Jenni Fletcher - The Warrior's Bride Prize

‘Only two.’ She repeated the words quietly, though with a distinct edge of bitterness.

He frowned at the implication. Bad enough that she was being sent to marry Scaevola, but to betroth her while she was still in mourning... He felt a flicker of anger towards the unseen brother. What kind of man would do such a thing?

‘You looked surprised when you saw Julia.’ She sounded anxious this time. ‘Weren’t you expecting her?’

He hesitated briefly and then shook his head. So much for not asking awkward questions...

‘No, but I only received my orders this morning. Perhaps it was simply an oversight.’

‘It wasn’t.’ She clasped her hands together in her lap with an air of conviction. ‘My brother must not have mentioned her.’

‘I understand it was your brother who arranged the betrothal.’ He wondered what on earth was compelling him to pursue the subject.

‘Yes.’ She gave a bleak-sounding laugh. ‘He knows an opportunity when he sees one. But I suppose there’s no turning back now...’

He felt an obscure sense of discomfort. The wistful note in her voice made the words sound like a question, as if she were actually asking him to let her turn back, to let her escape.

Escape? The word entered his head unexpectedly, increasing his sense of unease, though he resented its meaning. He wasn’t her captor and Coria wasn’t a prison. He was only following his orders, escorting her to a new life with a new husband, that was all. There was no coercion or force on his part. If anything, he was protecting her. There was certainly no need for him to feel guilty, even if something about her made him feel strangely defensive.

‘Is that what you want, to turn back?’ He asked the question before he could think better of it and saw her eyes widen with a look of surprise.

‘Yes...no... I don’t know.’ She looked and sounded genuinely torn. ‘That is, I want to see the wall. I’ve always wanted to see it, ever since I was a little girl...but not like this.’ She clamped her lips together as if she were trying to stop herself from saying something else and then couldn’t resist, her blue-green eyes blazing with sparks of defiance as the words seemed to burst out of her. ‘As for Lucius Scaevola, I wish he’d never come to Lindum. I wish he’d never set foot inside my brother’s tavern. Most of all, I wish I’d never heard his name!’

‘We’re almost there, lady.’

Livia pulled back the window curtain at the sound of Marius’s voice. He was walking beside the carriage, looking no different to the way he had earlier, as if the day’s march had been nothing more than a light stroll. His uniform still looked pristine, without so much as a speck of dust on it. How was that possible?

‘You mean Coria?’

‘Take a look.’

He gestured ahead and she craned her head out of the window, surprised to see that they were already entering the outskirts of a small town. There were shops and stalls and taverns as well as several stone villas, more than she would have expected at such a remote outpost.

‘Most visitors from the south are surprised.’ Marius gave her a knowing look. ‘But not everyone here is a legionary.’

‘But I thought it was a fortress?’

‘It is. Over there.’ He pointed down the street towards a tall stone palisade fronted by two massive watchtowers. ‘This is just the vicus , the town that’s grown up around it.’

‘What about the great wall? Is it behind the fort?’

‘No, lady, we’re still two miles from the wall. Coria is a base for the Sixth Legion, four cohorts of it anyway. The forts along the wall are manned by auxiliaries.’

‘Auxiliaries?’ She didn’t understand the distinction. ‘What are those?’

‘Soldiers who aren’t citizens.’

‘You mean they aren’t Roman?’ She looked at him in surprise. ‘Then why do they man the wall? Why fight for Rome?’

‘To gain their citizenship—’ he gave her a strange look as if the answer ought to be obvious ‘—once they’ve served their twenty-five years like the rest of us.’

‘So they do all the hard work while you sit back here?’

‘Not exactly.’ His expression slipped into a frown. ‘The legion was sent back from Gaul by Emperor Severus to restore those parts of the wall damaged by the northern invasion a few years ago. That means hundreds of men doing building work and providing military support where necessary. Believe me, none of us gets to sit back and do nothing.’

‘Oh...no, I suppose not.’

She bit her tongue, already regretting the words. It had been an insulting, not to mention revealing, thing to have said, and she didn’t want to offend him—or to provoke his suspicions either. After his earlier kindness to Julia she owed him better than that and criticising the Empire wasn’t an intelligent thing to do under any circumstances. The way she’d denounced Scaevola earlier had been incriminating enough, but she hadn’t been able to contain her anger at her own sense of powerlessness any longer. Still, if Marius repeated the words... Not that she thought he would. As stern as he seemed, there was something inherently trustworthy about him, or at least she thought there was. Then again, she’d been wrong about a man she’d trusted before.

‘I’m sorry.’ She adopted what she hoped was a suitably apologetic expression. ‘I’m just disappointed. I’d hoped I might get to see it today.’

That was true. Despite everything, she was still excited by the thought of catching her first glimpse of the wall and the land beyond it.

‘Indeed.’ He still sounded offended.

‘Can you see it from Coria?’

‘No, the landscape’s too hilly.’

‘Then do you think I might be allowed to visit?’

He gave her a sidelong look, as if surprised by her interest. ‘I think that might be up to your husband, lady.’

She grimaced, unwilling to talk about what her new husband would or would not let her do. After her earlier mistake, she felt more nervous than ever about meeting him. Loath as she was to admit it, she had the disturbing suspicion that no other man could possibly measure up to the one she’d thought that he was...

A soldier in one of the watchtowers called out a greeting as they entered the gateway and she pulled her head back inside the carriage, smiling at Porcia, though to her surprise, the girl didn’t look happy.

‘What’s the matter? We’ve arrived safely at last.’

‘Yes, but...’ Her maid leaned forward, as if she were afraid of being overheard. ‘What about you? What if it all happens again?’

What if...? She felt a ripple of panic start in her chest and begin to spread outwards, coursing through her veins like poison. There was no point in pretending that she didn’t understand Porcia’s meaning. She’d been thinking the same thing ever since they’d left Lindum, desperately hoping that Tarquinius was only marrying her off to be rid of her this time, without any ulterior motive. Now that she knew who her intended was, however, she had to admit that seemed unlikely. No doubt her brother had big plans for Lucius Scaevola in the future. And if he didn’t comply then Tarquinius would have no qualms about blackmailing him as well... Another ripple of panic spread outwards... And since her new husband wouldn’t be able to vent his anger on anyone else, it would all fall on her again, just as it had with Julius.

What if it did all happen again?

She shook her head helplessly. So much depended on her new husband’s character, on him being willing or able to stand up to Tarquinius. Both her and Julia’s futures depended on it.

Nervously, she peered out of the window again. They were inside the fort now, rolling down the Via Praetoria between storerooms, barracks and granaries towards the Via Principalis and what looked like the military headquarters, a huge stone building with a column-framed courtyard at the front.