The Warrior's Princess Read online

  ‘Do you have anything to say before we sentence you as traitors who have for so long opposed the might of Rome?’ Claudius’s voice did not carry far above the noise of the crowd and with its slight stutter it held little authority but the senators around him heard him. And so did the men closest to Caratacus.

  He took a step forward and slowly the crowds around them began to fall silent. His guards stood back respectfully. He turned and beckoned Cerys and Eigon towards him. Their escort fell back and they came and stood one on either side of him.

  ‘Great Emperor, I come before you as your prisoner,’ he said slowly. ‘But I come also as king of my people. A man of my bloodline and status would have come to Rome as an honoured guest instead of as a prisoner after only a fraction of the triumphs I have enjoyed and you would have been pleased to be the ally of such a powerful king. I was the ruler who defeated Rome and held her at bay!’ He paused. Around him the great echoing space of the forum, framed by its two hills, enclosed by stately buildings, was totally silent as even the furthest ranks of the crowd craned forward to catch his words. ‘As it is, you are the victor, I am the one who has been humiliated. I had horses and men, arms and wealth. Are you really so astonished that I regret their loss? You want to rule the world, but it does not follow that everybody else therefore wants to end up as a slave! Besides, if I had surrendered to you without a battle, neither my defeat nor your victory would have become famous.’ He smiled gravely and there was a slight quizzical lift to his eyebrow as he held the Emperor’s gaze. ‘If you execute me and my family, we will all be forgotten. Spare our lives and my people and I shall for ever be a symbol of your mercy!’

  His words were followed by a breathless hush. At last Claudius rose to his feet and stepped forward to the edge of the dais. He stared round, narrowing his eyes against the sunlight, his toga stirring in the light breeze, then finally he fixed his gaze on Caratacus’s face.

  ‘You are an eloquent opponent, King Caratacus. And a brave one.’ His voice carried better now in the total silence which reigned over the crowded forum. ‘I am minded to accede to your request and spare you.’

  There was a short pause then slowly a sigh seemed to spread out across the kneeling sea of prisoners. It was taken up by the onlookers and at last someone cheered. Within seconds the cheer had spread around the seats and benches and then to the furthest ranks of the crowd high on the hills until the deafening ring seemed to resound through the whole city.

  Claudius let it go on for a long time, a slight smile on his face, acknowledging the popularity of his words, then he raised his hand for silence. When, after what seemed like an eternity, he had it he took another step forward. ‘I shall require your homage, great king. And that of your wife and daughter.’ Suddenly he was looking straight into Eigon’s eyes.

  She felt herself gasp with fear. She sensed her father’s hesitation, his struggle with his pride and she clutched at his hand, looking up at him pleadingly. Claudius had seen it too. He did not want this moment of triumph spoiled by the man’s insane courage. ‘Your homage, great king and your family and your people live. Without it they all die.’ There was no mistaking the threat and the power in the man’s voice now. For all his weaknesses Claudius could pull rank when he had to.

  Caratacus took a deep breath. ‘Remove our chains, and I shall kneel before you as a free man.’

  Claudius bowed his head. He snapped his fingers and within seconds men had appeared to strike off their chains. Caratacus flexed his hands, then at last he stepped up onto the dais. The crowd fell silent again. Taking the Emperor’s hand in his he went down on one knee and kissed the Emperor’s ring. ‘And now, you will pay homage to my wife.’ Claudius gestured at Agrippina beside him. Caratacus raised an eyebrow but made no objection, taking her hand in his without noticing the frisson of disapproval which ran around the assembled senators and the Emperor’s other attendants, as Cerys and Eigon stepped in their turn onto the dais and before thousands of witnesses paid homage to the Emperor of Rome. As she moved away from him Eigon felt the Emperor’s hand on her head. She glanced up, scared, and for the second time caught his gaze. This time he smiled.

  The day was not over. As the crowds in the forum began to drift away, the men on the dais made their way into the Senate building and it was there that Caratacus and his family were led next, once again to affirm their allegiance to Rome and once again to allow Caratacus to address the Senate. And here they heard that the Emperor had granted them a house in which to live.

  Cerys glanced at her husband. His face was impassive as he bowed his head in acquiescence. Was he accepting surrender, agreeing to a life of captivity in all but name? She couldn’t decide. But for now it was all over. Their chains were gone, their attendants had been freed to serve them and as the Senate gave the Emperor a standing ovation their part in the proceedings was at an end. They were being escorted from the Senate building out into the blazing sunshine. The crowds were dispersing. The moment was over. They were free and on their way to their new abode.

  Eigon’s hand slipped into Cerys’s and, hardly able to comprehend that their lives had been spared, her mother glanced down at her. ‘Mam.’ Eigon, tugging urgently at her fingers, was still pale, her eyes enormous in her small face. ‘Mam, I need to tell you something.’

  ‘Sweetheart, we are all safe. You needn’t be afraid any more.’

  Eigon stared up at her, scarcely comprehending. ‘Not of anything?’

  ‘No, my daughter, not of anything.’ Smiling, Cerys glanced at her husband. His face was set. He did not appear to have heard the exchange. ‘There is nothing more to worry about. We can forget all our worries and start a new life from this moment.’

  Eigon nodded. She bit her lip. They had told her she had to say if ever she saw again any of the men who had hurt her so badly. She had thought they would have been left behind. But there, almost within touching distance in the Senate building she had seen one of the soldiers staring at her and her heart had stood still. She would recognise him anywhere. The hard golden wolf’s eyes beneath the helmet, the sharp angular face, the loose red-lipped mouth which had lapped at her body like an animal, the grasping fingers which had torn at her and which now were holding a sword as he stood as an officer of the imperial guard. As soon as she saw him she had recognised him. And he had seen her gasp of recognition. Nothing registered on his face as he stood impassively at attention, but she realised at once that he knew who she was; he had seen her and he had seen Cerys. He now knew that he had raped the wife of the king of the British and their daughter and the child was probably the only person alive who could identify him.

  Under Roman law the penalty for what he had done was death. As he held the child’s gaze, just for one second the rigid figure moved and she saw him gesture sharply. He had drawn his finger across his throat. The implication was clear. If he saw her again he would kill her.

  Jess woke with a start to the sound of knocking. Daylight flooded the room.

  ‘Jess? Why have you locked the door?’ The handle rattled up and down again. It was Steph.

  Sliding from bed, Jess went to pull the door open. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I’ve brought us coffee. Are you OK?’

  Jess nodded. She grabbed her robe and pulled it round her, then taking one of the mugs from Steph she pushed the door shut. She had resolved not to say anything about Dan. ‘Eigon came last night. She was here in this room. Carmella did summon her.’ She was standing with her back to the door.

  Steph sat down on the bed. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘She just appeared. She didn’t say anything, but I could see her clearly. She sort of faded away, but I dreamed about her again. How she came to Rome and how Claudius pardoned her father. The family was given a house to live in.’

  ‘Were you scared? I mean when she appeared.’

  Jess nodded. ‘I was a bit. It happened so suddenly and then she had gone. But she’s not scary. Not really. She’s a little girl.’

  ‘A d
estructive little girl.’ Steph drew up her knees. She balanced her mug between her hands. ‘What is going on with you and the boys?’

  ‘The boys?’ Jess moved away from the door and went to stand in front of the window.

  ‘Will and Dan.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘Oh come off it, Jess. There was so much tension between you three it could have run a power station!’

  ‘Not a good metaphor, Steph.’ Jess was watching the fountain. At this hour of the morning the sun was blocked behind the building and the courtyard was shady.

  ‘Maybe not. But expressive, I think you’d agree. So, what gives?’

  Jess swung round to face her. ‘How the hell did Dan know I was here?’

  ‘Apparently he rang yesterday. Kim forgot to mention it. He has agreed to stand in at the last moment at this conference apparently and thought he would look in and see her. He had no idea we were all here.’

  ‘Oh he knew all right! Is he still here?’

  Steph nodded. ‘As Nat and the kids are happily ensconced with her parents and that is not a scene he enjoys Kim suggested he stay for a few days until it starts. It will be like the old times. All of us together.’ She hesitated. ‘I know things are tricky between you and Will at the moment, I thought you were handling that. But is there something going on with Dan that I should know about?’

  ‘Nothing. Only school stuff. I wanted to forget about school. I don’t need anyone trying to get me to change my mind and stay there.’

  ‘So that is what this is all about? Kim wasn’t to know.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Jess pursed her lips. ‘Anyway, I’m planning to go out today. And I don’t want to go out in a great gang, so can you tactfully tell Kim that she can include me out if she is planning any jolly excursions.’

  ‘Of course. Where are you going?’

  ‘Research. I want to follow Eigon’s footsteps. See the Forum, the Senate. Find out where she lived. I’m going take my sketchbooks and wander round like a tourist.’

  Steph smiled. ‘I’ll lend you a guidebook. Kim and I can take the chaps out and distract them. Dan mentioned the Spanish Steps and Keats’ House.’

  ‘Good idea. Anywhere but where I am going.’

  She didn’t see Will or Dan. Dressing in a loose cool linen shift and sun hat she put her sketchbook and pencils into her shoulder bag and slipped out of the apartment before either of them had appeared. In seconds she was lost among the throngs of people on the pavements as she headed, guidebook in hand, for the heart of the ancient city.

  Nothing was as it had been in the dream. She smiled wryly as she sat down at a table under an awning outside a café just off the Piazza Consolazione and kicked off her sandals, exhausted. She had traipsed through the Forum for hours, staring at the ruins, briefly listening in here and there to other people’s guided tours, trying to visualise the place as it had been in the early first century AD. It was hard though she could easily imagine Eigon’s awe. A child of the Celts, used to small domestic architecture, where the most awesome objects were forest trees, suddenly confronted with this. She climbed the Palatine Hill, grateful for the shade of the pines and cypress and evergreen oak, then moved on, ever watching for a small shadow behind a column, a child who was following her amongst the echoes of the past, but there was no sign of her.

  When she did at last become aware of a figure standing over her and looked up it was not someone she wanted to see.

  ‘Have you enjoyed your day?’ Dan smiled. He pulled out the little wrought iron chair opposite her and sat down under the umbrella.

  She stared at him, paralysed. ‘What are you doing here? You followed me?’

  ‘Of course. I can hardly claim to have arrived here by accident.’ His face was hard. ‘You and I have things to discuss, Jess.’

  ‘Where are the others?’

  ‘Mooning over Keats’ grave in the English cemetery. They didn’t even notice I had gone.’ He smiled grimly.

  She reached for her sunglasses and put them on. ‘So discuss away. What do you want to say?’ The guidebook was lying on the table in front of her. Beside it a glass of cold fresh orange juice. She grasped the glass and sipped it, hoping he wouldn’t notice how her hand was shaking.

  He was watching her intently. ‘Have you told anyone?’

  ‘No.’

  He smiled. ‘Sensible. It is not as though anyone would believe you.’

  ‘I am not going to say anything, Dan, because I want to forget it. I don’t want anyone to know what happened.’

  ‘Nothing did happen. It was all in your imagination.’ He glanced up as a waiter appeared and ordered a beer. ‘You were drunk.’

  She raised an eyebrow, feeling braver suddenly. After all, what could he do to her here, in front of so many people? ‘You and I both know what happened, Dan. We both want to keep it to ourselves for whatever reasons. Let’s leave it at that. I will try and forget what you did to me, and that when you realised that I had recognised you, you threatened to kill me.’ She lowered her glasses onto the tip of her nose for a moment and peered at him over them. ‘And you will forget the whole episode. I will not be blackmailed or threatened any more. You are a piece of shit. You have betrayed your wife and children and yourself. Having assimilated that point, I suggest you go back to England.’ She stood up, her temper suddenly flaring. ‘And I suggest that you give me a damn good reference, Dan, when I apply for a new job, otherwise I might start to remember what happened that night!’ Groping in her pocket for some euros she threw them down on the table for the waiter and turned away, running down the steps to cross the piazza and climb towards the Tarpeian Rock, leaving Dan sitting staring after her.

  The apartment was very silent when she arrived back. ‘Hello?’ she called. There was no reply. She went straight to her room and stepped out of her dusty sandals. Pulling off her dress she walked through to the bathroom and reached into the shower to turn it on.

  The sound of the water spattering on the tiles was interrupted by a knock on the door behind her. She turned abruptly. ‘Who is it?’ she shouted. She fumbled behind her for the tap and turned it off. Grabbing at a towel she wrapped it around her. ‘Who’s there?’

  There was no reply. She bit her lip nervously. The door was locked. ‘Who’s there?’ she repeated. Padding across the tiles she pressed her ear against the door, listening. Slowly the door handle began to turn. ‘Who is it?’ she called a third time. ‘Dan? Is that you? Leave me alone!’ She was trembling all over. ‘Go away.’ There was no reply.

  Then, faintly, she heard Steph’s voice outside in her bedroom. ‘Jess, are you back? Oh goodness, Dan! Sorry. Am I interrupting?’

  Jess dragged the door open. ‘No,’ she breathed, clutching the towel around her, her fury erupting again. ‘You aren’t interrupting anything!’

  Dan laughed. ‘I’m sorry, Steph. I hadn’t realised Jess was in the shower.’ His lip lifted in a slight sneer as he glanced at her. ‘I will leave you alone so she can make herself decent and then perhaps we can talk later.’

  The two women stared after him as he walked out of the room. As soon as he had gone Steph turned back to her sister. ‘What on earth is going on?’

  Jess stormed towards the door and slammed it, turning the lock. She shook her head. ‘It’s a long story,’ she said as she sat on the bed. She was shaking violently.

  ‘So? I’ve got time.’ Steph sat down next to her. ‘The truth, Jess.’

  Jess sighed. She couldn’t keep this to herself any longer. She had to tell someone. ‘He raped me, in London. After the end of term disco. That was why I left school.’ Now she had begun, she couldn’t stop the words pouring out. ‘That was why I wanted to get away from him, Steph. He keeps threatening me. He’s terrified I might tell someone. Like Natalie or the Head. He threatened to kill me in Wales. That was why I left Ty Bran. That was why I came here. I was trying to avoid him and now he’s followed me here and today he followed me to the Forum
and he threatened me again!’ Her eyes filled with furious tears and she brushed them away angrily. ‘I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know what on earth to do!’

  Steph stared at her, white-lipped. ‘Jess, do you know what you’re saying?’

  ‘Yes, of course I know what I’m saying! He raped me, Steph. He gave me some kind of date-rape drug and –’ she took a deep shuddering breath – ‘he raped me!’ She was crying in earnest now.

  Steph put her arms round her, hugging her tightly. ‘Jess, my darling. My God, how could he!’ She glanced over her shoulder at the door. ‘Did you tell the police?’ Releasing Jess she stood up and ran the few steps over to the door and tested the handle. The lock held. Coming back she sat down on the bed again. ‘Well, did you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I didn’t want anyone to know. I couldn’t face it. At first I didn’t know who had done it. I couldn’t remember anything. It only came back slowly; it was only then that I realised it was Dan. He didn’t deny it. He claims I was drunk and that I egged him on.’ She sighed heavily.

  ‘Is it possible you did?’ Steph frowned. She took Jess’s hand and held it tightly.

  Jess looked at her, appalled. No one will believe you. Dan’s words echoed in her head for a moment. ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘No, it isn’t!’ She snatched her hand away.

  ‘But you just said you don’t remember what happened. Sometimes, when we’ve had a lot of drink –’

  ‘My clothes were torn. My body was bruised – I was drugged. I went to the doctor.’