To Love Again - Bertrice Small [59]
He drew a deep breath. “I can, of course, return the land to you, Cailin Drusus. It is indeed yours by right of inheritance, and you have a husband to work and protect it. As for your accusations against Quintus Drusus, what proof can you give me other than this story your grandmother told?”
Cailin looked bleakly at him and said, “Once my mother told me that before she married my father, while she was living with my grandparents in Corinium, you fell in love with her. She, however, loved my father, but when she turned you away, it was with gentleness, for she respected you. If there is any pity in your heart, Anthony Porcius, help me avenge her death. Do you know what my cousin’s Gauls did to her? They raped and beat her until they killed her. My grandmother said her last glimpse of her daughter was her bloodied and battered face and body. She was once a very beautiful woman. This murderer that your daughter has wed has not even had the kindness to bury her bones or those of the rest of my family. They lie where they were killed, while Quintus Drusus tills our fields with our slaves. Is this the Roman justice of our ancestors?”
The magistrate looked as if he would cry. She was telling the truth; in his very heart and soul the part of him that was Celtic knew it; but he could not help her. “The law, Cailin Drusus, requires proof. You have no proof but the words of a dying old woman. It is not enough. I would help you if I could, but I cannot. There is no proof.”
Cailin burst into tears. “Have I survived everything, and come to you for justice, only to be denied? Must I live the rest of my days knowing that Quintus Drusus continues on in comfort when my family is dead and gone?” She wiped her tears away with the heel of her palm, and then her moment of weakness passed. She looked at her cousin. “You know what you did, Quintus Drusus. Do not rest easy feeling that you have escaped punishment. If you are wise, you will never close your eyes in sleep again. I will see you punished if it is the last thing I ever do, you murderer!”
“You have gone mad, or else your natural grief has addled your wits, Cailin, my dear,” Quintus said in a bored and superior tone. He hated losing his cousin’s lands after all his hard work, but he would correct that. He just needed time, and since his father-in-law maintained that a lack of hard evidence made it impossible to prosecute him, he would have that time.
“Well,” Antonia said, “now that is settled, may I offer you wine?” She smiled brightly, as if she had heard nothing of what had transpired.
“Nothing is settled until your husband pays for his crimes,” Cailin said coldly. “By the gods, Antonia, do you not realize what Quintus has done? Not just to me, but to you as well!”
“Quintus is a good husband to me, Cailin,” Antonia said primly.
“Quintus is a heartless bastard!” Cailin snapped. “Before he murdered my family, he had his Gauls murder the sons you birthed by Sextus Scipio. They were innocent children!”
“My sons drowned in the atrium pond because their licentious nursemaids were negligent,” Antonia replied, but her voice quavered with the secret doubts she had always harbored about the incident.
“Your husband’s Gauls throttled your children in their beds, and then placed their lifeless bodies in the atrium pool,” Cailin told the woman bluntly, cruelly.
“It isn’t true!” Antonia began to sob.
“It is true!” Cailin said harshly. “Does it hurt you to know what Quintus did? Perhaps then you will understand some of what I feel, Antonia.”
“Quintus! Tell me it isn’t so,” Antonia wept. “Tell me!”
“Yes, cousin,” Cailin mocked him. “Tell her the truth, if indeed you even