She took a swallow straight from the jug, and shuddered. “Ugh. I can see why civilized people water it.”

“Give it back, then. Unwatered wine is for barbarians like me.”

She took another optimistic swallow and handed back the jug. I took a long drink myself, tilting my head back. No moon, but no clouds either—just stars, thousands of them, and I wondered if Romans in their legions had as many men as there were stars in the sky.

“Vercingetorix, if I asked you something, would you tell me?”

I sat up straighter, a little self-conscious. “Of course, Lady.”

“Good. Tell me what happened the day I kissed you, six years back.”

“What does it matter?” I plucked a blade of grass by my foot, plucked another. “We were just children. What were you, twelve?”

“Vix. We met by chance, and I kissed you, and I went home. While I waited at home, my brother died, and my mother died, and the Emperor of Rome died. And my father came home looking like death, and told me there was a new Emperor.”

“What makes you think I’d know anything about it?”

“Everyone knew the Young Barbarian was Emperor Domitian’s pet. And the Young Barbarian vanished as soon as Domitian was dead.”

I made a movement to get up from the grass, but her cool small hand caught my wrist. I tugged away. “Ask your father what happened, Lady.”

“He says the Emperor was murdered by a slave with a grievance. He says my brother died a hero. He says my mother died in the chaos.”

“Your father’s a good man. He wouldn’t lie.”

“Yes, but he does omit a truth now and then. It’s the best way to lie without actually lying.” She was a dim shape in the darkness, just a shadow of an oval face and plaited hair and bare arms. “Please, Vix.”

I took a swig of wine out of the jug, and then another. “I locked your mother in a closet,” I began slowly, and that whole strange day spilled out when an emperor had died, my parents killed him, and I’d been witness to it all. There were gaps in places—gaps where I had to reconstruct what happened from things my mother said, gaps where I just didn’t want to go on because all in all it had been a hellish day and one I wished I could forget. But the senator’s daughter waited in the dark, wordless until I was done, and her first question surprised me.

“Your parents got away?”

I hesitated, thinking of the rambling villa on the mist-wrapped mountaintop where my mother raised babies and my father tortured his garden, both dead to Rome and happy to be that way. I hesitated, but Sabina’s smile came through the dark.

“Good.”