To Love Again - Bertrice Small [2]
“You must be rewarded for saving my life,” he said firmly.
“I but did my duty, Caesar!” the young tribune protested.
“And in doing so you have lost your military career,” the emperor replied. “What will happen to you when you return home? You have nothing, being a younger son. In saving my life you have, in a sense, lost yours, Flavius Drusus. I would be unworthy of the noble tradition of the Caesars if I allowed such a thing. I offer you one of two choices. Think carefully before choosing. Return to Rome with honor, if you desire. I will give you both a noble wife and a pension for all of your days. Or, remain here in Britain. I will give you lands that will be yours and your descendants’ forever. I will also settle a sum of money upon you that you may build a home.”
Flavius Drusus thought a long moment. If he returned to Rome, noble wife or not, he would be forced to live in his father’s house, which would one day be his eldest brother’s house. His pension would probably not be enough for him to buy his own home. The noble wife would be some younger daughter with little of her own. How would they dower daughters, or successfully launch their sons’ careers? If he remained in Britain, however, he would have his own lands. He would not be beholden to anyone. He would found a new branch of his family, and with hard work become a rich man in his own right.
“I will stay in Britain, Caesar,” he said, knowing that he had made the right decision.
“And that,” Titus Drusus Corinium told his children in the summer of A.D. 406, “is how our family came to this land some three hundred and sixty-two years ago. The first Flavius Drusus was still alive when Queen Bodicea revolted against Rome. Though the town of Corinium, where he had settled, was not touched by the revolt, he realized then that perhaps our family would be better served by making alliances with the local Celtic tribes rather than by sending for Roman wives. So his sons married into the Dobunni tribe, and the sons and daughters who came after that have intermarried with both Celts and Roman Britons until this day.”
“And now Rome is leaving Britain,” Titus’s wife, Julia, said.
“Good riddance!” her husband answered. “Rome is finished. The Romans just don’t have the good sense to realize it. Once Rome was a great and noble power that ruled the world. Today it is corrupt and venal. Even the Caesars are not what they once were. The Julians died out long ago, and in their place have come a succession of soldier-emperors, each backed by a different set of legions. You children know that in your own short lifetimes the empire has been split, with Britain and Gaul being broken away, and then patched back again. There is even an eastern empire now, in a place called Byzantium. Better we Britons be rid of Rome once and for all that we might chart our own destinies. If we do not, the Saxons immigrating from northern Gaul and the Rhineland onto our southeast coast will push inland, and overwhelm us altogether.”
The young people grinned mischievously at each other. Their father was forever preaching gloom.
“Oh, Titus,” his wife chided. “The Saxons are only peasant farmers. We are far too civilized to be overcome by them.”
“Too civilized, aye,” he agreed. “Perhaps that is why I am afraid for Britain.” He picked up his younger son, Gaius, who had been playing quietly on the floor. “When a people becomes so civilized that it does not fear the barbarians at the gates, then the danger is the greatest. Little Gaius and his children will be the ones forced to live with our folly, I fear.”
CAILIN
Britain, A.D. 452–454
Chapter 1
“Oh, Gaius, how could you!” Kyna Benigna asked her husband irritably. She was a tall, handsome woman of pure Celtic descent. Her dark red hair was woven in a series of intricate braids about her head. “I cannot believe you sent to Rome seeking a husband for Cailin. She will be furious with you when she finds