TheMissingMaidenT6

16 Titus’s father, Flavius Octavius, a wild-animal trader, had given him this little monkey for his thirteenth birthday present. That was two years ago, and yet Titus still couldn’t get his monkey to obey him. Dux was mischievous, a prankster, and thoroughly disrespectful. His name perfectly suited him. In Latin, dux means “general.” And, in the odd couple he formed with his master, it was decidedly Dux who called the shots. “Dux! Stop it!” Amused and annoyed at the same time, Titus brushed the little animal off his bed with a sweep of his arm. But before its feet hit the ground, with a comical mid-air twist, Dux caught hold of the bedstead. “Oh, you dratted little thing!” Titus grumbled under his breath. His monkey had almost made him get out of bed left foot first. More superstitious than anyone, Titus would never start the day on his left foot. As far as bad omens went, he had already had his fair share after the day and the night before. He didn’t want to make things worse now. When Titus finally emerged from his bedroom and went down to the atrium, his father was just showing a visitor out the front door. “Uncle?” Titus exclaimed, as he recognized Justus Scipio, his aunt’s husband. “How are you?” “Good morning, Titus,” his uncle greeted him with a troubled look on his face. “I came to see your father. He’ll explain... I have to go.” With these words, Justus embraced his brother-in-law, who gave him a reassuring squeeze of the shoulders. “We’ll do everything we can on our side,” Flavius Octavius whispered to him. “Don’t worry; we’ll find her.”

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