Empty threats, he reminded himself. The Emperor knows the truth now; he won’t listen to any of her poison. And once Trajan was gone, well, Plotina wouldn’t be Empress anymore. She’d have no more influence in Imperial matters.

I will see you dead for this.

Well, it was a risk.

Titus realized he still had his arm about Faustina’s waist, and she was gazing anxiously up at him. “You’re worrying,” she accused. “I can always tell when you’re worrying. You get this little crease between your eyebrows, and the corner of your mouth puckers on the left side.”

“I’m not worrying too much.” He stepped back, offered her his arm. “May I show you something?”

He led her to the frigidarium, placed on the far side of the bathhouse complex away from the sunlight so it would keep its coolness even in the middle of summer. A pair of builders fussed about making measurements, and Titus dismissed them, going to the lamps and lighting them one by one. Faustina stood admiring the swirling blue-and-green tiles of the high ceiling, the floor waiting for its mosaic, the blue-veined marble of the sunken pool. “Why is this pool filled up?” she asked. “All the others are empty.”

“The builder was worried there might be a crack in the lining, so he had it filled. Nothing leaking so far.” Titus took a scroll from his belt and unrolled it. “All finished in here, you see, except the mosaic for the floor. That’s being commissioned now. My builder suggested naked mermaids, but I had another idea.”

Faustina bent over the scroll. A sea monster, all coiling scales in rippling shades of green and black, rearing from the blue waves toward a girl chained to a rock. “Andromeda and the sea monster?”

“Take a look at her face. Andromeda, not the monster.”

Faustina peered closer at the tall blond girl in her shackles and wind-whipped blue draperies. “It’s me!”

“Not the most appropriate myth,” Titus confessed. “Andromeda has to get rescued by Perseus, and you’re the one who rescued me with your timely corruption of the Empress’s undersecretary. At the very least, I thought I could immortalize you in a floor.”

Faustina regarded him thoughtfully. “There are other ways of saying thank you, you know.”

Titus tilted his head. “Like what?”

“Oh, dear gods,” Faustina said, and pushed him into the pool.

The cold water shocked him all over like a strike of lightning. Titus yelled in surprise, coughed as water rushed into his mouth, and thrashed to find the slippery tiles underfoot. The pool was full, just up to his shoulders, and he broke the surface spluttering. “What did you do that for?”