good wife; but she has spirit, like I do. The perfect mate, Aspar, and you cannot have her. It hardly seems fair after all your service to the empire,” Flacilla mocked him. “Tsk! Tsk!”
He smiled, unaffected by her cruel barbs, more concerned with Cailin, whom he knew was going to be furious with him for not telling her that she was already a free woman. “It will be as God wills it, my dear,” he replied smoothly, spoiling Flacilla’s obvious glee as he helped her into her luxurious litter. “I will be with you as quickly as I can.” Closing the curtains of the vehicle smartly, he told the bearers, “Take the lady Flacilla to the palace of the patriarch at once.” Then Aspar turned about and went back into the atrium of his villa.
Cailin was pacing around the fish pond. She whirled at the sound of his step and shouted at him, “How could you keep such a thing from me, my lord? Or was it a lie told simply to annoy that dreadful creature?”
“It is true,” he said. “You have been a free woman again since that day I promised it to you. I could not tell you the whole truth, Cailin. I am not a young man, but God help me, I love you! I feared if I told you that you were free, you would leave me; that you would attempt some foolish flight back to Britain, and end up in a worse situation than the one from which I rescued you.”
For a moment pity welled in her eyes, but it was quickly gone. “Oh, Aspar,” she said to him. “Do you not know that I love you also? Until you found me, and yes, even for a time afterward, I dreamed of returning to Britain to avenge myself upon Antonia Porcius. But what good would it do me? Would vengeance return me to my family? My husband? My child? I do not think so. Antonia’s revenge certainly did not return Quintus to her. Wulf Ironfist will have found himself another wife by now. Perhaps they even have a child. He husbands the lands that were once my family’s. My return would bring but unhappiness to all involved. It is a new age for Britain, and it would seem that I am not meant to be a part of it. This is where my fate has brought me, and here I will remain, by your side and in your heart as long as you will have me, Aspar.” She surprised herself with her own words, but even as she had spoken them, she realized it was time to put her dreams aside and face reality. It was unlikely that she would ever see Britain again.
“They will not let us marry, Cailin,” he said sadly.
“Who? Your Christian priests? I am not a Christian, Aspar. I am, what was it your wife called me? A pagan. Do you remember the old words of the Roman marriage? Perhaps you do not, but divorce Flacilla, and I will teach them to you that we may say them to each other. Then whatever others may say, we will be bound together for all eternity, my dearest lord,” Cailin promised him. Slipping her arms about him, she pressed herself hard against him and kissed him with all the passion her young soul could muster. Then looking up at him, she said, “And you will never, ever again keep things from me, or tell me half-truths, my darling lord, or I shall be very, very angry. You have not yet seen my wild temper in full force, and you do not wish to, I promise you!”
She astounded him, and the happiness filling him would only allow him to say, “You love me? You love me!” He caught her up in his arms and swung her about happily. “Cailin loves me!”
“Put me down!” she said, laughing. “You will have the servants thinking that you have lost your wits entirely, my lord.”
“Just my heart, my love, and that you will keep safe for me, I know it!” He placed her gently upon her feet.
“Go to Constantinople now, my lord, and convince those you must to rid you of that harpy you wed for expediency’s sake,” Cailin told him. “I will eagerly await your return.”
“I will legalize any children you bear me,” he promised her.
“I know you will do the just thing,” she replied. “Now go!”
He did not even have to give orders. Zeno appeared to