"So!" Helena then exclaimed, her gaze resolutely finding Chloris. "Have you finished with him? Can I take him home?"

"You've married your mother!" Chloris accused me, not bothering to lower her voice.

"I don't think so," I said. "I can handle my mother."

Tired of being choked, I wrestled Julia back upright. For once, she subsided and lay looking out at the women with her curly head on my shoulder in a way that made her pretty cute. Hands reached to pet and tickle her, amid oohs and aahs.

The situation changed. Chloris was bright enough to see that her companions had been swayed by the sight of us as a family group; breaking us up would do her more harm than good. "It's been lovely having you, but you had best run along home now, Marcus."

Chloris walked us to the door. She did her best to sour the situation further. "Well, he makes good babies, I can see." It implied that Helena was just my breeding mare. Neither of us took the bait. "I hope I haven't caused you too much trouble, Marcus darling," she said sweetly.

"You were always trouble."

"And you were…"

"What?"

"Oh-I'll tell you next time we're alone." Helena was seething, as she was meant to. "Now off you go, darling…" mouthed Chloris maliciously. "Don't be too hard on him, Helena my dear. Men have to follow their willies, you know."

Helena Justina then pulled off her best effort. Standing in the street, she said, "Of course they do." She smiled. It was polite. It showed the power of her upbringing. "That was what brought him to me."

Albia had bent to unfasten Nux, who had been let outside tied to a wooden post. She threw me a scared look, then let the dog drag her along well ahead of us.

"Thanks for the rescue."

"I heard you were kidnapped!" Helena retorted. "If it had been mentioned that you had become a willing sex toy, I would not have interfered."

"Settle down."

"Who exactly was that, Marcus darling?"

"A crowd-pulling gladiatrix called Amazonia." I came clean. "In a previous career she was a circus ropedancer."

"Oh, her!"

"I always had good taste," I growled. "That's why I went for you."

Helena Justina, with the full power of her breeding, let it be known that she was unimpressed.

I felt like a man who had just made a choice. This is always depressing, for some reason.

No wonder I was feeling low. I was now carrying two tired children through darkened streets whose ambience I did not trust, alongside an extremely silent wife.

XXVI

I took the children to the nursery and put them into their cribs myself. This looked like a ploy. I couldn't help that. Their mother rather pointedly opted out.

I found Helena afterward, just as I expected, on her own. She was seated in a wraparound chair pretending not to care. That was an act. She was waiting for me to come and find her. I had made hasty preparations. I even bathed rapidly; never have an argument with a woman when you know she is scented sweetly with cinnamon but you really stink. Lest my cleanup look too calculated, I then rushed off barefoot to find her, and I forgot to comb my hair. The eager lover, with the endearing tousled look: tonight I had to throw in every lousy gambit.

I lowered myself onto a couch, staying upright with an elbow propped on the end arm. "Want to hear about my day?"

I kept it brief. I kept it factual. Near the beginning, when I described taking out Albia, Helena interrupted, "You did not consult me."

"I did wrong there."

"You are the man of the household," she commented sarcastically.

I plodded on with the story. She listened, but never looked at me. "…At that point the gladiator girls took me into custody by force. The rest you know."

I sat exhausted. It felt good to be clean and in a fresh tunic. Dangerous too; this was no moment to relax and nod off. I might as well pass out in the middle of making love. A subject I was not too tired to think about-but a pleasure I would not be given tonight.

When Helena finally looked up, I was gazing back at her peacefully. The love in my expression was natural; she should believe that. I had never known anyone like her. I studied her face, every line familiar, from that fiercely jutting chin to the heavy, knitted eyebrows. After we came home she had quickly redone her hair; I could tell from the new arrangement of the knobbed bone pins. She saw me work that out, wanting to hate me for being so observant. She had changed her earrings too. The lapis danglers always made her ears sore; she now wore smaller gold ones.

"Want to hear about my day?" Ever the fighter, Helena challenged me.

"Love to."

"I won't bother you with the tedious round of morning and afternoon duties." Thank Jove for that.

"I am always intrigued by your wide social range, Helena," I reproved her gently.

"That doesn't sound like you."

"No, it sounds like a pompous donkey," I said. "But this isn't you either. I suspect you have things to tell me."

Helena Justina wanted very badly to hurl a cushion in my direction, but she kept her dignity. Her long hands were clasped firmly in her lap, to stop herself. "Did you find out what those women were doing in the street when they broke up your tussle with the brothel-keeper? Or were you too busy fooling with Chloris to ask useful questions?"

I felt my teeth set. "You, however, did ask them?"

"I managed a few inquiries while I was enduring their company." She did not actually say coldly, While you were frolicking in the love nest. "There is a businessman trying to take over their group. He is being too pushy and they do not welcome it. They work without a manager and they don't want to pay a cut to someone else."

I wondered if this was the gangster Petronius was looking for. "What's his name?"

"I never asked. All he wants is to exploit them. They know he runs brothels too," Helena told me. "So when you tried to help Albia escape they weighed in. They told me you needed them!"

"That's a cheap jibe, from you and them."

Helena Justina had always been fair. She was silent for a moment, then agreed, "Albia told me the old woman was horrible."

"Right."

"Albia is very upset by what happened. I still have to tice the full story out of her."

A silence fell. Once, Helena would have checked whether I had been hurt, looking me over for blood and bruising. No chance today. "Anything else to tell me, fruit?"

She managed not to say, Don't call me that! Instead, she pretended not to notice.

"Why did you bring the children?"

"You didn't come home. We all went out to look for you."

Unsaid was her panic. Rather than mention it to anyone at the residence, she had searched the streets herself. When she met Albia and heard I was in trouble, she must have clutched the children and run.

"You're crazy, love. Next time tell your uncle and do it properly."

"They were all still busy at dinner. We had a fascinating group of visitors." I waited to hear more. "Norbanus came again, clearly to moon around Maia. I think we all expected that to happen. Maia seemed rather distracted but he took it politely. He behaves like a nice man."

"I make a distinction," I observed dryly, "between when you say someone is nice-and when you phrase it that he only seems that way."

"Norbanus appears to be genuine," Helena said.

"If he's keen on Maia, I hope he is. But it's always possible he may be the big mover that Petronius is chasing."

Helena was too intrigued to fight now. "Surely Norbanus is too obvious. 'Looking for property opportunities,' as he claims to be, just shouts that here's a man who could be an extortionist. But if so, he would disguise his interest."

"You would think so. But such types do like to show their faces at the highest functions. They hover in legitimate circles, fooling themselves that they get away with it. Well, often enough they do."