The Eagles Conquest

'Introduce the next officer, please.'

'Vitellius, senior.tribune of the Second, Caesar.'

'Vitellius, my boy, doing well?'

'As ever, Caesar,' Vitellius said with a smirk,

'Your father sends his g-greetings, and hopes… and hopes… ' Claudius' face crinkled,vith concentration before the memory drifted back. 'Ahl I have it now! Hopes you're keeping the f-family end up! There! Are you joining us for the f-f-feasting tonight?'

'Sorry, Caesar, but due to the onerous nature of the duties my legate heaps upon me I need an early night.'

Claudius laughed. 'Your loss, my boy. T-take care, young Vitellius, and you'll go a l-long way.'

"I fully intend to, Caesar.'

Claudius continued down the line of officers and Vitellius risked a quick wink at his fuming legate. Once the last of the senior officers had been dealt with, claudius formally saluted the standards and made the requisite libation to the army altar. Then Narcissus led the emperor to the elaborate quarters that had been erected for him within the walls of the Praetorium. As soon as Claudius was out of sight, General Plautius dismissed the officers and gave the signal for the Praetorian units and elephants to stand down. They wre being quartered in tents already prepared next to the parade ground. the closest possible position to the emperor they were sworn to protect with their lives.

Vespasian hurried up to his commander and set himself foursquare in front of him. determined to deliver his warning without any further delay. Plautius eyed him warily and pursed his lips. 'Can't it wait until after 'you've caught up with your wife?'

"No sir.'

'Allright then, a moment only.' The other tasks on his schedule before turning in were obviously going to have to be put back.

'In private, sir.' Over the shoulder of the general Vespasian could see vitellius lingering within earshot. 'What I have to say is for your ears only.'

'Damn it! I haven't time for this.'

'Yes you have, sir. Believe me.'

That the legate had risked being so insubordinate was not lost on Plautius. He nodded quickly, led the way into the headquarters lobby, and took a turn into the first office. A number of clerks looked up from their paperwork in surprise.

'Leave,' Plautius ordered, and the clerks instantly laid down their pens and scurried from the room. Plautius closed the flap and turned rbund angrily.

'Now, would you mind telling me what's so bloody important that I have to hear it in person and in private.'

Vespasian told him.

Chapter Forty

The camp on the south bank had long since settled down for the night when the flap to Flavia's chamber was lifted. A dark shadow crept in and quietly stole up to the travel bed. Vespasian trod softly into the weak glow of the single oil lamp, still burning on a nearby stand, and looked down on the sleeping form of his wife, marvelling at her perfection in repose. Flavia's face was smooth in the gentle orange glow and with lips slightly apart she breathed deeply in an even rhythm that sounded like the far-off sea. Dark strands of her hair lay across the silk bolster and he leaned forward to sniff them, smiling at the familiar scent. Straightening up, Vespasian let his eyes travel down to her breast, softly rising and falling with each breath, and then his gaze took in the ripples of silk that clung in fuller curves to the outline of her body.

For a moment he sunendered to the raw love he felt for her. She was so close that she was almost flesh of his flesh, so guileless in her slumber that she appeared to him as she had in the first hot heady days of their passion. The fruit of that passion, he knew, lay in the very next chamber.

He had looked in on young Titus before coming to his wife. The boy had been lying on his back, one arm raised across the top of his head, mouth gaping open, the shock of dark hair soft to the touch. So many of his mother's features were reproduced in him in cherubic miniature, and yet Vespasian had felt a twinge of rage at his wife for spoiling the moment.

For a while he stood gazing at his wife, then he slowly lowered himself onto the soft mattress. There was a light rustle of silk against the coarser wool of his military tunic and a displacement of the comfortable position her body had settled into while asleep. Flavia turned onto her side, disturbing the rhythm of her breathing and a loud click at the back of her throat turned into a snort. Her eyes fIickered open, closed a moment and split open again, much wider this time. She smiled.

'Thought you'd never come.'

'I'm here now.'

'I can see that. Just wondered where you'd got to.'

'I had work to do.'

Flavia propped her head up on her hand. 'So important you couldn't see me first'

Vespasian nodded. 'Yes, that important, I'm afraid.' she stared at him a moment and then suddenly wrapped her arm round his neck and drew his head down towards her. Their lips met. Soft and tentative at first, and then with the comforting firmness of a long and loving relationship. Vespasian drew back and looked down at her closed eyes

'I needed that,' she whispered. 'Any more where that came from?'

'Later.'

'Later?'

'We must talk. It can't wait.'

'Talk?' Flavia smiled. 'Surely not.'

Sliding her hand to the hem of the silk sheet, she drew it down her naked body – like a sinuous serpent sloughing off its skin, thought Vespasian. The disturbing simile drew his mind back to what he must do. Now. Without further delay. He gently grasped her hand and drew the sheet back up over her breasts. His deliberate movements astonished Flavia. She was offended and her brows drew together in a frown.

'What's the matter? Darling, tell me.'

Vespasian stared down at her with cold eyes, not trusting himself to speak before he was in control of his emotions.

Flavia was alarmed now and quickly eased herself back and up so that she was sitting facing her husband. 'You don't love me. That's it. Isn't it?' Her almond-shaped eyes widened in panic and her lips trembled. She clenched her jaw to still them.

This was not what Vespasian had anticipated; that he would have to convince her of his love first before accusing her of treason. He shook his head.

'Then what? Why are you so cold to me, husband?'

There was fear in her face now, and a look that he was reluctant to interpret as dawning suspicion that her intrigues had been discovered. Fortunately, it wasn't.

'You bastard!' She slapped him hard. 'Who is she? What's the name of the little tart?'

'What are you talking about?' Vespasian grabbed her wrist as her hand came sweeping in to deliver another blow. 'There is no other woman! This is about you!'

'Me?' Flavia froze. 'What about me?'

'I have to know about you… and your relationship to the Liberators.'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' She dropped her hands to her chest and stared at him, returning his searching gaze with what seemed to be frankness.

'You've heard of the Liberators, Flavia?'

'Of course. There've been wild rumours circulating about them for months. But what has it got to do with me?'

Vespasian looked down into his lap and his voice had a hard quality to it when he continued. 'Flavia, I know about your involvement in the plot against the Emperor. I know that you were working with those who were trying to get the army to mutiny before the invasion began. You tried to keep it all from me, but I know everything now. To conspire with these so-called Liberators was bad enough, but how could you have involved Titus in your treachery? How could you? Your own son? I also know you tried to have Narcissus killed. And now what are you and your Liberator friends up to? Supplying our enemies with weapons! Conspiring to kill the Em-'