To Love Again Read Online Free PDF Page B

Aurelian that all births be registered within thirty days in Rome, or with the official provincial authorities; but only when a boy formally became a man was his name entered in the rolls as a citizen. It was a proud moment. The names of Titus and Flavius Drusus Corinium would be entered in the list kept in the town of Corinium, and an offering would be made to the god Liber at that time.
    Just as their neighbors and friends began to arrive for the family celebration, Cailin took her brothers aside. “Cousin Quintus would like us to introduce him to prospective wives,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “I think we should help him. He will be gone all the sooner. I can barely remain civil in his presence.”
    “Why do you dislike him so, Cailin?” Flavius asked her. “He has done nothing to you. Once Father told him there would be no marriage between you, you should have felt more at ease. Instead you take every opportunity to snipe at him. I do not understand.”
    “He seems a good fellow to me,” Titus agreed with his twin. “His manners are flawless, and he rides well. I think Father was correct when he told Quintus that you were too young for marriage.”
    “I am not too young for marriage should the right man come along,” Cailin responded. “As for Quintus Drusus, there is something about him that my voice within warns me of, but I know not what it is. I simply think he is a danger to us all. The sooner he is gone to the river villa and settled with a wife, the happier I will be! Now, what girls do you feel would suit him?
Think!
You two know every eligible, respectable, and not so respectable maiden for miles around.”
    They laughed in unison, rolling their eyes at one another, for if there was one thing Cailin’s brothers liked, it was the ladies—so much so that Gaius Drusus was declaring his sons men in order to find them wives and marry them off before they caused a scandal by impregnating some man’s daughter or, worse, being caught debauching some man’s wife.
    “There is Barbara Julius,” Flavius said thoughtfully. “She is a handsome girl with nice big breasts. Good for babies.”
    “And Elysia Octavius, or Nona Claudius,” Titus volunteered.
    Cailin nodded. “Yes, they would all be suitable. I like none of them so well that I would warn them off our cousin, Quintus.”
    The families from the surrounding estates were arriving. The twins made their suggestions to their mother, and Kyna dutifully made the proper introductions. Quintus Drusus’s handsome face, coupled with his lands, made him more than eligible.
    “He needs three arms,” Cailin said dryly to her grandmother, “for Barbara, Nona, and Elysia will certainly end up in a cat fight trying to hold on to him. Will I have to simper like that to gain a man’s attention and devotion? It’s disgusting!”
    Brenna chuckled. “They are simply flirting with Quintus,” she said. “One of them must gain ascendancy over the others if they are to capture your cousin’s heart. Men and women have flirted for centuries. Someday a man will come along who appeals to you so strongly that you will flirt with him, my Cailin. Trust me in that.”
    Perhaps, Cailin thought, but she still felt that the threegirls being dangled before Quintus were silly creatures. She wandered through the crowd of her neighbors filling the gardens of the villa. No one was paying a great deal of attention to her, for this was not her day, but rather her brothers’. Cailin could smell spring in the air at long last. The ground was warm again, and the breeze mild, even if the day was not as bright as they might have wished. Then she saw Antonia Porcius, but before she might turn in another direction, Antonia was hailing her noisily, and there was no avoiding her.
    “How are you, Antonia?” Cailin inquired politely, bracing for the flood of words to come, for Antonia Porcius could not answer the simplest query without going into great detail.
    “I have divorced