Читать книгу The Warrior's Bride Prize - Jenni Fletcher - Страница 15

Livia descended the villa steps, inhaling deep gulps of morning air to help clear her head. It was her favourite time of the day, when the air still felt clean and fresh and the sky was a hazy mixture of rainbow colours: yellow and orange and even green in the east where the sun was just rising, pink and purple and pastel blue in the south where the night and dawn met. The north and west were still grey. She knew that she oughtn’t to be outside on her own, but she wanted to get a sense of her new surroundings, to feel in control of one part of her life at least, even if she felt completely lost in the rest of it.

She draped a shawl over her hair and kept her head down as she made her way past the camp headquarters and hospital, heading towards the northern rim of the fort. Despite the emotional turmoil of the previous day, she felt surprisingly well-rested. After tucking Julia into bed in the evening, she’d lain down for a few moments beside her, intending simply to nestle, then fallen fast asleep in her clothes.

At least that had stopped her from brooding, though it hadn’t taken long for all her anxieties to come rushing back again once she woke. Her meeting with Scaevola had been nothing short of disastrous. He’d looked at her as if she were some kind of monster, so that now she had no idea if their marriage was even still going ahead.

She didn’t know which was worse, the thought of marrying a man like him or of being sent back to her half-brother, but neither alternative was in her control—a thought which only made her more despondent than ever. If Scaevola refused to go through with the marriage, however, then she had no doubt that Tarquinius would find a way to blame her. She was stuck between a rock and a very hard place, but whichever way her future was decided, there was one thing she desperately wanted to do first.

She wanted to see the wall. Marius had said that the landscape was too hilly, but on such a clear morning, surely there was a chance... In any case, if this was her only opportunity, then she had to try.

Fortunately the camp was quiet. It was early enough that most soldiers were either still inside their barrack blocks or eating breakfast on the steps. Those who were outside looked at her curiously as she passed, but she kept going, making her way determinedly towards some steps that led to a walkway around the top of the palisade.

She climbed to the top, looking out over the ditch defences to the landscape beyond. There was something strangely familiar about it, as if part of her had always known what it would look like, though her imagination had failed to do it full justice. It was even more beautiful than her mother had described, with rolling hills and a sky that seemed to stretch on for ever. It gave her an unexpected sense of freedom, ironically, given her current circumstances. Of yearning, too, as if the land itself were calling to her. She tipped her head back, letting her shawl fall around her shoulders as she breathed in the feeling, though to her intense disappointment there was no sign of the wall, no matter how hard she screwed up her eyes.

It was only two miles away, Marius had told her with his customary stern expression. Only two miles. It might as well have been the far ends of the earth.

‘Lady?’

A sentry approached her and then halted mid-step, his gaze slipping past her shoulder before he turned and marched away again. Perplexed, she turned around, wondering what had changed his mind, only to find herself face-to-face with Marius Varro.

She gave a small, surprised yelp. She hadn’t expected to see him again, but now his unexpected arrival, coming so soon after she’d just been thinking about him, seemed to be doing alarming things to her breathing, not to mention the rest of her.

What was he doing there? There had been no one else with her a moment ago, no sound of anyone behind her either. He seemed to have appeared out of thin air, looking just as she remembered, even wearing the stern expression she’d just been thinking about! Unlike most of the other men in the camp, he was fully dressed, too, looking every inch the imposing Roman soldier. She doubted he ever looked anything else. He seemed like the kind of man who might sleep in his uniform.

‘Are you following me?’ She felt heat flare in her cheeks, though whether from anger or some other emotion she hardly knew. She seemed to be feeling so many emotions at once.

‘Yes.’ He made an impatient gesture, as if the question were irrelevant. ‘I saw you from the stables. You ought to take more care.’

‘Why?’ She looked along the walkway in surprise. ‘I’m only taking a look around. It’s not so high.’

‘I didn’t mean the ramparts. You’re one of only a handful of women in a camp full of soldiers. You shouldn’t be out on your own.’

The implication made her cheeks flush an even brighter shade of pink. The fact that it came from him made it feel even more personal. After all, he was the one she was standing alone with, the one she’d woken up dreaming about...

She tossed her head, pushing that particular memory aside.

‘Do you think so badly of your men, then?’

‘No, but they’re not all my men. I’m sure Nerva will assign you a guard if you want to look around.’

She shuddered at the thought. Another man to watch her, to follow her every footstep and then report back as if she couldn’t be trusted. It would be like living with Julius all over again.

‘No!’ She shook her head adamantly. ‘I’ll take my chances. I’d rather be on my own.’

‘As you wish.’ He scrutinised her face for a few seconds before walking back to the top of the steps and then standing there.

‘What are you doing?’ She stared after him suspiciously. He looked like one of the sentries.

‘Waiting.’

‘For what?’

‘To escort you back to the villa.’

‘I don’t need escorting. I remember the way.’

‘None the less.’

‘I just told you I’d rather be on my own.’

‘So you did.’

She glared at him, seized with a combination of irritation and guilt. He’d caught her off guard—again!—and now she was being rude, unfairly so since he hadn’t done anything to offend her, not really. On the contrary, since they’d met he’d been thoughtful and protective and sensitive too, in a severe kind of way. Even now he was still being thoughtful and protective!

But she was angry, not just at him, but at her whole situation. Somehow he made her feel even more powerless than before. It wasn’t his fault, but if they’d never met then she would only have had Scaevola and Tarquinius to worry about. Without him she wouldn’t have imagined, even for a moment, that her future could have been anything more than a prison.

She heaved a sigh, oppressed by the thought. If only it had been someone else who’d come to greet her! If only it had been someone else who’d defended her the previous evening, too. But it had been him, the only man apart from her father who’d ever stood up for her, who’d put a stop to Scaevola’s insulting behaviour as if he’d been personally offended. Now the fact that she ought to feel grateful made her even more irritated. But it was only right that she thank him.

‘About yesterday evening...’ she strove to sound calmer than she felt ‘...thank you for interrupting when you did. I hope you weren’t in any trouble for it.’

‘No.’

‘Good. I appreciated your help.’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I only stated the facts. You and your daughter were tired.’

‘None the less.’

She repeated his words ironically and saw one side of his mouth twitch upwards. It was the first time she’d seen any hint of a smile from him and it made her feel slightly less irritable.

‘Are you going somewhere?’ She gestured at his cloak. ‘You said you were in the stables.’

‘I’m visiting some of the other forts today.’

‘Then you shouldn’t let me detain you. I’m sure you’re eager to be going.’

‘It can wait.’ He gave her a look that suggested the subject wasn’t up for further discussion. ‘I’ll be here until you’re ready, lady.’

She sighed again and leaned forward against the parapet, gazing into the distance, but it was no use. There wasn’t even the faintest hint of a wall on the horizon. Meanwhile, Marius’s refusal to leave was infuriating. Perhaps he was right and she ought to go back, but she refused to be coerced, even for her own good.

‘Have you ever been north of the wall?’ She glanced back over her shoulder at him.

‘Yes.’

‘More than once?’

‘More than once.’

‘More than ten times?’

His lips twitched again. ‘I’ve lost count, lady.’

‘Oh... Have you ever been attacked?’

‘Yes.’

She twisted around fully this time. ‘Do you agree with Scaevola, then? Do you think that Caledonians are all savages?’