Truth and Sparta by Camille Oster

had
been weighing on him.
    “ You know why I am here,” he said his hand was resting on his
thigh as he looked down on her.
    “ There is nothing for you to come for, the child was
stillborn,” she said looking up at him. The sun was behind him and
it hurt to look at him, she had to look away.
    “ You must know that there are dire consequences for deceiving
me in such things.” The warning in his voice was clear.
    “ I am not deceiving you,” she lied. She tried to look at him
again, but the sun was making it impossible to hold his
gaze.
    “ Show me your cottage,” he ordered. She stood still for a
moment then turned in the direction of their small house. She could
hear the hooves of the horse behind her as she walked. She felt his
presence there even if she didn’t see him.
    He dismounted
when they arrived and tied up the horse to the empty oxen pen. He
walked into the small house while Chara waited outside. She felt
her stomach clench with nerves as he search even though she knew
there was nothing for him to find as Chara had hidden well as
physical reminders of her mother. If he were to notice that her
mother was gone it would be now. He came out and searched every
space around the outside.
    “ Where is your brother?” Chara felt her stomach flip. He
remembered Doros, which was not a good thing. It would have been
much better that Doros was here, but his absences stretched more
and more of late.
    “ He is in the village, working with one of the other families,
helping with the sowing.”
    “ Why isn’t he working here?”
    “ Their need was greater.” She wasn’t sure he would believe it.
She held her breath.
    “ Don’t deceive me on this,” he repeated quietly.
    “ I’m not. There is no child. We had to build a pyre for it. It
didn’t live at all.”
    He stepped a
bit closer and took a hold of her neck. It wasn’t a rough hold, but
it did force her face up to him. He was looking her in the eyes,
looking for a lie. He seemed to accept whatever he saw there and
Chara suppressed a sigh of relief.
    “ We are not compatible,” he said. Chara felt angry and insulted
at the statement; it wasn’t true and she had the most beautiful
baby to prove it, but she couldn’t afford to voice such a sentiment
to counter an insult.
    “ No,” she confirmed. He hadn’t let go of her neck, he kept his
hand there, his wrist was heavy and warm on her shoulder. Chara
kept her eyes on his abdomen.
    “ Perhaps that is for the best. I don’t mind telling you that I
dreaded today,” he said in his deep voice. It hadn’t been something
she expected hearing, Spartans never confessed weaknesses, fears or
dreads. He moved his hand along her shoulder. “I am to get an
estate soon,” he said. “It will be further to the west, I have been
told, and of a decent size.” Chara wasn’t sure why he was telling
her this. “But not yet, there is too much trouble at this moment.
When the troubles settle down and we have gained our position
again.”
    She was
relieved that he had changed topics. He seemed to have accepted her
assertion and she now had to stay the course and not say anything
stupid.
    “ I must rest now, it has been a long night—a long year in
truth. Come to me tonight.” He stepped away and walked toward his
horse and Chara watched as he easily mounted. Once seated he looked
back at her and smiled.
    Chara let out
of a sigh once he’d left, but just for now as he wasn’t done with
her.
     

Chapter
12
     
     
    Chara stood
outside the heavy wooden door protecting the Menares house and
waited to be let in. The same Helot servant let her in as before.
So much had happened since the last time she was here, but on the
other hand, nothing had changed from what she could see. She knew
the way to the room where Nicias would spend time with her.
    She felt
strange being there, it was an added element of risk engaging with
him more than she already had, but on the other hand, she could
make things infinitely worse