"Matchmaking?" I heard stridency in my voice and dropped it to a whisper instantly, so that I sounded merely foolish. "Oh. Is he?"
"Well, isn't he? I cannot imagine him leaving me alone with any other man at night under any circumstances. "
I swallowed, feeling highly uncomfortable. "I see. Would you rather go to sleep now? I mean, rather than stay here? With me, I mean?" I cursed myself for being a fool, providing her with opportunities to flee.
"No, thank you. I am quite comfortable. This has been a lovely evening. I have no wish to end it yet. "
That made me feel better, but the silence fell again, leaden and unbreakable by any effort of mine.
"My name is Luceiia. "
I blinked in surprise. "I know. " She was smiling strangely. I felt I had missed something. "Why would you say that?"
"What? That my name is Luceiia? Because it is, and I like it, and you have not said it once since we met. Although it seems to me that you called me at first by another name. What was it?"
I cleared my throat nervously. "Cassie, " I croaked, then I cleared my throat again. The name sounded strange on my tongue, like one from an ancient tale. Cassie might have been a figure from some dream, a ghostly presage of the woman I saw before me now. "When I first saw you, there in the atrium with your back to me, you reminded me of her. She was someone I knew a very long time ago, when I was just a boy. "
"She must have been important to you. "
"Yes, and no. I only met her once, one afternoon. "
"But you remember her still. "
I was growing more confident, coming to terms with the long-held memories of a boy, and gauging them beside the current evaluations of a man. I shook my head, dismissing Luceiia's comment.
"Not really. I recall the feelings she stirred in me, the mood she created. But in my mind she is still fifteen. She's a memory, no more. She had your kind of beauty, dark hair like yours, and she wore blue. "
"Were you sorry when you saw I was not she?" This time her eyes were not lifted to meet mine, and I smiled at the top of her head.
"No. Not at all. How could I be? Cassie was a child, and so was I. " There was silence for the space of a few heartbeats, then she said, "It's an unusual name. Cassie. "
"Short for Cassiopeiia. I don't even know if that was her real name. "
"Cassiopeiia.... It's a beautiful name. "
"No more than Luceiia. That is a beautiful name. " She looked up and smiled. "Say it again. "
"Luceiia. "
She was grinning now. "That's much better. Twice better. Now I feel as if we have been properly introduced. " I found myself grinning back at her.
"You are a fascinating man, Publius Varrus, " she continued. "I feel as if I have known you all my life, and now that we have really met, the feeling has not changed. The only thing I did not know was what you really look like. "
"And?"
"And what?"
" Do I look anything like the person you had imagined? " She smiled, and there was a teasing mischief there. "Well, now. How should I answer that?" I waited. "I could tell you that I had imagined you to be so handsome that the reality was bound to fall short of my expectations.... "
I was not used to playing games of words with women, and my face must have shown some of the insecurity I was feeling, because suddenly the mockery was gone from her smile and her expression was one of total sincerity as she continued.
"Caius talked incessantly of you. It was 'Varrus this' and 'Varrus that'
and 'Varrus would have... ' from morning to night, and my brother talks that way of no one else. It is not his way. Naturally, being curious about this paragon of military virtue and solid, straight-thinking values, I used to ask him things about you that might give me some idea of what you looked like. The picture I finally formed of you was almost perfect. I knew that you were tall, broad-shouldered and immensely strong in the arms and body. I knew that your hair was dark brown and cut short in the army style, and that you wore a short beard and moustache. I knew that there was enough grey in your beard and on your head to give you a silvery look from a distance. I knew that you had all of your teeth and that you laughed easily and often. And I knew that you had received a terrible wound in my brother's service that left you crippled, or at least with a permanent limp."
I felt a head-splitting rush of mortification at her casual reference to my crippled state, and then it was replaced by a growing wonder that she was not embarrassed in any way to mention it. She did not even find it worthy of further comment. She accepted it as being part of me and kept right on talking.
"The only thing I did not know, could not know, was the balance of your features, the shape of them, the expressions you would have. So your face was always a blank to me. Until today. Until now. "
I got up and placed another log on the dwindling fire, not wishing to lose the sight of her face to the gathering darkness that was crowding in on the dying flames. I had not felt so foolishly juvenile since I had stopped being foolishly juvenile, and I did not want her to stop talking. Her voice was low and pleasantly husky in a way that I had never heard before in a woman. A fountain of sparks jetted up from the fire-pit and I felt several burning pinpricks on my hand. I sat down again across from her, waiting for her to resume speaking, but she was waiting for me. I wanted very badly to ask her if she was pleased with the filled-in blanks, but I would have sat there all night before the courage came to me to voice the words. She laughed that lovely laugh again. "And now you sit there wondering if I like what I see, but too unsure of yourself to ask me. Am I correct?" She raised one eyebrow exactly the way her brother would have done, and I had to smile and nod my head. "Well, sir, you may wonder and wonder. There are some things a Roman lady does not do, and one of them is to flatter strange men. "
I had to chew on that one for a few seconds before I was able to see that it was a compliment.
"There now!" she said. "Having dealt with you, I think we should talk about me next. Don't you think that would be a delightful topic?" I had to laugh, feeling better and more relaxed by the minute with this marvellous woman. "Completely, " I said. "What do you think I should know about you, since I have not had the benefit of your brother's constant descriptions to prepare me for you?"
Her eyebrows went up. "You mean Caius failed to warn you of my beauty? My wit? My brilliance?"
"I was aware of nothing more than your name. " I grinned, now feeling almost miraculously at ease. She pretended to be upset, pouting her full lower lip slightly and frowning. "But I'm grateful to him, " I went on.
"Had I known the truth, I would never have been able to endure waiting to meet you. He did, however, tell me that you are his favourite sister. "
"Well, at least that's something, I suppose. Never mind that I am his only sister. "
"Seriously, " I said, smiling in sheer pleasure. "What should I know about you?"
"I wonder, " she said, and paused, frowning in mock concentration.
"What should you know about me?" She pursed her lips, giving me lots of time to admire the contours and the softness of them. "First of all, you should know that I am really delighted that you are here. I really have wanted to meet you for years. I think, too, you should know that I am regarded as something of an oddity because I refuse to behave like a woman, in that I am unwilling to do nothing except have babies. I have a mind, and I enjoy learning. I can hardly wait to have you tell me about your skystone. " She paused, thinking her next words over, and then went on. "You should also know that I am extremely unlucky when it comes to husbands. I have lost two so far, which explains why I am here, a twenty-five-year-old widow in the home of my brother, when I should be happy in a home of my own rearing large numbers of small Britannici. " Startled by this information, I stood up, then moved to sit on the bench by her side. "Two?"