©2002 by WILDBEARIES

This story is based on characters created in the film, "Gladiator" and in no way intended to infringe upon those characters or the story of that film. References to real people are strictly the product of the writer's imagination and meant to entertain the reader.
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By late spring, Maximus was well enough to sit outdoors in the sunshine and absorb the healing rays and the warm winds that set the trees dancing in his groves. He sat there every day, at first just watching as the activities of his estate took place all around him, then, gradually, his people approached him to ask his advice on this or that - wanting things to be as they were a year ago, before he had left on the Empire's business. He found his mind returning to its normal sharpness, and his body - if somewhat slower to heal and regain its strength as it would have years before, nonetheless did improve to the point he was eventually able to walk about a bit each day, with the help of a trusted servant or friend in case he needed them.

Ana watched him now from the shaded front portico. He no longer walked half bent over like an old man, his hand pressed against his healing side as if to shore it up somehow. She knew the flesh and muscle and skin was knitted at last, the infection gone, and his lungs - which had worried her - were clear of any inflammation. Now, she thought, if she could just express to him how happy that made her, perhaps they could fully heal their relationship as well. She moved forward half a step as Maximus stumbled, but Lucius - home on leave for a week - was right there to help him get his balance. She could hear their soft laughter as Maximus made some self-derisive comment on his lack of grace, and knew they were all right. She turned and went inside. They did not need her.

 

Marina, daughter of a wealthy landowner a few leagues away, had been raised with the children of General Maximus and his wife since her mother's death three years earlier. Her father felt that since she had no sisters, and he had no intention of marrying again, she needed women about in order to be properly raised and not turn into a tomboy or hoyden. She had happily fitted right in with the larger household, and was treated as one of its own by everyone. She was taller than Lady Ana, with dark blonde hair, greenish-gold eyes fringed with long thick lashes and fair skin with a touch of sunshine across her cheekbones from her love of walking outdoors. She would no doubt make a fine marriage what with the influence of her adopted family and her rich father, who was from a Patrician family himself. There had been talk at one time of her going to Rome to marry into a senatorial family, but she had resisted in her quiet but determined way, so that she ended up remaining in Spain, as she wanted. As for a husband, she had a few ideas of her own on that subject and had already spoken to Lady Ana about the man she felt she wanted.

She and Antoninus now stood watching father and son in their promenade about the barns and outbuildings. At first, he had felt extremely shy around the beautiful young woman. Truth be told, she was the age of his eldest daughter, and it was somewhat embarrassing to him to admit to himself that he had very un-fatherly feelings for the dark-eyed beauty. He probably would have never acted on those feelings, never admitted their very existence had she not taken the first step and been waiting for him one evening when he exited Maximus' house on his way home.

He had come briskly walking out the door, whistling because his friend and general was well on the mend, and, totally oblivious, been startled half out of his boots by the sudden appearance of a white-garbed wraith in his path. "Edepol!" he had exclaimed, quickly touching the Wolf's Bane medallion around his neck for luck. The warm, rich chuckle - a decidedly feminine chuckle - had swiftly disabused him of the notion that this was a ghost of some sort come to frighten him. "Who is there?" he asked, indignant at having been startled.

"Marina," came the unmistakable, somewhat husky answer. "I did not mean to surprise you, sir, at least - not in that exact manner."

He walked closer and saw the flash of her white teeth as she smiled. "What did you mean to do, then, girl? It's late - a young lady shouldn't be outside alone this time of night."

Her smile widened and he heard her little laugh. He knew he was the source of her amusement, and it irritated him. So she thought him funny, did she? No doubt, pictured him as some doddering clown of an old man to be teased and frightened out of his wits on a dark night. "Come, come," he barked in his best parade ground no-nonsense voice, "speak up - why are you outdoors this late and with no chaperone?"

"Well," she replied, moving a bit closer and sitting on a nearby marble bench with a brief puff of her white stola and palla, I'm too old to require a chaperone, and I'm outdoors because I was waiting for someone."

"A lover," he said flatly, teeth grinding in annoyance. He might have known - some young buck, maybe even one of his own men who dared to look upon someone in the General's household as being approachable.

"When you speak the word in that tone, Antoninus, it's more of a curse than a blessing," she answered him. So he thought she was here for an assignation, did he? How funny. The man had no clue.

She fiddled with the sheer folds of her palla, re-draping it so it wafted more of her scent in his direction. Jasmine and carnations - the sweet and the spicy mixed into a heady blend, muted somewhat by gentle green vetiver. After all, she wanted to entice the man, not knock him flat with her perfume. She stopped her play with her gown and looked up at him, the moonlight reflecting off her eyes. She knew it was a most telling effect - she had practiced it with Marcia often enough when they perfected their feminine wiles to use on the unsuspecting men they wanted to charm. They were not allowed to be alone with any men, of course, but eventually - some day - they would be grown up enough to not need nursemaids, mother-hens and chaperones. Marina was now past that age herself, and the younger girl, Marcia, was madly in love with a young officer from the Wolf's Bane cavalry, so all her wiles were used in writing him charming letters where he was stationed in Emerita Augusta.

"I was waiting for you, sir," she finally admitted. She sat with her hands relaxed in her elegant lap and continued to look up at him. The moonlight glimmered on her pearl earrings and necklace. She knew she was beautiful, she just wanted him to realize it. To realize it in some way other than how a visitor noticed a pretty mural or piece of pottery. She was a woman grown, and she wanted him to know it.

"For me?" Antoninus answered in amazement, "Why ever would you wait for me?" She was Lilias' age, he reminded himself, chiding himself not to be one of those ridiculous old men who make fools of themselves doting on some pretty child a quarter their age. Those pretty children often merely wanted to help their doddering old man into his grave so they could get their hands on his fortune. He hoped he didn't dodder yet - not totally sure what doddering was in the first place. He realized he was standing right in front of her, looming over her like some avenging god or fury. "Why?" he repeated his question, not sure if she'd answered as he was having his inner discussion with himself.

"Why, indeed," she said in a very serious tone. She put her right hand, closed into a little fist, under her chin and pondered as if he'd posed a very weighty question indeed. "Could it be that I find you droll? No - that's not it. I know - I'm waiting to ask you some point of military tactics or cavalry maneuvers - that must be why."

Antoninus shoved both hands behind his back, linking his fingers to keep from shaking her as she deserved for mocking him. "I should think a child your age would be more interested in social events, jewels and dresses than any military tactics."

"Yes," she nodded sagely, head tipped to one side as she continued to study him, "you would think that. Tell me, sir, will you not be seated here beside me so that my neck won't freeze in this position from straining to look up at you?"

"Eh? Oh - yes, yes, of course," he stammered, and sat as far away from her on the bench as he could without actually being in danger of falling off the end. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize," she said in her warm voice. She turned so they were facing one another rather than side by side. "I really was waiting for you because I wanted to speak to you."

"Me? Why?" Was she a particular friend of Lilias or Amaryllis, his two eldest daughters, both now married and moved miles away? He didn't recall that.

Marina sighed. She was going to have to be blunt. She had hoped he would figure it out for himself, the gods knew she had been giving him speaking looks and friendly smiles for weeks now, but he didn't seem to have absorbed them at all. Even the general's wife had teased her that her strategy wasn't working and had given her the idea to waylay him this evening when he left. The diaphanous stola and palla she wore were, in fact, Ana's, lent to her to improve her chances of waking Antoninus up to her feelings. "He's dense as a post, girl, you're probably going to have to stun him with a rock to get his mind shifted so he looks at you as a woman grown and not a child."

There weren't any rocks within reach of a size to do that, so she instead answered his question with the truth, "Because I find you very attractive." There. The cat was among the pigeons now for sure. It was only for him to act on her admission.

"Me? You find me, er, attractive?" He almost slid off the end of the bench in shock.

"Careful!" Marina cried out softly, and grabbed hold of his rich leather belt to keep him from landing on the marble floor of the front portico. She felt the flex and warmth of his still-youthful body under her hand and it sent a tingle of delight all through her. He was very fine, many years her elder or no, very fine indeed. Next to the general himself, she could aspire to no finer specimen of manhood in all of Hispania, and the general was decidedly off limits.

"Yes," she answered when she was reassured he wasn't about to fall off their marble perch. She let go of his belt and returned her hand to her lap. "Extremely so - I have for a long time now."

Antoninus gaped at her, realizing he probably looked like a fish flopping on the bank of a river with the hook set firmly in his maw. He shut his mouth, shook his head at her, and told her she must be moonstruck. "That's the only explanation - I'm nobody you should find attractive in that, um, manner."

She smiled at him in delight. "Oh, I do, I assure you; I find you very attractive. It's no use fighting it, Antoninus, I love you. I want to marry you - if you'll have me."

"What?!?!" He glanced around, lowering his voice, hoping nobody was about who could overhear them. "Did you just propose marriage to me? You can't - I can't - it's not proper!"

"Well, I'd like to know just why it isn't," she said calmly. "The general and his wife both feel it's very proper."

"The general and. . .his wife? You've discussed this with Maximus?" His mind was whirling. This lovely woman found him attractive and wanted him to marry her? She had proposed it, bold-faced, right there on Maximus' front porch. He must be moonstruck, that had to be it. He peered upward briefly. No, it was only a half-moon, didn't it have to be a full moon for that to happen to a man?

"I did," she was saying firmly. To his further consternation, she reached out and took his left hand between her two, much smaller hands. "I've been in love with you for years now, ever since I was a girl. I've hoped and hoped you'd wait for me, that you'd notice me and that I was a woman grown, but you haven't noticed. I decided my only recourse was to tell you, flat out."

He continued to stare at her, taking in her words as well as the vision she presented sitting right there beside him. Holding his hand in her two tiny ones, all soft and smelling of jasmine. He shook himself mentally before he just sank into a puddle of sensuous goo and stood up. "It's not proper, not at all! I won't have it!" he informed her sternly, and marched off.

Marina watched his retreating form from her seat on the bench, watching how he fumbled with the saddle and harness before getting on his horse. Very uncharacteristic for him, the expert horseman and cavalry officer. She smiled, thinking that even if things hadn't gone precisely as she had planned, he hadn't exactly seemed to dislike her. He just had to get used to the idea. That was it. She laughed softly and went inside to tell Marcia what had transpired.

Upstairs, Ana and Maximus stood at the big windows that looked out over the portico, watching as Antoninus left in a state of clumsy haste. "I think she scared him," Ana commented wryly.

Maximus, tired and ready for sleep, nonetheless shared a short bout of laughter with his wife before stating the obvious, "She'll chase him until he catches her."

"Pray the gods it's soon, he's liable to break his neck if he continues in what seems to be a sudden onset of clumsiness brought on by our lovely Marina's declaration." Ana blew out the lamp, slid into bed beside her husband and sighed contentedly.

A moment or two passed, and then he slid over to lie behind her, drawing her back against him, hands at her waist. She rested her hands over his and smiled into the darkness before closing her eyes. Soon, she thought, things would be right again.

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Copyright 2002 by wildbearies