Domina Triumphans

Chapter 23: 47 AD, Italy, Antioch, Londinium, and Lugdunum

Marcellus Vinicius went to the room he shared with Nervius to be alone with his thoughts. He picked up a follis, or large leather ball and balanced it on his fingertips. There were plenty of boys around to start a pickup match, but he was not so sure he wanted to. He needed to mull some things over, and for that he wanted quiet. He returned the ball to the shelf and lay back on his bed, counting the months until his fourteenth birthday, next March. He would be of legal age and his betrothal to Urracca would be announced in June, when she was twelve. He hoped that his father, who had stayed a day in Lugdunum before continuing on to Rome, could come back next spring. A quarrel between Nervius and Urracca broke out in the colonnade and interrupted his thoughts.

"Mother will be upset if you go anywhere without telling her," Urracca said.

"What's it to you?" Nervius snapped. "I'm just going to the bookshop."

"Because I'll tell her," Urracca said. "And she'll put you in your room."

Marcellus heard the sound of a hand making impact, Urracca crying out, and then falling on the tile.

"Hey, easy!" Imantios called out. "That's your sister."

Marcellus bounded out of bed, jerked open the bedroom door, and ran down the colonnade as Abonos helped Urracca stand up. She was crying and cupping her left cheek in her hand. His anger rising, Marcellus balled his fist and drove it into Nervillus' nose, knocking him on his ass.

"She's your sister and she will be my betrothed!" Marcellus shouted. "Watch yourself!"

Artorius came toward them as Nervius scrambled to his feet, holding his tunic to his streaming nose.

"Damn it! What's all this?" Artorius demanded.

"Nervius hit her, Sir," Imantios said. "Marcellus popped him."

"As well he should," Artorius snapped. "Boy, we don't make war on women."

"I just wanted to go to the bookshop," Nervius said.

"And you could have asked permission and gone," his grandfather said. "Your sister was right to enforce the rules. Now, go clean yourself up and go to your room without supper."

Nervius stomped to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him as Carada and Beutilla led Urracca away. Artorius clapped Marcellus on the shoulder and turned to Imantios and Abonos.

"Thank all of you for defending her," he said.

"May we go to the taberna and the bookshop?" Abonos asked.

"Be home before dinner," Artorius said.

As he passed Nervius' door, Nervius opened it and threw a satchel and the ball into the hallway. A servant had placed clean laundry on the shelf. Nervius snatched the clothes and tossed them next.

"What are you doing?" Artorius and Marcellus both asked.

"I want you out," Nervius said to Marcellus. "Your Old Man should have taken you back to Rome when he was here."

"Emrys Nervius, you put these things back and apologize," Artorius said.

Marcellus bent to pick up his clothes. Nervius bounced the ball against Marcellus' head before throwing it against the wall, hard, inside the room. The ball, made with leather filled with air and feathers, broke open from the impact. Feathers and down went everywhere.

"Damn it, Nervius!" Marcellus shouted.

"You're with me, Boy!" Artorius snapped.

Nervius trailed his grandfather to his office as Abonos and Imantios helped Marcellus shake out and refold his clothes and clean up the feather mess. Once in the office, Artorius shut the door and faced his grandson.