“Anyway,” he said, “I’ve come to apologize. You had a right to expect better of a husband.”
She looked up. “What do you think I should expect?”
He pondered the question. “Security?” he suggested. “Protection? Enough to live on and a roof over your head. Now the only way I can make sure you’re safe is to ask you to come back to Gaul with me, and I know you don’t want to live there.”
She sat back on her heels. “This is what you think marriage is? Having no enemies and somewhere to put the crockery?”
In the silence that followed, he felt her reach for his hand. “What I expected,” she said as the mud squelched and grated between their fingers, “was this man who tries to do the right thing even when it is foolish.”
For a few moments they were so still that a robin flew down and stabbed at the soil in front of them before darting off to safety.
“Right.” Ruso got to his feet.
“You could stay here and help.”
“I’ll be back soon,” he promised. “You carry on saving lives. This foolish man needs to wash his hands and send out a big pile of letters.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Verulamium’s theater was finally built about twenty years after this story is set, and its remains can still be seen. The site of the Great Hall lies just across the road, but its foundations are buried deep beneath Saint Michael’s Church, and with them the putative location of the strong room. Sadly, no details of the town Council’s business-unruly or otherwise-survive. The more respectable of the proceedings here are based on bronze tablets recording the constitution of the Roman town of Irni in Seville.
Anyone who shares my delight in obscure facts will be pleased to know that there really was a crackdown on abuses of the transport system in the early years of Hadrian’s reign, including a survey of British milestones, although the name of the procurator who would have been in charge of them is not known. Nor is the location of his office, but it seemed reasonable to place such an important man in one of the grandest buildings in town.
A couple of good books for anyone wanting more detailed background are:
Verulamium: The Roman City of St Albans by Rosalind Niblett
The Coinage of Roman Britain by Richard Reece.
Many readers will already have had the pleasure of visiting Verulamium Museum and park, the British Museum, and the Museum of London. For those who cannot make the trip, all have good Web sites, and at the time of writing, the Museum of London’s Online Collections include a fascinating microsite exploring Roman London at: http://www. museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/Londinium/.
Finally, for anyone lucky enough to stumble across something our ancestors left behind, or who wants to see what others have found, www.finds.org.uk is the place to look.
