The silence seemed oppressive. “How long have you been coming to services at the new temple?” Gaius asked finally. n, •
“Since it was built.”
“And before that?”
“When I was a little girl, my mother used to take me to meetings in the servants’ quarters in the house of one of the city fathers whose steward was a Christian.”
“But you dwell in the Forest House,” he said, frowning.
“It is true,” she replied quietly. “Their Priestess has given me shelter there – I am an orphan. But no oaths bind me. My father is British, exiled now, but my mother was a Roman. She had me baptized, and when I found that Father Petros was living near I wanted to learn more of her faith.”
Gaius smiled. “And your name is Valeria!”
She blinked. It had been a long time since she had heard that name.
“That is the name my mother called me, but I have been Senara so long I had almost forgotten it. Father Petros says it is my duty to obey my guardians, even if they are pagans. At least in the Forest House no harm will come to me. He says that the Druids are among the good pagans who will some day be offered salvation; but I must not take oath to them. And the Apostle Paul commanded slaves to obey their masters. Freedom is of the soul, but the legal status of the body cannot be set aside, and neither can lawful oaths.”
“At least they have that much sense,” he muttered. “A pity they cannot extend that reasoning to cover their duty to the Emperor!”
Senara chattered on as if she had not heard, and he wondered if her babbling covered fear, but he was too charmed by the music of her voice to care much about the words. She had such innocence, like Eilan’s when she was young.
“Of course they do not ask me to sin in the Forest House, and they are good people there, but I want to be a real believer and go to Heaven. I would be afraid to be a martyr though, and I used to be afraid they would think it was my duty to die for my faith like one of the saints Mother told me about; I was only a baby but I can remember – just.
“But the Government is not persecuting Christians now . . .” She hesitated. As Gaius was searching for something to say, she went on. “Of course, tonight, the Father was really talking about me. A few of the people in the congregation know that I am in one of the pagan temples and they despise me because I remain there – but Father Petros says I do not need to leave them until I am of age.”
“And then what?” he asked. “Will Valerius arrange a suitable marriage for you?”
“Oh no. It is most likely I will enter a holy sisterhood. In Heaven, the priests say, there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage.”
“What a waste,” Gaius declared. He had heard that one before. “I truly think the priests must be mistaken.”
“Oh no; for when the world ends you do not wish to be found with any sin upon your soul.”
Gaius said with absolute truthfulness, “It never occurred to me to be concerned about my soul, nor even to ask myself whether or not I had one.”
She stopped short and turned to him in the dark. “But how terrible,” she said very earnestly. “You do not want to be cast into the pit of hell, do you?”
“I find it a strange religion that would condemn folk for breeding children, or for the act that begets them! And as for your pit of hell, surely it is as much as a fable as Tartarus or Hades. Nothing to frighten a rational man. Do you mean to tell me that you truly believe that is where those who offend against Father Petros’s rules will go?”
She stopped again and raised her face to him, white as a lily in the moonlight. “But of course I do,” she said. “You must think about your soul now, before it is too late.”