Sabina laughed. “Is that the best you have? Me locked into a confined room, probably on your orders, where I spent the hours drying the tears of one of Trajan’s officers? Someone, by the way, who mourned his Emperor much more passionately than you seem to be doing.”

“I will leave matters of passion up to you, Vibia Sabina. You know so much more than I about the sordid business.”

Plotina leaned back to a scroll spread over the desk, writing rapidly. Sabina considered her for a moment, feeling rage seep away inside like bathwater, leaving cold calculation behind. “You will never get away with it,” she said at last.

“With what?” Plotina did not bother to look up from her parchment. “Dear Publius has probably already received the letter announcing his adoption—I sent it before Trajan even died, on the fastest ship here. Hadrian will take that same ship back here to take charge of my husband’s funeral cortege, and then return to Rome. Word has been sent to the Senate as well, on a fast ship, and their approval will be a matter of a mere week or so. The legates and officials here have been instructed to inform their legions—”

“And what about Trajan’s real letter?” Sabina snapped. “The list of candidates he wished to send the Senate, so that they might choose? I assure you, Hadrian was not on that list.” Titus…

“What letter would that be?” Plotina blinked. “We searched my husband’s papers thoroughly, of course. Everything is a sad tangle. Phaedimus, that freedman who wrote letters for grants and promotions, has committed suicide. He leaped off a cliff… a noble gesture, wishing to follow his Emperor into the grave, but one wishes he had left the Imperial documentation in better order.”

Sabina felt a ribbon of ice crawling down her spine. “I was there when Trajan dictated that letter,” she managed to say. “I know what names were listed, and I will tell anyone who wishes to know that Hadrian was not one of them. Can you have me killed as easily as an inconsequential little freedman?”

“No. But who will believe you, my dear? A woman who keeps such questionable company. Closeted with a lover when her Imperial great-uncle lay dying… not your first lover either. I saw you carrying on with that young Titus Aurelius before you left for Antioch. I wonder how many people know about your affair with him. Not to mention all the other men.”

Sabina chuckled lightly, as if this were all nothing more than idle gossip over a good meal. “You want to soil the reputation of Dear Publius’s wife just when he wants to look impeccable? By all means, Plotina. Tell everyone I’m the great whore of Rome and I’ve been making a fool of my husband for years with half the men in the legions. Dear Publius will love you for that.”