A month later, Felix told us that he had secured a house to use as his new brothel, and also another couple of young men who were happy to dress as girls and help to service the customers. I told Aunt Claudia that I had found a new job in Pompeii working in a 'hospitia' (hotel), and wanted a change of scenery. She had no objection to me going, especially when I promised to send her some money to look after my sisters, whom I'm sure she hoped to marry off soon. My sisters were sorry to see me go and I promised to come back and see them, not knowing that this would never happen. The baker was not happy to lose another apprentice, but I wasn't sorry to stop getting up at four o'clock in the morning. Now it would be more like the time that I usually retired for the night.

It was in the year of the Consulship of Titus and Vespasianus (79AD in the modern calendar) in the month of Martius that early one morning, Atticus and I took a 'raeda meritoria' south down the Via Appia. This was a covered wagon with four wheels, drawn by horses and more luxurious than an open cart drawn by oxen. We shared it with a husband and his wife, thus defraying the hire cost, but we were quite well off now and able to afford the fee. We told them that we were sisters traveling to visit a friend in Pompeii. The journey took several days and we finally alighted near Pompeii, where a cart had been arranged to pick us up and take us and our luggage the rest of the way.

As we traveled towards the town, my eyes were drawn to the mountain Vesuvius, a volcano only a few miles from Pompeii. I had heard that a volcano was a mountain that could spew forth fire and smoke, but this one looked quiet and I heard from our traveling companions that it had not erupted within living memory and nobody seemed too concerned about it. However, some years previously there had been a major earthquake in Pompeii which had destroyed many buildings but most of these had now been repaired or rebuilt. The town had many fine buildings and was also an excellent port where many goods were unloaded and taken by road to Rome and other cities. We said goodbye to our traveling companions who were only going to Pompeii for a holiday, so we never saw them again which was probably just as well.

We arrived at the house which Felix had rented. It was quite large and was able to accommodate us in a shared bedroom, as well as having a number of bedrooms where we would ply our trade, each leading off the atrium (entrance hall). Slaves had been hired including a cook, cleaners, and a 'cosmeta' to attend to our hair and makeup, which was very important in making us look like pretty girls, even though the clients would know that we were not. They were all well treated and seemed happy enough in their work.

Felix arrived a couple of weeks after us and so did the other two young men who would be servicing clients. Felix's philosophy was to start small and increase staff once the business was established. There was to be a grand opening with feasting and we would be dressed as pretty girls in stolae of silk with flowers in our hair, looking very glamorous. We would not be servicing any clients that day but the word would be passed around that we were open for business on the following day from after noon until late at night. A manager had been engaged to look after the business as Felix intended to return to Rome after a couple of weeks once he was sure that things were working well, and then visit Pompeii from time to time..

I greatly enjoyed working in Pompeii. It was a beautiful town and on my days off, I enjoyed wandering around, always presenting as a girl, sometimes attending the games in the amphitheatre. I especially liked to watch the gladiators. Some people think that gladiators always fought to the death but this is a mistake since they were far too valuable for that. I enjoyed watching their skills with the various implements that they used, swords, shields, nets, tridents, and daggers. To be honest I also loved looking at their muscular bodies, gleaming with sweat as they fought each other.

When I first arrived in Pompeii, I was startled to feel the ground trembling on a fairly regular basis, sometimes I barely felt it and sometimes the earthquake was quite violent. However, I noticed that local residents barely noticed the tremors and after a while neither did I.

While I enjoyed entertaining men, I was aware that time was passing and I worried that I would start to look like a man in woman's clothing. One of the other girls, who used the name Livia, told me about an old woman herbalist in the town whose products she used to stay looking young and feminine. One day I called at her house and the door was opened by a woman who looked about thirty at a guess.

“Good morning, may I speak to Aurelia?” I said.

“I am Aurelia,” she replied.

I felt embarrassed as I stuttered, “Oh, I was expecting...”

“Somebody older? I am nearly sixty years old,” she replied, smiling at my confusion. If she was an advertisement for her wares, she was certainly a good one.

Aurelia invited me in and asked how she could help me. I had to be totally frank with her, first telling her how I earned my living and how I wished to preserve my youth and possibly look more feminine while still having a functional manhood. She listened to me and then said she could certainly help me.

“You wish to be what the Greeks call 'androgynous', meaning man and woman. I can help you,” she said. She produced a number of herbs and told me to soak them in hot water, drink the resulting fluid and report back on the effects in a few weeks. I paid her and returned to the house.

I followed her instructions and drank the fluid, foul-tasting though it was and slowly began to notice changes in my body. My skin seemed softer and while my manhood was still functional, I was starting to develop small breasts which was very pleasing. Aurelia was pleased with the changes too when I reported back to her.

“You will not develop a man's beard, but you can still perform as one if required,” she said

Time passed by and soon we reached the month of Augustus. Felix had returned to Pompeii for a while; he was very pleased with the way business was booming. I have mentioned that Pompeii was a port and so we entertained a number of sailors who were anxious to make up for months away from home. Besides getting drunk, many of them heard about the brothel where pretty girls were really boys, and they were anxious to sample its pleasures.

This particular evening, there were not many ships in port, so business was unusually quiet and the six girls (we had added another two to cope with the usual amount of trade) were sitting in the atrium gossiping as women do when a customer entered. I had heard women say that a man made them go weak at the knees but always thought it was an exaggeration – I was wrong. He was tall, handsome, and muscular and it was obvious from his dress that he was a sailor, but what a sailor! The moment I saw him my heart started to pound, my face flushed, and as I watched him survey us all,.I prayed to all the gods I knew that he would choose me.

Never let anyone tell you that the gods do not exist because he finally walked up to me and held out his hand. I took it and rose to my feet and led him into one of the bedrooms. I could feel the envious glances of the other girls watching us go, but I didn't care.

“What is your name, pretty one?” he said in a deep musical voice.

“Calpurnia, sir,” I replied.

“That's a pretty name, Calpurnia. It was the name of Gaius Julius Caesar's last wife. By chance, my name is Gaius Julius Valerius.”

This was unusual; most customers didn't ask my name and certainly didn't tell me theirs.

“You look so much like a young woman, Calpurnia, I think you will have to prove to me that you are what you claim to be.”

I understood what he meant, so I lifted my stola up to my waist, blushing as I did so which seems ridiculous in view of my occupation, but there was something about this man which was making me react quite differently to the way I interacted with other men.

Julius smiled at me and thanked me. “Now come and kiss me,” he commanded and I was only too ready to obey. He was taller than me so I tilted my head up and he covered my mouth with his own. As his tongue explored my mouth, he pulled me closer and it was very obvious to me that this was a real man and rapidly getting aroused. When our mouths finally parted I was panting for breath and my heart was racing.

“Now, pretty Calpurnia, would you like to show me what you can do?” he inquired. I knew exactly what he meant and I fell to my knees and reached for his ever-growing manhood. I set to work with all the techniques I had learned that give pleasure to a man and was rewarded by hearing him groan softly. I freed him from his tunic and took him in my mouth, using my tongue to stimulate him further. He ran his fingers through my hair and drew my head closer. He tasted wonderful, slightly salty like the sea that he came from.

After some minutes he asked me to lie on my back on the bed which I willingly did, lifting my stola above my waist. Julius slipped out of his tunic and naked he caused my heart to beat even faster, what a man he was! I bent my knees and spread my legs for him and he came between them and lifted my legs so that my ankles rested on his shoulders. My heart was pounding in anticipation and then I felt him enter me. I gasped. He was so big, and when he slid deep inside me, I clamped my muscles around him. He smiled down at me as he slowly began to thrust, and soon I could feel him stimulating my pleasure centre and I moaned and gasped.

Many of my customers paid no attention to my pleasure during our encounters, but Julius was different, it was obvious that he wanted to give me pleasure as he took his own. He rode me slowly and after a while when his thrusts became deeper and more urgent, I found my own pleasure building. By now he was leaning over me and my legs were clamped around his back as I tilted my pelvis to take every last inch of him inside me. When I finally felt his body shuddering with his climax and his hot seed filling me, then I too reached my pleasure climax.

We lay locked together for some minutes and he kissed me again as I felt him soften and slip out of me and both our hearts and breathing gradually slowed. I fully expected him to slip off the bed and dress himself, but he didn't. Instead, he lay beside me on the bed, looking at me and smiling.

“Did you enjoy yourself, Calpurnia?” he asked, knowing full well that I did.

“Oh yes, my lord, that was the most wonderful experience of my life!” I responded.

I saw his eyebrows rise and hurriedly said. “I know that sounds like something I say to every man I lie with, but I assure you I really mean it.”

I didn't want him to go, and I'm sure he knew it. He ran his hands over my body and kissed me again, and I ran my fingers over his manly chest and his arms, feeling his muscles. I didn't have to say anything, he knew that I wanted him inside me again. Finally, I let my hand drift down to his groin and I fondled him again and he began to respond. He rolled over onto his back and soon his manhood was stiff and vertical. I straddled him and lowered myself onto him and we made love again. Yes, this was not having sex, there was far more to it than that, we both felt that.

We both climaxed again and after that, we lay together and we slept. When I next opened my eyes, Julius was still lying beside me.. In the dim light of the lamp, I gazed at his handsome face in the repose of sleep and I realized that I could really love this man, but why think that? He would be getting up soon and leaving me, and unbidden my eyes filled with tears.

Julius opened his eyes and looked at me. “Why are you crying, pretty one?”

I brushed the tears from my eyes. “I suppose it's because you are a sailor and you will be leaving me soon and I may never see you again.”

He smiled. “My ship is still unloading and then loading goods. We don't leave until the dawn of the day after tomorrow, I could come back again tonight.”

“Oh yes please!” I cried. “I will be here waiting for you and I promise that no other man will have me before you come to me again.”

“Then let us seal that promise by coming together again,” said Julius and once more our bodies locked together.

When Julius finally left the house, I returned to my own room and then bathed before having my morning meal. For the rest of the day, I couldn't get Julius out of my head. Attica saw me and asked who the man had been: “All the girls envied you,” she said. “Will you see him again?”

“Yes, he is coming back again tonight and we will spend the whole night together I'm sure. However, he's a sailor so he will be leaving the following day.”

“Enjoy him while you can,” said Attica. “I will,” I replied.

I spend most of the afternoon getting ready for Julius, bathing, and selecting my finest silk stola which I only used for special occasions. I secured the services of the 'cosmeta' to paint my face and create an intricate hairstyle with flowers entwined in my hair and gave her a silver coin for her trouble. I was seated in the atrium half an hour before Julius was due to arrive and waiting in a fever of anticipation. Time passed and he did not arrive and over an hour past the appointed time, I was sitting very downcast, especially when one of the other girls, Diana, expressed the opinion that Julius had changed his mind. Then a voice I knew said “Calpurnia” and looking up I saw it was Julius. My heart leaped in my chest.

He led me to our reserved room without speaking further, but when we were alone he apologized for his tardiness saying that as the captain of his ship, the 'Golden Eagle', he had to take ultimate responsibility for everything and a problem with the stores had delayed him. That was the first time a man had ever apologized to me and only made me respect him the more. He asked if I thought he wasn't coming and of course, I lied and said that I was sure he had only been delayed, whereas the truth was I thought Diana was right and that he had found another source of entertainment.

It was after the second time our bodies came together and we were starting to doze that it happened. There was a roaring sound as loud as I had ever heard and suddenly the whole house started to shake. I clung to Julius in terror. There were crashing sounds as something, probably amphorae fell on the floor and smashed, and we heard someone scream. After what seemed like an hour, but was really about a minute, the shaking eased and gradually stopped.

“By the gods, that was quite an earthquake,” said Julius. “Have you ever experienced anything like that before?”

“Never,” I replied, “Although older residents tell me that there was a very bad tremor years ago which destroyed houses and some people were killed.”

“Well that one was quite strong enough for me,” said Julius. There was a pause and then he looked at me and said softly “Will you miss me when I'm gone?”

I couldn't help it, my eyes filled with tears. “Yes I will miss you very much,” I replied.

“There is an alternative. I have a vineyard on the island of Sardinia, and I use my ship to bring wine here for sale. It's not safe for you here. How would you feel about living with me there?”

“How would your wife feel about you bringing back a concubine?” I asked, and Julius laughed.

“I have no wife, though many women have tried to snare me. I think you would make a very good wife for me.”

I was speechless..

“Well, what do you say?” he asked. This was another crossroads in my life, my answer would determine my future, in more ways that I thought.

“Julius, I would love to be your wife. I would love you, honour you and obey you, but you hardly know me.”

“I know that, but I also know that you are exactly who I want. You combine the masculine and feminine in one body, you are educated and intelligent, and of course, you are beautiful. I could look for a hundred years and not find someone I want with me as much as I want you.”

I leaned over and kissed him. “In that case I am yours,” I said. To my surprise he slipped out of bed and reaching into a small pouch which he had worn around his waist, he produced a gold ring which he slipped on the third finger of my left hand and with that we were married.

“When we return to Sardinia we will have a wedding feast,” said Julius. “I would not wish either of us to be denied the pleasure of that. Now I must tell Felix that you are leaving his house. I know he will not be pleased, but you are a Roman citizen and not a slave so you can do as you wish.” He smiled: “I think a few gold coins might ease the pain of your loss for him.”

To be continued