'Move away, make way.' Strabo squeezed through two bystanders to appear on Valens's right. 'What in the name of Hercules is going on here?'

Strabo's words broke the spell. Valens straightened and removed his helmet. The red mist receded. He looked at Aquilia, whose net dangled on the ground. The sneer of the pirate captain was more pronounced than ever.

'It appears Aquilia objects to being a messenger boy,' Valens drawled. 'He has just now delivered the message you gave him yesterday evening for me.'

Strabo scowled. 'Is this true?'

Aquilia shrugged, lifting both hands into the air.

'I am a gladiator of the first hall, not a messenger boy. If I see the man, I deliver the message. I did not see him until just now. Then I give him the message.'

Valens crossed his arms and started counting. He reached two when Strabo exploded, his face contorting as the words sank in.

'You are a slave, boy. And you and your trident belong to me for the duration,' Strabo growled and grabbed Aquilia's breastplate, shaking him. Then he released him and took a step towards Valens, but stopped short. His hand curled around empty air. 'Neither of you forget that. You fight when I say you fight.'

'Understood, my lanista,' Valens said calling Strabo by his official title of trainer-manager as he placed his sword in its sheath.

Aquilia merely bowed.

'Shake hands,' Strabo commanded. 'You are outside the arena now. Save it until you meet inside.'

Valens grasped Aquilia's hand briefly, promising himself, should the Fates declare they meet in the ring, that it would be a fight with only one victor. The crowd cheered and then started to disperse.

'Aquilia, forty denarü for insubordination. Valens, your fine is commuted to ten.' Strabo clapped his hands and two of the trainers appeared. He motioned to Aquilia, who had flecks of spittle around his mouth. 'Take him somewhere to calm his temper. Valens, I think I can trust you.'

Without waiting for an answer, Strabo strode off. Valens turned towards Julia, who was standing with her back against the statue of Venus. She looked white-lipped as her hands clutched Bato. The dog gave a slight whine of protest.

'He said such horrible things about me,' she said. "Lies everyone could hear! Lies that will fly around Rome within the hour. Rome loves scandal.'

'He was trying to goad me,' Valens said and didn't need to elaborate on how close he had come to succeeding.

'Were you about to fight him?'

Valens took Bato from her and set the dog down. He resisted the temptation to draw her into his arms and contented himself with brushing some tendrils of hair behind her ear. She gave a tremulous smile, one that made his heart skip a beat.

'If I had to, I would have. No doubt this little encounter has sealed my fate for the games,' he said to draw his attention from her lips, which were now back to their normal rose colour.

The words were easier to say aloud than to think them. Before him danced the tantalising image of beating Aquilia and being awarded the radius for it. Victory would be all the sweeter for avenging the death of his comrades. He could almost hear the roar of the crowd. And what would he do afterwards? Valens jerked his mind away from the thoughts. Nothing must exist outside the arena. To do that would be tempting the Fates.

The other possibility he refused to consider. He would win because he had to win.

'How so? How is your fate sealed?' Julia crossed her arms and looked up at him with narrowed eyes. 'Even knowing as little as I do about the games, I thought the matches were decided on the day. A great play is made of stones being drawn out. Vestal Virgins are used.'

Valens decided to give her an edited version of gladiator procedure, rather than the truth. He refused to believe that the Fates would place Aquilia in his path and not allow him to fight, to avenge his capture.

'I believe Aquilia and I will meet in the ring. Strabo saw the crowd, and heard the shouts. He might be annoyed now, but when he calms down, he'll see it as a commercial opportunity. Despite the nonsense of picking fighters from a hat on the day of the match, I believe the Fates have already decreed or at least been given a helping hand.'

Julia made an annoyed pushing-away motion with her hand.

'You make it sound like it was some sort of children's game. You could have been hurt. That man is frightening. I was quaking in my sandals.'

'Julia, that's my job, my profession.' Valens looked at her in dismay. 'Every time I enter the ring, I could get hurt or killed. Men like Aquilia don't frighten me—now.'

He looked into her face and realised it was a lie. What unnerved him was that Aquilia had instinctively found something that made him lose control—Julia.


Chapter Six


Julia tried to stop the trembling of her arms, her entire body as she stared at Valens. Now he seemed to have shrunk back to normal size, but when he had been arguing with that other gladiator he had seemed a giant consumed with anger. How could she explain to Valens that the entire confrontation terrified her? His reaction to Aquilia frightened her, as well as being so close to two such large men who seemed to be out of control.

As she had watched the two square off and Valens's angry retorts echoed in her ears, she had had flashbacks to her marriage when Lucius had gone into rages. Sometimes Bato's low growl had prevented Lucius from striking her and sometimes he hit her anyway. She swallowed hard and tried to rid her stomach of the empty hollow feeling. She had sworn to Venus, when she left Lucius, she would not have anything to do with men who lost their tempers easily.

Her eyes traced the line of Valens's jaw where shadowy stubble had appeared. She looked at the silver armour and tried once again to reconcile it with the man who had held her in his arms this morning.

'The arena is a foreign place to me. That sort of behaviour shocked me,' she said, taking care with her words.

Valens's face broke into a wary smile. 'It shocked me. But it was worth it to see his face when Bato tried to get the net, absolutely priceless.'

'You did that on purpose?' Julia stared at him in disbelief. 'How did you know that Bato would be here?'

'I didn't. The opportunity presented itself and I figured I could handle the consequences.' His eyes sobered. 'I had not intended to put you in danger, merely to teach Aquilia a lesson.'

'You picked a fight with that brute?' Julia asked, still unable to believe it. Her heart still thumped in her ears from the confrontation. What she was feeling wasn't exhilarating, it was something far more complicated. As for Valens, he seemed to treat it lightly. 'Why did you do that?'

Valens's face showed myriad emotions. His lips parted before pressing very firmly together. His face became a bland mask.

'Why, Valens?' she asked again.

'I've fought worse.' He laid a warm hand on her shoulder, but she twisted away. 'The brutish ones are generally easier to deal with. It is the sly ones, the ones who use trickery, who are more troublesome.'

'I suppose you get used to it,' she said doubtfully. 'Perhaps it is in men's blood to fight. Women don't behave like that.'

'Some women fight in the arena.'

'Now you are teasing me.' Julia forced herself to laugh. She wanted Valens to stay and talk with her until she got over her fright. With each passing breath, her heart rate was going back to normal. 'Women would not fight in public. It wouldn't be dignified.'

'I've known several,' Valens said. 'They are what we call novelties, to whet the appetite of the crowd. I believe Caesar is using a two pairs of female gladiators before the mid-day interval on each of the seven days of his games.'

Julia stared at him in astonishment. Women in the arena! Was this another of his jokes? She searched his face, but it bore a serious look.

'Are they any good?' she asked at last. 'It would never occur to me that women would fight in public. I thought the arena was the most masculine of places.'

'It used to be, but the public want novelty, something new to whet their appetite. And the women gladiatrix I've seen can fight. All the ones I know have been prisoners of war. In some countries, women are trained from birth to fight. I believe they received their armour just after the tiros did.'

Julia shook her head. 'I was searching for Bato then.'

'You sound unconvinced. Shall I introduce you?'

Julia watched him closely. The world seemed to have shrunk to the two of them. She tried to tell herself that his attention was just because he felt guilty about subjecting her to that brute of a gladiator.

'Women can do many things if men will let them,' she said with a firm voice. 'They are capable of more than sitting at home, spinning and tending the household gods.'

'Ah, you are one of those independent-minded women. I should have guessed.' He lightly touched her shawl, allowing it to run through his fingers like water. 'Do you spend all your time playing games at the baths gymnasium?'

Julia's breath caught in her throat. Independent-minded— those words echoed the words Lucius threw at her when she finally said she wanted a divorce. He then called for his whip. She shuddered at the memory, tried to forget the sickening pain he had inflicted when she had let her tongue run on once too often.

'Julia, are you are all right? Look at me.'

She opened her eyes and saw Valens's face close to hers. Both his hands were on her shoulders.