Virgin Territory Read Online Free PDF Page A

Cypassis.’
    What was it with this woodwork that made it so damned attractive to knuckles?
    ‘Well?’
    Her big-boned maidservant slipped furtively into the room, carrying the most foul-smelling tallow candle ever to have been moulded. ‘It’s about—’
    ‘For gods’ sake, girl, put that out.’ Claudia jumped out of bed, flung open the door and fanned new, if not fresh, air into the room. She lit an oil lamp before asking, ‘So?’
    The customary dimpled smile had disappeared, and the girl’s eyes were as wide as sieves.
    ‘It’s Mistress Sabina, madam,’ Cypassis said. ‘She’s disappeared.’

IV
    Claudia’s eyes narrowed to slits. ‘Define disappeared .’
    They breed them tough in Thessaly, but not tough enough. Cypassis’s lower lip trembled when she spoke. ‘Just that. One minute she was in her room, the next…’
    Claudia picked up a large, bronze mirror by its lotus handle and waved it menacingly. ‘You’ve been at it again, haven’t you?’
    ‘I—’
    ‘Dammit, girl, we’ve only been here five minutes.’ Lamplight glinted on bronze. ‘Whose bed was it?’
    The mirror was now so close Cypassis could see her own reflection. She knew better than to try a denial. ‘Dodger’s,’ she said weakly.
    What? That bow-legged little runt? Claudia shook her head in despair. This was typical of Cypassis. She was neither a marriage-breaker nor a heart-breaker, she simply left a trail of warm memories and hot mattresses wherever she went. Commendable sentiments, which didn’t excuse her behaviour tonight.
    ‘Give me one good reason why I don’t turn you into cash this instant.’
    Tears welled up in the slave girl’s eyes. ‘I was only gone a half-hour. She was sleeping when I left, I thought…’
    Claudia waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. ‘Never mind what you thought, have you asked around?’
    Cypassis’s thick plait bounced as she nodded. ‘The tavern, the stable yard, the street—everywhere. No one’s seen her.’
    Or admits to having seen her. It was that sort of town. Claudia yanked aside the window hangings and peered up and down the street. ‘Fabius?’
    ‘He’s out visiting army vets, he hasn’t come back yet.’
    Ah. ‘So apart from us, no one knows Sabina is missing, is that right?’
    The plait bounced up and down again.
    ‘Quick. Round up Junius and Kleon and the others,’ Claudia said. Assuming they can walk.
    ‘I’ll make up for this, madam, I promise.’
    Claudia slipped out of her shift and kicked it across the room. ‘Damn right you will. In the meantime, you make bloody sure the boys are mustered by the back stairs in ten minutes flat.’ She plucked the first stola from the top of the box.
    ‘Let me—’
    ‘You’ve done enough damage. Now hop to it before I change my mind about selling you.’
    Frankly she couldn’t give a toss what happened to that silly cow Sabina, and the only reason Cypassis was involved was because Fabius hadn’t thought to bring female servants for his sister. Honestly, that man! Two decades of army life had developed his muscles to such an extent they completely filled the space in his cranium. Without the constant discipline and routine he’d grown used to, Fabius could no more think for himself than fly backwards. However, Claudia urgently needed to find Sabina. The whole idea was to travel to Sicily under the Collatinus umbrella—she certainly didn’t want her own name bandied about. Word travels fast in the Empire. Especially if you go around losing Vestal Virgins left, right and centre.
    The party headed straight for the Temple of Minerva, because if Syracuse was the island’s capital, its hub and its nerve centre, then this was the kernel of Syracuse. Minerva, patron of Sicily. Minerva, patron of October. And since yesterday was the first of the month, the sacred Kalends, the temple would have been a magnet for worshippers. It was the obvious place to start—this splendid monument built by the Doric people who once