Copyright © 1961 by LeGette Blythe

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portionsthereof in any form.

Published simultaneously in Canada by Holt, Rinehart and Winston ofCanada, Limited.

First Edition

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-11599

Designer: Ernst Reichl

81003-0211

Printed in the United States of America

FOR ANNE AND JULIE

Rome

1

The capricious flame spattered darts of thin yellow light on wallsand floor as the doors swung gently closed. Claudia turned fromher tall, deeply tanned, uniformed escort to address the servantwho had let them in.

“I won’t be needing you tonight, Tullia. You may go now.But wait ... before you leave, we shan’t be wanting all theselamps. Put out all but that one”—she pointed—“and then youmay go to bed. Poor thing, I know you’re tired.” She peeredbeyond the wide archway opening onto the peristylium. “I seeyou left a lamp burning in my bedroom. Good. Well, then, justput these others out.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Claudia said as theservant snuffed out the flame and, bowing to them, disappearedinto the now darkened corridor. “She’s a treasure, Longinus, intelligent,faithful, and, most important, she’s utterly loyal. Shewould die before betraying me. She’s Phoebe’s daughter, andPhoebe, you know, hanged herself rather than be a witness againstmy mother. Tullia, I’m sure, would do the same thing for me.”She pointed toward the peristylium. “Let’s sit out there in themoonlight. It seems a little warm in here, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” he answered. “I was hoping you’d suggest that. Itwould be a shame to waste that moon, and the fountain andflowers.” He was glancing around the luxuriously furnished room.“By the gods, Claudia, you have a handsome place. It’s been along time since I was here, but it seems more lavish. Did Aemiliushave it redecorated?”

“Bona Dea, no. That insipid oaf? What has he ever done forme?” She acted mildly piqued but then smiled. “It has been redecorated,but I had it done. This apartment’s actually an extension12of the Imperial Palace, you remember. My beloved stepfather,the great Emperor Tiberius,” she said sarcastically, “had itbuilt for his little girls. When he moved them out to Capri withhim—a new group, of course, for several of us were too old bythen—he allowed me to stay here. But I moved away when Imarried Aemilius; we went out to Baiae. After we were divorced,though, I returned here, and that’s when I had it redecorated.But the place was built for the Emperor’s little girls.” She paused,leaned against a high-backed bronze chair. “You understand?”

“I’ve heard stories, yes.”

“Well, when poor Mother s

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