Douglas Jackson: Saviour of Rome

Tabitha sat demurely by his side as a stream of richly clad men approached to offer their congratulations, but he knew that, like him, she was thinking of what was to come. They’d lived together in a town house on the Esquiline since returning from Jerusalem, but Olivia insisted they spend the last month apart and to his surprise Tabitha had readily agreed. She moved in with his sister at Fidenae while Valerius spent the longest month of his life poring over the estate accounts or working on the occasional legal case to keep him from dying of boredom. The men who stooped to whisper their regards were Valerius’s clients: merchants, lawyers and ambitious minor politicians. Valerius was their patron, just as he was client to Titus. They expected him to use his influence to help them advance, and they in turn were obliged to provide support when he requested it. As the familiar faces passed by Valerius sipped his wine and ate a little of the sumptuous food, always conscious of Tabitha’s presence.

After the dinner came the ordeal of the wedding procession through the dusk to Valerius’s new villa, two miles to the north, where rooms had been prepared. They were accompanied by a small army of slaves and servants who shouted ribald and often lewd comments about the groom’s romantic prowess and the bride’s fertility. The singing was loud, out of tune and boisterous, and more than one guest or couple went missing in the dark on the way. Still, the proper rites were performed: the placing of one of three coins with the god of the crossroads, the next handed to the groom by Titus as a token of Tabitha’s dowry, and the third retained for the god of the house. At one point Olivia appeared from the darkness at Valerius’s side.

‘You are fortunate among men, brother, to have made such a match,’ she whispered. ‘I was not certain at first when you returned from the east with your exotic mistress. If I had thought you would listen I would have advised you to keep her that way and find yourself a Roman maiden of status.’

‘And now?’ He kept his voice equally low with Tabitha on his opposite side talking with a servant’s awestruck daughter about her faraway homeland.

‘Now I have come to know Tabitha and see her true worth.’ Olivia locked eyes with her brother. ‘In many ways she is a remarkable woman, clever, well read and insightful. Without fear, or she would not have given up everything she knows to follow you to what, for her, is an alien place. She loves you, but does not worship you. She is strong where it matters, in her heart, which you will discover if you ever stray from the path of right and justice. She will bring you joy and she will test you. She is the right woman for you, Gaius Valerius Verrens. We have become friends.’

He smiled at his sister. ‘I hoped you would.’

Valerius felt Tabitha’s touch on his arm and Olivia faded back into the crowd. And then they were alone. The rituals complete. The sound of the guests quietly fading, but for the occasional cry of passion or protest. The servants silent. It seemed unnatural at first. They had spent so much time at the centre of a whirlpool of ceremonies and celebrations it was difficult to believe they were together at last.

Tabitha looked slowly around the room, the walls lit by a dozen flickering oil lamps. They’d discussed the decoration together, but this was the first time Tabitha had seen the results. The painter had turned the wall plaster into a series of framed panoramas so it appeared the occupants were looking out from a window across open country. One of them showed a desert scene, so Tabitha would always have a connection to her homeland. Another, a mountain vista that reminded Valerius of a journey he’d once made with Serpentius through the high Alps. There were fields and forests and beaches so lifelike you wondered why the birds and animals didn’t move.

She came to him and laid her head on his shoulder. When they were close it always amazed him how someone who could dominate a room with her beauty and the force of her personality could be so small and vulnerable. The warmth of her body seemed to seep into him and he allowed himself to relax for the first time since the ceremony.

‘Come,’ he said, leading her towards the bed in the centre of the room.

She took her place on the coverlet and studied him with a look of enquiry that transformed into a smile of pure mischief. ‘Is this when I am supposed to struggle and squeal as if I am afraid of the terrible thing that is about to happen to me?’

Valerius laughed. ‘Is that what Olivia told you?’

‘She said that is what a virtuous Roman maiden would do, even if she was not so virtuous.’

‘But you are not a Roman maiden.’

‘Or virtuous. So …’ she looked significantly at the Knot of Hercules at her waist.

The silken loops seemed to fall away beneath his fingers. When it was undone he moved to join her on the bed, but she slipped over the edge and stood facing him with her head at the height of his chin. When she looked up, the reflection of the oil lamps in her eyes made them seem as if they were filled with fire.

‘An Emesan maiden would dance for you, and her dress would be made up of veils which she would remove one by one, revealing a little more of herself each time.’ Her voice was husky with passion and Valerius felt as if there was a stone in his throat. ‘But since I am a Roman wife I am at my husband’s command. Ask what you will of me.’

Valerius felt a sudden wave of desire and he had to resist the urge to carry her back to the bed and … ‘Remove your stola .’

She did as he ordered, but very slowly, her fingers plucking nervously at the cotton as she unwound it from her body.

‘Now your dress.’

Tabitha unfastened the brooches at her shoulders and allowed the dress to fall away, her eyes never leaving his. Beneath she wore a translucent white shift that clung to her body and hinted at the tantalizing swellings and hollows beneath.

‘All.’ He almost choked on the word. ‘I want to see it all.’

Her hands reached for the bottom of the shift.

Everything they did and everything they felt was as new and fresh as the first time, but with an intensity neither had experienced before. A lifetime on earth is but an hour in Elysium. Valerius had no idea how long they spent there, only that when he woke it was daylight and the world seemed a brighter, better place and a new Gaius Valerius Verrens had taken his place in it. He had never felt so alive. It wouldn’t have surprised him to pull back the sheet and find he had a right hand.

He smiled and lay back and a beautiful nymph’s face appeared above his. ‘You look very pleased with yourself?’

‘A certain lady gave me reason to believe I have every right.’

She slipped on top of him, so he could feel the firmness of her breasts against his chest, and something interesting was happening lower down.

‘I wish it could be like this for ever.’

He was about to say it could be, then he remembered the summons from the Emperor.

‘He will take you away from me,’ Tabitha sighed when he told her.

‘It could be anything. Perhaps he wants to give me a position at court?’

‘No.’ She seemed certain. ‘I saw it in Emesa and with Queen Berenice. To the Emperor a man like you is a weapon, one to be used sparingly and only in time of dire need, but a weapon all the same. Any new honour would come through Titus. If the Emperor has sent for you it is to send you into danger.’ She raised her head and kissed him full on the lips. ‘We must make use of what time we have.’

Much later he heard a whisper.

‘Promise me one thing, Valerius.’

‘If it is in my power.’

‘Come back to me.’