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- 02/12/2021
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Rome - 28. Chapter 28
Word got out among the slavers if they had any young boys to stop at my gate.
We bought one from a slaver who stopped. The next one that stopped, we made an offer, he turned us down. He learned what we said was true. The man at the slave market offered him less. He brought the boy back to us, and I paid him what I originally offered. The word travels fast, from that point on, they accepted my offer. We had boys coming to us. They were runaway slaves. That posed a problem for us. They had no papers, and their owners could come after them. Some were in bad physical shape, and they all were starving. I prayed to Apollo and made a burnt offering at our altar in the house. Aumen had the answer.
“Look at these papers for the boys we bought. All we need to do is copy them and put their name on them."
That is what we did. Then I made papers for them as I did for the rest, declaring them freedmen. We were never tested; no one came after them. I now had sixteen boys.
Duccius did visit and went on a hunting trip. While he was gone, his wife, Aleta, stayed with us and his son, Junius. He spent most of his time with Adom at the animal sheds. Duccius returned after two days with his deer. The boys always have a tale to tell. That night Duccius took his family home, the deer had to be salted. Aleta wasn’t too happy about leaving. She was enjoying the men waiting on her. Junius wanted to take home a rabbit, Adom gave him a male.
I enjoyed my brother’s visit, but I would’ve liked him to stay a little longer. Grandfather and Deacon arrived a week after Duccius left. He had retired from the Senate, he left the cook in charge and did give Deacon his freedom. To his surprise, Deacon didn’t leave. He stayed and performed the same service as always. I think he was going to free all of his slaves. He knew when he was gone. I would do that.
The architect had arrived on schedule, and he measured the land behind the courtyard. I told him to extend the rooms and to add rooms the size of those we had on the first level only.
“How close to the edge of the property do you want to go?”
“Go within ten meters of the property line. I may need to expand the Baths as well.”
The resulting drawing showed eleven apartments on the first floor and eighteen single rooms on the top floor. I will convert one of the rooms in front into a storage room. We still had the three double apartments in the front of the house.
The architect brought his men to the site and started to work on the new rooms. I’m not sure how many men he brought. I was glad the wheat would be harvested soon, the architects men were depleting my reserves. Felix had one of the men helping him in the kitchen. Nour said he had to move a few of the male rabbits back into the rabbit shed. I guess Felix was preparing rabbit for the men.
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15
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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