A Voice in the Wind

Hadassah returns home to find Caius whipping Julia, vowing to kill her. She throws her body over Julia’s, bearing the brunt of Caius’s whip. When his rage is finally spent, he leaves the room. Hadassah is pale and still, and Julia weeps over her loyal and selfless servant. She bids her other servants to care for Hadassah, and she flees to Calabah’s, demanding to see her immediately. Julia is ushered into Calabah’s bedchamber where she tells her story of Caius’s financial losses, his manipulation of Julia’s investments, and the debt he owes to Anicetus, the associate whose party they attended that night. She shows Calabah the welts from her beating, and Calabah brings salve to soothe her wounds. Julia tells her that she slept with Anicetus—for which he cancelled Caius’s debt—so he would know how infidelity felt, but it also sent him into a murderous rage. Julia fears for her life but cannot run away without risking losing her money and property. Calabah then confesses that she poisoned her first husband and paid a doctor to verify that it was natural causes. She advises Julia to do the same. Julia balks, but when Calabah suggests other options—like turning to her family for help—Julia will not consider them. Calabah’s long-spun web of deceit finally bears fruit—she has Julia right where she wants her, agreeing to kill Caius.

Hadassah awakens, her back ravaged and scabbed. Julia, ever grateful to her for saving her life, is sending Hadassah back to Decimus and Phoebe for her own safety. Calabah attempts to persuade Caius that killing Julia would be a huge risk that he cannot afford. Hadassah, however, senses something unspoken and dangerous in Julia’s eyes, and she pleads with her mistress not to send her away; but Julia is adamant, and after meeting with Calabah and Julia, Caius falls suddenly ill. Meanwhile, Hadassah returns to the Valerian villa, where she keeps the details of Julia’s situation as vague as possible.

Marcus is troubled. Having heard rumors of Julia’s dalliance with Anicetus, he finds Hadassah in the garden and demands the truth, but she claims to know nothing. Frustrated, he grabs her, but she cries out in pain and collapses. He carries her back to the villa where he notices the bloody welts on her back. When she rouses herself, he asks why Caius beat her—he cannot imagine any other cause for the welts. Hadassah claims she disobeyed him, but Marcus suspects that is not the whole story. He visits Julia the next day, asking about the Anicetus incident, and she grows defensive, declaring she will no longer allow anyone to control her life.

After his 100th kill, Atretes may be sold to an Ephesian and sent to what is now Turkey. First, however, he is to fight one more match, and Bato warns him not to underestimate his opponent. The emperor’s son, Domitian, has grown tired of Atretes’s arrogance and has chosen his opponent shrewdly. Bato can say no more.

Decimus and Phoebe relax while Hadassah entertains them. Phoebe requests a story about her god, and Hadassah tells the tale of the prodigal son, the younger of two sons who squanders his father’s wealth and then returns in shame, only to have his father celebrate his return. Decimus is moved to tears, seeing himself and Marcus in the story. He has a revelation: “The father is your god” (337), he says. Hadassah maintains that, in God’s eyes, all people are equal, an ideology that is a profound threat to Rome and its structured class system. Having heard these ideas once before, Decimus realizes that Hadassah is not a Jew after all, but a Christian.

Standing in the arena, Atretes is dismayed to face another German warrior from his own tribe. Neither will fight, so a trainer prods the other German with a hot iron. Atretes knows, however, that refusing to fight will result in an “ignoble” death of crucifixion or being fed to the lions, so he taunts the German until he fights back. Atretes ultimately defeats him and then curses the Roman mob for encouraging the spectacle. After the match, Bato informs Atretes that he has been sold and will sail for Ephesus in two days. He beseeches Atretes not to waste the opportunity. In Ephesus, Atretes may have a better chance of winning his freedom.

Hadassah attends another worship service. Her mission, as she sees it, is to bring the Word of God to the Valerian household. Thus far, she feels she has failed. As a mere servant, she has little influence over her masters. When she returns late that evening, Marcus is waiting at the door, demanding to know where she has been. When she confesses, he threatens that he would be within his rights to have her killed “for being a member of a religion that preaches anarchy” (343), for daring to worship an unseen god over the emperor. He orders her to stop attending worship services and to never affiliate with another Christian. When she challenges his demand, he strikes her, desperate for her to understand the risk she is taking. Overcome with longing, he kisses her, but she resists. He reminds her that his family “owns” her, and that he is within his rights to use his possessions as he wishes. Then, hearing his own words, he is ashamed. Hadassah is conflicted. She loves Marcus, but having premarital sex with Marcus would be a sin in the eyes of God. Unwilling to force the issue, he lets her go, baffled by her denial of her own pleasure in service to a god that demands purity.

Atretes, meanwhile, is loaded onto a ship bound for Ephesus.

At the Valerian villa, Phoebe informs Hadassah that Caius has died, and that Julia will be requiring her service once again. Decimus, Phoebe tells her, grows sicker, and as he looks back at his life, his ambition, and his wealth, he feels empty: “[He believes] that nothing he’s ever done in his life matters or will last’” (349). Marcus enters, having just heard about Caius. He pleads with his mother to keep Hadassah with them. Aside from his own selfish reasons, he fears she will be in danger because Julia’s new circle of friends will have little tolerance for a Christian. Later, Marcus and Decimus argue over who has rights over Hadassah. Decimus, it turns out, was aware of Caius’s brutality and the lashing he meted out to Julia and Hadassah. According to Julia, Caius asked for forgiveness before he died, and Julia is now wracked by guilt, even refusing to see Calabah. She needs Hadassah even more than Marcus, Decimus argues, and Marcus eventually acquiesces.

Since Caius’s death, Julia visits his grave obsessively. Nothing can assuage her guilt—she is convinced he knew of the poisoning. On this visit, Octavia accompanies her, taking smug delight in her friend’s misfortune. Had Caius married her instead, Octavia feels, things would be different. Julia, hoping for relief after Caius’s death, feels only dread. She fears her secret will be discovered. At the gravesite, Julia justifies her decision: Caius was manipulative and abusive, and she had no choice. Now, however, she will be forced to move back under her father’s roof and be under his control once again. As she prepares to leave, she resolves never to visit Caius’s grave again. She is filled with an emptiness she cannot define, and Hadassah’s presence and air of contentment fill Julia with resentment. She recalls Caius’s dying words: “’Don’t think it’s over…’” (360).

Decimus draws up the paperwork to relocate his business to Ephesus, but Marcus disapproves, feeling his father has betrayed the city that nurtured his vast wealth. Decimus, however, sees little resemblance between the Roman Republic of old and the “rotting corpse” of the Roman Empire. Even Julia has agreed to go, but Decimus leaves Marcus’s decision up to him. He presents his son with his inheritance, a gesture unheard of while the father is still alive and usually reserved for family members being cast out. Decimus, long weary of his constant battles with Marcus, means it only to give his son the freedom to decide to stay in Rome if he wishes. Marcus, however, feels his father’s control even in this final gesture, and he walks out, angry.

Back in the Valerian household, Hadassah obeys Marcus’s orders and prays at home. At the market, however, she confides in Trophimus, the vendor who first directed her to the worship service. She tells him of Decimus’s impending death and their relocation to Ephesus, the home of the apostle, John, who knew her father. She confesses her fears—of death, of the sins of Rome, and especially of her feelings toward Marcus—and Trophimus vows to pray for her. As she walks away, his concern grows: “If Rome was corrupt and dangerous, Ephesus was the very throne of Satan” (367).