a step backward.
“You’ve done your mischief, Gabras,” Prince Basilicus said. “Now get you gone from here, and if one word of this scandal should reach my ears, I will personally see that you meet a most unpleasant end. You have no real friends in Byzantium, and if you want to see your child born, then you will forget what you have done.”
“Is he not to be punished?” Casia demanded, relieved not to be in her lover’s bad graces. “Look at the trouble he has caused!”
Basilicus laughed. “He is married to Flacilla Strabo. That is punishment enough, I think.”
As Justin Gabras turned to leave, Phocas Maxima stepped from the shadows. “A moment, my lord Gabras. There is the matter of the bill. I think I should be wise to settle it today. You have made powerful enemies here this morning, and the span of your life is no longer certain.” He took the man’s arm and led him off.
Jovian, looking at the five people in his atrium, wondered what was to come next. He had not long to wait.
Aspar took Cailin’s hand in his. “Tell me,” he said.
“I must go home to Britain, my lord,” she said quietly, but there were tears in her eyes when she said it.
“How easily you leave me, my love,” he said bitterly.
“No,” Cailin told him. “It is not easy for me to leave you, for I love you, but I have thought long and hard about what I must do. In the eyes of your Orthodox church I am not married, and therefore free to wed you, Aspar. But I know that under the old laws of marriage in Britain, I am Wulf’s wife.
“Once the empress told me that love was a weakness for those in power. I did not believe her, my lord, but now I do. What if the Saxon had not been Wulf Ironfist? What would you have done knowing I had been forcibly violated? What if I had been driven mad by the incident? Gabras himself planned to have me, I know. How would you have felt upon learning that the woman you loved and planned to make your wife had been hurt, and shamed so?
“Your value to the empire would have come to an end, my lord, had any of these things come to pass. I am your weakness, Flavius Aspar! Your enemies can reach out and strike at you through me, through the children I would have given you. I was a childish fool to believe that we could live as quiet a life as my parents lived at their country villa. You are important to Byzantium, my love, and your usefulness is not yet at an end. Besides,” she smiled at him, “you quite enjoy being an emperor-maker. You would be bored raising horses, hay, and grain.
“I must leave you, my dear lord, if I am to save you from your enemies. There is no other way, and in your heart you know that I am right in this. And what of Wulf Ironfist? He and I have lands in Britain that we must reclaim, and a child who is lost, but whom we will find. I cannot turn my back on any of this, though I am torn between you both! Once I said that Fortuna was not kind to me, but she has been too kind, I think, for what other woman has been so well-loved by two such wonderful men? It is possible, you know, for a woman to love two men.
“Had I ever believed that I should be reunited with Wulf Ironfist again, I should not have allowed you to love me, Flavius Aspar. You do not really need me. I am but a liability to you. Wulf needs me.”
“You could not have ever kept me from loving you, Cailin Drusus,” Aspar told her sadly, “but if you feel you must leave me, then I will not stand in your way.” He wanted to plead with her to stay with him. He wanted to tell her that she was no liability to him; or if it was so, then he would take his chances with his enemies if it meant having her by his side. Instead he said, “You must take Nellwyn with you. Britain is her home, too, and I would not know what to do with her if you left her behind. She would be but a constant reminder of you.”
“Yes, I will take Nellwyn.”
“I will send word to Zeno to pack