To Love Again - Bertrice Small [143]
“You have chosen well,” he said. “No one can help but approve, but I will never call you anything but Cailin, my love. To the world you will be Anna-Marie, the wife of Flavius Aspar, but it is Cailin with whom I fell in love, and will continue to love for all time.”
“I cannot believe that the emperor and the patriarch have at last given their consent,” Cailin told him, her eyes wet with tears.
“Neither of them are fools, my love,” Aspar told her. “Your introduction into Byzantine society could hardly be called a conventional one,” he said with a small smile, “yet both Leo and the church know your behavior since I bought and freed you has been far more circumspect than most of the women at court, especially in light of the current scandal surrounding Basilicus’s wife, Eudoxia. As for me, I have given my life for Byzantium, and if in my later years I cannot have what I so deeply desire, what further use will I be to the empire?”
“Did you tell them that?” Cailin asked, surprised that he would have lowered his guard so greatly before the emperor and the patriarch.
“Aye, I did,” Aspar admitted, and then chuckled. “The threat was merely implied, my love. I hold a great advantage over the emperor in that there is no other soldier of my standing who can lead the armies of the empire. If I were to retire from public life.…” He smiled at her again. “I left it to their imaginations. It did not take long for Leo to decide, and he argued the patriarch into acquiescence most convincingly. The emperor has recently learned the value of a loyal and virtuous wife.
“Then having gained my heart’s desire, I was forced to sit through a banquet, which is why I was so late in arriving last night. Did you miss me greatly, my love?”
“I missed you terribly,” she flattered him, “but I was not too lonely. Arcadius finished the statue. It now stands in the garden, my wedding gift to you, Aspar. He has also counseled me most wisely on the court. I shall remain a party to no faction, I promise you.”
“Do you want to go to court?” he asked, surprised.
“Not really,” Cailin told him. “Arcadius says it is my duty once I am the wife of the First Patrician of the empire, but I would far prefer to remain here in the country.”
“Then you shall,” he told her. “Arcadius is just an old gossip. You will, of course, be expected to appear at state functions where I am required to be but, otherwise, if you choose to live a quiet life, you most certainly may. I shall give you children to raise, and my care will naturally be foremost in your duties. Your days will be most full,” he teased her gently, running his hand across her shoulder.
“I want to raise chariot horses,” she told him. “We have spoken of it before.”
“I offer you children to raise, and you ask for horses!” He pretended to be offended, but Cailin knew better.
Pushing him back amid the pillows, she kissed him, sliding her hands across his hard chest. “I am a clever woman, my lord. I can raise both your children, and your horses. The Celts have a way with horses.”
“You are a shameless wench to wheedle me so,” he said, rolling her beneath him, then sheathing his hardness within her soft body. “How many stallions will you need?” he demanded, moving subtly upon her, pleased to see the look on her face turning to one of passion. How he had missed her!
“I but need this stallion, my sweet lord,” she told him, molding her body tightly to his as he stoked her pleasure, “but two champions should do for the herd of mares we will assemble. Ohhhhhh!” The gods! She had missed him more than she realized!
He ceased his movements and lay easily atop her, his hands carressing the sweet small melons of her breasts. He wanted to prolong this interlude. From the first moment he had taken her, he felt like a young man again. The feeling had never diminished in the months that they were together. With Anna there was respect. With Flacilla there was nothing. But Cailin! With Cailin he had found everything! He had never even dreamed that such love between two people was possible, yet here it was. “You are certain you