Defender of Rome Read Online Free PDF Page B

for harvest.’
    ‘I wish I could help with the harvest the way I once did,’ she said, the simple statement breaking his heart.
    ‘You will be able to soon. When you are properly well.’
    ‘I feel well now,’ she insisted, and attempted to raise herself to a sitting position.
    He pushed her gently back. ‘One thing at a time, baby sister.’ Olivia smiled at the old endearment. ‘First we have to build you up. You need to eat.’ She looked at him as if food was an entirely new notion. He backed off. ‘All right. A little broth then?’
    ‘No. Please. It’s just …’ She shook her head. ‘It seems such a long time since I ate proper food. I’m ravenous.’
    He called for Julia, who burst into tears when she saw Olivia awake.
    Valerius watched his sister eat – a little boiled chicken breast with a ripe peach from the garden – and studied her. The change astonished him. A few hours earlier she had been an invalid; now, she looked almost capable of dancing. His joy was tempered by Joshua’s warning: the effects will not be permanent . Even so, this was hope and hope was something he hadn’t felt for many weeks.
    When she had eaten, she insisted Valerius help her sit up. ‘I will have a conversation like a human being,’ she said. ‘I have had enough of being a corpse.’ She studied him as he had been studying her. ‘You are unhappy, Valerius. I can see it in your eyes.’
    He shrugged with a little half-smile, but couldn’t find the words to tell her what he felt.
    ‘Me?’ she said, reading his mind. ‘You must not mind, Brother. I know I am dying.’ He opened his mouth to protest, but she put a finger to his lips. ‘No, do not deny it. Even though you have worked this magic today, I still feel myself fading. But do not be sad. I suffer no pain, only weakness. The gods are calling me, and when the time comes I will go willingly. All I ask is that you remember me at the lemuria . I would like to see Father again, but … I understand. But it is not just your little sister. I have seen it since you came back from Britain.’ She stroked his wooden hand. ‘Something changed you there, and not just this.’
    They had never talked of it before, but a hollow feeling inside told him this might be his last opportunity. ‘I met a girl, but she is … gone. I made a new life as a soldier and I miss it.’
    ‘Then be a soldier again. You are still young. Still strong.’ She picked up his left hand and ran her finger over the calluses he’d earned from the long hours of training with the gladius . ‘You were a good soldier?’
    ‘Yes, I was a good soldier.’
    ‘Then they will find a place for you.’
    ‘There is Father. He wants to see me in the Senate.’
    She laughed, and it was like the tinkle of a delicate silver bell. ‘You will never be a politician, Valerius. The first time some greasy aedile seeking promotion tries to bribe you, you will throw him in the Tiber.’ Her face became serious again. ‘You cannot live your life for Father. You must find your own way.’
    She lay back and he placed his hand on hers. He remembered her as she had been on the day she turned down their father’s marriage candidate, her eyes flashing with fire and filling the air with scorn. No wonder the old man was afraid to see her.
    ‘Tell me about Britain,’ she said. The request prompted a moment’s hesitation. He had never revealed the truth about his experiences in Britain, not even to Fabia. But, like the good sister she was, Olivia eased the path for him. ‘But only speak of the happy times.’
    So he told her about the fine land, the forests and the meadows with their endless unnameable shades of green, the bounteous hunting and the pride of the legions; about his beautiful Maeve and her unscrupulous father Lucullus, and Falco and the defenders of the Temple of Claudius, and of Cearan and the fearsome Iceni warriors he had led.
    ‘He sounds very handsome,’ she said. ‘For a barbarian.’
    ‘He