He shut the door behind him, crossed the room and pulled up a stool. ‘No spare cup? Then I’ll have to make do.’ He grasped the jug and swung it into the air so that the spout was over his bearded lips and then poured a stream of the scarlet liquid into his mouth, swallowing greedily until he set the jug down heavily and smacked his lips. ‘A nice drop, that!’

Severus glared back. ‘Like I said, what do you want?’

‘Just came to find the new commander of the Fourth Cohort.’ He stuck out his hand towards Macro. ‘Centurion Marcus Stellanus, seconded to the Second Thracian Cavalry. Greetings. I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself earlier, at headquarters. Thought I’d come and track you down.’

‘So you have,’ Macro replied evenly, ignoring the outstretched hand. ‘Though I have to say, you make an unlikely centurion.’

Stellanus grinned through his beard. ‘This get-up? It’s Quertus’s idea. Makes us all look wild and terrifying. Grrrrrr!’ He made a face and laughed.

Macro did not blink. ‘Yes, I can imagine that might put the shits up some small kid on a dark night. But to me you look like a latrine brush.’

Stellanus frowned. ‘Sorry?’

Macro smiled. ‘The kind of thing I’d wipe my arse on.’

Stellanus’s brow creased and he fixed Macro with a glare, and then suddenly he grinned once again. ‘Ah, you’re a hard case. Let’s face it. Any man in the legions who lives long enough to command a cohort of his own has to be a hard case. You and I are cut from the same cloth, Macro. I was the commander of the Fourth before I volunteered to serve Quertus.’

‘So I understand.’ Macro casually reached over and took a fold of the other man’s dark cloak between his thumb and forefinger and rubbed it gently. ‘Somehow I doubt that we are cut from the same cloth. I wear the uniform of a Roman officer, not the rags of some barbarian dog.’

Stellanus pulled his cloak free and eased himself back out of reach. ‘There’s no call for that attitude, my friend. I just called in to welcome you to Bruccium. We need good men, now more than ever. Quertus says that the enemy is close to breaking point. Another month or two and they’ll be finished. So I welcome your arrival, and the prefect, and the column of replacements that are due to arrive. Fresh blood. Just what we need to teach those Silurian cunts a lesson.’

‘Sounds like they’ve been taught quite a few lessons already. Same goes for the men in the fort.’