'He outpaced you and told me of your lust for a barbarian. Did you like the roughness of this so-called Caratacus, Valeria, who names himself for a famous Roman enemy? Did you enjoy his crudity?'
'Marcus, don't believe-'
'Shouldn't I? Brassidias!' He roared the summons.
Boots rang across the stone floor of the commander's house, and Galba made an entrance in full armor, sword at his side, his chain of finger rings jingling at his waist, his bearing ready for war. He snapped to stern attention. 'Yes, commander?' There was no surprise in his eyes.
'Is this the woman that you were told of at the hill fort of Arden Caratacus?'
'The same, commander.'
'The woman who fled my house in the middle of the night to attempt an assignation with the tribune Clodius?'
'The same, commander.'
'The woman who shamed Rome by becoming the lover of a barbarian?'
Galba bowed his head. 'So I was told, commander.'
'And who told you of this?'
'Arden Caratacus. He boasted of possessing the body of a daughter of Rome.'
'What proof did he have for this boast?'
'A trophy, commander.'
'Would I recognize this trophy?'
'You gave it to your bride on the night of your wedding.'
'A ring, you mean? And how do I know you're telling the truth?'
'Because I brought it back with me. Because I have it here.' Galba reached in a pouch at his belt and tossed something that rang as it bounced across the table, coming to rest near the praefectus. It was her ring with the intaglio of Fortuna.
Had Arden given it to Galba to betray her? Certainly fortune had deserted her.
'No!' she protested wildly. 'Galba came to Tiranen to plot with Arden. It's been a plot from the beginning to manipulate and discredit you, Marcus-'
'Answer me! Did you sleep with that Caledonii animal?'
'He's not an animal.'
'Answer me!'
Her voice was small. 'Yes.' She struggled for explanation. 'We were drunk from a ceremony, and it was a meaningless thing, and I came back to warn you-'
'It was not a meaningless thing!' His fist came down on the table with a bang, and its leg buckled. Valeria shrank, fearing a beating. He was in a rage. 'By the gods, betrayed already! Our marriage bed scarcely warmed!'
'You don't understand. I was a prisoner-'
Marta appeared, summoned by the clamor. Her eyes darted from one aristocrat to another, her expression a combination of curiosity and smirk. This scene would be all over the fort within an hour.
'Get out,' Marcus snapped at her.
The slave disappeared.
The praefectus turned back to his wife. 'And yet somehow you found the freedom, the moment it entered your head, to ride blithely back to the Wall. To tell me how to dispose of my forces.'
'To warn you!'
'I've had my warning. From Galba Brassidias.'
'He's the traitor!'
'He's our agent, Valeria. He's been treating with this Caratacus bastard for years. He fills the barbarian's head with foolishness and keeps the Celts off balance. You had no idea what was going on in that fort. No idea what your secrets meant.'
His contempt stung. Now she was getting angry. 'Isn't the emperor ill? Aren't powerful men choosing between him and his son?'
Marcus didn't reply.
'Aren't troops being sent to the Continent?'
'What of it?'
'You're in peril!'
'From you! You betrayed me!'
'I was confused! I came back-'
'To betray me with your words!'
'No!'
'Caratacus sent you to mislead me about the attack. To seduce me with your sex. To make us ready for an attack in one place while he strikes at another. All this he boasted about to our senior tribune, Galba Brassidias.'
'No…' It was a moan.
'He's used you, Valeria. Caratacus seduced you, and persuaded you to betray Rome. To engineer the death of your husband. To serve as an agent of confusion-'
She was shaking her head in despair.
'And breach the Wall.'
'Galba has twisted everything all around.'
'Galba set a trap. For Caratacus and for you. And now it has snapped shut on the first one of you.'
Valeria looked at him in disbelief.
'We can beat the Celts if we're ready,' Galba rumbled. 'It's persuading a pitched battle in a favorable place that's difficult. I've convinced Caratacus that I'll help him get through the Wall, but we'll pinch him off and destroy him when he does.'
'See!' Valeria exclaimed. 'Galba's going to let Caratacus through the Wall! Let me go to Arden, Marcus! None of this bloodshed will be necessary! I'll warn him, and no one will have to die!'
Marcus laughed, the bitter laugh of a man who sees his marriage and its political influence in ruins. His wife had shamed him, and what had he ever given her but love and honor? His only chance now was victory in battle. 'Let you go to Arden? How you must wish it! You'll rue the day you left his protection. You're a traitor to the Roman state and the destroyer of our marriage, and after the battle I'll deal with you in accordance to ancient law.'
'Ancient law?'
'A Roman husband has the right of divorce. Of discipline. Of taking the life of an adulteress if her treachery is grave enough, as Cato and Augustus and Constantine have said. You know that. You've risked that. Of losing your life by stoning or drowning or a noose around the neck.' She was dizzy with fear. This couldn't be happening. 'Marcus-' 'You might wish to use a dagger or poison to assuage your shame, but I'm not going to give you that chance. You'll wait here, in locked confinement, for my final decision after the battle. And the next time I let you out, it will be to watch the torture and death of your barbarian lover.'
XXXVI
As I did in the beginning, once more I depend on the crisp and soldierly memory of the centurion Longinus. He hobbles to me on a crutch, a good sign that infection of his smashed foot has not advanced up his leg. I remember his challenge to me when I chose him as the first to be interviewed. He demanded that I understand Hadrian's Wall. Am I any closer now than I was before?
'My congratulations, centurion. You appear to be recovering.'
'I'm too old to recover. The best a warhorse can hope for is to endure. So I endure the pain of this damned foot, I endure the bureaucracy of the retirement list, I endure the prattle of nurses, and I endure the dirty jokes of decurions that I first heard two decades ago.'
'It sounds like my interview might be an improvement.'
