“I know my husband.” Sabina put her hands to her back for a moment, stretching like a sleek and sleepy young cat. “What is there to do in these frontier towns except hunt or make love? And he’s devoted to both.”

“Dear Publius is far more settled now.” Plotina’s lips pressed tight. “And of course you will accompany him on his appointment to legate, wherever he will be stationed.”

“At last we agree,” Sabina said sweetly.

So the girl wasn’t putting up a fuss about that. Good. “You will find the provinces quite different from anything you are used to in Rome,” Plotina said, mollified. “Rougher accommodations, rougher company—and of course it is quite impossible to get decent bread, even for a legate’s table. But one must endure.”

“Coarse bread? Goodness, how shall I ever survive?”

“Even in rough circumstances, certain standards must be maintained. Especially by a legate’s wife. Never less than three courses at dinner, even if they must be simple ones, and a proper stola worn at all times regardless of the weather.” Plotina patted the severe, elegant folds of her own gray silk. “None of this dabbling in local customs. One hears of wives who go to Britannia and come back all over blue paint and native jewelry!”

“Perhaps Hadrian will end up in Britannia. I think I’d look rather well in woad.”

“Well may you joke.” Plotina raised significant eyebrows. “Now, some mixing with the wives of lower officers is inevitable, but you should keep it to a minimum. The wives of the magistrates and governors make better company. Naturally they will look to you to set the standard of behavior.”

“I wonder if he might get a legion in Egypt?” Sabina mused. “I long to take a barge down the Nile like Cleopatra…”

“You will be far too busy for riverboat cruises, my dear. Dear Publius will be relying on you to further his career. The right kind of friendships with the provincial governors, the correspondence with useful people here in Rome, the proper parties hosted for the proper guests.” Sabina was a rather good hostess, Plotina would grant her that, though she invited far too many of what she called interesting people. And there did seem to be a tendency for her dinners to lapse into loose laughing affairs with a great deal of wine and banter, rather than serious functions with serious discussion. Plotina shuddered to think of that one dinner where everyone had ended the night wading in the fountain and passing a jug back and forth like carefree plebs on holiday. Why Trajan and his friends had been so charmed, she really could not understand.