‘Are you all right, my dear?’ Lepidina asked.

Vindex undid the brooch on his cloak. Claudia Enica gasped for breath.

‘Are you all right?’ Lepidina’s voice was eerily calm. Vindex held out his cloak and she took it and went over to her friend.

‘I am,’ Enica said, amazed that her words were level. She pulled the cloak around her. ‘I am.’

‘Did that bastard…?’ Vindex could say no more. His fingers were clenching and unclenching in his fury.

‘He tried.’ Claudia Enica managed a thin smile. ‘And failed. My honour is preserved – and he is dead.’

‘Good,’ Vindex said.

‘Perhaps, but he is a tribune and the son of a senator.’ Claudia looked over her shoulder at Lepidina. ‘What should we do? And what should we say? He has fought well in the last few days and won the men’s respect.’

‘Sometimes the truth is not only the simplest idea, but the best,’ Lepidina said, patting her friend on the shoulder. ‘A bad blow to the head can change a man’s character, sometimes forever, and wine does not help. Whatever respect he may have won, the men love you – all of them.’

‘You too, lady,’ Vindex said.

‘Perhaps, but a blind man could see that you are the heart and the head of this defence. So we will say that he tried to rape you and that you killed him. They will hate him for this crime and admire you more for your strength and skill.

‘As for later, his family is in disgrace and he was here to redeem himself and perhaps one day redeem his fool of a father. Whatever is said in public, I doubt that many will miss him.’

Claudia Enica had the odd feeling that what had happened was no more than a dream from which she had woken. ‘I do wonder if he was sent here to die.’

‘Perhaps. Which may mean that some will be grateful, although whether or not they can show it is harder to say. But those are problems for another day, if we live to see it. And to do that we need you fresh and restored. Go and wash again, and put on some clean clothes.’

‘Yes, mother, right away, mother.’ Enica did a little curtsey, making the cloak fall open. Vindex and Bran turned away and she thought how strange that was, especially for the scout.

After she had washed again and dressed in her last clean tunic, Claudia Enica fussed with her hair and then took another look in her mirror. The eyes that stared back at her were the eyes of Cartimandua. She did not smile, for her grandmother had rarely smiled, but she felt stronger.

XXIX

On the road

The same day, an hour later

‘LET’S KILL HIM and get out of here,’ the leader jerked a thumb at Ferox. ‘Bastard will only get in the way and slow us down.’ The centurion had his hands tied behind his back and was astride a mule. Above them the clouds were heavy with rain, and the air seemed thick with the scent of flowers.