Semper Fidelis

Chapter 33

Tilla took a moment to recognize the hideous screeches that had woken her as the sounds of heavy furniture being dragged across the floor of the room next door. Outside she heard urgent voices, the slap of mats being beaten, and the frantic swish of scrubbing brushes. Distant and discordant clanging told her that more than one blacksmith was up and working. She rolled over and opened her eyes. The rumpled bed beside hers was empty. Why was everyone making so much noise? How late had she slept?

That was when she remembered the second knock on the door, just after the Medicus had hurried away without telling her where he was going. That time it was Minna, bundled up in a shawl, pushing her way in without invitation and hissing in a stage whisper, “Have you heard? The emperor is coming!”

“I know,” Tilla had said, bemused and not a little annoyed at the late invasion. “Everybody knows.”

“No, he has landed somewhere called Petuaria. His ships were damaged in the storm and he’s coming here tomorrow!”

Tilla’s first thought had been that she did not much care where the emperor went. Her second was that this would give the snooty tribune something bigger to worry about than tracking down local people who said things he did not want to hear.

Minna had probably thought the smile meant she was excited about the visit.

Tilla splashed last night’s cold water from the bowl over her face, imagining the panic in the fort after the news arrived. Few of them would know any more about Hadrian and Sabina than she did herself, but they would know how vital it was to please them.

Tilla had always felt sorry for Vibia Sabina, who appeared from her statues and coins to be both beautiful and vacant. Sabina too was childless, and after more than twenty years of marriage. There were people who wondered why the emperor had not divorced her and found someone fertile. Tilla was glad he had not.

Hadrian himself always appeared on his coins and statues with a heavy jaw and a curly beard, an odd little crease in each earlobe, and beady eyes that were too close together. He was supposed to be a clever man and a fierce improver of poor standards. It pleased her to imagine those eyes taking in the shameful state of the officers’ empty houses at Eboracum.

The breakfast tray and the fresh water finally arrived with two girls who were so busy whispering and giggling that they forgot to bow altogether. From somewhere beyond the rose beds she could hear Minna’s voice raised in complaint. Moments later the manager, flustered and apologetic, arrived to explain that he had been given orders to prepare for ten very senior officials and their staff, and would she and the Medicus mind moving to another room? Behind him, she could see more staff scurrying about with piles of bedding. “It’s quite comfortable,” he assured her. “Compact. Very convenient to the dining room.”

She felt too sorry for him to ask if the tribune would be moving too.

The room was, as she had expected, only big enough for one bed and a chest, and potentially very noisy, but it was clean. She was checking that the staff had brought all the luggage when a shadow fell across the courtyard window and a voice she had not expected said in British, “There you are! I couldn’t find you!”

“Virana! What are you doing here?”

“It’s all right, nobody is looking. I got in through the side door. I have decided what to do. Let me in so I can tell you.”

They sat side by side on the bed, since there was nowhere else, while Virana revealed that she had not one plan but two. The first was for Tilla’s husband to give her the password so she could get into the fort and make a last-minute appeal to whichever of her former lovers she could find, since they might not be allowed out again before they marched away. When Tilla explained that this was impossible, she said, “I thought you would say that. But it doesn’t matter, because the emperor is coming!”

“I know.”

“So I got this.” She delved into her cleavage and pulled out a rolled and squashed scrap of parchment. “Look!”

Tilla unrolled it and made out the words Your Majesty. She stopped. “What is this?”

Virana beamed. “The scribe down the road wrote it for me. He was very nice. I’m going to-”

“He should not have taken your money,” Tilla told her.

“Oh, he didn’t want money!”

“He knows as well as I do that you are not a citizen of Rome,” said Tilla, guessing what he had taken instead. “The emperor is the most powerful man in the world. If the officers here will not listen to you, why would he?”

Virana looked crestfallen. “But he’s the emperor! He goes around the world giving out justice!”

“Not to you and me.”

“But somebody has to take me to Deva. I can’t stay here!” Virana threw the parchment aside and clasped her hands together. “Let me come with you. Please. I could help you. You need a servant.”

It was true, and it irritated Tilla that even this silly girl could see it. “Go home,” she said. “You should not be wandering unescorted around here.”

Virana pouted. “You wander unescorted!”

“That is different.”

“The Sixth Legion will be here soon, did you know? And the new governor will come with the emperor and there will be the cavalry escort and the Praetorian Guard with the scorpions on their shields … Is it true they are all six feet tall and very rich?”

“The Praetorian Guard would swallow you whole and not even notice,” said Tilla, who had never met them except by reputation. “Go home.”

Virana’s lower lip began to tremble. “Please don’t send me away! Nobody wants me!”

Tilla sighed. “Very well. You can stay with me just for this morning.”

Virana clutched at her arm. “Yes! Oh, thank you, thank you! Where shall we go? Can we go inside the fort?”

Tilla detached her grip. “No. You can wait while I visit Corinna, then you can take me to talk to your family.”

“My family?” The girl grabbed at her again, then remembered and let go. “My family will not listen to anyone. Not even you. Anyway, I can’t miss the emperor! And Vibia Sabina. Did you know the empress was younger than me when she got married?”

“The emperor will not be here until this evening. Perhaps your family will bring you back to watch.”

“No they won’t. They’re horrible. Anyway, I can’t walk that far. I feel sick.”

“Some exercise will do you good.”

“My brothers are nasty and violent. And they don’t like strangers.”

“I am Brigante, and the wife of a Roman officer,” said Tilla, squaring her shoulders. “Your family will not frighten me, and unless they are very stupid they will not hurt me, either.” At least, she hoped not. Anyway, she could not spend all day sitting in this room with nothing to do or wandering about the streets. None of Virana’s family was in the army, so she could truthfully say she was obeying the tribune’s orders not to get involved in the Legion’s affairs. She got to her feet. “Are you coming, or will I have to find the way by myself?”

Virana was chewing her lower lip. “They will tell you lies about me.”

“Then it will be best if you are there to tell the truth,” said Tilla, bending to tighten the laces on her boots and reaching for her bag.