Thalius sent the boy off with Tarcho, and ordered the housekeeper to bring more wine and plates of light food. As social routines cut in, Aurelia calmed. But she watched Thalius constantly, as an owl watches a mouse.

She told him something of herself. Born and raised in Eburacum, she had been widowed young. She had inherited her husband’s business interests, and had run them herself ever since, evidently not needing the shadow of a man to win herself a place in society. Her husband’s interests were an old family business of quarries in the north country, which supplied stone to army installations, including the Wall itself. And it was in the north country that the paths of their families had once crossed, she said.

‘It’s all family legend,’ she purred. ‘Tittle-tattle. But the legend is that my husband’s remote grandfather, one Brigonius, was the lover of your remote grandmother, Lepidina. But they never married, and had no offspring.’

‘And this was when?’

‘Two centuries ago. At the time of the famous visit of Emperor Hadrian,’ she said, sipping her wine. ‘And that is how the Prophecy of Nectovelin entered the mythology of my family. I grew up fascinated by the tale. A Prophecy all one’s own. Think of the power! So when I came across Ulpius Cornelius and his not-very-discreet inquiries I was fascinated.’ She glanced somewhat dismissively at his expensive tapestry. ‘It was a thread, I thought, a loose thread in time’s tapestry that I couldn’t resist tugging. And when I did it led me to you, and here we are.’

‘You talk about power,’ Thalius said uneasily. ‘The power to do what?’

‘To see where our charismatic soldier-emperor is leading us. And,’ she said more coldly, ‘the power to do something about it.’

Thalius flinched, but he forced himself to believe that there were no spies from the imperial court in his own home. ‘What is it you don’t like about Constantine?’

‘That’s simply answered,’ she said. ‘I don’t like his taxes.’ And, just as Cornelius had complained long and loud about Constantine’s policies at the heart of the imperial government, so now Aurelia railed about the effect of the Emperor’s decrees on her own position.

‘You don’t appear bankrupt,’ Thalius broke in gently.

‘No, but I soon will be at this rate! Thalius, I know you’re a man of business, and in a curia, as I am. What an onerous chore it is - don’t you think? Why, do you know that some criminals and evaders have actually had curia responsibilities thrust upon them as a punishment? And if you default you are beaten up by the governor’s thugs. I know it happens, I’ve seen it! It’s not surprising everybody is getting out of town if they can - as you do, Thalius, and don’t deny it.’