The big man struggled to meet her eyes.
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know any other way to say it. I should have made you come away with me when I had the chance.’
‘I didn’t mean that. The rape wasn’t your fault, it was Petrus’s, and seeing that he’s to be nailed to a cross I can hardly complain that he’s not paid for it. And I’ve had worse things happen to me in the last fifteen years. I’m asking if you can organise some part of your life around a woman like me. I can’t stay here, not now that I understand the reality of my trade. No matter how thoroughly your tribune cleans up the city there will always be gangs, and gangs will always see women like me as property, nothing more. And I won’t ever be a man’s property again. Can you live with me on those terms? They’re all I have to offer.’
He nodded, taking her hand.
‘I made the mistake once. I won’t make it again. And I have my own life as a centurion, so I can’t exactly complain if you choose to live the way that fits you best. What will you do?’
She smiled at him knowingly.
‘I thought I might ask the doctor if she needs a volunteer orderly. She tells me that she lost her last assistant last year, and since then she’s had nothing better than a succession of dull-minded soldiers working for her. And who knows, perhaps I can…’
She fell silent as the soldier put his head round the door.
‘Begging your pardon, Centurion, but the tribune requests your presence in the basilica.’
Annia smiled at him, shooing him away.
‘See, there’s that life of yours. I’m going to have a bit of a sleep, and then I’m going to talk to the doctor and make her an offer of my services. Come by later on with a flask of wine, and hopefully we can drink to my new life.’
Julius marched into the tribune’s office in the basilica with his vine stick under his arm and stamped to attention, guessing that the tribune had summoned him for the difficult conversation he’d been expecting ever since the cohorts’ return. Scaurus glanced up at him from the desk, gesturing with a wry look at the scrolls and tablets vying for his attention.
‘Stand easy, Centurion. You’ve got a powerful habit of getting my attention, Julius. If you’re not destroying whole granaries by incinerating their contents, then you’re deserting your command and running about the city rescuing female civilians who are apparently possessed of absolutely no military value whatsoever. You are a highly trained and capable officer of inestimable military value to both me and this cohort, and you put yourself at risk. You put your century at risk by leaving them under the command of your chosen man at a time when enemy attack was imminent. And, to be frank, your actions in defence of the grain store may well have destroyed what’s left of my career, unless we can turn some of this stolen gold to making amends.’
Julius stared straight ahead, ready for whatever punishment the tribune chose to deliver to him, but the tribune had already turned away without waiting for an answer, pointing to a sword lying across the chair next to his desk. Julius recognised it as Frontinius’s weapon, traditionally passed from each first spear to his successor.
‘As if all this weren’t enough, I’ve still got the major problem of not having a clear successor for Sextus Frontinius. It clearly can’t be you, given your recent escapades, so if you’ve got any ideas as to who among your colleagues would make a worthy successor, then please feel free to share them with me.’
Julius thought for a moment.
‘Corvus, Dubnus and Caelius are all too young. Clodius and Otho are both too brutal and Milo’s not brutal enough. Titus could do it, after a fashion, but he’d not thank you for the opportunity.’ He sighed, shaking his head. ‘It’s at times like these I miss Rufius the most. That, and whenever Dubnus starts getting uppity…’
The tribune walked back across the room and stood in front of him with a fierce expression.
‘Do you take me for a fool, Centurion?’
Scaurus waited in silence, and Julius realised that this was one of those rare questions that — although it invited the man being asked to venture a negative opinion of the man doing the asking — he was actually expected to answer.
‘No, Tribune, far from it.’
His superior kept staring at him, to the point where even the imperturbable centurion was starting to feel discomfort at the tight smile on the tribune’s face.
‘Really? It was the only conclusion I was able to come to when I considered our relative records over the last twenty-four hours. While I was away chasing down a non-existent threat I left you and your century to guard the procurator’s gold. Instead of which you managed not only to safeguard the money, but also to free an innocent civilian, a victim of my stupidity in leaving the gold so lightly guarded that Petrus and his cronies believed it was theirs for the taking if they just applied a little leverage with your woman. I scarcely have to add that the honey in this particular cake is your single-handed destruction of Obduro’s band with your inspired idea to set fire to the grain dust. I heard the storeman’s warning of how a spark from a hobnail could set a whole granary alight just as clearly as you, but I’m not sure that I would have been clever enough to use that potential for destruction as a weapon.’
He sat back with an equable expression, prompting Julius to frown at his words.
‘But the damage to the grain store? And your ca-’
‘Career? To buggery with my career, First Spear. I’m never going to be a legatus, not unless something truly unprecedented happens to uproot the current political realities. I’m not from a good enough family, you see. Besides which, by the time we’ve rebuilt the store and restocked it, we’ll still have enough gold to make a very favourable impression on the local governor. Have you seen the casualty figures? No? I’ll read them to you. We took thirteen dead and another seven wounded, mostly as the result of stopping flying bricks, whereas the bandits had almost ninety men killed, the same number wounded and of the rest of them barely a tenth got away. Most of the men we captured were still wandering about with their senses blasted out of them. They were too close to the granaries when the dust ignited, you see, and the flying debris seems to have gone through them like a reaping hook.’ He stood up, advancing round his desk with his hand extended. ‘Well done, Centurion, and not just for pulling my testicles out of the fire. The day when we forget our duty to the innocents who’re caught between us and the enemy will be a sad day. Your friend’s profession is of no relevance whatsoever. She was just such an innocent caught between two enemies, and you did the right thing. You plan to look after her, I imagine?’
He turned away without waiting for an answer, pointing to the first spear’s sword.
‘You’re the natural successor to the ownership of that honourable blade, and in just a minute I’m going to invite you to strap it on and take charge of the First Cohort. You can help me to choose a man to lead the Second as one of your first tasks. Being in charge of two cohorts is too much for any man in my opinion. But before I invite you to change your life forever, let’s just be clear on something that’s very important to me.’ He looked the centurion hard in the eye. ‘If you ever feel that I or any other officer in this cohort is making a mistake of the size that nearly ended in disaster yesterday, you are to tell me so, and to keep telling me until I start listening to your concerns. Is that clear?’
Julius nodded, looking at his superior with a new-found respect.
‘Yes, sir. Crystal clear. Of course I’ll have to discuss this with my brother officers. It’s our tradition, sir.’
Scaurus smiled again, slapping the big man on the shoulder and then reaching over for the first spear’s sword, putting the weapon into Julius’s reverentially extended hands.
‘I know that your tradition says that the cohort’s first spear must be chosen by a gathering of the officers, and whilst I could override that convention I don’t really see the need to do so, since I fully expect your brother officers to be as clear-headed on the matter as I am. And until that decision is made I am ordering you to assume the duties of the role on a temporary basis. Carry on, First Spear.’