Many seconds later I looked up gravely at the sky. 'Thank you, Jove!'
Helena laughed.
The green dress she was wearing was light enough to show that she was wearing nothing else. It was fastened along each elbow-length sleeve with five or six mosaic glass buttons twisted through embroidered loops. I undid one to see what would happen; Helena combed my curls with her fingers, smiling. 'Shall I help?'
I shook my head. The buttons were stiff, but stubbornness and other factors had taken hold by then so I winkled off three, working upwards; then I explored her arm, and since she seemed to like it I carried on unbuttoning to the top of the sleeve.
My hand slid from her wrist to her shoulder then down again, no longer on her arm. Her cool soft skin which never saw the sun shrank, then rose to my touch at her intake of breath; I had to fight to stop my fingers quivering.
'Is this leading somewhere, Marcus?'
'I hope so! Don't imagine I could get you on your own at the top of a mountain and not make the most of the chance.'
'Oh I never thought that!' Helena assured me quietly. 'Why do you think I wanted you to come?'
Then, being a practical woman, she undid all the buttons on the other sleeve herself.
A long time afterwards, when I was utterly defenceless, a wild boar strolled out of the undergrowth.
'Grrr!' said the Senator's daughter amiably, over my naked shoulder.
The wild boar snuffled, then turned round with a disapproving snort and ambled off.