Free Jars of Clay by Lee Strauss

in the hot sun. “I never meant to dishonor you. I only wanted to learn of the world around me.”
    “I admire your will to learn,” Quintus said. “But I’m sure the master would be very unhappy to discover his daughter had been spending time with you, a servant. And unchaperoned at that. It must stop. Immediately.”
    “I can’t stop unless she requests it.”
    “And she refuses to stop?”
    Two crows fought each other overhead, screeching as if they knew Lucius was about to lie. She would stop if he asked her to. And he should have, but he couldn’t make himself. His desire to see her again was stronger than his will.
    “Yes.”
    “Why? I don’t understand. What’s in it for her?”
    Good question. It was clear to him she didn’t love him. Lucius shook his head. “I don’t know.”
    “You do know that if you are found out, the master wouldn’t take it lightly. You could bring trouble to us all.”
    “I know. It’s why I’ve been thinking about leaving.”
    “Leaving? Where would you go?”
    “I would like to go to Rome.”
    Quintus slumped, leaning his weight on the fence. He suddenly appeared older to Lucius. “Rome is a long way away,” his father finally said.
    “It’s the capital of the empire,” Lucius said. “I can find work. And the games there are the best around.”
    “Could you not just go elsewhere in Carthage? You are a free man.”
    “There’s more to it than that.”
    Quintus studied him. The feelings Lucius had for Helena were impossible to hide. He knew his father could read them on his face.
    “It’s a great torment for a man to want something he can never have,” his father said.
    Lucius nodded. He wished his life had turned out like Quintus’s. His father had resigned himself to a simple life with a wife of Brutus’s choosing and small wages.
    Again, his father answered intuitively. “Even though I have little, I have found contentment. I have the satisfaction of knowing my family does not hunger. Can you not find love with another?”
    Lucius stood tall, facing his father. “This is why I must leave. I trust not my own will.”
    “But soon she will be betrothed,” Quintus said, as if that solved Lucius’s problem.
    Helena’s impending betrothal was Lucius’s constant torment, and he only knew of one way to escape it. He shook his head in reply.
    “I see,” Quintus said. “Must you leave soon?”
    “I’ll let you know.”
    That evening upon retiring, Lucius stared at the brick walls of his small room. A cool breeze blew through the window, cooling his sunburned skin, but sleep escaped him.
    He had long ago given up praying to the gods. Prayers never amounted to anything. Let another man waste his time. Even if the gods pooled their strength together, they were impotent to help him.
    He desperately wanted something he could never have, and his grief burned and twisted in his soul. His only relief would come in fleeing Carthage, in getting as far away from Helena as possible.

Chapter Twenty-One
    HELENA
    Annia informed Helena that Brutus was entertaining a guest and had requested that she come to greet him. She had been preparing for her secret meeting with Lucius, and her father’s insistence forced her to send a message with Felicity that she would be late.
    Being with Lucius made her heart beat wildly, even as she worked to hide her emotions. He made her feel intelligent and beautiful, and their sessions gave her purpose and reason. His nearness made her feel alive.
    She couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing him again, despite Gordian’s lingering threats. If Lucius had requested the parting, she would’ve granted it, but it seemed he couldn’t bare the separation either.
    They’d only met three times since Gordian had left, and each had been awkward and stilted. They pretended to forget Lucius’s admission of love and the sizzling kiss they had shared.
    Even though it must never happen again, Helena couldn’t stop reliving it. Oh, to the gods,