Chapter 12: Nora!
THE auction hall was a large synagogue in Caesarea, which the Romans had seized and converted into a kind of resting place for their soldiers involved in the campaign against the Jews. Tables had been laid out on which various fruits and delicious meals were arranged in large silver bowls, and an artificial pedestal raised up for the occasion lay before the guests, most of whom were still trickling into the hall. Several servants completed the picture.
On seeing the food, Rachel remembered she was very hungry and tried to move nearer in order to perceive more aromas from the delicious delicacies making up the rich menu, but she felt very sad when she was suddenly forced away from the tables and gathered guests, and pushed to a hidden corner of the hall with the others.
“All rise to our glorious governor and his son, Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus,” a centurion announced and all the guests stood up. Governor Titus was dressed in a simple traditional Roman costume. A below-knee tunic over which a toga picta, or embroidered toga, hung from his shoulders. His son was similarly dressed, while the boy’s childhood wife, Zeporah, had on a traditional female attire.
Matthew still couldn’t believe he was so close to a live Roman governor.
“Victory, my friends,” the Roman leader started, moving over to the reserved seats with his son and entourage. “Today the mighty armies of our magnificent empire have claimed the greatest victory in the annals of Iudaea by crushing the Jewish revolutionists in Jerusalem! Come, I beg of you, and earn for yourselves what prize you see before you! Let the sales begin.”
The crowd settled down after their governor and a flurry of activity resumed on the podium. The first woman was brought out for all to see, but Rachel, who still had a heavy heart for her losses that day, refused to follow the serious proceedings that followed, going as far behind as she could and deciding there and then to be re-baptized as she thought of her mother, whom she had really loved.
She was still thinking of her mother when the auctioneer’s attendant came and grabbed her by the arm. He took her up the podium.
“One of the Jewish girls,” the slave trader started smoothly in a sweet voice. “She’s Jerusalem’s best and she stands here before you! What more do you want, my lords? She’s untainted and beautiful! She will be ever ready to serve you, and she’s . . . .”
“You do not need to shout into their ears,” Rachel reminded him, generating laughter across the hall. Matthew noted this as significant, wondering how the book discovered people of similar behavior for its manipulations.
The auctioneer had lost his composure for a while, glaring at his good, and now he turned back to his customers with a broad smile on his face. “She starts from a piece of gold,” he punished the girl with, drawing more bouts of laughter from his buyers.
But for a long time after this, nobody resumed the bargain and nobody looked anxious to buy the girl. The fellow regretted this action of his, presumably thinking he’d tainted his own good with his own mouth, even though this was very far from the truth.
“She starts from a hundred pieces of gold,” he tried to correct and Rachel smiled faintly. She wondered why they were not eager to purchase her for their beds and saw the governor whisper to his son across the tables from where she stood.
“Two thousand,” Matthew suddenly proclaimed and his ‘father’ ruffled his hair as his action was greeted with cheers from the older buyers. They had been ordered to wait for his bargain by their governor, himself.
“Sold for two thousand pieces of gold,” the slave trader announced, beaming. “Sold to the household of Titus Flavius Augustus Vespasianus,” and he pushed Nora from the podium. “Sold to our glorious general’s son.”
Rachel was taken away by the general’s maidservants.
“Good job,” Stephanie whispered into Matthew’s ear.
“Thanks.” Matthew laughed. Now they could plan their leave, but he knew he was going to miss the place. Servants literally worshipped him and he liked his bed.
“You must retire now, my child,” the elder Titus told his son, grinning. “Your studies start early tomorrow morning and it is very important.”
“But I want to stay, Father,” Matthew protested, and Stephanie rudely nudged him. “The troops are celebrating tonight.”
“They will be drunk, Titus, and I do not want you involving yourself in their abominable orgies,” his famous, new father said in Latin. “Now, hop along and enjoy your wife and slaves.”
Quietly, Stephanie thanked Titus the Elder for his wise evaluation of the situation as Matthew led her away. “Seems you’ve forgotten why we’re here in the first place,” she angrily told him. “You?”
“Don’t blame me,” Matthew retorted angrily. “I was just trying to enjoy myself! Besides, you’re my wife, remember?”
“Not on my life,” Stephanie yelled, stomping into the room. Her brother swaggered in behind her. “Matthew, you’re drunk,” she accused exasperatedly.
“No, I’m not,” he denied.
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
A guard cleared his throat at the door and their bickering stopped. “Your slaves, Lydia and Rachel, await your invitation, my lord,” he announced and bowed away from the door.
“Let them in,” Matthew ordered in a bold voice.
“Matthew, we only need Nora,” Stephanie reminded him.
“I know,” he said, sitting down on his large bed, and then drowsily falling on his back. “We only need . . . Nora.”
Both girls came in and two guards blocked the entrance to the huge chamber. The two girls were scantily dressed and had on heavy mascara on their eyes and lips. Quickly, Stephanie discovered water in a pan and poured some on Matthew to wake him up. Her adopted brother cursed her in Latin as he did so. “We must leave now, Sleepy Head,” she insisted and ran over to Nora in a bid to hug her. “Nora’s back and kicking,” she exclaimed.
“Not so fast, Steph! Don’t touch her,” Matthew cried in English, knowing what the embrace would result in despite his present state, but he was too late.
Rachel smiled as she accepted Zeporah’s welcome. This young Samaritan girl must have her own tale of pain and sorrow, and must be trying to comfort a fellow slave with open arms since she knew that the bigger girl’s story had already started.
The embrace was warm and enchanting, reminding her of Leonard’s hug and how she enjoyed its soothing effect. Who could hug her like this but him? Who could smoothen away all her fears like this but him? She closed her eyes and held the girl very close to her body, feeling her warmth go out to her. It was so peaceful and she just wanted to remain there . . . and dream.
But someone had to spoil it all by calling her name.
“Nora! Wake up, Nora.”
And when she woke up, it was Stephanie she was tightly hugging, not Leonard. Besides, the girl was ear-deep in costume!
“What the hell’s going on?” Nora demanded in English, detaching herself immediately and looking around her in wild astonishment. “Where the hell am I?”
“Near Jerusalem?” Stephanie helped in a tiny voice.
“Why are you dressed like that?” Nora asked her, looking at her nose and neck rings with disgust.
“She has no choice, Nora,” Matthew replied for Stephanie, coming out into his foster senior sister’s conscious view for the first time.
Nora held her head with her right hand and turned away. Of course, they were playing Roman citizens in the house! She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw the other slave girl.
Matthew quickly hurried the poor Greek out of the room.
“Who was that?”
“A long story,” Stephanie replied.
“What’s she doing in our house?”
Matthew brought out the scroll from within the small leather bag he had ordered provid
ed for it.
“Bring your hand, Nora,” Stephanie told her sister, who became rather livid and refused to obey the command.
“Is this some kind of . . . joke?” Nora wanted to know, excitement written all over her person and her heart thumping hard. “Does Mom and Dad know about this?” Her voice was rising.
“Nora, you must trust us,” Matthew urged his senior sister. The wine had left his eyes. “We cannot do this without your help! We must take you back home immediately.”
“And where are we?” Nora asked, looking for the door. “Can’t believe you fixed all this just for a play.” They must have obtained the heavy robes as well as the furniture from school! By the way, where did they push the sofas to? Mom and Dad are gonna be mad! “Where’s the TV?” she demanded.
“Behind those curtains?” Matthew angrily pointed out. “Roman style?”
Nora glared at her foster brother and defiantly matched over to the said draperies and flung them aside. “I’m naked,” she screeched, protectively hugging her bosom and staring into an ornamented Roman mirror. “You undressed me in my sleep? Dad’s gonna hear this.” Her raised voice forced the guards outside to peep into the room, and unfortunately, she saw them, and totally lost it.
“Nora, no,” Stephanie warned her sister as the older girl made for the entrance.
Matthew blocked Nora and she pushed him away. Both guards blocked her and she took some backward steps. Logically, they should be in the Roman play, but she hated the way their eyes were eating her up. “I can’t believe you allowed strangers into our house, Matthew,” she said in an unsteady voice. “What if they . . . rape me?”
“They’re not strangers in our house,” Matthew insisted. “They’re Romans and this is not our house.”
“I should’ve known,” Nora admitted, walking up to the Roman soldiers who looked confused and were wondering whether she was drunk in Latin. They were waiting for orders on what to do from the governor’s son, but the boy appeared confused himself, and was babbling in the foreign tongue of the barbarians of Britannia. “Excuse me, please,” Nora rapped, “but I’m tired of the rehearsal and would like it to end now?”
“They cannot hear you,” Stephanie pointed out. “They speak a foreign language and it’s all because of the book. You must . . .”
“Shut up,” Nora snapped and turned back to the men. “Well?”
They agreed the newly acquired slave girl was drunk and Titus was entertaining himself.
“Look here, you . . . chimp,” Nora vented, staring into the eyes of the ugliest. “I demand to be shown the way out, or I’ll scream for help.”
“They can’t hear you,” Matthew pointed out.
“They speak mumbo jumbo,” Stephanie repeated in a tiny voice beside her sister. “You must. . . .”
“Fine.” Nora was already reaching out for the man’s sword. That was a wrong move and the soldier snatched her hand behind her back before pulling out a dagger for her throat! “O.K?” she slowly let out with fright, quickly understanding the situation.
“I await your orders, my lord,” the man growled in a bloodthirsty voice, freaking the slave girl into total submission and making her go limp in his powerful arms.
“Tie her up and leave us alone,” Matthew ordered in the same foreign tongue.
Nora could believe anything now!