Chapter 8

According to Atrina, these things can't be rushed, so I was just going to have to wait to talk to Claudius. At least, this gave me time to work on my thoughts to pare my recommendations down to something that would be politically workable.

In the meantime, Atrina was starting to bulge in the belly to the point that she was having some trouble getting comfortable. I resisted any temptation to tease her as she was getting very short tempered as the pregnancy progressed. She had been very careful to follow the recommendations I gave her as to her diet and exercise. I wished that I could have had some vitamin tablets for her to take, but all I could do was to encourage her to eat as many fruits, vegetables, and fish as she could stand. I also had her cut back on her wine consumption, but some was necessary to kill the germs in her drinking water.

Sex was high on her list. It was as if she was trying to stock up just in case she didn't survive the baby's birth. One moment, she was all happy and confident, and, the next moment, she was greatly depressed as if she had suddenly decided that she was going to die. There was really nothing that I could do but to hug and kiss her and to try to sooth her fears by insisting that she was going to live through the whole thing. Truthfully, I would probably have gotten disgusted with her if I was not convinced that she was serious in her fears. She was right about too many women dying in childbirth, so that was one of the things I was going to try to remedy when I was finally able to get Claudius' ear.

There was one convenient condition currently going on: most of the breeders were pregnant, and some were nearly ready to deliver. This gave me more time to spend with Atrina. She appreciated this, but she was talking about getting more breeders in the stable since I seemed to be so effective with my seeding. Sometimes it was really hard to keep up with her mood swings.

It was just at one of these up-swings in mood that a notice was posted that there would be an auction of newly arrived female slaves. Atrina became very excited at the possibility of increasing the size of her breeding stable. She announced that she was going to attend and buy as many breeders as caught her eye. She reminded me that I was supposed to protect her, so I might as well start assembling the bodyguards because she was going to the auction. Well, I could see that she was very excited by the thought of this outing, so I didn't have the heart to try to argue her out of going.

I was not going to scrimp on Atrina's safety, so I planned to take all 24 of the bodyguards. I had them practice marching while surrounding a palanquin. We rigged a closed palanquin so that Atrina would not have to be bothered with the drills. We marched around the city streets close to home so that we could get a good feel for what we might face in case of trouble. Once we had some practice time, I agreed that Atrina could go with us so that she could get out of the house. Getting some "fresh air" in Rome was a bad joke, but she did get to see the people moving around and making Rome the vital city that it was.

Two days before the auction, we went out on one of our practice marches. I really made a bad choice. We were as far away from home as I planned for us to get when a riot broke out. I never did learn what caused the problem, but we were suddenly surrounded by people running toward the riot to join in the fun and people running away from the riot to escape the danger.

Nobody seemed to want to harm Atrina, but I was damned glad to have so many men to back up my protection plan. My men surrounded the palanquin and drew their batons. I didn't want to use the swords except in an emergency, since any danger to come to us was purely accidental. Hopefully, we would get by OK, but I didn't plan to take any chances.

The bodyguards mostly only pushed away people who got too close, but there was an occasional need for a sharp crack in the ribs to get the attention of some people. Apparently we were far enough away from the center of the riot to escape the worst of the turmoil, but Atrina was very happy to see all of the excitement. She had a great time, but for those of us in the bodyguard detail, it was just another day on the job. At least, I was able to talk her out of trying to get closer to the action!

Once things settled down, we made our way home, and Atrina jabbered all the way about how much fun she'd had on this outing. She carried on about how grateful she was that I let her out of the house to join us on this little excursion. Atrina showed why she was so loved by her bodyguard when she insisted on thanking each one, individually, for the way he had succeeded in protecting her in a trying situation. Little human touches like this went a long way to cementing the loyalty of her bodyguards, any one of whom would have gladly laid down his life to protect Atrina from harm.

When the time finally came for the trip to the slave auction, every man of the bodyguard was ready an hour sooner than necessary, and ever bit of metal on his uniform was polished to a mirror finish. These guys were really serious about the impression they made on people as servants of Atrina. Well, I knew that all of the spit and polish was good at intimidating any potential trouble makers, so I was very happy to see it.

We didn't walk to the auction, we marched on parade! I had finally gotten used to my fancy regalia, so even I was proud to be seen by the general public. As an added touch, a slave was detailed to carry a standard with Atrina's full name emblazoned on it. She was tickled by that, since it was something that had not been done since the days of the Old Republic. I even had pennants fastened to the four corners of the roof of her palanquin. Yes, we made quite a show as we journeyed to the auction site.

I had already reserved us a spot at the auction, so we marched to our place and set Atrina's palanquin on supports so that she could sit in it and still see over the heads of the other people in the audience.

This auction started out with 10 women on the block. As usual, the first thing they did was to drop their clothes and stand there naked. I had spoken to the auctioneer about Atrina's planned visit, so he was going all out to cater to one of his best customers. All of the women were in fashion by being completely free of body hair and freshly bathed. The hair on their heads was even tastefully done, so all of the women looked at their best. The women were put through their paces with holding their breasts up so the audience got a good look at their nipples. Some of the women even pinched and pulled on their nipples to try to make them stick out. This was appreciated by the entire audience.

They also showed off their asses and pussies, so every man in the crowd surely had a hard on. I know I did. Normally, this was the end of the free entertainment, but the auctioneer had an extra treat in mind in honor of Atrina's visit. As each woman's turn came up, she was paraded through the crowd so that Atrina could get a good look at her. Of course, this helped the brothel owners to get a good look, too, so it was definitely good for business.

This was also a special night, since a second stick of 10 women was scheduled to by displayed after the first set. Normally, a slave auction is a pretty boring as a spectator sport after the first few displaying minutes, but this one was fun all the way through as each man got a better look than usual at all the bare female skin. After all, I don't think that there is a man alive who will not stop to look at a naked woman, no matter how many of them he has already seen. I could tell that the bodyguards were enjoying the show.