Kushiel's Scion - Jacqueline Carey [239]
We all inclined our heads and murmured polite greetings.
It was the first time I'd seen Claudia since I'd ended our affair. She tilted her head, glancing out the carriage window and shading her eyes with one hand as she greeted us. Even in the shadowy depths of the carriage, I could see she was wearing a dress of bronze silk with ribbons laced beneath her breasts. I swallowed at the sight of the deep cleft of her cleavage.
"You remember my friends, Claudia?" Lucius asked.
"Oh, yes," she said.
Our eyes met. I felt a flush of heat that began in my groin and travelled upward. Beads of sweat sprang forth at my hairline, trickling down my temples. Sweat. I remembered the taste of hers all too well. And I hadn't been with a woman, any woman, for weeks. Not since the day after the riots. Not since Claudia.
"Imri." Eamonn touched my arm. "The Bastard looks restless. Shall we have a race to take the edge off?"
"I want to race!" Brigitta said promptly.
"Why not?" Lucius laughed. "Let's all race, shall we? All of Master Piero's loyal disciples." He pointed down the road. "To the tall cypress and back!"
Without waiting, he set heels to his mount; a sturdy black with a pronounced arch to its neck and a tidy gait. It surged forward and the rest of us gave chase, yelling and shouting.
It wasn't much of a race, not really; but then, Eamonn hadn't meant it to be. He'd only proposed it to distract me. His mount fell behind, and then Brigitta's, although she rode well. I held the Bastard back until I passed them. Ahead of us, Lucius reached the cypress and executed a neat turn, grinning as he passed me on the return leg. I had to fight with the Bastard, who wanted to keep going. At the cypress, I fought for control of the reins, guiding him hard with my knees. I was out of the habit, and he managed to spin around twice in a circle. Once I had him pointed in the right direction, I gave him his head and let him go.
He fairly exploded beneath me.
When it comes to breeding horses, the Tsingani know what they are about. The Bastard stretched out his neck and ran like a house afire. His nostrils flared, his striped hooves pounding the old Tiberian road as his forelegs reached and his hindquarters churned. I crouched low over his neck, laughing at Lucius' dismayed expression when we floated past him.
We overshot the party, and I had to wrestle the Bastard into another turn. He acceded at last, prancing and preening all the way back.
"Nice horse, lad!" Deccus Fulvius poked his head out of the carriage. "Would you consider parting with him?"
I shook my head. "No, my lord."
He grunted. "Smart lad."
So our party was established, and we rode to Lucca. We were four days on the road, and the days I learned to endure. It wasn't hard. The days were easy, bright and clear. I was among friends, and I had Gilot at my side, trusted and faithful. Claudia was there, yes, but it was easy to pretend she wasn't, so long as she remained sequestered in the carriage.
It was harder at night.
We stayed at inns along the road to Lucca, and at night we were all there together in the common room, eating and drinking and enjoying Deccus Fulvius' largesse. He was no fool; was investing goodwill in Lucius' future. The prospective Prince of Lucca was a formidable ally for Senator Deccus Fulvius. But ah, Elua! I had to see her, then; be near her. And the truth came home to me: I still wanted her, badly.
It was a mercy that Deccus was there. His presence rendered Claudia's behavior circumspect. She bent most of her attention toward Brigitta, taking the young Skaldi woman beneath her wing, speaking to her of women's affairs. She was kind, which surprised me a little. It shouldn't have. Claudia Fulvia was trained in the arts of covertcy, and she used them.
Kindness could be a means to an end.
Deccus was pleased and magnanimous with it; Lucius was pleased, too. It made him happy to behold his sister's kindness. Eamonn, who knew the truth of my relationship with Claudia, was warier, though I daresay no one but I knew it. And who could say? Mayhap