As expected, the husband left, and I was summoned to the villa. Thankfully, my mistress didn’t push me as hard as usual. She noticed the many bandages and the pain I was in. She wanted me alive, not dead. However, the walk back to my room gave Mara and me a rare chance to be alone as we moved through the villa.
“Have you spoken to the others?” I inquired.
“I told you it was a crazy idea, and I’m not doing it!” she replied.
“Mara, this is the only way. Her husband is gone, and if you can just get some weapons—”
“James!” She turned abruptly, cutting me off with a fierce glare.
“They’re slaves!” she hissed, before quickly checking our surroundings.
She looked back at me, and I met her gaze calmly.
“They’re not soldiers,” she insisted.
“They don’t need to be,” I countered. “We outnumbe
