To Love Again - Bertrice Small [15]
“Do you really think so?” Cailin said. “Oh, dear!”
Brenna joined her granddaughter as the other girls drifted away. “You scheme like a Druid, Cailin Drusus,” she murmured.
“The sooner he is married off,” Cailin said, “the safer I will be. Thanks be to the gods that he did not like me on sight. There is something about him, Grandmother. I cannot put my finger on it, but I feel Quintus Drusus is a danger to me, to us all. I hope he weds Antonia Porcius for her wealth, and her connections. I will not be content until he is gone from our home.” She looked into Brenna’s kindly face. “You do not think me foolish to feel so strongly?”
“No,” Brenna said. “I have always said you were more Celt than your brothers. The voice within calls to you, warns you about Quintus Drusus. Listen to it, my child. That voice will never play you false. It is when we do not listen to that voice that we make errors in judgment. Always trust your instincts, Cailin,” her grandmother counseled.
Chapter 2
“With so many lovely girls in the province to choose from, why on earth did Quintus marry Antonia Porcius?” Kyna wondered aloud to her husband and family.
Their cousin’s very lavish wedding had been celebrated the morning prior in Corinium. They were now traveling back to their own villa, which was some eighteen miles from the town; a good day’s travel. Gaius and his sons were astride their horses. The three women rode in an open cart. They journeyed with a large party of families from nearby villas. The neighbors had banded together to employ a strong troop of men-at-arms for their protection along the road.
“Antonia is a very attractive woman,” Gaius answered his wife.
“That is not what I mean,” Kyna said sharply, “and you well know it, Gaius! Quintus might have chosen a virgin of good family. Instead he decided upon a divorced woman with two children, and a father who cannot let his daughter be. Anthony Porcius will not be an easy father-in-law, as poor Sextus Scipio found to his dismay.”
“Come now, my dear,” Gaius Drusus told her, “you know as well as I do that Quintus fixed his sights on Antonia for several reasons. She is rich. Her lands match the lands I gave him. There is little mystery to it, Kyna. Quintus was promised land and a wife if he came to Britain. Of course, I had intended that wife to be Cailin; but since Cailin would not have him—and indeed, if I must be honest, she and Quintus would have been a bad match—Quintus chose wisely in Antonia. He is strong enough to control her. It will be a good marriage.”
“I thought they made a most handsome couple,” Cailin ventured.
Her mother laughed. “You would have thought Quintus and Hecate made a good couple if it would save you from marrying him, my daughter. Now what will you do for a mate?”
“When the right man comes along, Mother, I shall know it,” Cailin replied confidently.
“Why is it,” Flavius asked, “that Antonia and Quintus chose you to be one of their witnesses, little sister?”
Cailin smiled with false sweetness. “Why, Flavius, did you not know? I introduced our cousin Quintus to my dear friend Antonia. I suppose they believe that having played Cupid, I am responsible, in part, for the great happiness they have found in each other.”
“Cailin!” her mother exclaimed. “You introduced Quintus and Antonia to each other? You never told me this before. I wondered how they met that day.”
“Did I not mention it, Mother? I suppose it slipped my mind because I thought it of no import,” Cailin answered. “Yes, I did introduce them. It was at the Liberalia, when my brothers became men.”
“You plot like a Druid!” her mother said.
“Grandmother said the same thing,” Cailin admitted mischievously.
“I certainly did,” Brenna agreed. “Of your three whelps, she is most like a Dobunni Celt. Berikos would approve of her.”
“Mother,” Cailin asked, “why did Berikos disapprove of your marriage to Father?