now that they had no one else to reach out to.

  On a day in November as cold and gray as the marble of the palace, Acte overheard the empress arranging to go to Puteoli on business. Agrippina would be staying for several days and would have a rather large entourage accompanying her. This was the opportunity Acte was waiting for. She knew from travelers and slaves that in that port city there lived one Fortuna Mesae who ran an establishment of questionable reputation. It was whispered that there Fortuna also gave sanctuary and help to women who found themselves in an unwanted state of pregnancy. Acte could hide among Agrippina’s company and travel to Puteoli to visit Fortuna. Then her troubles would be over. In her preoccupied state, Octavia wouldn’t notice Acte’s absence.

  A cold drizzle was falling and fog covered the hills of Rome as the guards, slaves and household members assembled in the palace courtyard to leave. To Acte’s horror, Nero was there. Her heart sank at the sight of him. She should have guessed that his mother would never leave him behind, out of her range of protection. His presence would make the journey even more difficult. If he spotted her she would have to explain her presence and her disguise as a slave. So she stayed out of sight as the caravan set off to Puteoli.

  His nearness stabbed Acte’s heart with guilt. She didn’t want to give up Nero’s child, this child he’d never know of. She longed to give it birth and see the delighted gleam in its father’s loving eyes.

  But, no. Agrippina’s threat made even the thought of such a thing too dangerous. If Nero knew, then soon his mother would guess. Acte could face her own death, but not that of her innocent child. The facts were clear. Nero was betrothed to the emperor’s daughter, and in spite of Octavia’s vow, the future union between them could prove fruitful. Acte’s older child would then pose a threat to Nero’s legitimate heirs. Only by aborting this pregnancy could Acte save herself, Nero and the unborn child from a future tragedy.

  As she trudged through the mud, her tears disguised by the rain, Acte wondered if anything could be more painful. She wanted this child so desperately, but would never see its face or feel it suckle at her breast. She staggered slightly with uncontrollable emotion. A firm hand reached out to steady her. She looked up through her tears into the kindly face of one of the palace guards, a tall man with aquiline features.

  “Are you all right, girl?” he asked.

  Acte nodded, choking back a sob before she could speak. “Yes, thank you. I must have turned my ankle on a stone.”

  “But you’re shivering. Here, take my cloak and wrap it about you.”

  Before she could protest, the guard had wrapped her snugly in the great woolen cape.

  “Thank you again…”

  “Oh, forgive my manners. My name is Gaius Lavinius,” he said with a courtly bow and a smile. “I’m to watch over the empress’s safety on the trip, and see my new son while I’m in Puteoli.”

  His words, spoken with the pride of any new father, jarred Acte’s conscience. But she managed to say, “I congratulate you, Gaius Lavinius, and your wife.”

  The handsome guard leaned close and whispered, “I also go to my wedding. I fear I’ve done my Nike an injustice by waiting so long to make her my wife. But the matter was out of my hands. It wouldn’t have been safe for her to travel to Rome in her condition, and I couldn’t get leave to meet her in Puteoli. But she’s been well cared for in the house of Fortuna.”

  In her troubled state, Acte failed to recognize her old friend’s name as that of Gaius Lavinius’s future bride. Instead, her interest focused on the name of Fortuna.

  “You know Fortuna Mesae?” she asked anxiously.

  He smiled. “There aren’t many men between Rome and Naples who don’t know that lady. She has special gifts, as do the women who live in her house.”

  Acte looked away and responded weakly, “I know.”

  Gaius took her chin in his hand. “Why so sad a look on the face of one so young and beautiful?”

  Acte replied before thinking, “Because I, too, plan to visit the house of Fortuna, but on a far less happy mission than yours.”

  Gaius stared, not understanding.

  “I must go to Fortuna to rid my body of a child.”

  The great guard stopped dead in the road. “You—but you’re hardly more than a child yourself! What brute did this to you? I’ll personally report him to the emperor!” His eyes blazed in anger.

  Acte smiled in spite of her grief. “The name is unimportant, and it was as much my fault as his.” Then she suddenly frowned in concern. “But you must not tell anyone of my condition or of my being here. If I were found out, I’d be punished severely.”

  Gaius put a protective arm about Acte and said, “Fear not, my child. I’ll guide you to the house of Fortuna and see that you’re given the best of care. No one will harm you.”

  Acte sighed with relief, knowing that she’d found a friend in Gaius Lavinius.

  Enraptured with the thought of his coming reunion and wedding, Gaius continued, “My Nike and I will see to it that you aren’t mishandled. That way you may grow to full and bountiful womanhood to bear many sons by your true love.”

  Acte stared at Gaius in astonishment, making the connection at last. “Nike? Do you mean the former slave of Lady Messalina? Getio’s sister, who disappeared without a trace, taking her mistress’s jewels with her?”

  Gaius frowned. “The same, but your story is wrong. The cunning Lady Messalina freed my woman and gave her the jewels to make good her escape. Then she lied and said my Nike ran away and was a thief. For this reason, it’s been impossible for Nike to join me for fear of arrest.”

  “Well, I doubly congratulate you, Gaius,” Acte said. “You will, indeed, have a fine wife. You see, Nike was my friend. It will be so good to see her again. I knew the story about her was false.”

  Gaius supported Acte’s light weight as they sloshed on through the mud. “Quiet now, child. You’ll waste all your energy talking. We still have a long walk before we reach our destination.”

  The curtained litter swayed erratically as its bearers forced each step through the muck on the road. They shivered from the cold, but plodded on. Inside, heated soapstones radiated a cozy warmth for Agrippina and her son.

  Nero tossed about impatiently and was thoroughly unhappy. He could see no reason for being forced to accompany his mother, or for her trip to Puteoli at such a bad time of year. Whatever could be so urgent?

  “Nero, do be still!” she demanded. “The motion of the litter makes me dizzy as it is without your bouncing about and making it worse.”

  Nero said nothing, but stared at his mother in the semidarkness of their confines. She glowed with her own special light as always.

  “My son, do you have to stare at me so? Your gaze is unnerving. And your scowl! Is it so unpleasant to accompany your own mother on a trip?”

  He roused from his reclining position and opened his half-closed eyes. The aura about his mother diminished, but didn’t disappear altogether.

  “Mater, what’s the real reason for this journey?”

  She stared up, as if trying to pull an answer out of the air. “One might say, it’s to give the emperor a bit of time to himself—to think over a few things.”

  Nero’s laugh held no humor. “Does your husband ever think of anything besides his stomach and who’ll warm his bed?”

  The warning fire in Agrippina’s eyes cautioned Nero.

  “You will not be disrespectful to your emperor! Am I understood?”

 
; Nero nodded, but continued staring.

  ‘To answer your question, I must visit Locusta,” his mother said finally. “She’s been ailing lately.”

  Nero drew back out of striking range and chuckled. “You mean, don’t you, that you have no more poison and the old witch must mix you up a fresh batch?” He went on without waiting for her reply. “I thought it rather humorous when I heard that that slave who was carried from your husband’s couch on the night of my betrothal feast was dead. What a shock it must have been to the old fool to find himself fondling a corpse! What poisorw did you use on her? I congratulate Locusta on her recipe. The black slave went so quickly and silently that everyone in the banquet hall believed she was drunk. You fooled even me, Mater!”

  Agrippina reached out her hand, but instead of striking him, she stroked his hair.

  “So, my young man has a head on his shoulders. But I didn’t kill the slave. I only offered her a cup of wine. No one held her head and forced her to drink.”

  Nero laughed aloud. “You’re right, Mater. No one held Ebony’s head. The emperor was too busy holding other things.” Nero teasingly reached out and cupped his mother’s breasts in imitation of the emperor’s attentions to the slave girl.

  Agrippina quickly pushed him away.

  Ignoring what had just happened, she spoke sharply. “Nero, the emperor’s attentions to other women are not open for discussion. He’ll learn in time what I will and will not tolerate. He just needed a lesson to remind him of my power.”

  Nero whispered, “And a fine lesson you gave him. I do wish, however, that you hadn’t chosen such a tempting piece of flesh for your instrument of teaching.”

  Agrippina sat up, her eyes aglow in the darkness. “Why, Nero! Do you mean that you found Ebony attractive?”

  Nero suddenly realized which way the subject was about to turn and vainly wished that he could retract his statement. But Agrippina pressed on.

  “Are you telling me that you’ve found a woman to your liking?”

  Nero lowered his eyes from hers. “Yes, Mater.”

  “And is this the first time a woman has aroused your interest, my son?”

  “No,” he muttered.

  “Well, come. Tell me. I’ve waited so long for this. I want all the details, immediately!”

  Nero drew himself up in defiance. “Let it be enough said that I’ve known a woman and loved her. The details are for her and me alone. If I told you her name, you’d be watching us both every minute. We wouldn’t have any freedom for our love to bloom.”

  A mischievous glint came to her eye. “You’re afraid that I might lurk about to spy on the two of you as you have upon me and my lovers in the past.”

  Nero flashed a grin and moved closer to his mother. He answered, “Something like that. It runs in the family, I suppose.”

  They both giggled at his response.

  Agrippina curled her arm around him and held him tight. “Not Octavia, my son?” she asked suddenly in a worried tone.

  As Nero felt his mother’s warmth about him, he assured her it was not his future bride.

  “You’ve done well, Nero. Octavia must not be touched until after your marriage.”

  Nero nodded, breathing in his mother’s perfume. The gentle swaying of the litter and her soft arms about him lulled him into half-sleep.

  Agrippina’s soft voice seemed to come from far away. “Since you’ve surprised me with this welcome news, the second mission of my journey can be dismissed. I’d planned to have you taken in disguise to the house of Fortuna for some instruction. Now that won’t be necessary.”

  He felt her lips brush his face as he drifted off into blissful sleep.

  As the entourage reached the outskirts of Puteoli, Acte and Gaius slipped away unnoticed to make their way through the dark and narrow streets of the port to a side alley off the Via Sereno.

  Gaius knocked on the thick door of one of the houses. A panel slid open and an eye peered out at the two cold, muddy figures.

  Gaius announced, “Fortuna, it is Gaius Lavinius, come to claim my bride. I also have with me a young friend who needs your help.”

  The bolts clattered and the door opened just wide enough to allow them in. They were hardly through the opening before Nike was there, throwing herself into her lover’s arms. Acte ached inside as she watched the two exchange endearments.

  Nike tugged Gaius’s hand and said, “Come, you must see the baby. Oh, Gaius, how many months has it been since your last visit?”

  “Too many, my love,” he answered. He gestured behind him. “Have you no greeting for an old friend? Don’t you recognize Acte?”

  Acte removed the damp cloak from her head. The two women embraced tearfully.

  Fortuna, a dark-complected woman of great, but worn, beauty, led the way upstairs for the three to follow. At the back of a narrow hallway, she opened the door and showed them into Nike’s room. Fortuna then smiled and left them alone for a time.

  A fire glowed in the hearth as Acte and Nike sat together listening to the coos of Nike’s baby. In the corner, Gaius had the child in his arms and was half-smothering it with kisses. Nike beamed at him. Acte could clearly see Nike’s happiness in her expression. They both tried to talk at once.

  “What are you doing here, Acte?”

  “I was about to ask you the same question. Gaius told me you were here, but I have no idea how the two of you met or anything that’s happened to you since the night you left Baiae.”

  Nike laughed gently. “Fate takes curious turns, my friend. Gaius and another guard apprehended me in the garden of the villa that night. I thought it would mean my certain death. But Gaius sent me here to wait for him. I think I loved him even as I fought him to escape that night.”

  She paused and looked quizzically at Acte. “But tell me, what are you doing here? Did you grow out of your infatuation with Lord Nero?”

  Acte looked down, afraid to meet Nike’s eyes as she confessed, “No. I may never get over it. Now that his mother has married the emperor, I see more of him than ever. I’m obsessed with him.”

  “Acte, that’s foolish! Aren’t there other men in your life—men of your own station?”

  Acte hesitated. “There is one man—a gladiator.”

  “How romantic!” Nike sighed.

  “He’s asked me to marry him, Nike.”

  The older woman embraced her. ‘That’s wonderful! When?”

  Acte looked down and tears filled her eyes. “Never, I’m afraid. You see, I’m carrying Nero’s child. I’ve come here to have Fortuna end the pregnancy.”

  Before Nike could voice her sympathy, Gaius interrupted their conversation. “Come look, Nike. He’s smiling at his father.”

  Nike rushed to his side.

  Acte looked about the room. A comfortable pallet more than large enough for two lay in a corner near the fire. She thought of Gaius and Nike sharing that space on this cold night. A pang of regret swept through her. What would the night bring for her?

  As if in answer to her unspoken question, there was a knock at the door. Nike opened it. Fortuna entered. She and Nike spoke in whispers for a few moments. Then the woman came and placed a hand on Acte’s arm. Nike embraced Acte silently.

  “I’m told that you need my help,” Fortuna said.

  “Yes,” Acte replied simply.

  “Then come with me. Let’s leave this little family to themselves.”

  Acte got up and followed Fortuna to the door. She looked back at Gaius and Nike, and they smiled at her reassuringly. Nevertheless, when she closed the door behind her, she was frightened.

  Far to the back of the house and up a narrow flight of stone stairs, Fortuna opened a low door and ushered Acte into a small, cold room. The chilled atmosphere seemed to be caused as much by the utter barrenness of the room as by the howling wind outside. There was no fire here, no warm pallet. A table stood in the center of the room and beside it a chest upon which lay an ass
ortment of tools in odd shapes and sizes with vials and jars. Acte shuddered.

  The starkness of the room became even more apparent as Fortuna lit several oil lamps hanging on pegs around the walls.

  “Undress.” The order was issued with no preliminaries.

  Acte hesitated. Fortuna was at her side, seeming ready to do the job for her, if she was unwilling. In minutes Acte stood before Fortuna with nothing to cover herself, shivering as much from embarrassment as from the chill in the air.

  Fortuna raised her lamp to get a better view of Acte. “Why, you’re hardly more than a child! How often they take advantage of the young these days. But it’s a woman’s lot to be plagued by the lusts of men. Some are lucky like me and use this lust to gain riches. Others, less fortunate, must suffer. So it is with you, I’m afraid.”

  As Fortuna spoke, she placed her lamp on the chest and ran expert hands over Acte’s swollen belly and breasts.

  She shook her head. “Climb up on the table and lie on your back.”

  Acte did as ordered, feeling the cold marble top of the table underneath her. Something wasn’t right. She could tell by Fortuna’s face.

  The woman moved the lamp closer. She manipulated Acte’s breasts, all the while muttering, “A child, just a girl.” Then her hands moved downward to Acte’s slightly distended belly. She prodded and poked, finally laying her ear to Acte’s abdomen. After this she announced, shaking her head again, “The heartbeat is strong.”

  Acte found her voice. “My—my baby’s heart is beating inside me?” A smile lit her face for an instant.

  Fortuna frowned. “That’s not good. You’re too far along. We could try purges.” She paused and thought for a moment. “But then we might lose you in the bargain. We’ll see. Place your heels in the grooves at the foot of the table and slide toward me.”

  Fortuna sat down on a low stool at Acte’s feet. Acte did as instructed, but jumped in surprise as she felt the woman’s cold fingers enter her body. She squirmed in discomfort.