Saviour of Rome [Gaius Valerius Verrens 7] Read Online Free Page A

innovative hiding place was no proof against a legionary with the scent of treasure in his nostrils and a crowbar in his hand. The line of wagons carrying plunder from the city had stretched to the far horizon. Thanks to Titus, Valerius’s service merited a senior tribune’s share, enough, and more, to allow him to take his seat in the Senate. Vespasian’s gift of half the neighbouring estate that had previously belonged to the philosopher Seneca doubled the family holdings. Only two years earlier Valerius had been a penniless exile wandering in the desert. Now he sat at a table set with gold, an Imperial favourite and a valued counsellor with the resources to live a life of ease if he chose.
    Tabitha sat demurely by his side as a stream of richly clad men approached to offer their congratulations, but he knew that, like him, she was thinking of what was to come. They’d lived together in a town house on the Esquiline since returning from Jerusalem, but Olivia insisted they spend the last month apart and to his surprise Tabitha hadreadily agreed. She moved in with his sister at Fidenae while Valerius spent the longest month of his life poring over the estate accounts or working on the occasional legal case to keep him from dying of boredom. The men who stooped to whisper their regards were Valerius’s clients: merchants, lawyers and ambitious minor politicians. Valerius was their patron, just as he was client to Titus. They expected him to use his influence to help them advance, and they in turn were obliged to provide support when he requested it. As the familiar faces passed by Valerius sipped his wine and ate a little of the sumptuous food, always conscious of Tabitha’s presence.
    After the dinner came the ordeal of the wedding procession through the dusk to Valerius’s new villa, two miles to the north, where rooms had been prepared. They were accompanied by a small army of slaves and servants who shouted ribald and often lewd comments about the groom’s romantic prowess and the bride’s fertility. The singing was loud, out of tune and boisterous, and more than one guest or couple went missing in the dark on the way. Still, the proper rites were performed: the placing of one of three coins with the god of the crossroads, the next handed to the groom by Titus as a token of Tabitha’s dowry, and the third retained for the god of the house. At one point Olivia appeared from the darkness at Valerius’s side.
    ‘You are fortunate among men, brother, to have made such a match,’ she whispered. ‘I was not certain at first when you returned from the east with your exotic mistress. If I had thought you would listen I would have advised you to keep her that way and find yourself a Roman maiden of status.’
    ‘And now?’ He kept his voice equally low with Tabitha on his opposite side talking with a servant’s awestruck daughter about her faraway homeland.
    ‘Now I have come to know Tabitha and see her true worth.’ Olivia locked eyes with her brother. ‘In many ways she is a remarkable woman, clever, well read and insightful. Without fear, or she would not have given up everything she knows to follow you to what, for her, is an alien place. She loves you, but does not worship you. She is strong where itmatters, in her heart, which you will discover if you ever stray from the path of right and justice. She will bring you joy and she will test you. She is the right woman for you, Gaius Valerius Verrens. We have become friends.’
    He smiled at his sister. ‘I hoped you would.’
    Valerius felt Tabitha’s touch on his arm and Olivia faded back into the crowd. And then they were alone. The rituals complete. The sound of the guests quietly fading, but for the occasional cry of passion or protest. The servants silent. It seemed unnatural at first. They had spent so much time at the centre of a whirlpool of ceremonies and celebrations it was difficult to believe they were together at last.
    Tabitha looked slowly