To Love Again

passes. The priests adore him, Aspar. You had best watch that quarter lest they convince Leo of his own infallibility, and that generals are unnecessary to God's grand design for Byzantium.'

'You may not like Leo, or he you,' Aspar said, 'but he is the perfect man to be emperor, and he possesses more common sense than you would suspect. For now he lacks ego, although eventually, as with all men in power, the ego will rear its ugly head to cause him difficulties. He loves Byzantium, Basilicus, and is a good administrator. I chose the right man, and the priests know I did. Although they forced me into that little bargain to gain their most vocal support, they are content with Leo, and so are the people. Marcian gave us prosperity, and more peace than we had had in many years. Leo is his most worthy heir.'

'I would think you would not care much for peace,' the prince said.

Aspar laughed. 'Twenty, thirty years ago I could not get enough of war, but now I have had my fill. I am in the twilight of my life. I wish nothing more than to live in peace here with Cailin.'

'May God grant you that wish, Aspar, my friend. It seems a very little wish to me,' Basilicus told the general. 'Now, am I to be introduced to that exquisite girl, or must I return to my sister's with the news I neither saw nor spoke with this divine creature who has made you depart your palace in Constantinople?'

Chapter 10

“Is she beautiful?' the empress demanded of her brother. 'Outrageously so,' Basilicus replied, smiling. He had left Villa Mare in early afternoon of the same day he had arrived, hurrying back to the city to report to his eagerly waiting sister.

'Fair of skin?' Verina asked.

'Her skin is as white and as smooth as a marble statue, my dear.'

'What color are her eyes?'

'It depends upon the light,' Basilicus told his sister. 'Sometimes they are like twin amethysts, and at other times they appear like early spring violets,' he reported poetically.

'And her hair?' Verina was growing more intrigued as her brother spoke. Basilicus was not a man to lavish praise easily.

'Her hair is auburn, a mass of little ringlets that fall to just below her hips. She wears it loose, and it is most charming.'

'Do not tell me,' the empress said. 'Her curls are natural, I am certain. How fortunate she is, but who is she, Basilicus?'

'A young patrician widow of Roman ancestry from Britain,' he answered serenely. 'She is most charming, Verina, and she loves Aspar. If you saw them together, you would assume them to be a happily married couple.'

'How did this woman arrive in Byzantium, my brother? A widow, you say? Was her husband a Byzantine? Does she have children? Come now, Basilicus, you are not telling me everything you know.' The empress looked sharply at her brother.

'Her husband was a Saxon, I am told. Their child was lost to them. I have absolutely no idea how she came to Byzantium. Really, Verina, it was embarrassing enough cross-examining Aspar for you simply to satisfy your childish curiosity. I have done my best and will do no more!' he huffed.

'How old is Aspar's little mistress, and what is her name?' the empress pressed him. 'Certainly you know that much.'

'The girl is nineteen, and her name is Cailin,' Basilicus answered.

'Nineteen?' Verina winced. 'Poor Flacilla!'

'Flacilla deserves whatever she gets,' snapped Basilicus, eager to escape his sister's questioning before he told her something he should not tell her. For some reason, Verina was making him very anxious. She knew something, but he did not know what she knew. He shifted nervously.

Verina saw her brother's discomfort. 'I had a visitor this morning, brother dear,' she said sweetly. Too sweetly. 'I probably should not confide this to you. Men are so foolish about these things, but since you are obviously holding something back from me, I must tell you so that you will speak freely to me. You know that Leo rarely visits my bed any longer. He listens to his clerics who declare women unclean, a necessary evil for reproduction who should otherwise be avoided. I do not know how he thinks we will get a son unless we couple. It is all very well for the priests to tell him to pray for an heir, but there is more to getting a child than just prayer!' The empress flushed irritably, but then she continued smoothly.

'I dare not take a lover yet to satisfy my own needs. The church considers a woman's natural urges evil. I have no real privacy, and I am constantly watched, as you know. I have thought about it for some time, and it finally came to me! If I am to entice my husband back to my bed, I must take drastic action! I realize I am not supposed to know of things like this, but we have, I am told, several very fine brothels in Constantinople. I decided to engage a courtesan to teach me the erotic arts so that I might lure Leo into doing his duty by us both.'

'You did what?' Basilicus gasped, totally stunned by his sister's revelation. A good Byzantine wife was not supposed to be aware of such things. He did not know whether to be shocked or amused by what she had done.

'I hired a courtesan to help me become more sensual,' Verina repeated. 'Flacilla helped me. She sometimes visits a place called Villa Maxima. It has wonderful entertainments, and marvelous young men for hire as lovers, she tells me. Do you know it, Basilicus?' And while he gaped at her in wonder, she answered her own question, 'Of course you know Villa Maxima, brother dear. You are one of its distinguished patrons on occasion.

'One of those occasions was several months ago when you visited the place in the company of our good general. There was a particularly notorious and most lewd entertainment being performed twice weekly that had the entire city talking of its perversity. Flacilla says it was wonderful! I wish that I had been able to see it, but how could I go to such a place, even in disguise? Someone would be certain to recognize me.'

He nodded. 'It would be unwise, indeed, Verina,' he told her.

She smiled at him, and then took up the thread of her story. 'The courtesan sent to me is a lovely creature named Casia. It is she who told me that Aspar had purchased from the owners of the brothel the female member of that depraved entertainment. A young patrician widow of Roman ancestry from Britain? Really, Basilicus!'

'She is precisely as I have described her to you, Verina. I did not think it necessary to reveal her unhappy months in slavery, a condition that came about through nothing of her making. Aspar freed her immediately after he purchased her. He recognized her patrician blood and felt sorry for her. Now he is in love with Cailin!'

'I cannot believe that you would lie to me, brother,' the empress pouted.

'I did not lie to you, Verina,' the prince said irritably.

'You did not tell me all that you had learned. I cannot forgive you for it.'

'I did not tell you because I did not want to embarrass Cailin, Verina. Aspar would not have told me but that I recognized her. It is an episode that both of them would like to put behind them,' Basilicus said. 'All they desire is to live quietly together at Villa Mare.' Then he grew serious. 'Leo will never be so safe that you do not need Aspar,