'How dare you! I can behave how I like towards my wife.' Lucius aimed a blow at Valens's midriff.

In a blur, Valens had Lucius's arms pinned behind his back and Lucius screamed like a stuck pig.

'She is no longer your wife. You have no right to touch her.' Valens looked as if he might strike him. Then he seemed to think better of it and let him go.

Lucius staggered back a step. He rubbed his wrist.

'We'll meet again, Gladiator,' he said with a curling lip. 'Julia, remember what I said—no more visits to Gracchus or I will make your life akin to Hades, protector or no.'

Julia watched as Lucius staggered out of the courtyard. She closed her eyes and wished she had restrained her impulses this morning. Now Valens had witnessed the full sordidness of her life, had seen what a coward she was.

'Julia.'

She became aware that Valens was calling her and had called her several times. She turned towards him. The tenderness in his eyes shone out at her. She longed to stumble a few steps and lay her head against his chest. She wanted to feel his strong arms about her. But that was impossible here in the open courtyard. The only thing she could do was to stare and draw strength from his eyes.

She brushed an errant lock of hair back from her forehead.

'I am sorry about that little display, Valens. My ex-husband is…well…not right in the head.'

'He seemed to blame you for some mishap.' There was a questioning expression in his eyes.

'I went to see my ex-father-in-law about some other matter— about Bato, if you must know—and Lucius leapt to the wrong conclusion.' Julia pressed her hands together. There was no need to confide her mistaken ideas. It could only inflame the situation. She wanted to forget that. It seemed so…so misguided somehow. 'I never accused him of killing Gracchus's son.'

She felt Valens's eyes on her, piercing her, and shifted.

'Have you told your father about Lucius's behaviour?'

Julia released a deep breath.

'I will,' she answered.

'You must do—I may not always be around to protect you.'

Julia nodded. A stab of pain coursed through her heart as she stared at his implacable face. She knew he was only acknowledging the truth. Their affair was finite. It would end. She had no desire for it to end or to think of the ending, but he obviously had.

'I will do.'

'Julia, you are shaking. If you would like, I'll give your excuses to Sabina and your father. You mustn't let him upset you like this.'

She took the coward's way and nodded. It was much easier to let him think her trembling was down to Lucius than to losing him.

'If you would be so kind…1 think I shall retire to my room. Perhaps you could ask one of the servants to bring up a cup of mint tea.'


Chapter Twelve


The sound of silence filled the corridor. Valens hesitated, looking at the solid door that separated him from Julia. His natural inclination would be fling open the door and demand to know if she had recovered. But after witnessing her white-faced reaction to Lucius, he had no wish to frighten her further. He rapped his knuckles softly against the wood and waited.

At Julia's muffled reply, he pushed the door open.

Julia lay on the bed, her eyes covered by a cloth.

'Put the tea on my dressing table, please.' She waved her hand.

Valens closed the door with a click before he set the tray down.

'Shall I pour you some tea or would you rather do it yourself?' he asked, watching the rise and fall of her chest.

'Valens?' Julia sat bolt upright, the cloth falling from her eyes. Her cheeks took on a rosy hue. 'I thought it was the servant with the tea.'

Her voice trailed away. Her dark eyes looked gigantic in her ashen face. His insides twisted. The rivulets of memory he had managed to stem earlier had swollen and crashed through the barriers of his mind. It would be easy to lose his temper and go after that misbegotten man Lucius Gracchus, demanding old wrongs be righted. But Strabo had taught him control and patience. He would make sure Lucius suffered for what he had done, but first he had to fulfill his obligations to the arena.

One enemy at a time.

'Are you hurt?'

'You stopped him.' Her voice held a note of wonder. 'I prepared my body for the blow and you stopped it.'

How could anyone raise his hand against her? Valens resisted the temptation to pull her into his arms and kiss the shadows away. Since this morning's practice with Tigris, Valens had been trying to convince himself that what had happened yesterday evening was a unique event. The attraction to Julia would have faded as it did with all the rest.

In this room together, he felt his desire for her rise higher with each passing breath he took. He thought himself only concerned for her safety, but he knew, looking at her tousled hair and heightened cheek colour, he felt something more for this woman. Feelings he thought he would never feel for any woman. Her vulnerability terrified him because the need to keep her safe seemed to dominate his thoughts, loosening the arena's hold from his mind. He raked his hand through his hair as her reddened lips caught his attention.

'Lucius always upsets me. I should know what to expect by now.' She gave a feeble laugh and half a shrug. 'Old habits die hard. Please don't say anything to anyone. It will only cause upset.'

Valens reached out and brushed her cheek with his hand.

To his relief, she sat there, unflinching. A faint smile flickered at the corner of her lips before dying.

'I've spoken with your father. I explained about Lucius's unprovoked attack,' he explained as gently as possible. Having seen Lucius's anger and her reaction, it became his duty to tell her father.

Her eyes looked even more terrified. Valens cursed the hold her ex-husband had over her and longed to draw her into his arms. Patience, he needed patience.

Myriad emotions flitted across Julia's face—surprise, anger and fear, but mostly fear. 'Why? Why did you that? I told you those things in confidence. You had no right to do that.'

'Because you deserve some measure of protection. He had to know about Lucius Gracchus's threats. If not for your sake, for the rest of your family's. A senator's anger can have many repercussions. Your father knows that. He appreciated the news.'

Valens placed his hand on her shoulder, seeking to calm her. He could see the rapid beating of her heart in her throat's hollow.

'Did you tell him everything?' she asked in a small voice. She flinched away from his hand. Her face became as white as newly made toga, and her dark eyes seemed to swallow her face.

'I told him what he needed to know—that Lucius had threatened you and his manner appeared to be verging on lunacy this afternoon,' he said soothingly. 'The porter would have told him in any case.'

She pushed a lock of hair back. A patch of colour returned to her cheeks and her breathing seemed easier.

'I suppose you are right. Clodius does tell my father everything. My father trusts him, even though he is getting on in his years.'

"There is no suppose about it. You are no longer Lucius Gracchus's wife. An attack on you is an attack on your family. Your father should know his enemies. It is your father's duty to protect you.'

'What did my father say?' she whispered, twisting a tendril of hair around her finger.

Valens stared at the narrow slit of a window and wondered how best to describe Julius Antonius's explosion. Julia's shoulders were beginning to ease, and the pinched look about her mouth.

'He has given strict instructions to the porter and the other servants that they are to refuse entry to him. They will look after you, Julia, if you stay within the house and its gardens.'

Julia's eyes drank in Valens's features. The concern on his brow. She looked at his huge arm muscles and thought of how they wielded a sword and yet had gently held her last night. She released a long breath and gave into her desire to rest her head. His arms came around and held her tight. The wool of his tunic felt rough against her cheek. The thump of his heart echoed hers. She allowed her hurt and anger to drain away. Nothing much mattered except Valens had taken her in his arms. He wanted to help her.

'It is such a new thing to have anyone care enough about me to want to help,' she said, trying to explain the turmoil inside her. She looked into his eyes, trying to assess his mood, trying to discover why he was there. 'Thank you.'

She lifted her hand to his cheek. He turned his head slightly and his lips brushed her palm.

'I want to make sure you are safe, that no harm comes to you.' The rich timbre of his voice held her and caressed her senses. 'I am a guest in your house.'

Her heart dropped a bit. Was it only because his obligations as a guest? She'd worry about it later. Right now, all she knew was that she wanted the feel of his lips against hers. She needed to feel that what they had shared last night had not been destroyed by Lucius. She had worried that the disgust she had seen earlier in Valens's eyes was for her.

'I can look after myself,' she whispered and her hand touched his hair. She ran her fingers through the silky strands, burying them deep, and pulled his face nearer to hers. 'I survived three and a half years of marriage to Lucius.'

'You are married no longer.' His voice rasped in her ear. 'Sometimes you need help.'

He pushed the material off her shoulder and traced the faint scars of Lucius's beatings with a finger. Where they had once ached with pain, they now ached with another sensation, a burning that made her body press closer towards him.