He looked down at her, arms still folded. Sabina put her fingertips together under her chin, feeling like she’d descended a step she hadn’t known was there and snapped her teeth together on her tongue.

“Before I married you,” she said at last, “I asked if you meant to live your life as Plotina wanted you to—politics and scheming and striving toward the top. You said no, that there were too many things to see in the world. Like the Nile in flood and the Temple of Artemis in Delphi—”

“All true.” Hadrian nodded. “The key to telling a good lie, as you yourself have often said, is to tell as much of the truth as possible.”

It was a hot night outside, the air from the open shutters heavy and blossom-scented from the gardens, but Sabina felt suddenly chilled to the bone. “Why would you wish to tell me such a lie?” she asked levelly.

“To win you,” he said in surprise. “Though it did take me a while to puzzle out the best method of doing so. Most girls would be won by the promise of a crown, not the promise to avoid one.”

“Then you should have proposed marriage to one of those girls, Hadrian. Not to me.”

“I would have,” he agreed. “Had there been another suitable candidate. But such are not thick on the ground. I require a wife with breeding and bloodlines, with a close blood tie to the Emperor, a sizable dowry, and connections to the powerful families of Rome. A wife with style and intelligence, educated beyond the common. A wife with a gift for charming people of all stations in life—my own character may lack spontaneity, but yours has been useful in making up the deficit. No, there were no other candidates. Providing you can control your taste for adventures in low places, Vibia Sabina, you will make a credible Empress.”

“Well, I can’t say the idea doesn’t have its attractions.” Sabina was no longer sure what might come out of her mouth once she opened it, but the roiling in her stomach made silence impossible. “However, I fear I will have to pass. Maybe you weren’t listening when I told you the first time, Hadrian, but I don’t particularly want any job that lasts for life. Still too unclear? I don’t want to be Empress.”

“My dear,” he smiled. “Why does it matter what you want? It is going to happen anyway.”

“Will it?” asked Sabina. “Will it still happen without me?”

He turned sharply. “What do you mean?”

But she was gone.

CHAPTER 19

VIX

As far as I could see, Tu B’Av was a kind of Lupercalia for Jews. A lover’s day, a day for the unmarried.