[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I would have chosen some that were a bit more appropriate for your surroundings.
We can go to the market and get some or you can bring me others tomorrow. It is not a
problem. Why don t you go back to the villa, Chrysogonus? Get some sleep without worrying
what my father will do to me. I ll be all right here. Perhaps busy yourself with getting my things
arranged in the villa if that is all right with Claudius. The slaves eyes jerked to him waiting for
an answer as if he would deny her the right to rule her new home.
You are the matron of the house. It is yours to command, Livia. Chrysogonus looked
at her for a long time after he got Claudius s answer before he nodded slowly and walked to the
door.
There should be a litter at the corner you can get to take you. I know it is unfinished.
My father wished to allow my wife to choose the decorations. You just have to ask Lapidacus
for anything you need to decorate the house. Your mistress need not spend a coin on that work
or anything you might need for your own keep.
Chrysogonus. The small man turned around at his mistress s call. We re going to get
him back for what he s done to both of us. That is why I stay here. They watched the grin form
on his lips half in the shadows just before he disappeared.
Dare I ask what your father did to him?
His lip is not natural; it was my father s outrage for spilling his wine. That is only the
noticeable one. He was the one that finagled the permission to take me to my uncle. He was
escaping him as much as he was saving me. Lucius didn t even knock he just walked in with
his wife. They were a contrast in the most obvious way. He was tall and stocky while she was
short and petite.
Damiane will have her right as rain in no time.
She won t be the first prostitute I ve patched up. She said it before she saw the woman
sitting at the table. They heard her gasp when she walked in far enough to see her patient. There
was no doubt the woman before her was one of the highest class of Rome, fine linen, jewels, and
the finest skin she had ever seen before. Oh Venus, I m sorry. Lucius didn t say who it was
before. He just said someone had been beaten.
I can assure you even patricians are not immune to the practice. Livia offered to give
the woman a hand out of her self-dug hole. Would you prefer the bedroom to work? Damiane
nodded cautiously as a cry broke the dulled sounds of night.
Go, Lucius, we don t want the entire street to hate us in the morning.
With all this racket, they probably already do. Lucius left and it wasn t long before the
cries stopped. Claudius was left alone and started supper he had forgotten about with her asleep.
He tried to block out the cries now and then that he knew didn t belong to a small child across
the lane. Livia finally emerged wearing one of his tunics and sat down at the table digging with
17
relish into the food lying there. Damiane looked from one to the other for a moment. She d
never really looked at him until then. Claudius never acted better than any of the rest of her
husband s Army pals and it was true Lucius always came back with the same amount of money
as he had when he left when they went out drinking.
Who are you, Claudius?
He looked up at her with a grin.
Your husband never told you about me I take it? I suppose you re wondering what bum
like me is doing with such a lady.
The thought crossed my mind.
Claudius settled back in his chair. Where did Lucius get the money to pay the rent when
you were lying there near death and he stayed home to nurse you and had no income? Her
movements became very slow and deliberate as she turned her gaze back to him. His grin was
pure deviltry.
You mean you re Praetor Gallus.
Then he did tell you.
But not that you were he? He just made sure you were invited to dinner when I was
well enough, which hasn t been so long ago. That s all I knew.
Lucius is one of the few that knows my full name and position and it is not the only time
I have given him money when I knew he needed it to get by.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]