“Go now, to your family,” she said. “Enjoy the days for us both.” Tears rimmed Ida’s eyes for a moment, but she blinked them away as she opened the door and let Giles out.
As Giles walked away to finish his work, he looked back to see her form gazing out from the shadowed door toward the laughing slaves down the street, before she closed it and slid the bolt home.
Catus hunched over his scrolls and piles of coins for a good while longer, smiling only at a complete stack or fully-checked list of names successfully evicted.
Oh, to find joy in such things was something that even the cruelest of Gods must find fault in. Nothing noble in it, to be sure, but such was not Catus’ thinking.
He ran his finger down the list of names continuously, counted coin without end. He was nearly finished s
