The Raven and the Rose Read Online Free PDF Page A

state and they’re richly rewarded for it. I have a soft spot for them myself. Did you know they interceded for me when Sulla put a price on my head for refusing to divorce my first wife?”
    “I heard something about it. I didn’t know the Vestals were involved.”
    “Oh, yes. The Chief Vestal, not Livia but her predecessor Flavia, used her influence to keep me alive when I was a young lad and needed friends. A favor like that one doesn’t forget. Anyway, it was before you were born and the troubles of those days are long gone. We have new ones to deal with now.” Caesar narrowed his keen dark eyes. “Don’t you ever wonder why I take you with me on these personal missions, rather than that extra legionary bodyguard the Senate has fitted out for me?”
    Marcus hesitated. “I thought you found the formal bodyguard ostentatious,” he finally said.
    Caesar smiled thinly. “A diplomatic answer. The truth is that there are few people I can really trust. The Senate is filled with my enemies, everyone knows this, and each day there are new plots hatched against me. To take the reins of the state means to make of oneself a target. You are one of the few men I know who doesn’t want anything from me.”  
    Marcus smiled again. “You make me sound very stupid, General.”
    Caesar shook his head. “All you want from life are the just rewards of a good soldier, and as long as I am alive I shall see that you get them.”
    Marcus put his hand on his sword hilt as they reached Caesar’s litter.
    “Go to the Suburra tonight and find a companion who will make you forget all about the white rose,” Caesar said, clapping his centurion on the shoulder as the slaves bowed low.
    Marcus sighed. “I am tired of quadrantariae with transparent tunics and kohl rimmed eyes, stinking of Persian perfumes, their berry stained lips whispering lies.”
    Caesar shrugged. “Such is the lot of the soldier. If you want to do better, take a wife.”
    Marcus grinned. “I cannot support a wife on army pay. The raise you authorized to 225 denariia year hardly makes any of us in the legions wealthy.”
    “You can support an army on the booty you carried back from Gaul and the Spanish campaign,” Caesar said dryly. “There’s not a man in your legion who didn’t return to Rome rich in plate and coins.” Caesar pulled back the curtains of his litter and climbed in, looking out at Marcus for the last word.
    “Go out tonight, son, and have a good time. You need the relaxation,” he said.
    “I will. I’m dining tonight at the home of Senator Valerius Gracchus.”
    “Good. Gracchus sets a fine table. Give him my compliments.” Caesar pulled the litter curtains closed and tapped the roof for the slaves to proceed.
    Marcus fell in behind the litter, thinking that as much as he respected Caesar, he was going to disregard the general’s advice in this instance.
      He planned to see the golden haired Vestal again, no matter what he had to do to arrange it.  

 
    Chapter 2
     
    Larthia Casca Sejana dismissed her hairdresser and stared moodily into the polished silver mirror she held. She didn’t know why she was conducting this elaborate toilette. Her husband was dead( he had scarcely noticed her when he was alive) and now her sole reason for going on seemed to be to uphold the memory of his sacred name. Although she was young and attractive, with thick light brown hair and wide gray eyes, her life had degenerated into a matron’s round of entertaining his business contacts and pledging portions of his fortune to various charities.
    She was miserably bored.
    Larthia picked up a utensil from her dressing table and plucked a hair from her left brow, examining herself critically. She was several shades less vivid than her firehaired, green eyed sister Julia, but she was still far too pretty to spend her life as keeper of the memory of Consul Sejanus. The only compensation of her current role was that as the consul’s widow she’d been able