Courted Read Online Free PDF Page A

managed.
    “That’s what the gladiators all said, too”
she nodded sagely.
    This time Lucillus laughed so hard he spilled
his wine, and they had to move to the other triclinium.
    As they were resituating themselves on the
other couch to drink the sweet after-dinner wine, Anthea was struck
was a thought. “Will it bother you that Annia will be here again
tomorrow? We’ll need to eat on different couches then, but she
would go to bed shortly after dinner so …” With her words hanging
in the air, she wondered how other mothers managed to get laid when
their marriages went kaput.
    Lucillus was pensive. “Do you think it will
be a bad influence on her?”
    She shook her head, “Honestly, I don’t.
Provided we are discreet and don’t start tearing one another’s
tunics off in front of her, it should be fine. She will probably
suspect but she won’t know . Even if she did,” Anthea sighed,
“I think she should know her life doesn’t have to end if a marriage
does. Her father is marrying her to one of his trading partners
from Aquitaine next June. The man is nice enough, but he is twice
her age with a daughter almost as old as she is. Who knows how it
will turn out? People who marry only once are rare nowadays.”
    Her lover nodded, but added wistfully, “My
parents were married for more than 40 years before my father died.
She has never remarried. I had always hoped for something like that
myself.”
    “So did I, once upon a time,” she admitted.
“Unfortunately I had to learn that both people must want that for
the marriage to last.”
    “It isn’t an easy lesson, is it?” His eyes
were sad. “Even if the couple loves each other, sometimes it can
still go very wrong.”
    “What happened?” There had been no gossip
about her having a lover, but there had been a rumor he had put his
wife aside for barrenness.
    “Tullia left me.” He swallowed a little wine
to compose himself. “She said if she gave me a divorce, I could
remarry and have the chance to have a son. I told her that it
didn’t matter, that I still loved her, but she told me that she
loved me too much to stay, knowing what I was giving up for her. I
couldn’t change her mind, not with all my skills in rhetoric, not
with poetry, and not even with the threat of an ugly lawsuit to
keep her dowry.”
    “She probably knew you were too honorable for
the lawsuit to be anything but a bluff,” Anthea needed to break the
silence when he had finished speaking.
    Lucillus shrugged. “Perhaps. At any rate she
went back to her father’s house, and he arranged a new marriage for
her with a widower in Egypt who already had five children and
needed a good wife more than a fertile one. Before she left for
Alexandria, she wrote me to tell me that she knew that unless she
remarried and moved far away, I wouldn’t find a new wife out of
sheer stubbornness.”
    “Your divorce was final at least half a year
before I came to you for legal representation. Why haven’t you
remarried?” Anthea wasn’t sure she wanted an answer if it featured
the fact he was still in love with his ex.
    Lucillus was so quiet for so long she thought
she might have gone too far, and offended him. When he finally
spoke she felt like she could breathe once more.
    “At first, it was because I hoped Tullia
would change her mind. Then after she left, it was because I didn’t
care enough about it to make inquiries for a potential bride. No
sooner had I resolved to begin a search in earnest, the Fates
intervened for their own amusement.”
    Anthea was puzzled. “Did you hear from Tullia
again?”
    “No.” Lucillus’ smile was slightly askew. “I
met a beautiful woman and knew I had to try to my best to woo her
before I could look for a wife.”
    Jealousy that she knew she had no right to
punched Anthea in the stomach, making her feel sick. She kept her
face bland and asked with seeming nonchalance, “Was your suit
successful?”
    Lucillus reached over to tuck a tendril of
hair