Second Chances Read online

  Copyright

  SECOND CHANCES

  Copyright 2018 by Carol Ashby

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means―electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other―except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

  Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

  Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

  Cover and interior design by Roseanna White Designs

  Cover images from Shutterstock.com

  ISBN: 978-1-946139-08-5 (paperback)

  978-1-946139-09-2 (ebook)

  Cerrillo Press

  Edgewood, NM

  Contents

  Copyright

  Scripture

  Dedication

  A Note from the Author

  Characters

  Cities and Towns

  Chapter 1: Husbands and Fathers

  Chapter 2: Time for a Change

  Chapter 3: The Perfect Ally

  Chapter 4: To the Rescue...Again

  Chapter 5: Beginning the Great Adventure

  Chapter 6: The Captain

  Chapter 7: Curiosity

  Chapter 8: One She Can Trust

  Chapter 9: Good for Each Other

  Chapter 10: A Truly Good Man

  Chapter 11: Unwelcome Changes

  Chapter 12: Time with the Captain

  Chapter 13: Just like Grandfather

  Chapter 14: A Handsome Man

  Chapter 15: Risk or Reward?

  Chapter 16: Better Than Money

  Chapter 17: Fit to be Tied

  Chapter 18: The Secret Revealed

  Chapter 19: Beginning to Care

  Chapter 20: In the Open

  Chapter 21: First Steps

  Chapter 22: A Contest of Wills

  Chapter 23: One Step Closer

  Chapter 24: Two Fine Men

  Chapter 25: Only Dreams

  Chapter 26: Coming Home

  Chapter 27: Gifts and Surprises

  Chapter 28: Different and Better

  Chapter 29: New Understandings

  Chapter 30: A Pleasing Invitation

  Chapter 31: Games with the Captain

  Chapter 32: Dispatching the Hunters

  Chapter 33: Worship with the Captain

  Chapter 34: Freed Again

  Chapter 35: Too Great a Risk?

  Chapter 36: Horse Play

  Chapter 37: Captain or Hector?

  Chapter 38: Counting on the Captain

  Chapter 39: Changing Obstacles

  Chapter 40: A Desirable Woman

  Chapter 41: Maybe a Good Day

  Chapter 42: The Logical Decision

  Chapter 43: Too Soon

  Chapter 44: Unpleasant Surprise

  Chapter 45: Barriers

  Chapter 46: Maybe a Chance

  Chapter 47: Unexpected Possibilities

  Chapter 48: The Newest Sister

  Chapter 49: Too Good to Be True

  Chapter 50: Doomed to Failure

  Chapter 51: An Honest Woman

  Chapter 52: The Best of His Sons?

  I’d love to hear from you!

  Sneak Peek of True Freedom

  Chapter 1: Ready to Help

  Chapter 2: A Bad Idea

  Historical Note

  Discussion Guide

  Glossary

  Scripture References

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  The Light in the Empire Series

  Scripture

  Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5 (NKJV)

  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

  For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

  Dedication

  To my children, Paul and Lydia,

  for their love, support, and encouragement.

  To Regina, now in the arms of Jesus, who helped so much

  as I was writing every novel from Blind Ambition to Second Chances.

  And especially to my husband, Jim,

  who proves every day what a blessing it is to be his wife.

  And most of all, to Jesus.

  Soli Deo gloria.

  A Note from the Author

  The price of love is that one of you will grieve.

  I was only in my late teens when an elderly friend first told me that. Even then, long before I lost someone I loved, the truth of it struck home. The loss might be through death. It might be from someone moving away so you lose the intimacy of close friendship. It might be from a person you loved and trusted betraying you far more than what seems possible to forgive.

  We grieve for what we’ve had and lost, and we grieve for what we’ve dreamed of and never found.

  But there’s a deeper truth that we should always remember. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

  When things go horribly wrong, when life seems to turn against us, it’s too easy to keep our eyes so focused on the wounds that we miss the healing waiting beyond the pain.

  That’s why it’s so important to remind ourselves that God is the God of new beginnings and second chances. He can bring good out of the worst circumstances. But it can be so hard in the midst of the storm to remember that God promised all things would work together for good for those who love Him.

  Sometimes He puts another person in our path to help us recover that joy. I’ve often found that God gives me a chance to help someone else, even when I’m hurting, and when I turn my mind to helping another instead of feeling sorry for myself, my own healing begins.

  Second Chances tells the story of a Christian man haunted by the loss of his family and a Roman woman betrayed for many years by a husband who was neither faithful nor a good father. When one final betrayal forces Cornelia to risk everything to save her daughter’s life, it launches a chain of events where God makes helping her daughter the catalyst for healing, forgiveness, and a new understanding of what’s important in life. He creates a second chance for happiness for them all.

  I hope you enjoy this story of God making all things work together for good as much as I’ve enjoyed guiding Hector and Cornelia toward all God had planned for them. When we face our own difficult times, may we always trust in God’s power and love as He leads us toward the good He has planned for us.

  Characters

  HECTOR OF PERINTHUS FAMILY

  Hector: (40) widowed sea captain; best friend of Philip, freedman of Aristarchus

  Damara: (deceased) Hector’s wife of 17 years, died in an accident one year earlier

  Charissa: (deceased) Hector’s 10-year-old daughter who die
d in the accident with her mother.

  Marcario: (17) Hector’s son

  CLAUDIUS DRUSUS FAMILY, SERVANTS, and SLAVES BASED in ROME

  Lucius (Fidelis): (41) paterfamilias of the Claudius Drusus family, Drusilla’s father

  Cornelia Scipia: (39) ex-wife of Lucius

  Tertius (18): Lucius Fidelis’s and Cornelia’s third son, living with Lucius in Rome

  Drusilla: (10) daughter of Lucius Fidelis and Cornelia Scipia

  Publius: (deceased) father of Lucius Fidelis, Titus, and Claudia; executed for his Christian faith

  Malleolus: (69) freedman steward of the Claudius Drusus family

  Anthusa: (44) Cornelia’s maidservant (slave) and best friend for 25 years

  CLAUDIUS DRUSUS FAMILY and SERVANTS BASED in PERINTHUS

  Titus: (32) brother of Lucius (Fidelis) now living in Perinthus in Thracia,

  Claudia: (24) Lucius’s and Titus’s sister, wife of Philip, the son of Aristarchus

  Miriam: (27) wife of Titus, formerly Claudia’s handmaid and Titus’s cook

  Vania (8) Titus’s daughter, Drusilla’s cousin

  Nestor: Titus’s freedman steward

  ARISTARCHUS OF THESSALONICA FAMILY and FRIENDS

  Aristarchus: (58) wealthy Greek with merchant fleets and many estates, good friend of Publius

  Helena: (54) Aristarchus’s wife of 40 years

  Philip: (33) youngest son of Aristarchus, house church leader, controls Thracian fleet and estates,

  Claudia: (24) Lucius Fidelis’s sister, wife of Philip

  VALERIUS CORVINUS FAMLY

  Marcus: (41) Lucius’s best friend

  Gaius (18) Marcus’s son and Tertius’s best friend

  Gnaeus (14) Marcus’s violent younger son whom Lucius plans to betroth with Drusilla

  OTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

  Marcus Antonius Brutus: equestrian owner of a gladiator school in Rome

  Didia Galla: wife of Lucius’s friend, Sextus Flaccus

  Manlius Atticus: Roman senator who admires Cornelia

  Quintus Aemelius Lepidus: Roman equestrian with estate bordering Hector’s farm

  Cities and Towns

  Achaia: (A) southern portion of present-day Greece

  Asia: (B) Roman province, now Turkey

  Brundisium: (1) port city on Adriatic coast of the bootheel of Italia, present-day Brindisi

  Claudia Aprensis: (2) town in Thracia on Via Egnatia, near present-day Kermeyan, Turkey

  Corcyra: (3) city on a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, present-day Corfu

  Corinthus: (4) capital city of Achaia, present-day Corinth

  Dyrrhachium: (5) port city on Albanian coast of Adriatic Sea, present-day Durrës

  Ephesus: (6) capital city of Roman province of Asia

  Macedonia: (C) Roman province, now northern portion of Greece, Albania, and Macedonia

  Mare Adriaticum: (D) Adriatic Sea

  Mare Aegeum: (E) Aegean Sea

  Mare Ionium: (F) Ionian Sea

  Mare Nostrum: (G) the Mediterranean Sea; “our sea,” to the Romans

  Mare Propontis: (H) Sea of Marmara, the inland sea connecting the Mediterranean and Black Sea

  Moesia: (I) Roman province on the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), now Bulgaria and Romania

  Perinthus: (7) capital of Thracia, present-day Marmara Ereğli

  Pontus Euxinus: (J) Black Sea

  Portus: (8) Port city at the mouth of the Tiber River serving as the port for Rome

  Thessalonica: (9) capital of Macedonia, present-day Thessaloniki

  Thracia: (K) Roman province north of the Mare Propontis; now Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria

  Via Appia: Roman road connecting Rome to Brundisium

  Via Egnatia: Roman road that ran from Dyrrachium to Byzantium, passing through Perinthus

  Chapter 1: Husbands and Fathers

  Mare Nostrum, AD 122

  Hector awoke, once more drenched in sweat. He rolled on his back and stared at the bottom of the bunk above him. As the ship rose and fell on the waves, he willed his breathing to match the rhythm of the swells.

  The nightmares of his childhood were long past, the pain that caused them mostly forgotten. But now his dreams were red and raw, a stark reminder of reality, and they tore his heart each time he had one.

  The dreams started well enough. It was the end of the final voyage of autumn. As his ship glided up against the pier and his crew prepared to secure it with ropes, his beloved Damara and their ten-year-old Charissa waved from the road above the wharves. Even after seventeen years of marriage, his heart beat faster as he thought about spending the cold winter nights in the warm embrace of the incredible woman God had given him to make him whole.

  As the gangplank was lowered, his wife and daughter started down the ramp. He trotted down the plank and loped up the pier. As he dodged the crates and barrels waiting to be loaded, he lost sight of them. When he finally stepped clear of the stacks of cargo, Philip stood before him. He placed his hand on Hector’s shoulder, tightened his lips, and shook his head.

  Philip dissolved in a swirl of smoke, and Hector remained on the dock...alone.

  The slower breaths lowered his heart rate, but the heartache remained. He’d known loneliness before God brought Damara into his life, or so he’d thought. But when two have become one, and suddenly one is gone... Those first four months when the sea was closed and he’d been home at his farm, where they’d planned on growing old together―the sweet memories of what he’d lost had engulfed him, tormenting his days and haunting his nights.

  It hadn’t been as bad when he was at sea, at least not during the daytime. He’d often been gone for weeks at a time, and he didn’t expect to see Damara smiling at him when he turned around on deck or Charissa running to wrap her arms around him when he walked through the cabin doorway.

  Hector rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. If only Damara hadn’t heard his ship might reach home port early and come to the wharf to see. If only he’d thought to tell her to stay well away from where the wagons unloaded, no matter how much Charissa begged to get closer to watch.

  Experience told him sleep would not come again that night, so he rose and headed out to the ship’s rail. There, alone in the moonlight, he watched his ship cutting through the waves and once more asked God why.

  It had been almost a year since the accident, and the pain still cut deep. The shipping season was almost over. One more stop in Rome, then home to Perinthus...and another winter in a cold bed with empty arms.

  Rome

  Tertius didn’t want to believe what his best friend Gaius had just told him. It shouldn’t be true, but Tertius knew his father too well not to ask. He wasn’t going to let anyone kill his sister if he could prevent it.

  Lucius Drusus Fidelis was reading at his desk when Tertius walked into the library. Tertius’s entrance drew a smile.

  “I hadn’t expected to see you today. I thought you were staying with Gaius at the Corvinus estate this week.” His father set the scroll down and turned his attention to the youngest of his three sons.

  “I hadn’t expected to come, but Gaius just told me you were talking with his father about betrothing Drusilla to Gnaeus.”

  “That’s true. Marcus is looking for the right girl for Gnaeus now that he’s fourteen. Drusilla’s ten, so she’ll be the right age to marry him in five years.”

  “You can’t do that, Father. Gaius says his brother is dangerous.” He patted his closed fist twice with his palm. “Just last year, he and Gaius were riding out at their estate. His horse stumbled and threw him. He took a hoe from one of the slaves, and when he was through, Gaius had to slit the poor animal’s throat to put it out of its misery. He’s already beaten one of the house slaves to death and almost killed one of the slave girls after taking her.”

  Hands on the edge of the desk, he leaned toward his father. “Don’t betroth Drusilla to him. He’s vicious, and
she’s going to get hurt or killed.”

  His father had picked up a stylus and rolled it between his fingers while he listened; he paused, then shrugged. “Marcus is my closest friend, and he hasn’t found anyone else who wants his daughter to be married to the boy. I have a daughter the right age, so I can solve Marcus’s problem.”

  Tertius’s jaw started to drop, but he stopped it while Father’s eyes were still on the stylus. “You can’t be serious about marrying Drusilla to a monster.”

  His father’s brows dipped as a frown appeared. “What I choose to do with Drusilla is none of your business, Tertius. Marcus wants a wife for Gnaeus, and I can give him one. Gnaeus is no worse than many boys his age. Even if he did want to hurt her, Marcus wouldn’t let him. She’ll be safe enough.”

  Tertius masked the disgust swirling through him. It would be a huge mistake to let Father see it. “I hope you’re right, Father. Drusilla’s a sweet little thing. You’d really like her if you spent more time at the eastern estate. Mother and I would hate to see anything bad happen to her.”

  A sneer flitted across his father’s lips. “What your mother thinks means less than nothing to me. Marcus will make sure nothing happens to Drusilla. Her safety is not your concern.” He fixed irritated eyes on Tertius. “We won’t discuss this again.”

  “As you wish, Father. I need to leave now, anyway. I’m meeting Gaius at the Circus Maximus for the afternoon races.”

  “I hope your faction wins. Enjoy yourself.” His father turned his attention back to his scroll as Tertius walked out of the room.

  When his father could no longer see him, Tertius let a frown furrow his brow as he tightened his lips. He should have known it would be pointless trying to convince Father not to put Drusilla in mortal danger. Time for a different approach to protect the little sister he loved.

  Chapter 2: Time for a Change