loyalty, he did not take it.
It needed one more push, and only one man could provide it. Valerius packed a thousand
aurei
of Otho’s Emperor’s bounty in the builder’s sack and went to visit Offonius Tigellinus. By late afternoon the deed was done and the Senate declared Emperor Nero Claudius Germanicus Caesar an enemy of the people.
The house Valerius sought lay close to the Temple of Diana on the Aventine Hill overlooking the Circus Maximus. Substantial and well built, it might have been the home of a prosperous merchant. He doubted it would have been the first choice of the woman who now occupied it, but perhaps she had good reason for selecting a modest residence. This visit was a distraction from his mission, and a potentially dangerous one, but Valerius was bound by the vow he had made to her father, and even if it had not been so, his heart would have drawn him here.
The thought of seeing her again turned his legs weak and he fidgeted at the entrance like a nervous schoolboy until a doorman answered his knock and showed him inside. Domitia Longina Corbulo’s face showed surprise when she recognized him, followed by a frown of suspicion as the doorman announced him by the assumed name he had given. But she would not have been her father’s daughter if she hadn’t instantly recovered her poise. She ushered him through to a light-filled room with an open roof and a small pool at its centre. On a bench in one corner an elderly woman looked up from her sewing and frowned. Domitia took a seat on a second bench and waved Valerius to a cushioned marble ledge a few decorous feet away.
‘You should not have come here, Valerius.’ She smiled. ‘I am a respectable married woman, you know.’
He shot her a warning look at the use of his true name, but Domitia only laughed in that unaffected way he remembered. If anything, she had grown more lovely in the two years since they had parted, the lithe figure fuller than he remembered, but the deep brown eyes still with their mocking glint. Not a girl any longer, but a true Roman lady. A respectable married woman. She would be nineteen.
‘Do not concern yourself. Cassia is deaf.’ She exchanged smiles with the old woman. ‘She sees no evil, because I ensure there is none to see, and she hears nothing at all, which I find useful. When he went to take up his praetorship in Sicilia, my husband left me with a hag whose tongue was as sharp as her ears, but I rid myself of her before she could do any damage.’
Valerius allowed himself a smile. ‘Still as formidable as ever.’
‘I may be married, Valerius.’ Her words were accompanied by a smile, but they held an iron core. ‘Some day I may even be owned, but I will never be ruled.’ She held his gaze for what seemed an age. At the very heart of her was the same resolve that had made her father who he was: Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, general of the armies of the East. ‘I thought you must be dead.’
The change of direction caught him off balance. He remembered the desperate escape from Antioch as the Emperor’s agents closed in after Corbulo’s death. The resolve she’d shown even as her world was being torn apart. ‘I should have been. In Alexandria, Vespasian kept Nero’s assassins at bay, but when we left for Hispania they followed us through Africa and Mauretania. They came close in Leptis, but Serpentius saved both our lives.’
‘He is with you?’
‘He has business in the city.’
She nodded, slightly distracted. ‘And you have been with Governor Galba?’ He could hear the doubt in her voice.
‘You disapprove of what he is doing? I would have thought—’
‘No.’ Domitia shook her head. ‘It is just that he seems so …’ She searched for a word he knew was ‘feeble’, but came up with ‘old’. Thenext words came in a rush. ‘A true soldier would already have been at the gates of Rome. A true soldier would not have waited. You would not have waited, Valerius. You would have
It needed one more push, and only one man could provide it. Valerius packed a thousand
aurei
of Otho’s Emperor’s bounty in the builder’s sack and went to visit Offonius Tigellinus. By late afternoon the deed was done and the Senate declared Emperor Nero Claudius Germanicus Caesar an enemy of the people.
The house Valerius sought lay close to the Temple of Diana on the Aventine Hill overlooking the Circus Maximus. Substantial and well built, it might have been the home of a prosperous merchant. He doubted it would have been the first choice of the woman who now occupied it, but perhaps she had good reason for selecting a modest residence. This visit was a distraction from his mission, and a potentially dangerous one, but Valerius was bound by the vow he had made to her father, and even if it had not been so, his heart would have drawn him here.
The thought of seeing her again turned his legs weak and he fidgeted at the entrance like a nervous schoolboy until a doorman answered his knock and showed him inside. Domitia Longina Corbulo’s face showed surprise when she recognized him, followed by a frown of suspicion as the doorman announced him by the assumed name he had given. But she would not have been her father’s daughter if she hadn’t instantly recovered her poise. She ushered him through to a light-filled room with an open roof and a small pool at its centre. On a bench in one corner an elderly woman looked up from her sewing and frowned. Domitia took a seat on a second bench and waved Valerius to a cushioned marble ledge a few decorous feet away.
‘You should not have come here, Valerius.’ She smiled. ‘I am a respectable married woman, you know.’
He shot her a warning look at the use of his true name, but Domitia only laughed in that unaffected way he remembered. If anything, she had grown more lovely in the two years since they had parted, the lithe figure fuller than he remembered, but the deep brown eyes still with their mocking glint. Not a girl any longer, but a true Roman lady. A respectable married woman. She would be nineteen.
‘Do not concern yourself. Cassia is deaf.’ She exchanged smiles with the old woman. ‘She sees no evil, because I ensure there is none to see, and she hears nothing at all, which I find useful. When he went to take up his praetorship in Sicilia, my husband left me with a hag whose tongue was as sharp as her ears, but I rid myself of her before she could do any damage.’
Valerius allowed himself a smile. ‘Still as formidable as ever.’
‘I may be married, Valerius.’ Her words were accompanied by a smile, but they held an iron core. ‘Some day I may even be owned, but I will never be ruled.’ She held his gaze for what seemed an age. At the very heart of her was the same resolve that had made her father who he was: Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, general of the armies of the East. ‘I thought you must be dead.’
The change of direction caught him off balance. He remembered the desperate escape from Antioch as the Emperor’s agents closed in after Corbulo’s death. The resolve she’d shown even as her world was being torn apart. ‘I should have been. In Alexandria, Vespasian kept Nero’s assassins at bay, but when we left for Hispania they followed us through Africa and Mauretania. They came close in Leptis, but Serpentius saved both our lives.’
‘He is with you?’
‘He has business in the city.’
She nodded, slightly distracted. ‘And you have been with Governor Galba?’ He could hear the doubt in her voice.
‘You disapprove of what he is doing? I would have thought—’
‘No.’ Domitia shook her head. ‘It is just that he seems so …’ She searched for a word he knew was ‘feeble’, but came up with ‘old’. Thenext words came in a rush. ‘A true soldier would already have been at the gates of Rome. A true soldier would not have waited. You would not have waited, Valerius. You would have
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