The Lady Out of Time

11 - Bothered

 Spring turned over into summer within days. The transition was far more severe this year than it usually was, accompanied by a fierce heat wave that had every man and beast retreating to cover from dawn until the nighttime. The streets were deserted, a far cry from two weeks before when they had been teeming with people coming and going from the festival that the Aemelii had thrown. The markets, also empty. Instead, everyone was cooling off in the bathhouses, which were overflowing to capacity.

A dry heat would have been far more merciful, but it was a Roman summer: hot and absurdly wet. The humidity had everyone moaning even inside their villas from the moment that they opened their eyes. Thankfully, Agrippa's residence was among the few that had the luxury of air conditioning - pipes that carried water through the walls of the house from the flowing stream outside and carried the heat out of the villa with it. The slaves were therefore more eager than usual to get out of bed and get to work earlier in the mornings and well into the night, because it meant that they could stay out of the stuffy slave quarters and lounge a little more than usual in the main area of the residence.

But even so, it was only moderately more bearable. The sun still shone down just as harshly here as it did anywhere else, and even Agrippa found himself waking up on the verge of sweating every morning. The first thing that he did nowadays was wait for Julia to arrive at his room and help him into light, heat-friendly day clothes.

Today, however, he turned around to see someone else entering his chambers. A different young woman, one of the longtime slaves he recognized but didn't know the name of. Pretty blond hair and big blue eyes...most assuredly not Julia.

"Where is she?"

The girl seemed flustered by the question. Perhaps she had expected to be asked her name first, or maybe she had thought that he would accept her appearance without question and simply order her to get to work. But she smoothed down the front of her tunic and answered him a few seconds later in a small voice.

"She's not feeling well, sir. She seems sick."

"Is it infectious?"

"We're not sure yet, but Annia told us to put her in one of the sick rooms anyway just in case until someone has a chance to look at her."

If he didn't have somewhere to be in an hour, he would have gone to see her right away. But if she was being seen to by one of the older women, there was a chance they had stripped her down and was inspecting her now. Julia would surely raise a fuss about him entering if that were the case.

"...Fetch my clothes from the table. We need to leave shortly."

* * * * *

When they returned in the early evening, however, Agrippa discovered that Julia was still confined to the sick room. A few of the other slaves told him that her condition had worsened - something about painful and itchy swelling along with red blotches all over her body.

"Are we sure it's not infectious?"

"Camilla and I checked her thoroughly, sir. It isn't. It seems to be an allergic reaction to the heat."

"The heat?" To be sure, it had been hotter than normal lately, but the other slaves were getting by. Maybe that was a clue as to Julia's origins. If she wasn't accustomed to hot Roman summers, then she must be from somewhere else that had milder seasons. And yet her accent -

"Take me to her."

The elderly woman hesitated. That was new. He was used to being obeyed without question, not that he was angry now - merely curious. If Julia wasn't infectious, then why was this woman unwilling to escort him to see her?

"What's wrong?" he asked. "It should be safe for me to be in the same room if it's just a reaction to the heat."

"It...She's refused to let anyone see her today. Apparently, her condition has worsened considerably from when I saw her at sunrise. No one has been able to go in to see her, and she hasn't even taken meals. She's been raising such a fuss that we've given up."

He sighed. For all of her positive qualities, he had noticed time and time again that Julia carried around a vanity that didn't befit her station in society. It made him wonder even more about the secrets that she kept when he caught her admiring expensive fabrics, when most slaves couldn't tell the difference between the types of finer cotton and linen.

"Take me to her anyway," he said.

"But -"

"She can't refuse to let me in," he interrupted with a half-smile. "I own the door that she's hiding behind. Take me to her."

It was of course a lighthearted joke, but at the same time, it was a gentle reminder to the woman that he was the master of his house. Julia was fierce and had a dominant, capable disposition that made every other slave walk on wary tip-toes around her, but where their wishes conflicted, Agrippa expected them to bow to his demands over hers. Especially where her - and anyone else's - well being was concerned.

The woman led him there with a meek nod, and soon he was near the back of the villa. He rarely came here even though this was his house: this area was reserved usually for the sick or in the cases that any of the slave women were giving birth. The young and healthy Julia shouldn't have cooped herself up here all day with no food and no company. When the woman indicated with a respectful gesture which door he was to enter through, he sent her away so that he could deal with this alone. No doubt Julia would prefer whatever privacy he could afford.

Knock-knock.

"No!"

"Julia -"

"No!"

He doubted she had even really heard his voice. Perhaps she thought he was one of the male slaves - the thought made him smile in amusement. He leaned forward into the door and spoke through it, making sure he projected his voice over her continued protests.

"It's me. I'm coming in whether you like it or not, Julia. You can't stay in there forever if you're just getting worse. You need a remedy."

It was silent inside the room for a moment, and he didn't know if she was pondering his words or refusing to comply. After a few more seconds, he took hold of the handle and began pushing open the door -

"Don't you dare!"

He had to fight down the urge to laugh at her impudence. "I don't dare to walk about in my house as I please?"

"Not when there's a naked woman in the room!"

That made him close the door again with a swift pull. Of course, the scratch of her clothes against her body must have been unbearable. No wonder she had stripped down; it was a smart decision to try to alleviate the itching and pain. He was just glad that he hadn't opened the door any more quickly and preserved her dignity.

"I'll be out here," he told her. "And you're coming with me."

"I know, I know! But unless you want me parading my bits around the house and making everyone else wonder about the sudden change in furnishings..."

He didn't say anything more. She had agreed to his demands, and he was satisfied - honestly, he had been expecting far more of a stubborn fight than what she had put up. Was that a testament to her weakened condition, this uncharacteristic agreeableness? Perhaps she was too hungry and tired to argue with him. Or maybe, he thought, she was finally learning to cooperate and give in to his direction as a child ought to. To think that he was so accustomed to tolerating her cheeky ways! But then again, she wasn't so much cheeky as she was bold. Nothing she did ever seemed quite the antics of a disobedient child, but rather the resistances of an independent -

"Don't look at me," Julia grumbled through the c***k in the door the instant she opened it. Agrippa leaned away from the wall as soon as he heard her voice, surprised that he had drifted off into his thoughts in that short time.

"Then where should I look, madam?"

"Above my head!"

"That'll make it a little difficult for me to take a look at these -" As soon as she slipped out of the room, he took her by the shoulders and inspected her face and neck to her outraged cries. Yes, he saw them now. The faint pink blotches that ran over her skin, even little pinpricks of red where her skin seemed to be bleeding slightly underneath.

"You'll make them itch, I only just got them to settle!"

"You'll have to forgive me, young lady," he said dryly, and he straightened back up again while looking her in the eye now. "In return, I offer you a more permanent solution."

She pressed her palms to the side of her neck, no doubt trying to resist the urge to scratch it. Her eyes were narrowed in a suspicious glower. "What do you mean?"

"When's the last time you had a bath?"

Her cheeks reddened in the beginning of rage. "Excuse me, I bathe every day -"

He knew that. He had heard all the grumblings from Annia about the needy Julia who insisted on bathing before everyone else early in the mornings with buckets and buckets of water. It was why she was never late to his room, incidentally, since she was always up well before sunrise. But that wasn't what he was asking.

"Not like that," he interrupted smoothly. "I mean a real bath. At a bathhouse."

She gave him an even fiercer glare. "You know just as well I as do that they don't let slaves bathe there. Unless we go to that dingy little backroom that's always cramped and barely has any water to wash in."

Of course he knew that. She had been immensely bitter about it from the very first day (about two things, actually, the other being that she wouldn't get to accompany him when he took his bath. How was it that a young girl could have such a predatory way about her?). But maybe his offer now would soothe that long-festering grudge a little.

"I'm constructing a new bathhouse in another part of the city," he explained. "Not every part of it is done, but it can function now as it is. We're due to test it all day today, and in fact, the water's probably already flowing in from the aqueducts. It would be a terrible waste if no one was there to enjoy it while I inspect the works."

Her eyes were so wide that he feared they would fall out of her head. That pleased him. Greatly.

"I should note that you would be the first person to use the bathhouse, ever. I'm afraid I don't know who else I could stand to trust with this heavy responsibility."

It took her a few seconds as he watched her work to regain her ability to speak. "I...I suppose I could be bothered...perhaps."

"Oh, please do, madam. I'm in dire need of help making sure that the water from the Tiber River is clean and cool and just right. You would need to immerse yourself in it, test it properly."

"I see...Well, then." She cleared her throat and turned slowly on her heel toward the hallway exit. "I find my schedule of things to do luckily very empty today. Allow me to be of service to you."

He smiled as he watched her go, and then followed behind her.