Othello the Legatus Act 2 Part 1.8

Prologue 8

"Father, you have a visitor." Emilia told her father who was attending another sick person. The older man nodded and told the sick person that he would need to take the herbs.

"It would eased your pain." The healer told him.

"Thank you, healer." The sick man replied. "My son should be back. His legion had returned from the campaign. I must leave now to see him."

The sick man stood up and left the place. Emilia then brought in the new guest. He was a man with a hood over his head. He stepped in and removed his hood. He was a tall man with a dark mask over his face. She shuddered on seeing his face.

"I am sorry. I am still not used to your look." Emilia looked away. The man smiled and approached the healer. It was not his first visit there, and he had once stayed there for a period to recover.

"Your scars are healing but it would not be the same." The healer told him. He had been treating Othello for over a year now, but the wound was deep and with his campaigns, the healer could not do much. He had saved the eye but its vision of sight was short.

"Emilia, prepare the guest room. He is staying here." The healer told his daughter. Emilia ran off to prepare the room, and waited for him to come in.

"I am sorry if I still scared you." Othello told her. "I still find myself uneasy with it. It had been over a year now, but yet I asked myself was I glad to be alive or better of dead."

"You should be happy to be alive." Emilia told him.

"And to spend the rest of my life lonely." Othello replied. Emilia stopped in her works of folding the towels. She felt his hands that held her hips from the rear. She shuddered as they been having these touches before, but it never ventured beyond that. The man was handsome but he was also holding back for some reason. Maybe it was here. She was not that beautiful unlike others. She had her doubts.

"I am happy to see you." Othello snugged up to her but Emilia pulled away.

"It won't work. You are a Legionnaire." Emilia paused. "Father had treated many of your kind. You cannot be trusted. You are not a good lover. Once out on the campaign, you forget your heart. You only loved the battles and then the victory."

"Shush! I am different." Othello told her. "I am a Primus Pilus. I need to be their leader and we have to be an example."

"But you are still a Legionnaire." Emilie pulled away and left the room. She was distraught when he left her the last summer, and her father had cautioned her.

"You mother once loved a legionnaire but he never made it back after one campaign. She was heart broken and then she found me." Her father told her. "Don't make the same mistake. More so him who had a face scarred. They are the worst. They only sought the gullible ones. "

She did not. She only defiled her father when she met Iago later that winter. It was to end her search for the perfect man. She loved those in the armor and Iago was one without a scar. She soon regretted her rush.

"Father was right."