The Lion and the Lark (36 page)

her shoulders.

     Lucia giggled.

     “Do you care?  You’ll never see any of those people again.”

     Lucia sobered.  “It’s odd, but I really don’t care.  Rome was my home for so long, I never knew anything else.  And now my past there is like a dream and this is my reality.  I wouldn’t mind if I never go back to Italy.  Does that shock you?”

     “Not at all.  You are in love.”

     Lucia smiled.  “Yes, I am.  And to think we lived so close to one another all this time and I never knew that we would be family.  I never knew Brettix was your brother.”

     “He did a very dangerous thing, going to work for your father.”

     “That’s Brettix.  He has no fear.  But I have quite a bit, and I worry about him.”

     “Don’t worry any more.  He has what he wants now, so he’ll be less reckless.”  Bronwen ran her hands over the slight bulge of her belly.  “We all have what we want.”

     “When is the baby due?” Lucia asked.

     “At the end of the summer.”

     “I envy you,” Lucia said.

     Bronwen laughed.  “There was a time when I envied you.”

     “Me!  You hardly knew me!”

     “I knew that Claudius visited your house and seemed very friendly toward you.”  She lifted her shoulders.  “I was jealous.”

     “Oh, Bronwen,” Lucia said, shaking her head, “Claudius was never interested in me.”

     “I know that now, but at the time I was very...” she stopped.

     “What?”

     “Unhappy.  Our marriage had been arranged and I wasn’t sure how he felt about me.  I was falling in love with him and fighting it, and every time I turned around he was having cena with your family.  I used to watch through the window as he came walking home, and often you were with him.  It tortured me.”

     “I’m sorry,” Lucia said sympathetically.  “That must have been so difficult for you.”

     “You were everything I wasn’t: rich and well brought up and, above all, Roman.”

     “But he loved you.”

     “Yes.”  Bronwen hesitated, then said, “Lucia, do you remember Claudius’ first wife?  Vespasia?”

     “Not very well.  I was too young.”

     “Do you recall anything about her?”

     “Only that she was very...calm.  Composed.”

     “Sweet?”

     “Yes.”

     Bronwen nodded uncomfortably.

     “Don’t think about it,” Lucia advised.  “I’m sure I’m not the first woman in Brettix’ life, but I plan to be the last.  The future starts now.”

     Bronwen smiled at the younger girl, impressed by her maturity.

     It was advice well taken.

     “Is it getting dark?” Bronwen said suddenly, glancing at her bedroom window.  “Claudius should be home soon.”

     “Did I hear my name?” her husband said, sticking his head in through the open door.

     Bronwen ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

     “Well.  I’ll take that greeting every night,” he said, kissing her.  “How are you?”

     “Wonderful.”

     “And the little one inside you?”

     “Wonderful too.”

     Claudius kept his arm around his wife as he looked over her shoulder and said to Lucia, “I have brought someone to see you.”

     “My father?” the girl asked hopefully.

     Claudius nodded.  “He’s in the triclinium.”

     “Is my mother with him?”

     “No.  I’m sorry.  I think she needs a little more time.” Claudius winked at her.  “If you go and see him now I’m sure he’ll agree to come to your wedding.”

     Lucia squealed with delight and ran from the room, pausing only to kiss Claudius’ cheek as she passed him.

     “I assume that you have been talking to the general,” Bronwen said slyly.

     “He wants to go to her wedding.  He loves her.”

     “She’ll miss her mother.  Drucilla is doing her best to convince that girl that this wedding will kill her.”

     “She’s been dying for years, ever since I’ve known her,” Claudius said dryly.

     Bronwen laughed and took his hand, placing it on her belly.

     “Maybe by the time this child is born all the fighting will be over and  our people can live together in peace,” she said.

     “Maybe,” Claudius said, drawing her close to him.

     He didn’t agree, but he would never spoil Bronwen’s happiness by saying so out loud.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

    
The Romans first invaded Britain in 55 and 54 B.C. under Julius Caesar.  For the next century they struggled to maintain a foothold on the island, establishing forts and fighting the native tribes, never quite conquering it but never relinquishing it either.  In 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius sent a new invasion force, and for the next forty years the colonial governors worked to gradually bring the Britons under their control.  The Romanization of Britain continued apace until the fifth century, leaving behind the many ruins of baths and temples and 
oppida
still visible in the United Kingdom today.  By the time the Emperor Honorius, under pressure from advancing Germanic tribes ,finally withdrew the legions from the island permanently in 410 A.D., the Romans had occupied Britain for more than four hundred and fifty years.

     “ I did not undertake this war for private ends, but in the cause of national liberty.  Since I must now accept my fate, I place myself at your disposal.  Make amends to the Romans by killing me, or surrender me alive as you think best.”

                        -
Vercingetorix to the survivors of the siege at Alesia, as quoted by Julius Caesar,
Commentaries on the Gallic Wars