Octavian stared at him, completely at a loss. “He’s too slow,” he said, patting his stallion’s neck without noticing. The powerful horse towered over him, but stood calmly at the touch, showing nothing of the temper that irked the stableboys of the estate.

“You know you’re kin to me, don’t you?” Julius asked.

“My mother told me,” the boy replied.

Julius thought for a moment. He suspected his father would have taken a stick to his son if he had risked his best stallion galloping around the woods, but Julius didn’t want to spoil the mood of optimism that had come to him. He had promised Alexandria, after all.

“Come on then, cousin. Let’s see if you’re as good as you think you are.”

Octavian’s face lit up as Julius led the horses out together and watched as the boy leapt lightly onto his stallion’s back. Julius mounted at a more sedate pace, then whooped suddenly and kicked his mount into a gallop up the hill.

Octavian watched him openmouthed for a moment, then a smile stole across his face as he pressed his heels and yelled a response, the wind making his hair fly.

*                                                      *                                                      *

When Julius came back into the house, Cornelia longed to embrace him. Flushed from the ride and with his hair made wild with dust, he looked so young and full of life that it broke her heart. She wanted to see him smile at her and feel the strength of his arms as he gathered her into them, but instead she found herself speaking angrily, the bitterness spilling uncontrollably even as part of her cried for softer words she could not find.

“How much longer do you expect me to live here as a prisoner?” she demanded. “You have your freedom, while I can’t eat or walk anywhere without a group of your Primigenia bastards following me!”

“They are there to protect you!” Julius replied, shocked at the depth of her feelings.

Cornelia glared at her husband. “For how long, Julius? You know better than anyone that it could be years before your enemies cease to be a danger. Would you have me confined for the rest of my life? What about your daughter? When did you hold her last? Do you want her to grow up alone? Those soldiers even searched friends of my father’s when they came to visit. They won’t be back, you can be sure.”

“I have been working, Cornelia, you know that. I’ll make time for her, I promise. Perhaps Primigenia has been overcautious,” Julius admitted, “but I told them to keep you safe until I have broken the threat of assassins.”

Cornelia swore, surprising him.