Memories of my life before I was taken to a farm outside of Rome are dim. I recall being hungry, dirty, and cold. My dreams are haunted by nightmares of terror and bloody scenes of battle while being made to hide in bushes with the women of my clan while the men went to fight. I have no memory of my mother. I was told she had been captured or killed, and none of the women who took care of me seemed to want to talk about i...

From the small window of my room above the stable, I watched as Paullus's figure receded in the distance. Paullus, whose legionnaires had massacred my clan and my father and made me a slave of Rome. Paullus, who had made me and the women of my tribe slaves. The same Paullus who had let me preserve my virginity while awakening my sexuality. I had been in charge of his stables and horses for many months. Now, he was going o...

Caius's visit and the news he brought to us were life-changing. When I read the scroll from Paullus in which he proposed to marry me, I broke into tears and fled to my room. The tears were tears of joy. I had fallen in love with Paullus after he had captured and enslaved me. I'd dreamed of him making me his concubine or his mistress when he returned from his assignment commanding the Roman legions in Britannia. In my wild...