I stopped her talking, as I held her tighter and smiled tenderly into her anxious eyes, shutting out all thoughts of Pertinax. She was holding me in a way that reminded me how badly I wanted her. She looked exhausted. She had been here at the inn with me for almost a week, uncomplaining and supportive even when I dragged in at night too far gone to eat the meal she had saved for me, let alone to provide any demonstration of my love.
'We've been living together here,' I acknowledged ruefully. 'And I've been too preoccupied even to notice it!'
'Ah well!' smiled Helena in her dry, practical way. 'I had always assumed that was what living with you would be like!'
I promised, 'One day we'll do it properly.'
Helena Justina studied me, standing very still. 'You know that's what I want,' she said.
Then I kissed her, trying not to let it seem like the last kiss I might ever give her, and Helena kissed me-so sweetly and for so long I almost dreaded that she thought it was.
Everyone was waiting for us. I had to let her go.
At the Villa Marcella I was met by Gordianus.
'I thought you were on funeral duty, sir.'
'Too anxious to relax. Where's Milo?'
'Herculaneum; incarcerating the sea captain. What's the situation here?'
'Caprenius Marcellus has had a stroke-'
'Don't believe it! As an invalid that old man is as genuine as a reluctant wife claiming a headache-'
'It's true, Falco; the doctor says another will finish him.'
'Pertinax?'
'No sign. But his father is convinced he will come.'
'Just you and me then, sir, sitting at the Villa Marcella, waiting it out…'
Us, waiting for him at the villa. And Pertinax out there somewhere, waiting for the grain ships to arrive from Alexandria.