To Love Again - Bertrice Small [128]
At the foot of the stairs was a small door in the entry wall, so cleverly hidden that Cailin had not noticed it before. The guardsman pressed the wall in a certain spot, and the door opened to reveal a second flight of steps. She hurried down them, following the young soldier. They entered what Cailin realized was the main corridor to the imperial box. The tunnel was well-lit with torches, and several feet down from where they had entered the guardsman stopped, and pressing upon the wall, revealed another door which sprang open at his touch. Before them was a room, and within it a woman who turned at the sound of the door opening.
“Come in,” she said in a low, well-modulated voice. “Wait for us outside, John,” she ordered the guardsman. “You have done well.”
The door shut behind Cailin, who bowed politely to Verina.
“You do not look like a whore,” the empress said frankly.
“I am not one,” Cailin replied quietly.
“Yet you lived at Villa Maxima for several months, and took part in what I am told was one of the most notorious entertainments ever seen in this or any other city,” Verina said. “If you are not a whore, then what exactly are you?”
“My name is Cailin Drusus, and I am a Briton. My family descends from the great Roman family. My ancestor, Flavius Drusus, was a tribune in the Fourteenth Gemina Legion, and came to Britain with the emperor Claudius. My father was Gaius Drusus Corinium. Almost two years ago I was kidnapped and sold into slavery. I was a wife and a mother when this happened. I was brought in a consignment of slaves to this city. Jovian Maxima bought me in the common market for four folles, lady. What he did with me you are obviously aware. My lord Aspar rescued me from that shameful captivity, and freed me,” Cailin finished proudly.
Verina was fascinated. “You have the look of a patrician, and you speak well,” she said. “You live as Aspar’s mistress, don’t you, Cailin Drusus? They say he loves you not just with his body, but with his heart as well. I did not think him capable of such a weakness.”
“Is love then a weakness, majesty?” Cailin said softly.
“For those in power it is,” the empress replied honestly. “Those in power must never have any weakness that can be exploited against them. Yes, love of a woman, of children, of any kind, is a weakness.”
“Yet your priests teach that love conquers all,” Cailin said.
“You are not a Christian, then?” Verina asked.
“Father Michael, who was sent to me by the patriarch, says that I am not yet ready to be baptized a Christian. He says I ask too many questions, and have not the proper humility for a woman. The apostle Paul, I have been told, said that women should humble themselves before men. I am afraid I am not humble enough,” Cailin replied.
Verina laughed. “If most of us were not baptized as infants, we should never be, for we lack humility as well, Cailin Drusus, but you must be baptized if you are to become Aspar’s wife. The general of the Eastern Armies cannot have a pagan for a wife. It will not be tolerated. Surely you can deceive this Father Michael into believing you have learned humility.”
Aspar’s wife? She could not have heard the empress correctly.
Verina saw the startled look on Cailin’s beautiful face, and divined immediately what had caused it. “Yes,” she told the surprised girl. “You heard me correctly. I said, Aspar’s wife,’ Cailin Drusus.”
“I have been told that it is impossible for me to attain such a status, majesty,” Cailin said slowly. She had to think. “I have been told that there is a law in Byzantium forbidding marriages between the nobility and those who are actresses and entertainers. I have been told that the time I spent at Villa Maxima would negate my patrician birth.”
“It is important to me,” Verina answered her, “that I retain the goodwill and support of General Aspar. It is true that you came here as a slave and served as an entertainer