'Are you sure the Master and Mistress won't know?' Aisha asked Eirene anxiously, her plump lips twisted with worry. Eirene smiled and shook her head.

'How could they? When was the last time either of them came into the kitchen to check their stock? Phoibe orders all the goods we need and what can she do to us? Scold us? The worst she will do is refuse us dinner. And trust me, Aisha, you'll be having too much fun to even feel hungry!' Eirene giggled softly. 'I can't believe you've never tasted it before.' A sacred hush fell over the two girls as the gentle gurgle of liquid splashing into a cup bubbled into the still kitchen. Phoibe was in the market that afternoon, bustling about as always and the two girls had been left to finish preparing the dinner. In the two months that the Master had bought from his sister by showering her with precious pieces of jewellery and fine clothes, Aisha and Eirene had been brought together by the sheer similarity of their age. With no one else but poor old fuddled Phoibe they sought companionship in each other. Aisha had regaled Eirene with stories from her childhood in the plains of Africa, terrifying her with tales of lions and stampeding beasts. Eirene had made Aisha roar with laughter at her anecdotes of her previous life with her beloved old Scholar. Now, the dying afternoon sun found them crouched in a far corner of the kitchen with a jug of wine between them and a silver cup.

'You have the first sip.' Aisha thrust the cup into Eirene's hands and Eirene took a large swallow, her dark eyes gleaming defiantly.

'See. It isn't poison.' Despite the other girl's claim, Aisha shivered before accepting the offered cup and peering cautiously into it.

'You obviously didn't open the right stuff,' Aisha said, looking suspiciously at the dark red liquid as she swirled it around. 'Honestly, I swear its blood!'

'Just drink it!' Eirene giggled, the sound tapering into a gasp as Aisha passed her back the empty vessel. 'I didn't mean all in one go.' Eirene topped up the cup and took it for herself, swigging the whole thing back without stopping for breath. She grinned, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. The rest of the afternoon passed in the same hazy manner of drinking and refilling the cup with wine as they shared it between them. The rest of the dinner lay unprepared on the kitchen table.

'Well just look at the state of you two,' boomed Phoibe, her lengthening shadow cast upon the stone floor of the kitchen as she stood over the girls tangled together in the corner. The old woman's tone was tinged with hysteria as she bent down to pull them both up by the hair with surprising strength to get a good look at their unfocused eyes. She noticed the empty jug and the toppled silver cup. 'Drunk!' she exclaimed, letting them fall back into a laughing heap at her feet, wringing her hands, 'on the Master's wine. Oh my, oh my. There's nothing for it. The Senator is here, the Senator!' she screeched at the two girls, who were both too interested in trying to clamber to their feet to notice Phoibe's panic.

'You never said, Beefy,' Eirene mumbled, mustering all her power of thought to form her words, having made it unsteadily to stand with her back against the cool stone wall. She reached a hand down to help Aisha to her feet. Aisha, however, having managed to make it onto her knees, fell back to all fours with a snort of hysterical laughter.

'Beefy!' she cried, 'that's not her name! It's..' but evidently Phoibe's name was too tricky for Aisha to say either and she dissolved into a fit of giggles that made Eirene giggle too. Phoibe, at her wits end already, had managed to slice and arrange a variety of fruit onto a platter in record time, placing a little pot of golden honey on the side to then shove it into Eirene's unsteady hands.

'Bacchus help us, you'll have to serve Eirene, it's too late now. Aisha is in no fit state.' The old woman eyed the heap of white toga and ebony limbs that was Aisha crumpled at her feet. 'They're waiting.' She gripped Eirene's small chin between her gnarled fingers, her misty eyes kind despite her anger. 'You're a good girl really, don't ruin it, Eirene. Don't. Just keep these closed,' she said, pinching Eirene's lips together with a force that made the girl wince. 'The table is all set, I laid it before I left, thank Vesta.' Despite the new religion of the Master and Mistress, the old gods had not yet left Phoibe's heart. She spun the unsteady Eirene on her bare heel and gave her a little shove out of the door.

Eirene made painfully slow progress down the hallway, pausing every now and then to right the platter she carried and prevent the food from slipping. She concentrated on keeping each step steady and leant against the doorway for a moment, taking a deep breath as she reached the dining room, before she slipped beneath the gauzy curtain. As she expected, Master Alexis and his sister Liviana were reclined in all their resplendence, but a third couch was filled by the sprawling frame of the heavyset Senator Cato. His snow white hair was cropped close to his head as was the fashion, which seemed only to emphasise the bulbous nature of his features. He was steaming on with the conversation, about the new religion, if Eirene could trust her fuzzy ears, but paused as he noticed her kneeling at the table, trying to place the platter amongst all the other delicacies with slow and deliberate movements. Alexis watched her too, though Liviana picked up the lull in conversation as though Eirene had never entered the room. Despite the happy haze Eirene swayed in she could feel the temperature radiating from the Mistress had definitely dropped by a few degrees.

'You don't believe in moving with the times, Senator?' Liviana trilled.

'I'm an old man, Liviana, I don't like change,' he chuckled, causing his great frame to wobble. His sharp eyes traced the form of the kneeling girl as he held out his cup for wine. Unfortunately, Eirene was still too busy concentrating on the fruit platter. She had placed it at an angle which let the honey ooze out from the little pot Phoibe had poured it into and she was carefully trying to scoop it back in with a finger before anyone else noticed.

'Eirene,' barked Liviana motioning to the cup that Cato held out with his pale, fleshy hand. Eirene looked up quickly, her eyes unfocused as she followed the motion to see what the problem was. She pouted slightly, looking back at the table to locate the wine jug. A long, silent moment passed, in which she could feel Liviana's fury building. The Mistress didn't like to be embarrassed. But everything on the table was so blurry that Eirene found it almost impossible to make any sense out of the various shapes and colours. A little cough made her look up to find Alexis making an exaggerated path with his eyes. Eirene followed it with a wide arch of her hand to find her fingers close around the handle of the jug. She beamed beatifically, pleased with the simple accomplishment, and carefully got to her feet. Kneeling before the Senator Eirene sloshed the wine a little too fast into his cup, causing it to jump over the rim and splash onto the sleeve of his tunica. It spread in a bruise-like stain, seeping into the white silken fabric.

'Oh,' Eirene uttered softly, putting down the jug to wipe frantically at the mark, but leaving sticky honey tracks in her wake instead. The Senator huffed, gruffly and batted her fingers away.

'What's going on?' Liviana sat up on her couch to peer over at them to see Eirene mopping at the spilled wine on the floor with the hem of her own tunica, spoiling the white fabric. Alexis sat up too, curious. Senator Cato chuckled, catching Eirene's arm and pulling her up to his eye level as he remained relaxed on his own couch.

'Nothing that some attention from this little one wouldn't fix,' he licked his lips, steely eyes sweeping over Eirene. 'You do manage to find them, Alexis. This one is new? Where is the other exotic beauty you have? If you've grown bored of her already, send her my way.' Alexis smiled a tight smile.

'It isn't a case of boredom, Cato,' Alexis said.

'He plans to educate them.' Liviana interrupted, the withering expression on her magnificent face showed that she clearly did not hold to her brother's ideals.

'Educate? You can't educate a slave, my boy! They are born to serve, not to learn,' Cato bellowed in disbelief, wrenching Eirene's face up by the chin so that her delicate features caught more of the light, 'do you wish to be educated, girl?' he snorted.

'Yes.' Eirene's glazed eyes burnt with a sudden passion that made Cato let go of her.

'Don't be so obstinate and imperious,' his previous good nature seemed to be evaporating fast as he turned to look at Liviana. 'Educate them and they'll demand more. A wage. Freedom, even. And where will that leave Rome?' The woman sighed and nodded which let the gold thread and large pearls woven into her flaxen hair catch the light.

'I have tried to explain this to my brother, Senator. But he is a stubborn man.' Liviana said, shooting a hard glance at Alexis across the room.

'Some things are best left alone,' Cato said, his hand reaching out to clasp the soft curve of Eirene's cheek, caressing it with a thumb. 'Pretty girls like this have only two uses. Service at dinner and the other I will not mention in good female company, to spare your blushes, Liviana,' he grinned. Eirene arched her back suddenly, pulling her face away from Cato's hand, his fingers sticky with juice from the meat he had eaten earlier.

'Don't,' she said, eyes blazing. His touch made her queasy, and the copious amount of wine she had consumed that afternoon didn't help matters. She could feel her temper rising. Cato's eyes narrowed as he looked back at the girl, leaning in a little closer to her to catch the scent on her breath.

'Hm. Seems your plan to keep your girls compliant through wine are failing miserably, Alexis. This one is starting to think for herself.' He grinned and reached out again for the girl's soft skin, his fingertips just grazing her cheek.

'Noli me tangere! Don't touch me.' Eirene shouted suddenly, jumping to her feet.

'She is drunk!' Liviana cried regaining her own feet as Eirene swayed on the spot. 'Senator, I beg your forgiveness for us letting such an insolent girl serve you. Please excuse me.' She swept from the room before Alexis could say anything, catching Eirene by a handful of her loose, unbound hair on the way, and hurried out into the atrium with the girl away from hearing of the dining room. Eirene stumbled and tripped along beside the Mistress, yelping as she stubbed her bare toe against the base of the pretty, babbling fountain. Eirene flung her arms out to steady herself as their motion came to an abrupt end, reaching for the high rim of the marble pool as the snap of a lash came down upon her back causing her to cry out in surprise and pain.

'You foolish girl!' snarled Liviana, raising the short whip again that she had drawn from the folds of the pale blue stola she wore. Eirene knew better than to turn around to catch it in her face and so gripped the edge of the pool with white knuckles, biting her lip to stifle the cry that ripped from her throat as the lash came down once more, tearing into her tunica and slicing her skin. 'You have embarrassed us in front of the Senator. Is what your Master and I do for you not enough? We clothe you; feed you more than the scraps you would be lucky to receive in any other household. If it was not for our kindness you would be on your back in brothel by now. Ungrateful little...'

'Liviana!' Alexis' sharp reproving tone cut through the atrium and the next blow Eirene was expecting never came. She chanced a glance over her thin, shaking shoulder to see Alexis stood before Liviana, one forearm pressed hard across the woman's chest to pin her against the nearest marble pillar, his other hand gripping the wrist of the hand that held the whip. 'She is a child!' he growled, prising it from her slender fingers.

'She is ungrateful, thieving caenum, Alexis, an embarrassment. What kind of family must the Senator think we are, letting drunken slaves wait on him? She needs to be punished.'

Alexis' eyes burned into his sisters, his striking jaw set with a fierceness that Liviana had never seen before. He raised the whip high, its black shadow cast razor thin across the alabaster skin of Liviana's face, who watched it with sharp gold eyes.

'Do it then,' she said through gritted teeth and three pairs of eyes watched as it remained aloft for a moment, suspended and motionless. Alexis suddenly threw the whip away from him, watching it skid across the smooth floor before he turned back to his sister with anger in every line of his body that dictated the harsh grip he had on the front of Liviana's robes.

'She is mine. She is my property,' he said with a dangerously quiet tone, pressing Liviana back against the unforgiving stone with each word, as if to emphasise his point, 'and you will not touch her. Her headache in the morning will be punishment enough. Now go back and soothe the Senator. I will have Phoibe send out Aisha with the next course. Go,' he urged angrily, sensing Liviana's hesitancy as he let go of her. It was only as Liviana shrank an inch or two to settle level with Alexis that Eirene realised he had been holding her off the ground. With a frustrated noise the tall woman swirled away in a cloud of pale blue and lilac silk, leaving Eirene alone with Alexis. His strong hand rested on the girl's shoulder, turning her gently on the spot to face him. He could see the tears that wet her cheeks, the deep blue of her eyes soft in her pain.

'I'm not a child,' she said, boldly, though the bow of her lip trembled.

'You behave like one,' Alexis replied, holding her unwavering gaze. She was silent. 'I know you ran away,' he continued. 'Phoibe tells me everything.'

'I came back,' Eirene said, weakly.

'Obviously.' Alexis smiled slightly, 'but why? You could have kept on running. I wouldn't have stopped you.' Eirene raised her head, tossing the dark hair from her eyes. Alexis reached out to brush his fingertips lightly over the circlet of silver, engraved with the words Noli me tangere, which imprisoned the girls willowy neck.

'Is that why you came back, because I didn't come for you?' he asked, quietly, gentle fingers reaching to catch the new tears that fell from Eirene's eyes. He saw the strength in her fragile defensiveness at that moment, admired the blistering vulnerability he felt spilling from her as she whispered.

'Yes.'

'You want more than this don't you?' he observed. 'More than your life can offer you. I can see it in your eyes, the hunger that burns in your soul.' Eirene was unsure if it was the heady strength of the wine she had drunk that made her head spin and her stomach flutter lightly, the stinging bloody welts on her back all but forgotten as she gazed up at Alexis.

'Yes,' she said. He nodded thoughtfully, indigo eyes gleaming.

'I can give you more, if that is what you want. Liviana speaks the truth when she says I wish to educate you.'

'You will teach me to read, Master?' Eirene gasped in amazement, innocent joy lighting up her face with such sincerity that Alexis chuckled.

'If you wish it, yes.' He leant in close to the girl. 'Do you think Bacchus and his minions have befuddled your mind too much to begin now?' he asked, with an amused grin.

'Not at all, Master! I barely drank anything,' Eirene said, with a face that glowed with shame. The excitement of his offer had chased the fog of wine that still bogged the edges of her consciousness, though most of her sobriety had returned instantly with the first bite of Liviana's lash. Alexis laughed again, delighted by her eagerness.

'Then come, we will go to my study. Liviana will be in her element apologising profusely to Senator Cato for your behaviour, I won't be missed,' he added as he was striding from the atrium towards a curtained doorway off to the left, set between two thick, sleek columns of white marble. The room beyond was furnished in a simple, practical way with a desk taking up most of the room in the centre. It was the cool colours of the bright frescoes decorating the room that caught Eirene's attention. A beautiful, leafy garden was depicted at various points across all four walls, giving the illusion of lithe, reaching trees leaning in through windows that weren't really there, their branches populated by tiny birds frozen in the act of singing. Two stools were set at the desk, one either side. Alexis pulled them both over to a wooden panel that turned out to be a door leading outside as he tugged it open to let the soft light of the growing dusk that had settled in the pleasure garden creep into the study. The delicate lilt of birdsong slipped in with the rich, burning orange of the setting sun, diffusing the awkwardness Eirene suddenly felt at being so alone with her handsome Master. She settled herself on the floor in front of one of the stools, leaning her arms on the wooden seat as she watched Alexis take down a handful of scrolls from various shelves of the many that lined the length of one wall. He folded his tall frame onto the unoccupied stool, though his height meant he had to stoop lowly to show a scroll to Eirene as he unrolled it, the others piled on the floor at his side.

'I think you're beyond the capabilities of the alphabet. It's probably a good idea for you to begin learning to recognise important words you might come across in day to day life. Look, we'll start with this one.' His large finger brushed over the black inked lines as he pointed out the first word etched onto the papyrus he held. A glimmer of silver caught Eirene's attention and her eyes were drawn to the round ring he wore on the index finger of his left hand, its surface flat and carved with two words. Alexis realised her attention was caught by his ring and not the words he had been pointing out.

'The words probably won't make sense to you,' he smiled, 'they are written backwards so that when I stamp it to seal and sign documents the words appear the right way round. Libera Vivas.' He lowered his hand so that the ring was in direct view of Eirene, who had inched closer to his feet as her interest burned.

'May you live free,' she repeated, reaching out to trace the tiny letters with one finger. Alexis nodded, sliding the ring off his finger and handing it to her so that she could study the words more closely, tilting it towards the fading rays of light that still clung to the cluster of cypress trees lining the path leading out from the study and into the garden. She pulled the scroll towards herself that Alexis had previously unrolled, spreading it out on the floor of the study. With the ring in one hand as a reference Eirene poured over the papyrus, running a slim finger from her free hand along each intricately inked word.

'Libera,' she smiled happily, seeking confirmation from Alexis as she tapped the word she had recognised. Alexis peered over her shoulder for a moment before he came to settle himself on the floor beside her, pushing the two stools away to make room for his large frame.

'That's right, can you find that word again in this scroll?' he unrolled another length of papyrus and held it out before Eirene. She frowned with concentration, pushing her heavy dark curls away from her shining blue eyes as they darted along each line. It didn't take long for the girl to point out the same word.

'Good!' Alexis praised her, a generous smile warming his smoothly chiselled features. His steady finger pointed out another word, his velvety voice enunciating it carefully. Eirene traced the word with her own finger, committing the sharp lines of the deftly formed letters to memory as she echoed the word. The next hour or so passed in the same manner, with Alexis' unwavering patience as he intoned various words and their meanings and Eirene pointing out the words in each scroll he placed before her. When Eirene's nose almost began to brush the surface of the papyrus as she fought against the lengthening evening shadows to see the scrolls, Alexis laid a gentle hand on her head.

'Enough, Eirene. You'll hurt your eyes. I should have had the lamps lit. We will study more tomorrow.' The girl nodded in defeat.

'Does your back hurt?' he asked.

'A bit,' Eirene admitted, her cheeks flushing at the memory of being whipped like a common mule in a marketplace.

'I will instruct Phoibe to tend to it for you. Despite her sharp tongue she has gentle hands and an even gentler heart.'

'I know,' Eirene agreed with a tone of disappointment that he should not be the one to nurse her and the thought made her face blaze as hot as an ember and she was glad for the cool shadows of the room.

'Take heed of that sting Eirene, and do not seek to anger my sister again,' Alexis said in a tone that was almost pleading.

'Yes, Dominus,' she answered, slinking off into the shadows that had crept further still into the room.