The setting sun flooded into the tribune's tent through the entrance flap, burnishing one side of its contents with a rich orange glow and casting long dark shadows over the other side. Lavinia snuggled her head on the tribune's shoulder and ran her fingers through the dark curls of his chest, each hair highlighted by the glow of the dying sun. His sweaty scent filled her nostrils with the sharp tang of his masculinity, and she breathed in rhythm with the smooth rise and fall of his chest. Although his eyes were shut she knew he was awake from the light touch of a finger on the curved cleft between her buttocks as he gently traced the contours.
'Mmmm, that's nice,' she breathed softly in his ear. 'Don't stop there.'
'You are insatiable,' Vitellius muttered. 'Three times in one afternoon is more than any man can take.'
Running her hand down his chest and over his stomach, Lavinia cupped the soft malleable flesh of his penis in her slender fingers and slowly worked it.
'Are you really sure?'
Vitellius raised his other hand and extended his index finger, the gesture of a defeated gladiator appealing to the mob. 'I beg for mercy.'
'I accept surrender from no man.' Lavinia chuckled as she continued her attempt to elicit a response.
'Not even that youngster you were involved with?'
The tone of the remark was just the wrong side of frivolous, and Lavinia withdrew her hand and shifted round, raising herself on one elbow and looking down at his face.
'What's the matter? Jealous?' Lavinia waited for a response, but Vitellius silently gazed back up at her. 'Could you really be jealous of a young boy?'
'Not so young that he didn't kinow his way around, apparently.'
'But young enough to need to stop and ask for directions from time to time?'
'From an even younger woman?'
'Ah!' Lavinia smiled. 'I had the advantage of a head start. Thanks to you, my very own tribune.' She lowered her head and kissed him on the lips, then slowly grazed her lips across the stubble on his cheek and kissed his eye and forehead, before reclining back on her elbow. 'I'm so glad we're back together. I can't tell you how much I've missed being with you like this. I don't think I have ever felt so happy.'
'Not even with that boy?' Vitellius asked quietly. 'Are you quite sure?'
'Of course I am, silly! I've told you, it just happened after Plinius threw me out when he caught us together that time. You remember?'
'I'll never forget!' Vitellius smiled. 'That pompous fool had it coming to him.'
'Plinius was all right. He looked after me well. I've a lot to thank him for. In fact I felt very sorry for him afterwards, for a while at least. And then Cato fell for me.'
'What on earth did you see in him?'
Lavinia pouted as she thought about her attraction to the young optio. 'I suppose he looks handsome in an odd way. He's tall and skinny to be sure, but he has lovely eyes. Very expressive. And there was something quite sad about him too. Always seemed preoccupied with how others saw him, never at ease with himself. Maybe I felt sorry for him.'
'Hardly an adequate reason to bed him,' protested Vitellius.
'Oh you!' Lavinia punched his chest. 'Why shouldn't I sleep with him? I enjoyed it. And I couldn't see you very easily as long as I lived with Lady Flavia. What was I supposed to do?'
'Wait until I found a way to get you out of there.'
'Then I'd have waited for ever. I'm only here now because I managed to give my mistress the slip. If she knew where I was I'd be given a thrashing I wouldn't forget in a hurry.'
'You're sure she doesn't know you're here now?'
'Of course not. I'll just tell her I went for a walk and got lost coming back. She'll be suspicious but I doubt she'll guess the truth.'
'Even though she saw us together the other day?'
Lavinia prodded his chest with her finger. 'I told her that you had approached me and that I told you to leave me alone because I loved Cato.'
'And she believed you?' Vitellius sounded sceptical.
'Why shouldn't she? Now, can we talk about something else? This anxiety you men have over the physical loyalty of your women is very tiresome. It's not as if you live by the same standard.'
'All right then,' replied Vitellius, pulling her forward onto him and kissing her with a passionate intensity that surprised Lavinia. Closing her eyes she surrendered to the moment, breathing in the scent of him and becoming almost dizzy with the desire that came with such physical closeness. When she drew back from his face and opened her eyes, she felt the hardness of his penis along her thigh.
'I thought you said you weren't up to it?'
'You have a way of provoking a man's desire.' Vitellius smiled and ran his hand up the inside of her thighs. 'Let's see what we can do about it. '
Later, after sunset, a slave came into the tent and silently lit the lamps before disappearing. By the pale loom of the lamps Lavinia rose from the bed and yawned, stretching her slender arms above her head. The action caused her breasts to lift and Vitellius reached a hand round to cup the nearest, marvelling at its smooth softness. Lavinia allowed him to continue a moment before slapping his hand away.
'Enough of that, you! I have to get back to my tent.'
'When will I see you again?'
'Tomorrow, after Caesar's banquet. I'll meet you back here.'
'You'll definitely be at the banquet?' asked Vitellius.
'Yes, to wait on my mistress and the legate. But I can't wait to see the entertainments the Emperor has lined up. Should be quite a spectacle.' Lavinia picked up her tunic from the ground where it had been dropped in their earlier haste and pulled it on over her head. Vitellius watched her, head propped up on a silk bolster, his eyes dark and cold.
'Lavinia, I need you to do me a favour.'
Her head popped through the top of the tunic and she tugged the long tresses of her hair free of the neckline. 'What kind of a favour?'
'It's a surprise for the Emperor. I need you to take something into the banquet for me tomorrow night.'
'What is it?'
'It's over there on that table,' he said quietly, pointing across the tent to a low, black, marble-topped side table in the far corner. Lavinia went over and picked up an object that glinted as she raised it into the glow cast by the oil lamps. It was a dagger, sheathed in silver inlaid with gold in swirling Celtic patterns, within which were set blood-red rubies. The handle of the dagger was jet black and polished to a high shine, with a huge ruby set into the gold at the end of the pommeL
'It's beautiful!' Lavinia marvelled. 'I've never seen anything like this.
Never. Where did you get it?'
'My father sent it to me. It's a gift for the Emperor. I was told to present it to him as soon as we'd taken Camulodunum. Bring it here.' Lavinia returned to the bed, carrying the dagger with reverence. 'Such a lovely thing. The Emperor will adore it.'
'That's what my father hopes. And I think it is the kind of gift that is best presented with some sense of occasion. So I thought I might hand it to the Emperor at the height of tomorrow's celebrations, before all his guests, so that they can see Claudius' reaction to my father's symbol of loyalty and affection.'
'They'll die of jealousy.'
'My thoughts exactly,' said Vitellius. 'That's why I need you to do me a favour.'
'What kind of a favour?'
'I need you to carry this into the banquet for me. No one is admitted into the Emperor's presence carrying a blade of any kind. His guards will be searching all the formal guests, but you can get into the banquet through the kitchen. All you need to do is hide it like this.' He reached under her tunic and pressed the scabbard against the inside of her thigh. Lavinia gasped and then laughed. 'You'll have to strap it in place. No one will know it's there.'
Lavinia took hold of the scabbard again and regarded it with a worried expression.
'What's the matter?'
'What happens if I get searched and they find it on me?'
'Don't worry, Lavinia. I'll be close by. If anything like that happens before I get the dagger back from you, I'll intervene and explain everything. '
Lavinia looked intently into his face. 'What if you don't?'
Vitellius' expression changed to a mixture of hurt and anger. 'Why would I want to get you into any kind of trouble?'
'I don't know.'
'Exactly. I'm hardly likely to endanger the woman I love, am I?' He reached his arms round her and pulled her towards his chest, waiting until her body felt more relaxed before he continued. 'Once you're inside, waiting on Lady Flavia and Vespasian, I'll find you and retrieve the dagger, as quickly as I can.'
'Not too publicly I hope!'
'Of course not. It wouldn't be seemly for a member of my class to be seen to be groping a slave in public.'
'Thanks for the concern about my reputation,' Lavinia replied bitterly. 'Only joking, my sweet. We'll just have to find somewhere quiet for me to retrieve it.' He squeezed her affectionately. 'Will you do this for me? It'll mean a lot to my father, and it'll help my career along.'
'What's in it for me?'
'As soon as I get my share of the booty I swear I'll buy you from Flavia. Afterwards we can see about having you manurnitted.'
'Nice thought. But why should Flavia want to sell me?'
'I don't think she'd be wise to refuse me,' Vitellius replied quietly. 'Besides, I can present you to the Emperor at the banquet and ask that he makes you my reward for saving the Second Legion from Togodumnus. Vespasian could hardly refuse that. It'd look appallingly ungrateful. Just watch for my signal, and come straight to me.'
'You've got it all worked out, haven't you?' Lavinia replied, frowning.
'Oh yes.'
'And then?' Lavinia asked, eyes shining with hope.
'And then?' Vitellius held her hand to his mouth and kissed the soft skin. 'Then we can cause something of a scandal by getting married.'
'Married…' Lavinia whispered. She flung her arms round his neck and pulled him to her as tightly as possible. 'I love you! I love you so much I'd do anything for you. Anything!'
'Easy, I can hardly breathe!' Vitellius chuckled. 'All I ask of you is this small favour, and that you will consent to be my wife as soon as we can make it possible.'
'Oh yes!' Lavinia planted a kiss on his cheek and quickly pulled away.
'Now I must go.' She picked up the dagger.
'Here, wrap it in this.' Vitellius reached over the side of his bed and flicked his neckerchief over to her. 'Best that you keep it with you, well-hidden, until the banquet. It's the kind of thing some people might kill for.'
'It will be safe with me. I promise.'
'I know it will, my sweet. Now you must go.'
After Lavinia had left the tent, Vitellius stretched out on the bed with a smug expression of satisfaction. It had not been so very difficult to arrange after all. When the slave girl was presented to the Emperor at the banquet, the expressions on the faces of Vespasian and his wife would be priceless.
It was a shame that Lavinia could not be allowed to live. She was a most accomplished lover and showed a sophistication in the more esoteric arts of love well beyond her teenage years. She might have looked good on his arm back in Rome, a trophy to dangle in front of his peers, and a tool for buying favours. But in using her to get the dagger into the banqueting hall, Vitellius realised she would know enough to place him in danger. If his plan succeeded, she would realise at once that she had been used. As yet, he still did not know the identity of the assassin Caratacus had found for the job – thanks to that fool Nisus. Caratacus might yet get a message through to him, but if he did not, Vitellius could only hope that the killer would make himself known so that he could be given the dagger. Failing that, the knife would have to be presented as a gift after all. But one thing was certain, assassination or no assassination, Lavinia could not be permitted to know what she knew and live to tell the tale.
She must die as soon as she had served his purpose. He would be sorry to lose her but, Vitellius comforted himself, there would be other women.