3
"Be QUIET!" Leander was past all reason now himself, so mad was he with fear for the survival of his family. He covered his wife's mouth with one hand, and drew her face to meet his with the other. "Listen to me. You do not know the terrors this man is capable of as I do!" The young man gently removed his hand from Calliliana's mouth, and placed one finger on her soft, red lips. "Think of how what you say might affect other whom you love…" Stark terror filled the maiden's sea-green eyes.
"Will he punish you for what I have said?"
"Not just me, Little One. Think of our son…" Calliliana's eyes jumped in her ever-whitening face.
"Oh forgive me, forgive me! I did not think…" Leander sighed and drew his wife into his arms.
"I know. Calliana, you cannot be too careful around this man—he is iniquity in human flesh. It was Marcus who did this to me…" he paused as he felt Calliliana's body tense in his arms. "Be still. Remember that our Lord forgave those who were nailing Him to a cross."
"I wish I could be so strong." The young woman was weeping now, her hot tears bathing her husband's hideous wound with their healing waters. "I hate him, Leander. I hate him…and I fear him."
"I struggle to forgive him myself, Love. It will come in time and with the grace of God." Calliliana snuffled softly and gripped her husband's arms more tightly, then slowly drew herself up to look into the eyes of him who she loved past all reason and sense.
"When will you come home to me, my Love? When will you become the father of our son?" It was then, as the pleading words of his wide-eyed wife smote his ears, that the dreadful doom he was about to face cast its dark shadow once more over the heart and mind of the young man. He attempted to still the beating of his heart as he clutched his wife tightly to him.
"Calliliana, my Dearest, we have never kept anything from one another, have we?" She looked at him quizzically.
"Why do you ask?"
"Answer me." She shook her head slowly. "Do you wish me to start now? Should I tell you that I will be home tomorrow?" The maiden cast a wondering look upon him.
"I wish you to tell me the truth." Leander held her from him, until he could look her full in the eyes.
"You must be strong if you wish to hear that which I am about to tell you—if you wish to hear the truth."
"I will be strong." Leander sighed and passed a hand over his brow.
"Calliliana…my dearest, most darling and beloved wife…I shall not be returning home to you." The girl's lips began to quiver.
"Leander…" he put his finger over her lips once more.
"Let me finish. I have a suspicion that Marcus Agrippa has been sent by the emperor to uncover Christians and condemn them as traitors to the empire. Calliliana, you surely must know what the penalty for our faith is." Tears fell now from the maiden's downcast eyes as she nodded slowly, almost dumbly, as the reality of what her husband was saying reached the recesses of her shattered mind.
"You are to die then?" Though she could not see him as he looked down upon her, tears were beginning to form in Leander's eyes as well.
"Yes."
"When?"
"I do not know." Calliliana pushed her fist into her mouth to dull the sound of her sobbing; she had promised him she would be strong and strong she would be though it rent her heart and her mind in two!
"Wha…what is it t-to b-be?" she stuttered through her tears. Leander tightened his hold upon her to such a degree she nearly cried out in pain.
"That I will not tell you. You have enough pain in your heart now, Dearest, I will not give you more."
In the ever-deepening gloom about them, the young man was finding it harder and harder to gaze upon the great beauty of his wife—"perhaps for the last time" he though to himself, with a deep sense of longing and sadness. He could feel, however, when she lifted her head to attempt to discern his eyes through the shadows, and he felt her slender arms wind themselves about his neck.
"Never, never say that you have brought me pain. You it was who saved me…saved me, Leander…from a life of torment of the most hellish kind. You, my most beloved husband, have only ever brought me joy—the testament of this lies in the fruit of our bodies—in our son. Our little Leander." A thrill of pleasure filled his entire body as he felt her breath upon his face. "I pray daily that he may grow to be even half the man that his father is…"
Calliliana's lips found those of her husband. As she tightened her nearly feverish grip upon his neck, she drank in the beauty of his kiss and the shock of desire that smote every sense of her body; she quivered with the longing she felt. She felt his arms tighten about her waist as he tipped her slightly backwards, searching her mouth with his kiss. She felt his tears fall upon her face, that sweet rain which was water to her heart and nourishment to her soul, sensed them mingle with her own and create paths of warm dew that fell down her soft skin, felt his hands slowly traverse the beautiful curves of her waist and her hips…
The door to the poor visitation room squealed open loudly, causing the pair of lovers to jump in surprise. Agrippa strode into the room, a scowl upon his stern face. He had heard everything that had gone on, everything that the ungrateful little wench had said…oh, and how he would make her pay…
"I have been more than fair, Woman. You have had time to say your farewells—on your feet." He cruelly grabbed his wounded rival by his hair and hauled him to his feet, ignoring the shrieks of protest by the young woman.
"He is innocent, surely you must know that! He has done nothing wrong!" Agrippa shoved Maximinus before him toward the cells.
"Are you a soldier of Rome?" The maiden looked at him, confused.
"Of course not."
"Do you know the will of emperor?"
"I do not." The centurion turned to face her then, pure hatred flecking the hell-fires of his eyes.
"Then do not presume to tell me who is guilty and who is innocent." The damsel attempted to step between the man and her husband, but Agrippa pushed her back firmly. "Any more efforts on your part will only wound your husband more greatly."