“And I’m his ward! The closest thing to a son he has, or at least I should be.” A slave bumped Hadrian’s elbow, murmured an apology, and kept dashing with an armload of clothes. Hadrian looked at the chaos around him and shook his head, reaching down to dispense pats to the dogs, who had leaped up as soon as he entered. “I hope you can unearth a dinner synthesis for me out of all this mess, Vibia Sabina.”

“Never mind your synthesis.” Sabina rooted through the nearest box, unearthing a statuette, a single earring, and a bottle of ink. “If I don’t find my clothes, then I’ll have to show up naked. Wouldn’t that make a splash?”

Titus did his best to dismiss the image that popped immediately to mind. At least until he was out of his new legate’s presence. “How do you find your new legion, sir?” he asked hastily.

“The men are impudent,” Hadrian frowned at the smear of mud along one broad arm.

“I assure you they can fight, sir.”

“I’d prefer them both fighting fit and respectful.” Hadrian directed a slave with a stack of writing tablets into his study. “None of your exploring, Vibia Sabina. Even a legate’s wife isn’t safe to walk alone among all these rough men. They haven’t seen a proper Roman woman in years—no telling what they’d do if they came across you wandering about sniffing the flowers.”

“No wandering,” Sabina said. “I promise.”

“Is it a promise you have any intention of keeping?”

“Not really, no,” she confessed. “But I’ll be careful.”

“Minx.” He smiled faintly. “Go and change. I’d rather not have you flashing your knees at my tribune, even if he has been good enough to keep his eyes away from them.”

Sabina gave a little salute, blew a kiss at Titus, and disappeared into the next room. Titus cleared his throat, looking at the ceiling.

“Forgive my wife,” Hadrian said, breaking the seal on Trajan’s note and scanning it. “As you well know, she can be impossible at times.”

“‘Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses.’”

“I’d not thought to find a reader of Ovid in Moguntiacum.”

“I brought as many books as I could carry north,” Titus confessed. “Though I fear I’ve read them all by now.”

“If you wish to borrow any of mine, you have only to ask.” Hadrian’s smile was aloof but friendly, his dark eyes keen. “Will you accompany us to dinner this evening with the Emperor?”