His mouth was hanging open as he gazed downat the dully gleaming pile of coins, and I explained, “It’s not allin coin. There are some ingots, but they’re at the bottom of thechests.” Deciding to try and lighten the moment, I joked, “What?You didn’t realize how much you were worth?”
He did not laugh; indeed, he looked moretroubled, and I cursed myself for bringing up a natural opening forhim to ask what Septimus had been forced to do in order to raisethis sum, but to my intense relief, he did not.
In fact, he seemed quitepreoccupied, which he partially explained, “I can’t stay long.That cunnus Cogidubnus isholding a feast for me, and I want to at least get a proper bathbefore I go.”
“A bath?” I repeated, thenI asked laughingly, “What, did they build you a Romanbath?”
This did make him grin.
“Not quite, butalmost.”
He went on to explain the arrangements thathad been made, and this was when I heard him mention Tincommius forwhat would be the first but not the last time, and I sensed thatGnaeus had developed a true regard for some of these Parisii. Atthe time, I had no idea exactly how deep that regard went with oneParisii in particular, but I was within watches of finding out.
“Did you bring mybaggage?” he asked, which slightly offended me.
“Of course,” I answeredindignantly.
“Get out my uniform,” hetold me. “All of it.”
This surprised me, and I asked, “When yousay everything, do you mean…everything?”
“Yes,” he said tersely,but I suppose he read my unease, because he explained, “I’m goingto attend this feast as a Centurion of Rome, and I want all of mydecorations.”
I saw that he was determined, but I stillwas not ready to give in.
“Are you certain thatshowing up in armor and carrying your gladiusis a good idea?”
“No,” he answeredhonestly, then grinned, “but when have I ever had a good idea?”Turning serious, he said, “I just want to give these savages areminder that Rome isn’t going anywhere.”
This seemed unnecessarilyprovocative to me, and as I learned later, this was exactly why hewanted to wear his uniform, but I also could see he would not beswayed. I went to the chest containing everything he needed,unwrapping the two phalarae and the silver arm ring that he had been awarded after theLong Bridges. Nestled in the bottom was a torq that, while now hisproperty, had been earned by his father during his first campaign,and seeing it gave me the idea.
“You know,” I picked upthe torq and unwrapped it, “if you wanted to impress thesebarbarians, you should wear this as well.”
I saw that he was tempted, but he shook hishead.
“I didn’t earn that, myfather did. You know I’m not authorized to wear that.”
“And who in Ubiorum willever know?” I asked, then grinned as I assured him, “I certainlywon’t tell. I like my job.”
He laughed, but he nodded as he agreed,“You’re right. And, yes, I’ll wear it.”
Once I had pulledeverything out, we had a moment where we tried to come up with away for him to take everything with him without it being obviousthat it was armor, helmet, andgladius. Which I pretended not tonotice as his eyes turned moist when he slid it out of itsscabbard, looking at it as if it was a long-lost lover finallyreturned to his embrace. If I had not seen my Uncle Titus with theexact same expression, I would have thought it odd, but I know whatthat gladius means to any manbearing the Pullus name. Finally, we just laid out hissagum, placed his armor on it, thenlaid his harness and vitus ontop of that, then rolled the sagum up, and used a sack to put his helmet in, laying the wrappeddecorations and torq in the helmet. It was not perfect, but atleast it was not immediately obvious what we were carrying. We wentback up on deck, but when he walked to the boat and four of hisescorts dropped down into their boat, I stayed where I was,prompting him to stop.
“Well? Are you coming ornot?”
“You want me to come withyou?”
“Unless you like eatingwhatever slop there is aboard this ship. Besides,” he laughed, “youdon’t think I’m going to polish this stuff myself, doyou?”
“Of course not,” Igrumbled, but I did not mean it. “We wouldn’t want you to get yourhands dirty.”
“I’m glad to see we thinkalike,” he said just before he swung a leg over and dropped out ofsight, and I hurried to join him.
I was as surprised as Alex when none of myguards, including Gorteryn and Lugotorix, demanded to see what wasin the bundle that I made Alex carry, while I carried the sack withmy helmet and decorations.
“This happy fellow,” I pointed atGorteryn, “is Gorteryn. And that,” I nodded at Lugotorix, “isLugotorix. The rest,” I waved a hand at them, “I only know they’remembers of Cogidubnus’ bodyguard. And,” I maintained the same tone,“none of them can understand a word we say.”
It took a moment to find Alex a horsefor himself, but then Tincommius came to the rescue by leading asaddled mount up to the dock, and while there was some awkwardnesswith the bundle, worrying me that he might drop it and mygladius would fall out, he managedneatly, and soon we were heading out of town. I had made a point tokeep my eyes straight ahead and not scan the crowd, which hadthinned considerably, which meant that, of course, it was Alex whosaw Bronwen, just before we turned the corner and would be out ofsight.
“I remember her!” he exclaimed, andbefore I could stop myself, I glanced over to see her standingthere, watching us. Alex frowned, and looked at me as he asked, “Isthat a black eye she has?”
“Yes,” I said flatly, hoping that Isounded disinterested, but without being aware of it, Alex fannedthe flames by asking, “What kind of man would hit a woman thathard?”
“A fucking cunnus,” I snarled.
“Do you know who did it?” he asked,and I sensed some
