"Maximus!"
Max kept walking, looking straight ahead pretending he hadn't heard.
Antillar Maximus, I need to talk to you!"
He speeded up the pace but somehow she caught up with him. A hand grabbed him from behind. He threw it off violently and spun around hand on hilt to glare ferociously at the dark haired, gray clad woman behind him/ She shrank back, eyes widening in sudden fear.
Damn. Max took his hand off his sword and breathed deeply through his nose. Scaring his stepmother in her condition wasn't fun and it wasn't fair. "Just leave me alone," he said as evenly as he could manage. "I don't want to hear any apologies or explanations - "
"I'm not offering any," Dorotea interrupted as bluntly. "I want you to know that Lady Antillus is dead and as good as buried. You don't have to fear her anymore, or hate her, or even think about her. Forget she ever existed and get on with your life."
Max opened his mouth to respond and left it hanging as what she was saying got through to him. His wicked stepmother was dead there would be no more 'accidents'. He had a future now. He had to decide what he wanted to do with it. He had more to offer a woman than a night of pleasure. He could take a wife, start a family... Veradis….
"Maximus?" Dorotea actually sounded worried.
He closed his mouth and swallowed. "All of a sudden my world got real complicated."
She smiled. It was an open happy smile the like of which he'd never seen or even imagined on her face. "And my world has become very simple; obey orders, help people."
Max stared at her. "You're happy, really happy."
"And why shouldn't I be?" She touched the steel ring encircling her neck. "Everybody tells me it's just the collar but it isn't." Her expression darkened as old, bad memories moved behind her eyes. "I remember what it was like being Lady Antillus; my husband hating me, my son ashamed of me, my only brother using me. I remember the fear, the lies, the nightmares," she shut her eyes, "Oh Furies the nightmares. Your mother was in most of them. She had her revenge, Maximus, believe me, she had it thousand times over almost every night."
The last feeling Max had ever expected to have for his stepmother was pity. "Damn," was all he could find to say.
Dorotea nodded. "Yes, Lady Antillus was very thoroughly damned," then the smile came back. "And now she's dead and I can forget her too. Dorotea helps people and that feels more wonderful than you can imagine. She has friends who care for her – an entire legion of them. And she can sleep at night!" his stepmother spread her arms in an expansive, delighted gesture. "I may wear a slave's collar but for the first time in my life I am truly free."
"I'm glad for you," said Max and found he really meant it.
"Thank you, Maximus." She looked up at him almost shyly. "It would please me if we could be civil, for Crassus' sake."
"I can do that," he answered.