[b]Aemiliana[/b]
Aemiliana smiled slightly. "No, please don't bow. I don't like reminding people of my station if I don't have to. I'm treated as a slave within my household anyway--" she fake-coughed, trying to change the subject. "And please, don't mention that to my father. I'm not supposed to study at all. He thinks his daughters are just for marrying off. He signed my older sister's wedding contract when she was thirteen and married her off when she was my age. He's trying to present me to all manner of suitors, and he thinks that a well educated wife would be a threat. He wants me to be pretty and empty-headed and I don't want to be empty-headed. Or take four hours to get made up in the mornings. I want to be a medic in the army, or at least a physician here in the city." Being that she had ceased shivering, she took the slightly damp cloak away from her shoulders and hung it from a hook on the wall over a brazier, designed specifically to dry clothes. As she did her rather loose tunic slipped off her shoulder, revealing the scars of a flogging. She gasped and flipped it over her shoulder again, trying to act nonchalant while really she was in turmoil inside. [i]I could tell him. He might put a stop to this torture that I face every day. But if I tell him, and he gets killed for trying to help me, I'll feel guilty forever. He owes me nothing; there's no reason for him to help me. And yet it seems that he wants to help... If I present him to Father as a suitor, I might be allowed to keep my skin, but what sort of life would I be condemning him to?[/i]

[b]Aemilia[/b]
Aemilia laughed. "Yes, holding them under would be very much a good thing. But, Secunda will take ill from this dip in the cold, knowing how frail she is. She might even go and die. And when father gets his hands on her, as disheveled as she was this morning, goodness. She'll wind up a bloody pulp." She gave an evil half-smirk, until she realized they were at the perfume seller. And then she turned on the charm, smiling warmly, if slightly contemptuously, at the seller as he recited his sales pitch. "Yes, I think I should like to try this lily scent. Don't you think, Nona? Or perhaps the sweet jasmine? It's apparently from Asia, and nothing is more exotic than a perfume from Asia." She giggled sweetly.