Hi guys! I will not be able to post anything for a couple of weeks, since I have to go on a hell of holiday at my grandparents' farm in a god-forsaken place where internet is seen as part of black witchcraft. So, I leave you with the fourth chapter of the story. I'd like to receive some feedback and read some of your reviews in order to know what you like and what you don't like. I'll wait for your reviews guys! really, do it!

Love, Diana

4-

It started to rain again.

Xena followed Lucretia inside the villa. It was pretty bare, the walls need to be repainted and few furniture adorned the rooms. It was 'essential' and certainly its owners had been broke: she had heard her domina complain about the awful wine with one of her slaves. She said they needed a better quality now that they could afford it. Every slave's head was slightly bowed, they never raised their eyes unless they were asked to. The group walked through endless corridors and three different rooms, until they reached what looked like the private bath room. Lucretia ordered her slaves to heat some water to fill the pool and pour few drops of lavender oil in it. Xena felt uneasy, she still didn't know what her duties were but when she moved to follow the other slaves, Lucretia grabbed her by her shoulder and turned her around so that she was now facing her look-a-like slave. Their identical noses almost touched.

"You know, you're lucky: now we have enough water to have you be cleaned up. We should thank Spartacus for the rain." She said with gritted teeth. She was in a bad mood. "You stink." Xena closed her eyes and breathed deeply to control her instincts, since her fingers had already curled in a fist. You'd stink too, bitch. Lucretia was staring at her with an unreadable face. This woman was as charming as she was dangerous. She walked around Xena, then stopped to face her again. "You seem healthy. Your body is athletic and toned. Undress." Xena unlaced the white shift she used to wear under her leathers and let it fall on the floor. Lucretia could detect no embarrassment, no uneasiness in her proud face. No shame in standing naked before someone she didn't know. Xena knew Lucretia wanted to bring her down, annihilate her strength to ensure Xena's loyalty to herself. But Xena was far from being scared. The red-haired woman ran one of her fingers on Xena's right shoulder, running down the length of her arm. The warrior gritted her teeth again. "It is remarkable, isn't it? This…resemblance. You look just like me, despite your olive skin..." her voice was kinda melodious, but the way she raised and lowered her voice, stressing the most important words she spoke, showed how proud, how arrogant she was. Lucretia's other hand reached Xena's hair and started stroking it "And this raven tresses…Your girlfriend must be very jealous" Xena felt her heart pounding in her chest and probably Lucretia felt it too. "What? Are you the jealous one? So jealous, that you don't even want me to speak of her?" she asked seductively. Xena didn't answer. Lucretia pulled the lock of hair she had been stroking before "Speak!"

"We're both jealous." Lucretia pulled Xena's her even harder "Domina"

"That's better", she unloosened her grip on Xena's hair and smirked wickedly. "Most of the slaves are virgins when they are brought here. But…I don't think you are. Am I right?"

"You are, domina" Xena knew these were all little tricks the woman was using to scare her. You picked the wrong woman to be a bitch with.

"Indeed." The slaves came back with four buckets of hot water and filled the tub while one of them enriched it with the sweet scented oil. She ordered Xena to enter the pool "I want her cleaned and shaved. Clean and cut her fingernails. Wash and brush her hair." She sat on the triclinium, watching as the slaves started to wash Xena's body.

"I could…I could do it myself, domina" She had never been modest, but this situation was driving her crazy. Feeling all those hands wandering all over her body while her owner watched was…was over the top.

"No, you can't. Enjoy the moment, this won't happen again, you will wash yourself from now on just like all the other slaves do. You will sleep and eat with the other slaves. Naevia will take you to the slave quarters." The young slave, who was washing Xena's left arm, respectfully bowed her head, briefly looking at Xena "These will be your only clothes" she pointed to a bunch of peach colored fabric that laid on the triclinium "you'll be up before sunrise, and attend to all my personal needs. You'll be my second personal slave, the first being Naevia -you should be proud. I just wonder what the others will think looking at you. Ilithyia will be green with envy and ask her husband to search for her look-a-like all around Rome!" She spoke her last line with victory in her voice. She got up and undressed herself, then entered the pool, sitting before her slave. Naevia immediately moved from Xena to her domina and started washing her with a sponge while the other slaves washed Xena's hair. "My husband would climax just by entering this room. Two Lucretias bathing together." Xena looked around the room, narrowing her eyes. "Don't worry. He went to the marketplace."

"May I…I have a question, domina" Xena spoke without fear.

"Well…speak" the lady was puzzled

"I- I…want to know why was I brought here? I was a free woman and we had just arrived from Greece. We hadn't even spoken to anyone here." She was determined to find out if Ceasar was behind all of this even if this meant being flogged or beaten for daring to speak.

Lucretia's eyes opened in shock "I thought you were a runaway slave or…I had no idea you were free. My husband just told me a friend of his sent him a cargo of slaves. Maybe you and your…friend were camping where you were not allowed to camp. I don't know why you are here. But, I don't think it makes any difference: you are a slave now. Whoever caught you or sold you, must have had some reasons for doing it…You look like a tough one. I saw your body is covered in little scars and some old bruises. There's something you are not telling me. But I don't want to know. Yet." A warm, gentle smile enlightened her face. For the first time, Xena saw the human side of Lucretia. Maybe she could work on it and try to convince her to let her train with the gladiators. She had to become a champion and win the money she needed to buy her freedom and go back to Gabrielle.

The sun was up again.

The gate opened and the noise of a cart entering the ludus could be heard. Xena was sitting on the balcony, where a fat slave woman had molded and was now securing an iron collar around Xena's neck. Xena and the woman looked down: Batiatus approached the cart driver but the man was bleeding. The gladiator, Spartacus, opened the cart and his woman, his wife, fell in his arms. She was soaked in blood but she was still alive. Xena reacted immediately: maybe I can still save her life. She run down the stairs, but just as she got to the portico, she stopped. The poor woman's eyes were now closed and Spartacus was kneeling on the sand, cradling her in his arms, crying. Xena's eyes were wet with tears. That scene was too much, she was losing all her hopes. She started to cry silently, tears streaming down her cheeks. When she turned her head she spotted her masters: Lucretia's eyes were wide with shock. Her husband whispered something and she smiled an horrible smile, an evil one, and followed her husband inside the villa. A crying Naevia signaled Xena to follow them. She wiped her tears away and followed them.