Chapter 5

Life settled into a routine by day of training my new squad of bodyguards. All five of the men looked like they would work out to be useful fighters. They had all bulked up with new muscles that caught the eye of every woman in the slave quarters. I was on the horns of a dilemma because I was only authorized to have two men working for me. However, I hoped to convince Mistress that it was a worthwhile investment to have all five under my command.

By night, my cock was in great demand. I was spending two nights a week with Atrina and the rest of the time servicing the breeders. Luckily for me, two of the women were already pregnant by me, so I had proven my value to the family business. I suppose it was the training I received from my sister Eileen, but I was always able to perform my stud duties every time I was called upon. Counting Miriam and Alise, there were 15 breeding women plus several unmarried women who were anxious to sample my services whenever I had time for them. One of them was pregnant by me, and Mistress was happy that I was expanding the harvest. Overall, my day and night jobs were keeping me busy, and I never had time to become bored.

My justification for the five bodyguards was handed to me on the proverbial silver platter: there was a small riot, and two women of the aristocracy were killed as they rode their palanquins through the chaos as they tried to escape. These riots had become fairly common, so Mistress was easy to convince that she needed more protection whenever she went outside the protection of her home. Thus, all five of the former slaves became freemen so that they could carry weapons in the course of their duties.

The six of us wore the usual armor. We carried a small shield, truly a buckler, because a large shield was just too unwieldy in a melee. We carried the conventional short sword, the gladius, as our nominal weapon, but we also carried a short version of the bowie knife. In addition to this, we all carried a wooden baton 28 inches long and one inch in diameter. This was our true main weapon of choice.

I had insisted that all of the men become experts in stick fighting because the stick looked less threatening to the average bystander and was less likely to attract deadly force. Little did the average Roman know of the lethal potential of the lowly stick in the hands of a trained fighter. A major reason for concentrating our defensive shield into the lowly buckler was to allow greater freedom of movement with the stick.

Our Mistress' first need for her bodyguard came upon a visit to the slave auction. I was impregnating so many of the household women that she felt the need for more female slaves to fill in the gaps I was making in her servants. There were advertisements for a sale of fresh female slaves just in from Gaul, so Mistress decided to attend to see if any were worth her time and money.

This auction went much as did the auction that I had taken part in. However, most of the potential customers were brothel owners looking for fresh meat to fill out their stables as their former slaves wore out. However, there were a few women at the auction, so Mistress was not alone when the auction started. As was usual at this sort of event, most of the men were there just to look at the naked women and not to buy. Few of them had the cash to spare if they were not brothel owners or managers.

The women, 10 in all, were lined up on the platform and told to strip. When they did, each one was ordered to present herself for study by the audience, though none of the audience was allowed to touch the merchandise at this point. The women lifted their breasts with their hands to make sure that everybody got to see their nipples. They then spread their legs and pulled apart their pussy lips, though I think that this was for entertainment value more than anything else. Finally they bent over at the waist and presented their bare buttocks to the audience. Of course, this also called attention to the anus and gave another view of the pussy. About half of the men in attendance left after this show was over.

Most of the women were simple ordinary looking and a bit starved from lack of proper nutrition. However, two of the women were very good looking and had broad hips which made them attractive as breeding stock. It looked like one of these women was going to be offered first, and the other would be offered last.

Mistress took an interest in the first woman and bid one aureus. Of course, she did not expect to have this as the winning bid, but she did not want to start the bidding at too high a price. However, this seemed to be a slow night, and she won the bidding at one aureus, 17 dinarii. I was sent to collect the new slave and pay the clerk for her. I had her throw on a simple tunic before she followed me back to our group. I did warn the men to keep their hands to themselves until Mistress released the woman to them when we got home.

The rest of the evening was rather boring as the auction wound its way through eight more slaves. Interest picked up when the last slave was offered for sale. She was a blond, which was fairly rare in Rome at the time. Many of the men were speculating on whether or not her pussy hair would also be blond if it was allowed to grow back in. I could have answered the question, but I had the sense to keep my mouth shut.

Mistress bid her usual one aureus for this slave, and there was little bidding against her. In fact, most of the crowd had already left, so there was not much going on. Mistress won this bidding at one aureus, 13 dinarii. I collected this slave and paid for her. We walked back to our group, and Mistress said that she was ready to go home. We formed up and marched out toward home.

We were about eight blocks from home when I heard a shout, "THERE SHE IS, JUST LIKE I TOLD YOU!" I recognized that voice, it was the chief bully that I had defeated weeks before. He had been the leader of Mistress' bodyguards, so he had expected her to attend this auction. He was with a band of about 12-15 thugs who rushed at us in the narrow street. The damned fools should have waited until we had come to a wider street where they could all have attacked us at once.

As it was, only five or six could get to us, and that was by attacking at both ends of our little column. The gang of thugs had clubs and a few knives, but nothing more advanced than that. But, hell, clubs and knives could produce fatal wounds if they could get to you. I shouted for the bodyguards to use their swords, since this was a robbery and not a riot by unarmed civilians. We formed up and prepared to defend Mistress and everybody else in our group.

Four men rushed us from the front and three rushed from the rear. It was only this number because the street was hardly more than a narrow alley at this point. There were three of us at the point and three in the rear. This was where our bucklers really shown as defensive weapons because they could be moved about quickly to meet any attack. The first attackers were dispatched in less than two minutes, and that was enough to convince the rest of the gang that they had an urgent appointment elsewhere. We simply cut the throats of those of the attackers who were still alive and looted their bodies of anything valuable—there sure wasn't much. Following that, we continued our way home.

When we got back home, I thanked the men for their excellent job and dismissed them to return to their families. Not long after that, Mistress called me into her office. "Conan, I see now that you were right about me needing more bodyguards. Thank you for making me see the light. I quake at the thought of what would have happened if you and your men had not been there to take care of me. In fact, I am still shaking a little bit. I want to change our schedule a little bit and have you visit my bed tonight. I need the reassurance of a strong man right now."

"Of course, just let me bathe and I'll be right back."

"No, that won't be necessary. You can come with me and bathe in my private baths along with me. I would welcome your presence."