‘Nepos doesn’t look happy.’

Cato shot him a searching glance and then shrugged. ‘He’s not keen on staying behind.’

‘So I noticed.’

‘Hardly surprising,’ Cato smiled.’Being left alone when the rest of the cohort is leaving the fort.

‘Frankly,’ Macro muttered, ‘I’m not sure who’s going to have the better deal. Any possibility that Nepos might want to swap duties?’

Cato gave a dry laugh as he glanced back towards Nepos, ducking quietly back into the cohort commander’s sleeping quarters. ‘Oh, I should think there’s every possibility of that.’

Once the cohort had formed up behind the main gate, Centurion Tullius passed on the orders from the cohort commander and told the men that Centurion Felix had volunteered to find the legate and inform him of the Third Cohort’s situation. Tullius explained that since the cohort was well under strength, Maximius had decided that every available man should be readied for the coming fight. Accordingly, Macro had been given command of the Fourth Century, Felix’s unit, and Cato would be once again marching at the head of the Sixth Century. On cue, the two officers emerged from between the lines of tents behind Tullius and were presented to the men of the cohort. The astonishment of the legionaries was short-lived as Tullius gave the order to march at once and, century by century, the men of the cohort tramped out of the fort and headed towards the track leading into the marsh.

Optio Septimus, who Maximius had appointed to replace Figulus, kept pace alongside Cato. From time to time he glanced at his centurion with a surly and hostile expression that Cato could well understand. He had been enjoying his first taste of command, and had relinquished it with a barely tolerable show of bad feeling. Cato decided that the best way of dealing with the resentment was to keep the man occupied.

‘The men are straggling, Septimus! Close ‘em up!’

The optio dropped out of line and started to scream abuse at the men marching past him, striking out with his staff at any legionary who permitted a gap to open up between himself and the man ahead of him. The blows were unnecessarily savage, but Cato forced himself not to intervene. The last thing the century needed now was a confrontation between its officers. He would have to let Septimus vent his frustration and anger on the men for now. As long as they hated Septimus, they might be inclined towards a better relationship with their newly reappointed centurion.