Harlequin Historical October 2018, Box Set 2 of 2 by Lynna Banning

Author:Lynna Banning
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘What do you think, Empress? Would you like a new cloak, too?’ Marius bent his head towards Julia as they walked out of the fortress gates towards the vicus, smiling when she nodded enthusiastically.

‘Yes, please! Can I have a doll as well?’

‘Julia!’ Livia admonished her.

‘Anything you want. You’re the Empress.’

‘You shouldn’t have promised her that,’ she remonstrated with him as the little girl skipped ahead with Porcia. ‘Now she’ll choose the biggest doll she can find.’

‘Then she can have it. This is a special day, after all.’ He glanced sideways, as if to see her reaction to the statement. ‘She ought to get some kind of a present to celebrate.’

Celebrate. Livia forced a smile, the word hovering in the air as they made their way towards the market, a brightly coloured collection of shops and stalls bordering both sides of the street, stocked high with breads, meats, fish, clothes and anything else an army garrison might require. A group of boys called to Marius as they passed, inviting him to play some kind of ball game with them, but instead of looking angry at their familiarity as she might have expected, he only grinned and shook his head back.

Despite his celebratory mood, she felt a new sense of awkwardness in his company. Underneath his outward appearance she was certain he felt it, too. The atmosphere of tension between them was stronger than ever, as if they were both struggling to adjust to their new relationship. They were even walking an arm’s length apart like strangers. Whatever else his proposal had done, it hadn’t brought them any closer together. Quite the opposite, it seemed to have pushed them further apart. She still had no idea either why he’d proposed or how he felt towards her—and apparently he had no intention of talking about it.

Now, confusingly, he was talking about their wedding as a cause for celebration, but she couldn’t celebrate. Instead, she felt oppressed by the one-sidedness of it. He’d risked so much—his money, his sword, probably even his career—while she was only using him to escape Scaevola.

No, she frowned at the thought, that wasn’t true. She wasn’t using him, at least not in any calculated manner, and she couldn’t deny her physical attraction to him, but was he really a man she could spend the rest of her life with? After all, she barely knew him, not really, and she hadn’t exactly been honest with him either. Although there was still time, she reminded herself, if she wanted to risk telling him everything…

‘A wedding present, you mean?’ She pushed the thought aside.

‘In part, and because she’s been through a lot. It must have been a difficult few months for both of you.’ He looked sombrely at her. ‘I won’t try to replace her father, Livia, but I’ll do my best for her. You have my word on it.’

‘Oh…thank you.’ She swallowed the lump that arose in her throat suddenly, touched as much by the words as by the poignant

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