Jars of Clay by Lee Strauss

softly.
    Lucius wiped the sweat from his brow. “I’ve done something very foolish.”
    Felicity felt a cold chill at his words. “What do you mean?”
    His face reddened with shame. “I let my heart love.”
    “Oh.”
    She’d suspected this. Her mistress was a compelling and beautiful young woman. It would be natural for Lucius to fall in love with her. But she was also something they both knew could never be his.
    “I’m sorry, Lucius.”
    He positioned himself underneath the wooden pole, from which two full buckets were attached by ropes, one to each end, and without much effort, he stood.
    “It’s all yours,” he said, then smiled to reassure her. “Don’t worry. Everything is as it should be.”
    Felicity nodded. She knew Lucius well enough to know he was holding back. There was more to this story, and suddenly she was overcome by an awful sense of foreboding.

Chapter Seventeen
    CASSIUS
    It was just bad luck that Cassius chose the same moment to leave for the Forum as Gordian.
    “It must be the will of the gods,” Gordian said after blessing the door and the gate. “We are meant to walk together.”
    “So it seems,” Cassius said with a beleaguered smile.
    Gordian had several inches on him in height and in shoulder breadth. A stranger would never look at them and guess they were brothers.
    Gordian’s swagger and cocky smile annoyed Cassius and a kernel of frustration formed in his belly. He would have preferred to make this trek in solitude, for he had a great many things to ponder.
    “I presume you will join me in the army soon,” Gordian said casually.
    Cassius grunted. “I have decided that the army is not the will of the gods for me.”
    Gordian stopped short. “Not the will of the gods? And why on earth would it not be? Serving the emperor in his army is the will of the gods for everyone.”
    “How can that be true? Then everyone would be in the army, and there would be no man left to do other important things that sustain the empire.”
    Gordian continued his stride. “Perhaps that is true for some. But you are so soft and boyish. The army would make a man out of you.”
    The small kernel in Cassius’s belly became thick and wide as a melon.
    He was a man! How dare Gordian accuse him of anything less? He was in love with a woman, if this burning, swirling feeling could be called love. Though it was an imprudent love, to be sure, for his heart belonged to a common girl. A beautiful common girl who sold fruit in the city.
    He couldn’t tell Gordian about her, of course.
    “Any army of Commodus’s is a mockery,” Cassius said. “For Commodus has no victories for Rome of his own.’
    Gordian swiveled, towering over Cassius, his eyes in menacing slits. “You’d better watch your mouth! I will be the first to report such treacherous speech even if you are my brother!”
    Burning steam filled Cassius’s chest like Mt. Vesuvius. He wished his brother would die in molten ash!
    At least they had reached the Forum and Cassius could take his leave of Gordian. He spun abruptly in the opposite direction and lost himself in the crowds.
    He walked briskly until his heart had calmed, then stopped to regain his breath. He would forget about Gordian, but unfortunately, his brother wasn’t the only one who gave Cassius concern.
    His father buried himself in his work, so his family rarely saw him. Still, Cassius believed Brutus was relieved his younger son had decided to stay in Carthage to take over the family business. He was certain his brother’s rough behavior brought no pride to their father, though he kept silent about it. That certainty reassured Cassius that his decision to remain out of the army was the right one.
    His mother never fully recovered from the shock of Marcellus’s death. She left her own quarters very infrequently, and her once-youthful stride had turned into a lethargic dragging of the feet.
    And what was Helena up to? Gordian had ordered him to shadow her, which he was