A Stray Drop of Blood (28 page)

Abigail nodded, unable to feel offended by the decision. She had no desire to walk across town to the governor’s palace, and she had even less desire to present herself to all the people in between. Besides, the wife of Pilot was strange, always claiming prophetic dreams and mystic abilities. Abigail was in no mood to listen to her.

They chatted aimlessly until Julia called, then she walked with her mistress to the door to see her off, lifting a hand in greeting to Elizabeth before shutting the door. She then turned, absently rubbing at the ache in the small of her back as she tried to decide what to do. She could go talk to Dinah for a while, or perhaps assist Simon with the accounts until Jason woke up. The outer room could really use a dusting, but she knew better than to attempt the chore with her master nearby and able at any moment to surprise her.

She stifled a smile and took a few steps in the direction that would lead her to Simon. She felt a stirring in her stomach and froze for a moment, making sure it was not nausea. But it was different. It came again. Movement, true movement. Her baby had quickened.

Excitement exploded within her. This was her baby. Her child. Her life, moving around inside her as if to proclaim itself real, true, and undeniable. She sped through the house and burst into the chamber Jason still slept in, throwing the door first open and then closed without any thought to the level of noise.

“
Jason!” She leapt on the bed at him. “Jason!”

He blinked and jerked up. “What? What is it?”

“
The baby!” She grabbed his hand and rested it on her stomach just in time to catch the next little burst of movement. She giggled. “Did you feel it? He is moving, Jason. Our baby is moving.”

He sat very still for a moment, contemplation on his face. A grin bloomed when another little motion came through the wall of her abdomen. “He is, indeed. He will probably keep doing so, too, keeping you up at all hours, bruising your insides.”

“
Of course he will,” Abigail agreed with pride. “He will be strong like his father.”

Jason pulled her closer and watched her as she stared down at her rounded middle. She spread both of her hands over her stomach and smiled. “It is amazing. What do you think he is doing?”

“
Getting his exercise.”

“
Yes, he will want to be the fastest boy in the streets.”

“
Of course.” He pulled her closer still, adjusted his hands lower when another flutter moved that way. “Or if it is a daughter, she will be as beautiful as her mother and will want to be faster than all the boys, too, to escape them.”

Abigail laughed. It faded away, down to a smile, then into seriousness. She looked into his eyes for a moment, then shifted her gaze down.

He kissed her temple with more tenderness than she would have thought possible a few months before. “What is it, beloved?”

“
Nothing. It is just–I had not thought.”

He lifted her chin up so that she would look at him again, and she saw his brows drawn together. “What had you not thought?”

Abigail shook her head, but he probably still caught the gleam of moisture in her eyes. “You may not want your first son to be–with me.”

Jason’s laughter caught her off guard. “My love, you mistook me completely.” He moved his hands to cup her face. “I was trying to assure you that I would love a daughter as much as a son. That I would not consider it a failing if you were to give me a girl.” He punctuated his assurances with a long kiss. “I would treasure a son. I would cherish a daughter.”

Abigail held his gaze for a long while, basking in whatever it was that he was offering her. She was not sure what the name for it was. Approval? Acceptance? Affection? Whatever its name, it brought her a measure of peace. “Truly?” she queried softly, just so she could hear him say it again. “You will love our child, even though–”

He stopped her with a finger over her lips. “I will love our child.” His touch turned to a caress over her cheeks, his firmness into gentleness. “How could I not?”

Abigail was afraid to relinquish herself completely to the mood, but there was something in his eyes that inspired her. Her lips turned up in a smile that felt unfamiliar to them, more mature, more mysterious, more knowing. “Because I am only a slave, Jason.”

His lips soon moved to mirror hers, and he shook his head lightly. “You were never only a slave, Abigail. You were born free. A soul never forgets that.”

As he kissed her, she was almost convinced.

Chapter Nineteen

Jason strode through the winter chill toward the guards’ barracks at the palace of the governor. Menelaus had invited them all to dine with him there, and he had agreed to come. With every step, however, he wished he were home. Good as it would be to see his friends, it would be better still to lounge beside Abigail and watch their babe move under his hand. To talk with his father, listen to the stories his mother told.

His friends did not appreciate his dedication to his home life, he knew. Perhaps they saw what he had come to realize: that affection for Abigail had turned into love. They did not approve. But how could he resist? He had been fond of her to begin with, but seeing her smiling, laughing, beaming with adoration for the child he had planted within her . . . it proved an irresistible tug on his heart. She loved their babe. Surely love for him would follow.

He pulled open the door to the barracks and was greeted with a blast of heat and raucous laughter. No, he did not miss the revelries of his companions. Did not miss Rome. Would it be so bad to give up those dreams? If he stayed here in Jerusalem, married Abigail, then perhaps she would finally let him past the last barrier of her heart. Perhaps she would forgive him for all he had taken from her if he gave her that.

“
There he is!” Menelaus sloshed wine into a chalice and thrust it at him the moment he closed the door behind him. “Sit, drink away the chill. I only wish I had a few wenches to help keep us warm.”

The others laughed and raised their cups in salute. Apidius downed his in a single gulp that made him shiver in what looked like pleasure. “It has grown colder than I would like. But perhaps it will grow colder still and freeze the rebels out of the hills, eh?”

Titus snorted from his couch near the fire. “Do not bet on it, my friend. Desperate men feel no cold.”

“
I do not like what I have been hearing about Barabbas’s band.” Jason set his cup down so he could shrug out of his cloak, then took a seat beside Lentulus. “If Oedipus and the Cyclops taught me anything, it was that a man with no name cannot be trusted. Come now–‘Son of a father’? How are we to call out for help and claim it is such a man tormenting us? Our fellows would laugh.”

Lentulus’s smile held no amusement. “It is a clever name. And he has proven himself to be a clever man, always evading us though everyone knows he is a murderer, a rebel, and a thief.”

“
He will be caught,” Menelaus declared. “And that is the final word on him. This is an eve for
forgetting
our duties, my friends. If we are going to speak of unpleasantries, let us speak of our own.” He turned smiling eyes on Apidius. “Have you heard from Drusilla?”

Apidius sent his friend a mock scowl. “Yes, and your lack of faith in my betrothed is appalling. She is well and anxious to be reunited. If I am not transferred closer to Rome within a year, her parents have agreed to bring her here, and we will be married.”

“
Well then.” Titus raised his drink once more. “To Drusilla the faithful! May she bear our friend many sons!” The others echoed the toast, making Apidius blush.

“
And how is your woman, Jason?” Lentulus turned to him with a hint of smile. “I imagine she grows larger by the day.”

Jason swirled his wine without taking a drink. Her smile flashed before his mind’s eye. “She is in good spirits.”

Meleaus laughed. “He speaks of spirits because it is all she has left at this point. Her figure is gone, likely never to return. Let us see how he brags of his Venus when she is fat and stooping and nursing a babe.”

“
Yes, Jason, we should all go into town later. You are surely in need of a woman you can get your arms around.” Titus flashed a wicked grin.

“
Abigail satisfies me.” Jason put his cup aside altogether.

His simple certitude called a halt to the laughter. The other four fell silent and all stared at him.

“
By the gods,” Titus muttered, “he has fallen in love with her.”

“
Jason.” Menelaus leaned forward, face intent. “I thought we had agreed that it was unwise to take so much interest in the slave and her child.”

He folded his arms across his chest “You all did. I did not.”

Apidius tossed his hand into the air. “It is hopeless, though. The child is a bastard.”

Jason steepled his fingers and met none of their gazes. “Not if I marry her.”

A silence, swirling with undercurrents of fire, rushed the room in a gust, then fled again in the face of the explosion.

“
You cannot!” Menelaus and Titus roared together.

“
Think of your career,” the Roman demanded.

“
And your future,” the Greek added.

“
It is unthinkable, Jason.” Titus was so agitated he thrust himself from his seat and took to pacing. “You are accepted in Rome only because your father is Roman. If you went through with this–”

“
My son would be a Roman citizen by birth.” Jason kept his tone placid.

“
He would be despised.” Menelaus corrected. “He would be more Hebrew than Roman, and the Hebrews grow more and more rebellious, more apt to be crushed. Mark my words, Jason, the day is not far off when your mother’s people are forced from Rome altogether, labeled as the miscreants they are proving themselves to be. If you married this Jewess–”

“
This
slave
!” Titus spat.

“
Your future would be ruined. And you would not be benefitting the child, either. He would be an outcast in Rome.”

Jason regarded his friends, sending his gaze around the room slowly, calmly. Menelaus was distraught, Titus enraged, Apidius imploring, Lentulus withdrawn. Strangely, the decision he could not make before was suddenly resolved completely in his mind in the face of his adversity. He stood smoothly, without concern. “There is much to this world outside of Rome, my friends. I realize my wife and my children would not find a welcoming home there. That is why I will stay in Israel.”

Menelaus groaned. Titus looked ready to pummel him. “For the love of the gods, Jason!”

“
God
, Titus.” He picked his cloak up again and headed for the door. “There is only one. And I am beginning to realize the love of him goes deeper within me than I thought.”

“
Jason.” Apidius stood in his way of the exit, the only one still calm. Even Lentulus appeared to be agitated more than Jason had ever seen. “Do not act rashly, my friend. Think of the consequences. Consider what you are about to do.”

Jason made his words soft as he looked up into his companion’s gaze. “I have been doing so for many weeks, Apidius. You love a woman. Surely you can understand. Would you not forsake all this,” he said with an outstretched arm, “for her? The parties? The politics? And really, what else will I be missing from Rome?”

“
Your friends,” Lentulus answered.

Jason turned to face him, feeling nothing but calm. “If my friends would forsake me because of whom I take to wife, then they are not my friends.” He gave them a moment to let that sink in. “You will all be invited to the wedding feast. If you cast your loyalties away from me, I will not blame you.” With that, he brushed past Apidius and left the room, the building, and the grounds. He headed back to his father’s house without a backward glance.

A peace settled over him. It was the first time he could ever remember when he actually knew, knew from deep within, knew from sight, from hearing, and from heaven, that he was
right
. It put a decided bounce in his step.

~*~

Andrew took his master’s weapon and sheathed it as Jason approached them. He was smiling. It seemed he was always smiling these days, and his joy only made Andrew’s heart sink.

“
Are you ready to leave, my son?” Cleopas clapped a hand to Jason’s shoulder.

“
I am.” They set off, Andrew falling in a step behind. They had barely cleared the gates of the compound when Jason turned his head toward his father. “I need to speak with you. About Abigail.”

Cleopas chuckled.“Much is about Abigail these days. I have discovered that is not a very telling introduction. You will have to elaborate.”

Jason smiled but still managed to look serious. “I have been giving it much thought and last night I came to my decision. I wish to marry her, Father.”

Andrew’s breath came out in a strangled gasp.

His master glanced back at him but then focused on his son.“You are certain?”

Jason nodded, his ardor evident on his face. “I love her.”

“
So I have come to see. But if I may ask, have you given any thought to all this will change?”