Author's Note/historical background: Sorry it took so long to upload chapter two. Three should be coming out shortly. I'd love some feedback, especially critique, or even historical moments you'd like to see. I know where this is all going, but suggestions are always welcome. I'm trying to stay with the history here (What better plot is there than the truth, eh?), so here is a quick rundown of Spanish history in the Roman Empire, at least for this section. Most of you won't read it, and it doesn't really matter, but I thought I'd share. Spain was a colony of Carthage, and Rome took it over in the second century BC after Carthage's defeat (we've already seen that), but it took a few more centuries to take control of the whole Iberian Peninsula. Italy had of course been part of the Roman Empire far before that, and France, or Gaul, was also taken over in the second century BC (they're both depicted as servants in the household). I'll try to add in the historical context with the next following chapters. Again, Lovina is about 9 and Antonio is about 12.
2. Stagnant
Lovina hauled the bucket of water onto the edge of the well, succeeding in sloshing only a quarter over the side and onto her white linen tunic, better than last time. She was already soaking wet. She blew a curl out of her face and plopped the bucket down with a grunt. What a stupid punishment, she thought. As if she didn't already clean most of the house. Francis, one of the servant-territories, was supposed to be there for that, but he was always around town chasing after some girl. Lovina paused to adjust the bandages wrapped around her skinned palms. They were more nuisance than help, and every time she looked at her hands she was reminded of that night.
Behind her, stones crunched under feet. She whirled around, to almost smack into someone's face as she tripped over the bucket on the ground. A hand grabbed her wrist and kept her from toppling over. She looked up and was met with inquisitive green eyes. It was that boy she realized, from the woods. They had taken away his old green tunic, replacing it with the rougher brown tunic of a servant, and his long hair had been chopped off in messy chunks. But it was him all the same.
"Sorry to startle you, Lovi." He smiled, his eyes crinkling up under his bangs, and ran a hand through his hair.
"Don't call me that," she huffed, pulling her arm gruffly out of his grasp, and turned around to grab her buckets. She wondered where he'd learned her name. He leaned over to look at her face.
"Do you need help with those? They look kind of heavy."
"I'm fine. I don't need any help." He looked skeptically down at her dripping tunic and brushed past her to grab a bucket in each hand. She thought about wresting the buckets away from him, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble. She scowled, grabbing the last bucket in two hands, and headed off towards the courtyard without looking back. He caught up quickly, his stride much longer than hers, and peered down at her with a lopsided smile. She was tempted to wipe it off with a dose of water to the face, followed by the bucket. But she just stared down at the paving stones. "What do you want anyways?" He cocked his head to the side to look down at her, sending his hair into his eyes.
"Why did you save me?" He chewed at his lower lip and waited for her to answer. The bucket bounced against her legs but she didn't notice the water sloshing over the side.
"I don't know." She shrugged and sent another wave over the edge of the bucket. "Damn," she whispered and set the bucket down with a huff. The boy started to laugh.
"You've got a mouth on you, don't you?" Lovina glared up at him, wringing out the edge of her tunic. "But really, why?"
"I couldn't just let him kill you. It was my fault they found you in the first place. You wouldn't be stuck here if it wasn't for me. I should have just run away when I saw you."
"Why didn't you?" She stopped her wringing for a moment and looked up at him, flicking her flyaway curl out of her eyes.
"I don't know. I was just frozen there, stuck. Suddenly I just couldn't move. I wasn't afraid, I just… I don't know." She seemed surprised, confused, her eyebrows knitting together. She picked up the bucket and was about to slosh it across the flagstones.
"Well, thank you, Lovi. You did save me, even if you got me into the trouble in the first place. I'm Antonio, by the way." He laughed again, rubbing at his neck. "I probably should have said that earlier. Now let's get started. This place is a mess."
"I thought I made it perfectly clear that I don't need your damn help." He shrugged. This one was going to be difficult, she could tell.
"What you need and what you could use are two different things. That, and I think I owe you this much at least." He picked up a scrub brush lying on the ground and turned around before she could protest. She turned her next retort into a heavy sigh and sloshed the rest of the water onto the grimy paving stones. "God, it must've been years since this was cleaned," Antonio grumbled behind her as he scrubbed the muddy flagstones.
"I don't know," Lovina shrugged over her shoulder. "It's been like this since I remember. No one ever uses this courtyard." She knelt down, taking out her frustration on the groutwork. She couldn't remember this courtyard ever being used for anything. It was tucked away in the corner of the villa, on the side farthest away from the vineyards, so there was never much traffic. She had actually had to shimmy across the roof to open the old gate from the inside, since the lock had rusted shut, and had propped the gate open with a broom handle while she drew the bucket of water. Old vines scrawled up the walls, crinkled and dead now, though they may have once been roses. They grasped at the old walls, pulling away chunks of crumbling stone.
She scrubbed furiously, trying not to notice the boy working behind her. Maybe if I don't speak he'll get bored and go away, it usually works with Francis. He's not much like Francis though. Francis would never offer to help. But that's better anyways, it means I don't have to go along behind him and fix everything. She had scrubbed away the thickest chunks of dried muck, and could barely see the stones beneath. They certainly weren't plain cobblestones though. She brushed at them with her fingertips, trying to make out the design underneath.
"Hey, Antonio," she called over her shoulder. "You need to come see this." He leaned down over her peering at the small section of stone that she had uncovered.
"Is that an eye?" he asked, trying to brush hair out of his eyes. He only smeared mud across his forehead.
"Well, Hell if I know, but it definitely isn't just paving stones." She leaned back on her heels, resting her hands in her lap. "It's a mosaic of some sort, but I can't really tell." She picked up her scrub brush again, and was just about to resume her furious cleaning when they heard a stifled cry from the other side of the house. "God Damn it, Feli," Lovina called out as she threw down her brush and rushed over to find him. Antonio followed, peering over his shoulder at the grimy courtyard, and carefully closed the gate behind him.
By the time they had cleaned up the broken amphora and stopped Feliciano's fervent whimpering, it was turning well past midday. Antonio was sent off to care for the horses, and Lovina was left to collect the buckets from the courtyard. But once she rounded the corner of the building, she saw that the gate was firmly locked again, with a new lock. The buckets were stacked back in the stable when she entered, after a quiet dinner, and Antonio was just brushing out the coat of one of the legionaries' bays. She stood in the shadows of the door watching him. He still had a streak of mud across his cheek, drying and crackling now. He hummed to himself as he ran the brush through the thick mane. He walked around to the other side of its broad back and Lovina moved through the shadows to keep the horse between them.
This is stupid, she thought to herself. Why am I here? But, she couldn't bring herself to speak out or leave. He patted the horse lightly on the nose and moved over to the last stall, where her father's palfrey paced back and forth. It flared its nostrils as he vaulted carefully over the gate, huge hooves gouging the packed dirt floor. Lovina hurriedly scrambled up the ladder to the second level, where they stored the hay, to keep from being seen. Down in the stall, Antonio leaned forward to brush out the horse's tangled forelocks. The creature snorted worriedly, pawing at the ground, and tried to shake its head away. He reached a hand up and it raked at the air in front of him with heavy hooves.
Idiot, no one can come close to that horse except Nonno. It'll bite off your stupid nose. She peeked over the edge of the wood floor to watch. This is payback for calling me Lovi. He walked forward slowly, both hands in front of him, as the horse snorted furiously. It tried to back away, but hit the end of the stall and whinnied in a panic. He held a hand up to its face, brushed his fingers against the coarse hair. Finally, he pressed his forehead against the light blaze between the horse's eyes, dark hair mingling with the grey, and whispered into those huge ears. The horse tried to shake its head once, snorted angrily, brushing back his hair with a hot gust of air, and then settled calmly into his grasp. Lovina watched, stunned, as he carefully reached up, brushing out the knotted mass of hair, never breaking eye contact.
"There you go," he whispered as he ran a hand along the huge nose. "No one's going to hurt you." Lovina leaned forwards, unbelieving. Suddenly, her feet were only touching air. She gave a little cry and was falling towards the stable floor grasping for something to hold onto, but only grabbing at handfuls of hay.
She landed on something soft, taking all of the wind out of her. It gave a muffled grunt and tried to sit up, unbalancing her so she grabbed out to steady herself.
"You have a habit of falling, don't you?" Antonio smiled up at her from the floor, rubbing the back of his head. "It's good I caught you or you could have broken something." Lovina drew back her arms as if she'd been burned, folded them across her chest, and glared at him, feeling her cheeks redden.
"You didn't catch me, I just happened to land here. Now unhand me, bastard," she added under her breath. She stared down at him haughtily where he lay sprawled on the dirt floor. She was just trying to pull herself up to a standing position when she felt a hot puff of air down the back of her neck. She turned around and gasped as a huge horse mouth came down on her head, soft lips pulling out the strands of hay stuck in her hair. She tripped backwards again and landed, with an "oof," back in Antonio's lap. The horse stared down at her, chewing happily. Antonio burst out laughing as she scowled down at him, trying to untangle herself from his legs.
"Whoa, careful there." Antonio picked her up before she could protest and set her safely on the stall gate. When he had brushed himself off and tethered the horse to the other end of the stall, he walked back over to where she was sitting. "What were you doing up in the roof anyways, Lovi?" She growled at the nickname and turned her face away from him, blushing again.
"I went to put the buckets away and they were already gone." He seemed to disregard the fact that buckets weren't stored on the second floor and continued staring at her. She turned to face him again, olive eyes flaring. "Why did you lock the gate?" Antonio looked at her quizzically.
"I've been working with the horses since I left the courtyard. I haven't been back there. I came in, and the buckets were already stacked. I thought you brought them up."
"Then why was the gate locked?"
"It beats me. But, I would say that someone doesn't want that courtyard cleaned up." He shrugged his shoulders and winced, gingerly rubbing out his bruised muscles.
"Are you all right?" Lovina asked shyly. Antonio beamed up at her.
"Was that concern?" Lovina blew a curl out of her face and growled down at him.
"No, not at all you idiot. It's just that Nonno would be angry if one of his servants couldn't perform their duties."
"Well, I'll take concern in any form. I'm fine by the way," he said with an awkward bow, sweeping the dirt floor with a hand as he bent at the waist. "And I am always at your service, whether it be as a bucket holder or a perch for a land-bound little bird." He flashed an impish smile and she kicked one of her sandals at his face.
"I don't need your help. But, I do need answers. Are you sure you didn't see anyone put those buckets away?" He leaned on the gate, pressing his face close to hers, and held out her dropped sandal.
"What, don't you trust me?" She leaned forward and grabbed her sandal back with a jerk.
"Not at all," she hissed. She stuffed it back on her foot and hopped off of the gate, hoping to storm off in some sort of dignity before she fell over again. For some reason she was doing that more frequently lately. Behind her, Antonio called out as he leaned over the stall.
"What are you going to do about the courtyard?" She swung around in the doorway, hands on her hips.
"I'm going to figure out what's down there. I am a Vargas of course." She turned to go, but shouted back over her shoulder. "And I don't need your damn help." This one will definitely be trouble, she thought as she stormed up to the house. He never knows when to quit.
Behind her, Antonio chewed thoughtfully on a piece of hay. He turned towards the gray palfrey. "That one's going to be a handful isn't she?" The horse snorted and continued chewing. "Yeah, I'm always up for a challenge too." He smiled and settled down into the hay for the night.
