The Roman’s Revenge. Caroline Storer

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СКАЧАТЬ was only later as she sat on her woollen cloak, sipping a much needed bowl of water, that Livia realised Metellus knew her name. She frowned, trying to remember if she had told him who she was, but after several moments of quick thinking she was convinced she hadn’t. She lowered her bowl to the sandy ground, and glanced over to where he sat leaning against a fallen tree trunk, one knee bent, his arm draped over it in an attitude of maleness that seemed unique to him somehow.

      “How do you know my name?” She asked hesitantly.

      “I asked the captain who you were,” he said, looking across at her with a closed expression on his face, his grey eyes giving nothing away. “You are Livia Drusus. Daughter of Senator Augustus Drusus. Sister to Flavius Augustus-”

      “Half-sister in actual fact.” Livia said interrupting him, her chin lifting in defiance as she heard the scorn in his voice. “You know my family?”

      She saw Metellus hesitate, his eyes narrowing, before he answered her question, “All of Rome knows of your family.”

      Again Livia heard the veiled sarcasm in his voice but said nothing, keeping her thoughts to herself for the moment.

      “The mighty Senator Drusus’s reputation goes before him. How is he by the way?”

      Again the sarcasm, and Livia stiffened before she answered, her tone curt, “He has been ill recently-” She stopped short, realising her mistake, when she saw Metellus frown as he seized on that piece of information like a lion pouncing in the arena.

      “Ill? I have heard nothing. What ails him?” He demanded, his body stiffening as he stared intently at her.

      Livia shrugged, knowing she had been caught out. She had been sworn to secrecy by Flavius to say nothing about her father’s illness; and now here, hundreds of miles from Rome, on a deserted island she had given the secret away! She released a deep sigh, and finally answered his question, “He has had a seizure of sorts. The whole of the left hand side of his body is paralysed.”

      Metellus’s eyes narrowed further, as he assimilated her words, and an ominous silence fell between the two of them. She wondered what he was thinking, but his face was a tight, closed, mask giving nothing away, and she couldn’t help the shiver of unease which coursed through her. Why was he so interested in her family? It made no sense…

      “Your brother-” he paused, a small smile twisting the corner of his mouth, before he continued, “Or rather your half-brother, is I presume, taking over your father’s business interests?”

      Livia hesitated, unsure whether to answer his question. She could plead ignorance of her brother’s affairs, but the way in which he was watching her, with an intensity that was frightening, made her tell the truth. She nodded slowly, “Yes.”

      Her one word answer made his mouth twist in derision, “I thought so,” he said more to himself than her.

      Livia stiffened, “You seem to know a lot about my family. Have you been to our villa to do business with my father and brother?” She asked, knowing in an instant, that if she had seen him at their villa, she would have definitely remembered him!

      “Visit your villa?” Metellus barked, his grey eyes boring into hers, “The affluent, and extremely well connected Drusii consorting with the likes of me? I don’t think so, Livia.”

      The words were meant to hurt, to put each of them firmly in their social places, and they were was not lost on her.

      Livia knew her father, and now, most probably her brother, had more enemies than friends; as everything they did, and had done over the years, had been for political, and financial gain.

      And for what? So her father could lay on a bed paralysed, unable to walk and talk? Dribbling like a baby as he was fed by the slaves. Had it been worth the hatred he had accrued for himself over the years? And now, her half-brother was treading the same path, emulating their father, as he too became obsessed in his quest to become one of Rome’s elite, to become one day, one of the most powerful and influential Senators of Rome.

      And as the only female offspring from her father’s loins, she had been nothing but a pawn to be used and bartered in the political arena. It had been that way ever since she had come into womanhood, and why she had been on her way to Alexandria, to an arranged marriage with a man she detested.

      Then, as if he had the power to read her thoughts, Metellus interrupted them by asking, “So why were you on the ship? Have you displeased your family so much they were compelled to send you half way across the Empire?”

      Livia stiffened even more, and she looked up into his closed face, his fathomless grey eyes as cold as a dark winter’s night as he watched her. For some reason a sense of foreboding came over her, making her feel vulnerable, and she lifted her chin, unwilling to tell him her reason for going to Alexandria. “Is it any concern of yours?” She asked, the words acting as a shield to protect her fragile ego.

      She saw his eyes narrow, “Not really. You are right. You are no concern of mine.” Then he stood up and walked away, dismissing her.

       CHAPTER 4

      At his words Livia sat up, feeling cut to the bone, dismissed like she always had been by the men of her family. Piqued by his blatant disregard for her, she snapped, “Well, if I am no concern of yours, why did you rescue me in the first place? You should have left me to drown, along with all the others.”

      Her words had the desired effect, as he stopped mid-stride and turned to face her once again, his eyes hooded as he stared down at her for a long moment. Then he smiled - a wolf’s smile – and the knife Livia hadn’t been aware of him holding, tapped against his thigh.

      “A good question. One I’m not sure if I have an answer for,” he shrugged, before his eyes narrowing and he said, “Maybe you aroused my curiosity? Maybe it was greed? The promise of a fat reward if I saved the precious daughter of one of Rome’s finest perhaps? Let’s hope your brother has enough money to pay me. My price is very high as he – and you – will find out.”

      Livia gasped as a sharp pain pierced right through her. Is that all she really meant to him? Monetary gain?

      Pain, was replaced by anger, and in her iciest tone she said, “And what will you do if he refuses to pay anything for me? Take me back out to sea and drown me? You have made a big mistake if you think my father, and brother, care one jot about me.”

      And with those final words, she stood up and walked over to the farthest part of their makeshift camp. She sat down on the hot sand, her knees bent as she stared out to sea, wishing she were anywhere else but here, on a deserted island, with a man who detested everything about her, and her family.

      As Metellus watched her walk away, he cursed himself. He had gone too far he realised, but there was no going back. She didn’t know it of course, but he had blatantly lied to her. He hadn’t saved her for any monetary reward. Far from it – he was richer than them by far.

      It was common knowledge that the Drusii fortune had been virtually wiped out last year, when Mount Vesuvius had erupted, destroying all their vast areas of farm land in, and around, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Land, which had once been used to grow grapes for wine, and olives for the much coveted olive oil, and which now СКАЧАТЬ