“No, I couldn’t,” Titus agreed, unruffled. “And that was the only intimacy I have ever enjoyed with Vibia Sabina, not that you’ll believe me.”

“Never mind what I believe—will her husband believe you? Will anyone in Rome?”

“I don’t particularly care if they do or not. By all means, spread the news that I managed to steal your protégé’s fascinating wife out from under his nose. My reputation could use a little spice.”

“You wretched, interfering little stork!”

“I promised myself I could leave as soon as insults started to fly.” Titus rose. Plotina could hardly see him through a red mist. I will see you in the arena for this, she thought. Disemboweled by lions—strung up for the vultures to eat your eyes out—if she’d had a blade in her hand she would have plunged it through his throat.

“One more thing.” Titus looked back at her over his shoulder. “You’ll soon find some other way to skim money for your schemes, and I know I probably won’t be able to stop you. I’ll be satisfied if you just don’t try it with any project of mine. Not ever. Agree to that, and I’ll keep what I know from the Emperor. Do we have a bargain?”

“I will not bargain with you! I am the Empress of Rome!”

“And you’re trying to buy the next Emperor.”

The words sent a jolt up Plotina’s spine, and she stared at the weary young man looking back at her over the desk. Such an unassuming boy; so trifling; so unimportant. “What do you mean?” she said through stiff lips.

“Give me some credit, Lady. You live modestly here, you have few expenses, you barely spend your household allowance. What would you need with more than two million sesterces?” Titus’s gaze traveled around her neat apartments, comfortable but hardly sumptuous with their dark marble walls, their unadorned couches and low tables, the woolen hangings Plotina had woven with her own hands. “No, you don’t need to steal money on your own account. But I imagine it cost quite a lot to maintain your protégé Hadrian in suitable style as consul. Not to mention his new post as governor of Syria. Two million sesterces—that’s a good start, buying him the kind of support he’d need to become Imperial heir.”

Titus shook his head. “The thing is, if you’d simply asked me to support Hadrian… well, I’d have done it. He’d make a good emperor. I don’t imagine he even knows about all this, does he? He may be a cold fish, but he’d rather die than become a thief.”

Plotina’s voice came out in a guttural rasp. “I will see you dead for this.”