Silk and Steel (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of money .
    The more he dwelled on it, the more likely it seemed. Ambitious Silvinus Cato wanted a career in politics and for that he needed money. What better way than to rig the outcome and bet on the outsiders to win?
    Cato would assume he had won twice: first by selling Corinna to him for a large sum of gold and then by using her in his twisted plot.
    But Silvinus Cato had over-reached himself. Corinna was everything a man could want but not in the least distracting—if anything, she made him more determined to stay alive.
    Cato assumed I would lose myself in rutting, not practice, become sloppy. When he learned from his spy Julius Tertellus that I was unchanged, he tried to take more drastic action.
    How had the man ever thought that Corinna would kill anyone? Not that she wasn ’ t capable, but it was clear that Silvinus Cato had never understood her. She would never deliberately hurt anyone. She was too sympathetic. And—this was a strange word to use for a slave but it fit—she was too queenly. To kill in secret would never be her style.
    But Silvinus Cato had underestimated her intelligence, assumed he could wind her up tight like a catapult and set her against him, to let her make her own, doubtless blundering, attempt at murder. Cato had gambled that her feelings for Joseph would overwhelm her scruples, and even, so far as Decimus understood it, her faith.
    She must have really loved the priest.
    Futile to be jealous. Decimus bunched his hands into fists, striving to be rational. Tactics were needed here, not temper.
    Think of Corinna. What will happen to her if you get yourself killed?
    He closed his eyes, thinking of her, and now he slept.
     
    * * * *
     
    Corinna woke at daybreak. A cup of watered wine and a plate of figs and bread were on the tiles by the bed, left for her by Decimus. He was nowhere to be seen, but she could hear between the distant tinkling of the fountain, and the rhythmic, relentless swish of a moving blade. He was training in the garden.
    Knowing he disliked being interrupted or watched when he practiced—an odd quirk in a gladiator who 'performed' before thousands—Corinna ate her breakfast and tried to dress. Her long tunics now were of linen or even the rare and costly silk instead of the rough wool she wore in the service of Silvinus Cato, but she quickly discovered she could almost bear no cloth against her swollen hindquarters. She was twisting around in front of her wash-basin water, trying to see her rear-reflection and assess the damage, when Decimus prowled into the room.
    She let down her saffron-colored tunic and nodded a greeting. 'Master.'
    He strode across the room and took her in his arms. 'A new start?' he asked softly, hugging her across her waist and shoulders.
    'I would be happy with that.'
    'As would I.' Decimus kissed her, running a strand of her hair through his fingers. 'Will you come with me to the catacombs?' he asked.
    ‘ Not a suggestion the goddess Venus would admire, master, ’ Corinna quipped, although in truth his sudden question alarmed her. Most Romans feared ghosts and spirits and avoided the catacombs, where the dead were laid to rest, but she and other Christians worshipped in that maze of underground passages—the Romans' superstition made it a safe place for them to meet. 'You wish to visit the dead?'
    He smiled. 'You cannot hope to frighten me, Corinna. I do not dread the dead.'
    She blushed, realizing her attempt at dissuading her master had been clumsy. ‘ There is...there is nothing to see. ’ She tried again.
    ‘ Only a few bones and some live Christians? Hey! Don ’ t look so startled. You did say that your group is meeting this evening and I already knew where. ’
    ‘ And whom did you threaten to extract that information? ’
    This time he laughed outright. ‘ No one, Corinna, truly. I asked around at the barracks. For money or favors there is always someone eager to talk, even about supposedly secret meetings. ’
    Faced with