I tried to keep my mind off my mother and Rodrigo by swimming in the pool and walking on the beach. It seemed like the longest four hours of my life.I...t was a little after four o’clock when I went up to the room. Remembering what Maria said, I tried to remain upbeat. Mom was freshly showered, dressed, and fussing with her hair while looking in the mirror over the dresser.Mom greeted me no differently than if she had just returned from a four-hour shopping trip, “Hi, Honey. Take a shower and get. On that day they left behind them the last of the snow. Vincent was aware that the next time they would see snow again would either be at the top of a high mountain on their way south or when they reached the far southern lands of the planet.As long as they were moving over plains and while the weather - especially the wind - remained relatively calm, he knew that they were quite safe. Both of these conditions prevailed until the fifth day after their departure.It was just about noon and they. That was about what a soldier could earn in a month. Man, I was rich! Thank the gods that it was customary for a gladiator to keep whatever the crowd gave him as the reward for victory. At this rate, I would shortly be able to buy my freedom, but I was not sure that I wanted it. If you were good at it, being a gladiator wasn't all that bad.The next day, I was told that I was leaving for Rome within the week. I had been bought by a gladiator broker from Rome based on my performance yesterday. He. The popularity and curiosity of Celeste was such that books sold by the truckload and ran into four new print runs. By the time the three females reached New York Billie was one third of the way through her next novel she’d started two weeks after the bio entered pre-print stages. She’d resigned her library job before leaving for Houston because she had more than sufficient money to support herself. It was just a matter of deciding whether to stay put or to relocate. It was tempting to stay.