A Taste of Love: Yule Season in Roman Camp

By Lizzie Ashworth

A cruel wind blows across the midwinter lands of Northern Britain, flapping Senna’s cloak as she hurries inside the praetorium on the heels of the blustering Tutonius, legion cook and dear friend. In Rome, Saturnalia would last a week and include a day of relaxation for all the slaves. But, she sadly acknowledges, this is not Rome but a miserable outpost on the westernmost boundary of Roman-occupied lands.

Senna does her best to relieve some of her friend’s staggering workload as he prepares the holiday meal. The governor of all Britain will feast here tonight along with officers of three legions. Hurrying outside the fortress to the sprawling campgrounds of refugees, camp followers, and traders of all kinds, Senna shops for last-minute gifts for her enslaved Briton mistress Caerwin and food supplies Tutonius must have.

Upon her return to the kitchen, Senna blushes as Teutonius shares a moment of personal pleasure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lizzie Ashworth
• Release date: Nov 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370965366

Lizzie Ashworth

I love to write! Which is a good thing, because no matter what I'm doing, my brain edits sentences, selects or discards words, equivocates over paragraph formation. My file cabinet is stuffed with folders full of ideas, scenes, and half-finished work.My favorite part of writing is description. I want my readers to see, smell, hear, and feel what is going on in the story as if they are there. I can't think of many things as wonderful as those hours when words are pouring through my head and spilling out onto the page, creating a physical world full of passionate people!Other pursuits have taken up parts of my life--a technical profession for a career, children, questionable progress in learning to watercolor. I enjoy cooking, gardening, and time at the Pacific coast. Sunrise and sunset create special moods for me, the twilight between two worlds--fully of creative energy. Most of all, I love snuggling up with a good book.

Book preview

Yule Season in Roman Camp:

A Taste of Love

Passionate Invader Series

A Slightly Romantic Short Story

by Lizzie Ashworth

Yule Season in Roman Camp:

A Taste of Love

A slightly romantic short story

Passionate Invader Series

by Lizzie Ashworth

Copyright 2017 Lizzie Ashworth

2nd Edition 2020

Cover Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/349029039844262541/

All rights reserved. This book is copyright material and must not be copied, translated, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any form without prior written permission of the author, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Certain events and minor characters in this story are factual and based on historical accounts of Ancient Rome.

We do not choose love. It claims each man as it will.

Spartacus 111–71 BC

Enslaved by Rome to fight in the arena

A Slightly Romantic Short Story

We do not choose love. It claims each man as it will.

Spartacus 111–71 BC

50 AD

Roman encampment near Shrewsbury, England

Clutching her long cape tight against the stiff wind, Senna gripped the leather handle of the heavy salt pot as she watched Tutonius and Blasius wrestle the dressed hog onto the long spit. The muscles in Tutonius’ arms flexed like anchor ropes, his big body bent to the task. For a moment, Senna let her imagination run wild, her cheeks heating. What if he held her in those arms? How would it feel to be embraced against that hard chest, enfolded in his warmth?

She quickly forced her thoughts elsewhere and watched as two other kitchen helpers joined in lifting the heavy carcass onto the iron frame. In minutes, fat from the massive beast began to drip