Second Chances

by Carol Ashby

Claudia leaned over and patted his hand where it rested on the table. “Urgency is a relative thing, Hector. I thought it was urgent for you to hear a few things. I’m glad you came right away. I think you’ll be glad, too, after you hear what I have to tell you.”

  He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

  A light laugh escaped. “Greek men are the finest in the world, but they aren’t very good at understanding Roman women.” She leaned forward and rested her hand on his. “Cornelia is deeply in love with you and wants you to marry her more than anything else she’s ever wanted.”

  Hector’s head popped back. His brows dropped, his mouth curved down, and he shook his head. “How can that be? I’ve seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears how she flirted with Lepidus. He comes from wealth and privilege, just like her. I’ve suspected all along that she couldn’t really be content with a man like me when she could have one of her own kind. She was just settling for me until someone better came along.”

  “Is that what she told you?”

  “No. She said she really wanted me, that she was just using him to make me jealous. But an honest woman wouldn’t use a man that way. I’d like to believe her words, but how can I when what she does is just the opposite?”

  “Here we go back to Greek men not understanding Roman women. Cornelia was just flirting with Lepidus to get you to realize you want her as much as she wants you. She was afraid you’d take too long to ask her to marry you, so she was trying to make you think you needed to do something before she married someone else. That’s just how she learned to do it in Rome. She never thought you’d react the exact opposite of the patrician men she’s known all her life. Lepidus won’t be hurt by what she did. He understands these romantic games. He probably played them himself before he married.”

  Hector ran a hand through his hair. “I’d like to believe you, but I’ve watched her with more than Lepidus. There was a senator in Ephesus. He thought she was happy to see him. He almost proposed in the restaurant. He would have if he’d known she was already divorced.”

  Claudia patted his hand. “Did you think she was happy to see him?”

  “No.”

  “So, you can tell when she’s play-acting. Does it feel like acting when she’s with you?”

  Hector drew and blew out a deep breath before his answer. “Well, no.”

  Malleolus leaned in. “I’ve known Cornelia since she was fourteen, barely more than a girl. That was twenty-five years ago. I know how she thinks, and I know her heart. In all those years, I never saw her in love like she is with you. Yes, she can play-act with the best of the Roman elite. She had years of practice hiding how miserable Lucius made her marriage. He never deserved it, but she was as faithful as any wife could ever be.

  “Even before we left the ship, I could see she was in love with you, that she wants to be with you as husband and wife. She might play-act with the Romans, but when she speaks with you, she speaks the truth. She wants and needs you at least as much as I think you want her. Ask her to marry you, and you’ll find out how little she cares about noble Roman lineage. She doesn’t want a Roman nobleman. She wants a noble man, and she’s found exactly what she wants in you. Go talk with her. Clear up this misunderstanding so you can both be happy.”

  Claudia picked up his hand and held it in both of hers. “Go talk to Cornelia. You’ll learn that you really are the man she wants more than anything on earth. God has given you a second chance at happiness, and you’d be a fool not to take the chance He’s provided.”

  Hector rose. He drew a deep breath, held it, and blew it out through pursed lips. “I’ll go talk to her.”

  Claudia rose and linked her arm with his. “Good. Then both of you come back here, and we’ll celebrate your betrothal.”

  As Hector trotted through Titus’s gate, his heart catapulted.

  Two men stood between him and the woman he loved. Anthusa stood behind her, a terrified Drusilla wrapped in her arms. Cornelia brandished a dagger, her eyes darting between the two men, backing up slowly as they tried to move apart to flank her and reach Drusilla.

  Cornelia’s voice reached him. “This girl does not belong to Lucius. He has no daughter anymore. See the gravestone? Her real father is my new husband, a sea captain with a farm not far from here.”

  He trotted closer. Her face was determined, ferocious. No wonder the men stayed back.

  She saw him and yelled. “Husband, tell them! Tell them this is your daughter.”

  He rode between them, dismounting while his mare was still moving. With legs spread and fists on his hips to flex his arms and display his bulging biceps, he glared at them. They were big men, but so was he, and he had God and love on his side.

  “Leave my wife and child alone and get out of here while you still can.”

  Cornelia moved up beside him, still holding the dagger ready to strike. Drusilla ran from Anthusa to cling to him. He wrapped his left arm around her as she buried her face in his tunic.

  The men looked at each other, then back at Hector and the fierce woman still waving the dagger beside him.

  The taller one cleared his throat. “It would seem we’ve made a mistake.” His eyes flipped to Cornelia. “Claudius Drusus told us his ex-wife was a tricky woman, not to be trusted about anything. But I can see this is your daughter.”

  Cornelia took one step toward them, pointing toward the gate with her dagger. “You go tell that worm of a man who used to be my husband that he has no daughter to give to his friend’s son to kill. He has no claim on this girl or anything else here in Thracia. Get out of here right now and never return.”

  Hector stepped up beside her. “You heard my wife. Leave.”

  The taller man nodded and took two steps back. Then he turned and signaled the other man to follow. Hector stood with his arms crossed until they disappeared through the gate.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw her relax. He would have expected a normal woman to tremble, maybe even collapse after the danger had passed. Not Cornelia. Not this courageous woman who would do anything to protect the child she loved. Just as he would.

  “I was wrong about you, Cornelia.”

  “Wrong?”

  “Claudia told me what you were doing with Lepidus was just the way women like you play games to get the man you want in Rome. She said Roman women don’t think what you did was dishonest. It’s what any Roman woman might do to win the heart of the man she loved. I was coming to let you try to convince me that was what was you were doing. I hoped you might be an honest woman after all. But I just found out I was wrong.”

  She cringed as his words stung her, but that pain would be short-lived. She was a playful, teasing woman. It was part of what he loved about her. It was only right that he should tease her in turn. She’d be smiling at his joke by the time he was through with this conversation. He pressed his lips together so he wouldn’t smile himself and give the joke away.

  Cornelia swallowed hard. “That’s the end, then. I know what honesty means to you.”

  She looked down at the ground as she struggled not to cry. Then she steeled herself against the crushing disappointment and looked up at his face again. She had gambled and lost everything. She would have to resign herself to the consequences of playing a dishonest game to win his honest heart. Somehow God would give her the strength to bear it if they were not to be together, but her loss shouldn’t be Drusilla’s as well.

  Hector watched Cornelia draw herself up to her full height and square her shoulders. There was that regal woman, ready to try to persuade him to do what she thought should be done. She never gave in to defeat as long as she thought there was any hope of changing it. He had come to love her being that way.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she raised her hand to stop him.

  “You don’t have to tell me. I know I should never have tried to make you jealous. I know you hate lies and deception. I was only trying to get you to tell me you want me, li
ke I want you.”

  She still stood erect, but her voice caught as she fought to control the tears that started pooling. “But even if you don’t want anything more to do with me, please don’t stop doing things with Drusilla. She loves you, too. She shouldn’t have to suffer because I was such a fool. Surely you can see she needs you. Besides, what I said about her is absolutely true. You are her father in all the ways her father by blood never has been...never could be. And Lucius really does have no daughter to betroth into certain death. I won’t allow that, no matter what Roman law might say.”

  There was that look in her tear-filled eyes―the look she always had when she assumed he could do whatever she asked, no matter how difficult. This time, what she asked would be easy.

  “That wasn’t what I was about to say.”

  Her head tipped as her eyebrows scrunched. She so seldom looked puzzled, and her comical expression forced him to fight the laugh struggling to escape.

  “You called me husband. To protect the two of you, I had no choice but to call you wife. You forced me to lie, and I can’t abide that. I see only one way to fix it.”

  He gripped her wrist and took the dagger from her hand. “I don’t want you holding this when I tell you.” He hurled it point-first into the ground before turning his eyes back on hers. “You’re going to marry me and make it true.”

  Her breath caught as her eyes widened. “What did you say?”

  “You heard me. I can’t let the lie stand. The best way to fix it is for you to become my wife.”

  He gripped her arms and pulled her toward him.

  Cornelia stepped forward so he could wrap his muscular arms around her. The happiest smile curved her lips before she slipped her arms around him and rested her cheek against his broad chest. A slow, satisfied sigh escaped as she listened to his steady heartbeat. The heartbeat of a man who loved her. As she rubbed his back, she could feel the many ridges―badges of honor for rescuing a child, not scars that branded him once a slave.

  “I agree with you completely, Captain. That lie I told about you being my husband can’t be allowed to stand, either. You’ll have to make an honest woman out of me.” She tipped her head back to look up into the depths of his eyes. “I’m going to love being the wife of an honest man.”

  She caressed his cheek before sliding her hand to the back of his neck. He pulled her closer as his lips sought out hers in their first kiss.

  Cornelia melted against him. Pure pleasure wrapped around her in the arms of this man. A real man, worthy of all the love she could give and more. A man more noble than any nobleman in the entire Empire.

  When that first kiss was over, both Hector and Cornelia freed an arm to call Drusilla into their embrace. Her arms wrapped them tightly as she buried her face between them.

  “Oh, Captain! Nothing could be better than this.”

  “You’ll have to stop calling me Captain. Father is a better name.”

  She beamed up at him. “I think that’s better, too.”

  As Hector gazed down at the soon-to-be wife and daughter he’d never expected to have, one corner of his mouth curved up. It was funny. His beloved Damara had been a sweet, gentle woman who always needed his care and protection. Cornelia was as strong as any man, independent, ready to face any challenge and fight until she won. Except for their faith in Jesus, they couldn’t be more different. How could one man be so in love with both of them? He’d loved Damara with a passion that bound them in life and death, but God had given him a love for Cornelia that would grow just as deep in the years ahead.

  But only God understood the workings of the human heart. As Hector once more lowered his lips to hers, he gave thanks that he served the God of second chances.

  Chapter 52: The Best of His Sons?

  Rome, 5 weeks later

  It was late afternoon when Lucius returned to his town house from the Baths of Trajan. He wasn’t looking forward to the evening. Flaccus was hosting a banquet, and Didia would be there, acting the devoted wife even while on the hunt for a different husband.

  She would probably treat him with cool friendliness, as she always did when Flaccus was present, but the razor-tongued cat would be watching his every move, noting his every word to find some juicy gossip to use against him.

  The corner of his mouth twitched. Or not. Probably the truce declared between them at the Amphitheater meant more to her than to him. She had much more to lose.

  As he crossed the guard-dog mosaic just inside the front door, Paullus scurried into the short hallway that connected the outer entrance to the atrium.

  Lucius stopped midstride. His steward glanced over his shoulder like a man out too late with thieves skulking behind him.

  “Master, the two gladiators I hired from the Ludus Silani have returned from Thracia. I put them in the smallest sitting room off the atrium.”

  He glanced over his shoulder again. “They commented on how rich everything looked, and the way they were staring at your silver statues… I had some food delivered to keep them busy in the sitting room and stationed the most muscled of the stable slaves in the atrium with orders to make sure they didn’t wander into rooms they shouldn’t enter.”

  A triumphant grin stretched Lucius’s face. “Where did you put Drusilla?”

  Paullus cleared his throat. “They didn’t have her with them. When I asked where she was, they said they’d only tell you.”

  The grin flipped into a scowl.

  Lucius entered the atrium and spread his arms so his manservant could unwrap his toga. When the slave stepped back with the yards of purple-edged white wool in his arms, Lucius ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Take me to them.”

  When Lucius paused in the sitting-room doorway, the muscular pair were lounging in the chairs, eating dried dates from the clay bowl Paullus had provided. They rose when he entered.

  He crossed his arms. “Where is my daughter?”

  The taller one crossed his arms as well. “Dead and buried in Thracia.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “When we reached your brother’s house, there was a gravestone with her name on it in his garden.”

  The arrogant angle of the gladiator’s chin stoked Lucius’s irritation. “You were told my wife is a deceitful woman and not to trust anything she said or did. Did you see any girl there who looked my daughter’s age?”

  “There was a girl there, but your former wife said it was the daughter of her new husband.”

  Lucius’s head bounced back. “New husband?” He sneered. “I don’t think so. She didn’t have time to find one. She lied to you, and you fell for it.”

  The gladiator’s nostrils flared. “I don’t think so.” He’d mimicked Lucius’s tone. “When we first got there, she and the girl were in the garden with her maid. She drew a dagger on us. Her maid grabbed the girl and stayed behind your wife. She kept waving the dagger and telling us your daughter was dead. Her new husband was some sea captain, and the girl was his daughter. I thought she was lying, like you warned us, and we were flanking her so I could disarm her while Maximus got the girl.

  “Then a man rode through the gate and told us to leave his wife and child alone. He looked Greek with darkened skin, like a sea captain. As soon as he got off his horse, the girl ran over and clung to him, just like his own daughter would. The gravestone and the new husband…together they seemed proof enough she wasn’t lying. Your daughter is dead.”

  The gladiator spread his legs, arms still crossed.

  Lucius rubbed his chin. “Perhaps so.” He relaxed his own stance, and the gladiator did the same. “If you’d brought her safely to me, I’d planned a very generous reward for you. Since you failed…the reward will be less, but I still appreciate your effort. The failure isn’t your fault if Drusilla truly is dead.”

  He turned to Paullus, who stood in the doorway with the stable slave behind him.

  “Fetch a denarius a day for each
of them and show them out.”

  Paullus flattened himself against the door frame as Lucius strode past.

  In his library, Lucius lowered himself into the desk chair. He rubbed the back of his neck before picking up an engraved brass stylus and rolling it between his thumb and middle finger.

  His mouth turned down. It took time to get a gravestone ready. Either Drusilla was dead, or Cornelia put it up as a decoy to fool him. But would she have thought to do that if she hadn't known he was sending men to get Drusilla back? She might have…she was much too smart for a woman. But was it more likely that she'd known they were coming because someone had warned her?

  Who could have done that? Maybe Brutus? But he was only an equestrian. His wife wouldn’t move in Cornelia’s social circles, and he wasn’t a ladies’ man himself. Besides, he wouldn’t know Titus was in Perinthus, so he’d never guess she’d go there.

  Lucius had only discussed the matter with Paullus, Brutus, and Marcus Corvinus...but Tertius had been there when he realized where Cornelia had gone. His son had tried to get him to abandon his plan to betroth Drusilla to Gnaeus when he first heard it might happen. And he’d said both he and her mother didn’t want Drusilla hurt.

  Had the son he trusted and valued most betrayed him by warning Cornelia so she could run with Drusilla? Had he known all along where Cornelia was? Keeping that secret was the same as lying. Had he betrayed him again by warning her that gladiators were coming?

  His jaw clenched. Was the one he'd thought the best of his sons actually a traitor?

  And if so, what should he do about it?

  Finis

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