Daughters of Rome by Quinn Kate

Author:Quinn, Kate [Quinn, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2011-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

WELL, this is better,” Cornelia said aloud, relieved. The Emperor’s box at the Lucaria races was a cheerful hubbub—shouted bets, peals of laughter, rough jests—but the noise was merely highspirited. She hadn’t intended to go to the races at all that day—Lucaria, coming at the height of summer, was always so hot, and she would have preferred a book and a cup of cold mulberry infusion in the coolness of the atrium to a sticky afternoon at the circus. But a Praetorian delivered a scroll that morning with a toneless mumble, and Tullia had ripped it open to find the Imperial seal.

“Fabius Valens has invited us to the Imperial box at the Circus Maximus,” she said gleeful. “Especially you, Cornelia. Thank goodness for your connection with Piso and Galba—it was a trifle inconvenient with Otho on the throne, I admit, but Vitellius seems determined to honor anyone even remotely connected—”

“Perhaps the Emperor means to marry you to one of his supporters,” Gaius broke in, taking the scroll from his wife’s hand. “Lollia isn’t the only one who can make an advantageous marriage.”

“For once you’re right, Gaius.” Tullia eyed Cornelia sternly. “I do hope you’ll be sensible.”

“Let Marcella make the advantageous marriage.” Cornelia folded her hands at her waist to keep them from clenching into fists. “She and Lucius haven’t even spoken to each other since Brixellum—he’d happily divorce her. Or Diana—seventeen years old now, it’s high time she married—”

“Of course I don’t want to force you.” Gaius patted her hand. His chin was now covered in patchy stubble in imitation of Vitellius, who unlike Otho was careless about shaving. “But I’d love to see you properly settled again, Cornelia—”

“Gaius, don’t be stupid!” Tullia cut off her husband. “It’s not about happiness these days, it’s about connections! You have a connection to Galba, Cornelia, and it’s your duty to the family to use that!”

Haven’t I done my duty enough? Cornelia went straight up to her bedchamber and put on the deepest mourning black she could find, not even a pair of earrings to offset the severity. “How are you supposed to find a good husband looking like a hired mourner?” Tullia scolded. “You don’t have the figure Marcella does, but you could make more of it. Gaius, tell her, this will never do!”

“It won’t do at all, you know.” Marcella looked up from her desk in the cluttered tablinum, giving her sister an amused head-to-toe glance. “Though not for the reason Tullia thinks.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you want to escape attention, don’t wear black. You’re rather beautiful in black.”

Cornelia looked into the glass at her own reflection. The black dress had turned the coils of her hair to black as well; glossy ebony reflections from silk and hair alike surrounding a pale shield of a face. “I suppose you’re not going, Marcella?”

“I have a headache.”

“You’ve been having quite a few of those lately,” Cornelia couldn’t help saying. “At least whenever it’s the races or the games or anything else you think is boring.

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