“Perhaps.” Hadrian’s close-cropped beard was a shade darker than his hair, but she could see little wiry glints of gold in it up close. “Or I could marry you, and you can charm the slaves and freedmen and commoners for me.”

“And how high does that rank on my list of assets?”

“Higher than your dowry, to be sure. Sesterces are common. Charm, less so.”

Sabina sucked another pomegranate seed off her fingertip, tilting her head to admire the Temple of Concord’s streaked African marble. A harried-looking woman hastened past, trying to tether her palla, her shopping basket, and her two children in the restless wind. “Empress Plotina invited me to come to the palace yesterday. To help her with the household weaving.”

“She’s very fond of you.”

“She seemed rather put out with me, actually. I didn’t have a tight enough hand at the loom, my warp was uneven, and my dress was indecent because it had no sleeves. You were praised to the skies, however. Any conversation we had came round to you. Is it true you organized her garden into provinces when you were a child, and took turns being governor of each one? She says your filing system was impressive for an eleven-year-old. And there was the story about the wolf you killed on a hunt at fourteen, and how you slept under the pelt until it was bald—”

Hadrian coughed embarrassment. “Did you hear the Empress is to be honored with the title of Augusta?” Hastily. “Such a great honor. Trajan tried to give her the title before, but she refused it. She said she would not be named Mother of Rome and honored by the Senate until she had earned it.”

“I’m sure she did earn it.” Sabina tossed a pomegranate seed into the air, catching it neatly between her teeth. “I doubt I’d have been such a model empress if I’d married Trajan.”

“You?” Hadrian halted. “Was there talk of a match when you were younger?”

“Not precisely. But when Emperor Domitian died, the Empire was offered to my father—”

“What?” Hadrian’s eyes flicked around them with appalled furtiveness. “Where did you get that idea?”

“I spent a lot of my childhood listening at doors,” Sabina explained, digging out a few more jewel-like seeds. “Nobody ever told me anything, so I eavesdropped. You’d be surprised the things I heard… anyway, if my father had become Emperor, he’d have adopted Trajan as heir and married him to me to solidify the alliance. So, Trajan could have been my husband instead of my favorite relative. But my father didn’t want to take the purple, so now Trajan’s naming Plotina as Augusta of Rome and you’re paying me court instead.”

“Dear gods,” said Hadrian faintly. “I hope you don’t go around talking like this all the time.”