deserve her.” ’
She smiled. ‘All these things are true.’ The smile faded. ‘I will want children,’ she said.
He thought about that for a moment. ‘I shall expect them to read and write and speak Latin and Greek and be properly brought up.’
‘I will teach them to sing the song of my ancestors.’
‘Do you have to?’
‘All six of them.’
‘What is this, a competition?’
He slid his hand into hers, and their fingers intertwined. After a moment he said, ‘You really think Arria and Diphilus are serious?’
‘You should encourage him. Then perhaps he will clean out the drains for free.’
‘We might not need him,’ he said. ‘Feel that breeze?’ He lifted his head to look out of the open window and squinted at the clouds forming in the distance. ‘I think it’s going to rain.’
