Free Beast of Caledonia by Kate Poole Page B

stood.
    What is she hiding in there ? Or who?
    One day, Marilla had seen Letitia gather up the table scraps
and put them in a bowl in the pantry. “What are you doing with that?” Marilla
had asked.
    “There is a poor stray dog,” Letitia answered, “that comes
to the back of the garden. I give them to him.”
    But Marilla had begun to watch her fellow servant. There was
no dog…unless he was living in the shed.
    Then one day, while purchasing some food for the household,
she heard a bit of news that might explain Letitia’s actions. The market was
always a good place to learn the latest gossip.
    “How could she have gotten away? Are they not watched day
and night?”
    Marilla’s ears perked up at the conversation between the two
women next to her as she examined the fishmonger’s wares.
    “Obviously not,” the other woman laughed, then grew serious.
“Do you really think this will bring bad luck on the Empire?”
    “I do not know,” the first woman replied. “In my lifetime, a
Vestal has never run away. But the emperor must be worried that it will,
considering the reward being offered.”
    Marilla gasped as the pieces fell into place. It must be her,
she thought. Marilla had heard about the Vestal Virgin who disappeared and
about the reward, but had not given it much thought. But if the girl was hiding
in the shed, and Marilla could aid in her capture… Well, with that amount of
money she could buy her way out of slavery and still have enough left for a
small house, and perhaps a servant of her own.
    As she was wondering whom she should tell, she spied a group
of soldiers talking in a nearby doorway.
    * * * * *
    The flame of the lamp sputtered and went out. Cold sweat
broke out on Sara’s forehead. She struggled to breathe in the stuffy air in the
shed. Despite her hunger, her stomach lurched and she vomited the sparse
contents left from her last meal.
    How many days ago had that been? Even though she had lost
track of the days, Sara knew Letitia had not come for a long time. What had
happened? Oh, gods, what if Letitia had been sold? No one else in the household
knew that Sara was there. She could starve in here before anyone found her.
    This is the fate that awaits me if I am captured. Sara began to pray to Fortuna, the goddess of good fortune, to help her to
escape this place, to bring Annachie back to her soon, and to watch over them
on their journey.
    Just then, she heard the lock on the shed door opening. Thank
you, blessed Fortuna, for smiling on your daughter.
    The door opened. The brightness of the sun blinded Sara for
a moment; she had to shade her eyes with her hand. This is wrong, she thought.
Why would Letitia come in the daytime? Then, when she was able to see again,
Sara felt as if her heart had dropped to her feet. Four soldiers and a woman
she had never seen before stood in the doorway.
    The soldiers grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of
the shed. They pushed her along the overgrown path of the garden toward a cart
with bars on each side. The door to the cart stood open and heavy chains
dangled from the top of the bars inside.
    Before they shoved her into the cart, Sara looked back one
last time. The woman was standing there, pouring coins from a cloth pouch into
her hand as if counting them. On the ground next to her, Letitia’s body lay in
a puddle of blood.

Chapter Eight
     
    “You are vexing me greatly,” Antoninus said, his words
clipped with anger barely held in check.
    “Yes, Sire.”
    They had lost no time bringing her before the emperor. Sara
stood silently with her head bowed. She did not cry, but she did not try to
hold back the tears, either. She was simply numb.
    “I let you become a Vestal as a favor to your father for
building my wall in Caledonia, even though you were scarred and much too old—”
    “Yes, Sire,” Sara repeated. There was nothing else to say,
for it was all true.
    “And this is how I am repaid?” Antoninus roared now, giving
his anger free