Ferox waved at the man to stand fast. ‘You will discover that the queen has considerable skill at arms,’ he said gently. Sabinus was gulping again and again, eyes wide, still struggling to believe what was happening. ‘And the Brigantes will fight all the better – if the time comes – for the queen’s presence. But,’ Ferox raised his voice. ‘This is a principia of the army, and more than that the principia where I command and not some tavern suited for brawls. You will sheath your sword, your highness, and do it now.’

Enica glanced at him, then did as she was told. Then she gave Sabinus a flirtatious smile that was pure Claudia, leaving the centurion even more confused than before.

Ferox stood up behind his desk. ‘I command here. If anyone draws a weapon here again, they will be in chains before the day is out. Is that understood?’ He saw that his wife was fighting the urge to make a lewd joke – or at least a statement easy to interpret more than one way – and was pleased that she controlled it. This was not the time.

‘You command and I will lead my people to serve you,’ she said.

‘Good enough,’ he replied. ‘Have it added to today’s orders that the queen is to command the Brigantes, second only to me, and that she is to be treated by all with the respect due to a centurion and an eques.’

So from then on the queen attended morning orders, and did the rounds with Ferox and the others, openly supervising the training of the Brigantes and riding out once or twice with patrols, when she added silk Parthian trousers to her attire. As the days passed the officers all became used to it, not least because she was attractive and charming and very positive when she gave orders. The contingent of Brigantes she had brought to the fort came equipped with a vexillum standard, the blue flag painted with what most Romans must have assumed was the figure of Victory. To the tribesmen the woman was Brigantia, the goddess of their people, who lived on earth in the women of the royal line. Ferox had not been surprised to see that the painted figure had red hair and a short tunic. Some of the legionaries and auxiliaries had scoffed when they saw it installed in the aedes, the shrine for the standards in the principia. This was almost empty for a fort this size, for none of the men at the fort had brought a signa, and otherwise there were just two other vexilla, one for I Minervia and one for cohors I Hispanorum veterana.

The Brigantes showed no surprise as their queen took charge of them.

‘She’s the queen,’ Vindex explained to Sabinus. ‘And they don’t hate her like they do Ferox.’

The rest of the garrison displayed shock, amusement, and then surprisingly swiftly became used to the sight of a woman wearing armour and giving orders. That was the charm again, and helped because this was a fort full of men largely deprived of the sight, let alone the company of women, so that such a pretty one was a treat. Ferox quickly noticed that there were always more men around than usual whenever they were carrying out an inspection and began to climb one of the towers. Even when he tried to vary the route, there they were, off-duty soldiers and sentries arriving early or lingering late for this shift, talking among themselves or apparently busy, but ready to cluster as close to the bottom of each ladder as they dared when it came time for the queen to climb.