“You see, we made it here just in time,” he said. “Bellissima!”
“You must not call me so,” she said timidly.
“No?” he queried, watching her carefully. “But I thought truth was one of your Christian virtues. The Stoics say so, and even among the Druids, I have heard, truth-telling is valued. Would you have me lie to you, then?”
“You know how to best me with words,” she said crossly. “We came here to speak of the state of your soul.”
“Ah, yes; a thing that I am not yet convinced I possess.”
She said, “I am no philosopher. But do not even the Stoics whom you have mentioned, speak of that part of a man which deals with the evidence of that which you can neither see nor feel?”
“They do; it is that which convinces me that of all women you are the most desirable.”
He knew that he was pushing the girl, but the storm, rather than relieving the tension, seemed to have filled him with its own intensity. He had spent the days since his meeting with Eilan in turmoil, alternately raging and in despair. He would have taken her away and done his duty by her, but she had denied him. Julia too had forfeited her claim to him. Surely he was free now to seek comfort elsewhere! And when he told Senara she was beautiful, he had not lied.
She blushed and said timidly, “It is not well done of you to speak so to me.”
“On the contrary, I think it is very well done, and you would have me speak the truth. And for what else were you created as a woman?”
Now she was on familiar ground, having listened to many catechumens. “Scripture tells us,” she replied, “that we were created for the purpose of giving worship to the Creator.”
“How dull for him,” Gaius answered. “If I were a god, I would ask more of men than that they should spend their leisure in worshipping me.”
“But it is not for the Created to question the ways of the Creator.”
“Why not?” Gaius pursued.
“Is there anything better to do than worship God?” she demanded, raising her eyes to his. Flushed, like this, she looked still more beautiful.
Certainly there is, Gaius thought, and I would rather be doing it with you. If there was a god, he had created women’s beauty, and Gaius could not believe he would condemn any man for appreciating it. But it was not yet time to say so.
“Tell me, then about this Creator.”
“Almost every faith – except perhaps that of Rome who worship only their Emperor who is all evil – speaks of a Creator. It was He who made all things that were made, and He placed us here to worship Him.”
“Properly speaking, it is the genius of the Emperor that we honor, the divine spark that guides him, and through him, the Empire, not the man. That is why those who will not burn incense are prosecuted as traitors.”
“There may have been good Emperors, though some of the priests would not believe it,” Senara conceded. “But even you will own that Nero, who burned so many Christians in his arena, was an evil one.”
“I will grant you Nero,” Gaius said, “and Caligula. And there are those in Rome who feel that Domitian in his hubris has gone too far. When that happens, those who made a man Emperor have the right to replace him.” And soon, he thought, shivering. September was passing quickly.
“You are very proud of being a Roman,” she said then. “I do not know very much about my mother’s family and have always wondered what it would have been like to be raised that way. Were you born in Rome?”
He grinned at her. “Indeed not; I am half British, just as you are. My mother was a royal woman of the Silures. She died when I was very young, bearing my little sister.”
“Ah, how sad for you.” Her eyes suddenly overflowed; he had not noticed that they were so blue. “What did you do then?”
“I stayed with my father,” Gaius told her. “I was his only son, so he had me well educated by tutors, and taught to read Latin and Greek; then I went into the Legions. There is really nothing more to tell.”