The Emperor's Assassin

Part I Chapter One Weeds & Wedlock

*********    WEEDS  & WEDLOCK   *******

Chapter One

Northern Province of Roman Empire

48 AD

A month was a long time to wait. It felt like a lifetime. But now it was done. Negotiations were complete and my future decided. There remained only one more formality.

I skipped down the hall but stopped to pet the guard dog sprawled in the atrium near the rectangular rainwater pool. Shining through the roof's opening, the sun's rays danced upon the water and shimmered with a thousand sparkles. I felt the same, effervescent with excitement and luminous with expectation. Today I would find out when I meet my betrothed.

At the entrance to father's study, I peeked around the thick drapery that cordoned of the doorway.

Seated at his writing table, its marble top aglow in the morning sun, Father hunched over a parchment.

We greeted each other, and I noted his cleared-eyed gaze with relief. Father was alert and lucid today.

"Faustinus agreed to join us for dinner tonight." Father frowned, his eyes dropping to the documents.

"You look unhappy." I fussed with the gold bracelets at my wrist. "Is something wrong?"

"This!" Father swept a few scrolls to the floor. "Taxes! Rome bleeds us dry. Emperor Claudius may add to Roman coffers with new conquests, but he sucks profits from hardworking citizens like me to finance his projects."

"What sort of projects?" I picked up the scrolls and set them back on the table, my attention fixed on the list of taxable items—land, dwellings, workers, livestock, income, furnishings—and not Father's loud litany of Roman schemes.

Father's fist struck the table. "Aqueducts. A new port. A lake-draining tunnel. Ridiculous! And we pay for it. Bah! Claudius is a drooling, limping fool who imagines himself a great builder. He's as bad as Caligula!"

I set down the scroll I was reading and rolled my eyes.

"Come, daughter." Father beckoned me forward. "Do not let my ravings mar this delightful day."

I rounded the desk and kissed the top of his smooth head. "And you should not let a Roman fool ruin yours."

"An excellent idea." Father pushed aside the offending documents. "However, there's one thing we will enjoy like Claudius and that Roman rabble."

"What's that?"

"Why celebrate Rome's eight hundredth anniversary of course. There's no better time for you to meet your future husband than while we drink wine from our vineyard and feast on fatted capon." He lifted my chin and smiled. "Faustinus will wed the most beautiful woman in Gaul. With a beauty that rivals the goddess Venus and a fair knowledge of healing plants, you'll make a commendable wife. Expect a large gift tonight. Jewelry worthy of your new status, perhaps?"

I clapped my hands together, then remembering more adult behavior was required, dropped them to my side.

"Now, away young bride, your father has unpleasant business to finish." Father waved his hand and returned to his documents.

I hugged him, hurried from the office, and almost collided with a houseboy as I raced past the sunlit atrium.

"Pricilla!" I pushed away the heavy linen drape that partitioned off my bedroom and bounded inside.

My favorite servant sat by the narrow window, her head bent over a stola draped across her lap. She glanced up, full lips and amber eyes smiling with expectancy. "When do you meet him?"