The ancient world believed in magic. In my novel "Flavia's Secret", set in ancient Roman Bath, the heroine Flavia takes the hero Marcus to a place that was rumoured to have belonged to a sorcerer. Here is an excerpt of what they found.
Leaving
the carter in one of the side alleys close to the Great Bath, Flavia darted
ahead through the ever-increasing crowds and took Marcus off in the direction
of the small hot spring sacred to the healing god Aesculapius, a part of the
city he had rarely been in. She sped past the tall, oval, roofless walls of the
small healing spring, her bright hair visible to Marcus even among the throngs
of visitors and worshippers who gathered to make offerings and offer prayers to
Aesculapius. Coming to a cross-roads, she glanced back to check that he was
still following and walked quickly down a narrow, unpaved side street.
‘Not
far,’ she said as he caught up. She slowed as they reached the high boundary
wall of a private house. The back boundary wall, Marcus registered, as Flavia
looked up and down the street.
She
stepped close to him and muttered, ‘When no one is close we climb over the
wall. The house is deserted,’ she added.
Marcus
stifled amazement and questions and waited for Flavia’s tense, ‘Go!’ before
launching himself at the high wall.
There
were jutting stones and easy hand-holds in the weathered stone and Flavia
climbed as swiftly as he did, nimbly reaching the flat top of the wall and
rolling over the other side. He did the same, dropping afterwards into the
garden of the deserted house.
Flavia
came beside him. ‘Will you wait here? Just for a moment. I don’t think there
will be any of my people here at this time, not so early in the morning when
there are many tasks to be done, but even so I need to make sure we are alone.’
She gave him a considering look. ‘You would alarm them.’
‘I
will wait.’ Folding his arms, Marcus leaned back against the boundary wall.
It
was hard for him to watch her leave, darting between the bushes and trees of
the overgrown garden, but he knew that he must. She had to know that she could
trust him.
Her
footsteps were soon lost in the clamour of the unseen streets around them and
in the fallen leaves and bare earth paths of this strange, deserted place.
The
garden was wildly overgrown, full of straggling rose bushes with wizened red
hips and unclipped rosemary and lavender bushes. The little of the house he
could see through the bushes and the spreading branches of an oak tree growing
in the centre of the garden looked very old. He could just make out some
sagging timber walls with peeling paint and a broken-tiled roof.
‘What
is this place?’ he asked when Flavia returned, skirting round a rosemary almost
as tall as she was.
‘It
is supposed to be haunted by the last owner, who was rumoured to be a
sorcerer,’ she answered calmly. ‘I think that is why it is still deserted.
That, or the man’s family cannot agree what to do with it. A slave showed me
how to come here many years ago, soon after I had lost my parents and before
Lady Valeria bought me. I think he was sorry for me. He said it was a place of
safety and peace for slaves, that if the owner did haunt the house and grounds,
he gave no trouble to slaves. The slave told me that we could be ourselves here
and no one would see.’
She
tilted up her chin, the rising sun lighting her red lips and rose complexion,
making her look prettier than ever. Marcus forced himself to attend to what she
was saying.
‘The
slave made me promise never to tell anyone else about this place—except for one
person, who must also swear the same.’
‘And
that’s me?’ Marcus asked, astonished and amazed afresh, honored and touched by
her confidence.
She
smiled at him: an old smile, a secretive smile that he had sometimes seen on
his mother’s face. ‘It is safe to go on: no one else is here,’ she said. ‘I
will show you round.’
* * * *
Walking
quickly, to show that she did not regret her decision to share this place with
him, Flavia returned along the twisting beaten-earth path between the rampant
rosemary and lavender bushes. One more twist of the path and they reached the
heart of the garden and its startling secret—a private outdoor pool, its
shimmering waters steaming in the sun.
‘By
Mithras, what a place.’ Looking around, Marcus halted beside her, dropping onto
his knees to test the waters of the deep, lead-lined pool. ‘It’s hot!’ he
exclaimed, shaking moisture from his hand.
Flavia
pointed to a large lead pipe leading away from the pool in the direction of the
deserted house before it was lost in the luxuriant undergrowth.
‘We
think the owner fixed a conduit somewhere off the spring waters of the
Aesculapius spring and directed some of the thermal water here,’ she explained.
‘The pool drains somewhere, too, but we do not know where.’
Marcus
sat back on his heels. ‘We?’
‘Those
of us who come here, when we can.’
‘Your
own private bathing place.’ Marcus jumped to his feet again and walked around
the marbled perimeter of the pool. ‘I am surprised nobody has tried to make
money with it.’
‘We
are careful who we tell,’ Flavia said, squashing disappointment at Marcus’
mercenary approach, but he was staring across the sun-gilded water at the
leaf-strewn timber portico leading to the deserted house.
‘I am
not surprised at that,’ he said quietly. ‘It is beautiful.’
He
watched a small breeze tumble a bronze oak leaf along a small marble walkway
leading from the semi-derelict portico to the edge of the pool. ‘Mysterious,
quite eerie, but also...comforting. As if you are in an entirely different
world.’ He turned about, pointing to the sparkling spiders’ webs on the
lavender bushes, rimed with heavy dew. ‘Somewhere forgotten by the rest of the
city. A place where magical things become possible.’
‘You
understand,’ Flavia whispered, breathing out in relief.
He
smiled. ‘It is more than likely that the old owner saw an easy chance to grab
some free hot water, but what he has made here, what time has made...I am not
surprised he was thought to be a sorcerer.’
Marcus
held out both hands to her. ‘Thank you for sharing this, and be assured—your
secret with be safe in my keeping.’
Flavia
walked to the edge of the secret pool and joined him in studying the waters.
‘It has hardly changed,’ she murmured. As if from far off, she caught a faint whiff of incense wafting from the altars close to the spring shrine to Aesculapius. Listening, she could hear nothing of the city outside the high boundary walls, only her own breathing and the creak of the bare-branched oak tree. A raven was perched in its branches, preening itself. She and Marcus were standing away from the shade of the empty house, in a clear patch of warm flagstones where the bushes had not yet encroached. The sun was warm on her skin and Marcus’ hand around hers warmer still.
Flavia's Secret
Dare Celtic Flavia trust her new Roman Master Marcus?
FLAVIA’S SECRET Free with Kindle Unlimited #99cents https://amzn.to/2Mk5zqS
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#HistoricalRomance #AncientWorld #Roman Britain #RomanceNovel #RomanBath #Chapter One http://www.lindsaytownsend.co.uk/2019/01/flavias-secret-romance-novel-99cents.html
Io Saturnalia and #new #excerpt https://historicalfictionexcerpts.blogspot.com/2013/12/io-saturnalia-plus-new-excerpt-from.html
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