Cantice V

Her grin grew even wider, giving him a quick peck on the lips before saying, “Just don’t make it too obvious. But I must return now, lest anyone grow too suspicious. We’ll be seeing more of each other later. I’ll let you know.” She gave him one last kiss, a long, passionate one, before poking head out the door and then quickly exiting. Her mere presence left him smiling as largely as he could, his very being feeling lighter for having been in her presence. It is as though he was now floating on some blissful cloud, free of any and every worry that had ever plagued his life. None of it even mattered at the moment, only his love for this woman.

He was perhaps in there for longer than he had realized after she left, as the slightly ajar door was opened by his faithful Famulus, who took a cloth and wiped the residue of lipstick which had been smeared onto his own lips. He followed him back out through the entrance which he had erstwhile berated for barring his entry. Back in the street, a back alley at best, they made their way to the avenue upon which the main entrance to the house lay, and knocked on the door, to be greeted by the head slave of the household, a shriveled old man who always wore a black tunic, perhaps seeing this as a symbol of his station. The old man quivered out his words, “Lord Didius, do come in.”

Cantice strolled right in past the man, even as if this home were his own. He inquired, despite knowing the answer himself, “Might you direct me to the house shrine that I may pour a libation for your masters? Beyond that, the rest of this jug of wine he carries is for the house.” The elder slave nodded and tottered off at a pace he thought slower than really necessary. They entered the atrium, the large front room with a pool in the middle, and there were already many guests here, in the reception room between the atrium and the garden in the back. He waved towards them, trying his best to make a smile that didn’t seem as a poorly attached façade to his interior which truly didn’t give a shit for them. Instead, he headed into an alcove off the side of the atrium where the shrine to the household gods lay.