“Sir.”
“I’m off to report to the Governor. I expect everything to be arranged for when I return.”
“When will that be, sir?”
“I don’t know; a week?”
“Sir.”
We watched the young popinjay flounce across the yard to shout for his horse and his clerk. The latter was a young man, barely out of his teens. Probably another high-born Roman lad, destined for leadership by his influential parents.
“Is he fucking his clerk?” I asked.
Gaius laughed.
“Why; jealous?”
I looked at him.
“Are you serious, of that little boy?”
“He might be someone, one day.”
“Fuck him; I’d rather have a man who is someone now.”
“I’m someone, and a man,” he said, somewhat hopefully, I thought.
I smiled.
“Let’s go see the armourer, shall we?” I said, leading the way.
The armourer looked dumbfounded at us, disbelieving what he’d been told.
“Women?” he asked.
“Yes, women.”
What exactly do you need?”
I produced the paper upon which I’d listed my requirements. Actually, it wasn’t paper as I’d known it. The Romans made paper from the papyrus plant[iv]. They were efficient and produced a great number of types of paper for many uses. It was expensive, so the small piece I had managed to acquire was rare.
Gaius regarded me for a moment, glancing at the paper. I’d written my list in Latin, just in case an enemy agent should get sight of or a hold of it.
“You never cease you amaze me. Where did you learn to read and write in this language?”
“I also read and write Greek, as well as a few other languages. Don’t you?”
“I can get with just this one. I know some Greek, as it is the language of commerce. Exactly where are you from?”
“If I told you, you will have never heard of it, and if you tried to find it, you’d fail.”
“The Brigantes said you were a Goddess. Were they right?”
“I don’t know, were they?”
He shrugged as the armourer regarded us with a glazed expression.
“Do you want to give me that list or not?” he said wearily.
I handed it over. He read it carefully and very slowly. I guessed he wasn’t brilliantly literate.
“These will take a while,” he said.
“Fine. Send word to me when they are ready and I’ll get the girls to come and collect them.”
The tailor was next.
“Black? That’s expensive.”
“Tribune Gallinas is paying, so that’s not a consideration,” I said. The man grinned, displaying a singular lack of teeth.
Just as the armourer, my order would take two or three weeks to complete. Fortunately, there was not much work for them at this moment. More troops were due to arrive in Britain at some point in the next few weeks, but they were due to go to another camp, so things were quiet at this particular camp for the foreseeable future.
Gaius and I walked back across the camp. I stopped and looked out of the main gate at the city to the south.
“Have you been to Londinium before?” I asked.
“Aye, we disembarked here two years ago. It’s grown some since then.”
“I’d like to see it, but not like this,” I said, gesturing to my somewhat militaristic, but obviously female garb.
“You mean I have to disguise you? That’ll be novel,” he said, chuckling.
“What do you suggest?”
“You’re too big to walk about as a Roman woman. Besides, you’re too fair and tanned. If you dress as a local woman, you’d never carry it off, for similar reasons.”
“So, then what as?”
He grinned.
“Come with me,” he said, with a sneaky smile.
“You have to be kidding!” I said, as he placed the helmet on my head, successfully hiding my hair, which I’d put up.
“Okay, I’m sorry that your breasts are a bit squashed, but the breastplate is a good fit otherwise.”
I was dressed as a centurion, in full kit with red cloak, plumed helmet and burnished breastplate. I even had the sword on the belt across my shoulder so it hung in the right place by my left side.
He was dressed similarly, except he had a larger plume on his helmet, being a senior centurion.
“Technically you’re simply wearing the uniform that denotes your new rank,” he said. “No one would recognise you, even your own mother.”
“Particularly my own mother,” I said.
“Shall we go?” he asked.
“Look, you don’t have to come,” I said.
“Don’t be stupid, of course I’m coming. You’re up to something, and I am not going to be fobbed off.”
Unwittingly, I had recruited an ally, and I wasn’t inclined to fob him off. The last agent died a nasty death, so I was determined to succeed where he failed.
“Okay, come on,” I said, and we walked out into the sunshine.
I received no suspicious glances as I tried to emulate a masculine swagger. Actually, it was easy, for all I did was remember being Ed. The comic irony wasn’t lost on me. Here I was, a man being a woman, dressed as a man. The grin I held was irrepressible.
Being the senior centurion, as with modern military, Gaius took the salutes and acknowledgements from the lower ranks. I simply marched slightly to his rear at one side, as was expected.
It was fascinating walking down through the collection of buildings that would one day be London. It was amazingly well laid out and organised. The Roman military machine was responsible for the design and execution of this little miracle. A double miracle, for the Iceni had attacked and raised the last town to the ground in the sixth decade. This lot was all relatively new, built as it had been over the last thirty years. To think that in three hundred years or so, the Romans would start to leave and a time of barbarism would follow, as the people lost the advances that the Romans had produced.
The smell of horse manure and general human waste was ever pervasive. They hadn’t actually designed the sewers properly yet, so it was all a bit niffy. As we reached the north bank of the Thames, all I could see were ships alongside the quays. Big, wooden constructed warehouses littered the area, with the names of the merchants and traders above the doors.
The water flowed, carrying a lot more than water towards the sea. A lot of the smell came from the waste that flowed past.
I stopped and looked around. Where to start? That was the question.
“What are you looking for?” Gaius asked.
“A Phoenician trader called Glax.”
He frowned.
“Why?”
I looked at him, meeting his eyes.
“Because he’s responsible for killing a friend of mine, and he’s a danger to the Empire.”
“If anyone else said that, I’d laugh at them. Why is it that I think you might well be a Goddess?”
“Because you Romans see deities in everything.”
“So, you’re not denying it?”
“Don’t be an arse, Gaius; you’re more intelligent than that. I’m as mortal as you are”
“I heard that there was this man in Palestine who was crucified to death for claiming he was the son of the Jews’ God. They also said that after three days he rose out of his tomb and vanished after meeting his followers. They never found his body.”
“Do you believe it?”
He shrugged looking down at the ships.
“This world is a strange place. Gods complicate things, but to be without them would be unthinkable.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know. They said he could walk on water and bring the dead back to life. There’s pretty good evidence, don’t you think?”
I nodded, saying nothing.
“You led an army of women against a Roman legion and won. You are faster, stronger and more intelligent than anyone I have ever met. If you are a Goddess, then so be it. If you aren’t, then you damn well should be. Come, let’s find this Glax.”
Talk about a needle in a haystack.
I didn’t have a clue where to start, but Gaius did. I followed him to the dock-master. He was an older Roman, dressed in a quasi-uniform.