She raised an eyebrow, suddenly amused. “And a tactful man,” she said. “Will you walk through the gardens with me? The smoke is like a drug after so long and I want to breathe.”

Relieved, Julius took her arm and they made their way out into the sun. She did not seem to notice as slaves prostrated themselves as she passed, not daring to look on the queen who mourned her brother.

The warm air outside helped to clear Julius’s thoughts and he took deep breaths of it, feeling his spirits rise. Seeing the body of the boy king had been disquieting. He felt as if a weight had lifted as he breathed the scent of living gardens. Even that pleasure was tainted as he remembered running through the same paths and arbors to capture Ptolemy in his bed. It had seemed an adventure then, without consequence. The results of it lay in the king’s tomb, and in ashes on the docks.

“Your men have told me a great deal about you,” Cleopatra said.

Julius shot a sharp glance at her.

“You have been blessed to survive the battles they described,” she continued.

Julius did not reply, instead pausing on a path of glassy stone to touch a red bloom leaning out from green leaves.

“They say you are a god of war, did you know that?” she said.

“I’ve heard it said,” Julius replied uncomfortably. “They boast on my behalf.”

“Then you did not defeat a million men in Gaul?”

Julius looked at her as she reached out to the same flower and caressed its petals. “I did, though it took ten years of my life,” he replied.

She used her nails to nip through the stalk, grazing the flower over her lips as she breathed its scent. Again, he wondered how Rome would react if he brought her there. The citizens would probably adore Cleopatra, but the Senate would reject her claims to divinity. Rome had enough gods. They would not dare to object to a foreign mistress, but taking her as a wife would raise hackles right across the great houses. In addition, he was not sure if she would even want to come back with him.

“You pardoned your general, Brutus, when he had betrayed you,” she said, walking on. “That is a strange act for a ruler of men. Yet they still respect you. More, they revere you, did you know it? They would follow you anywhere and not because of your birth, but because of who you are.”

Julius tapped the fingers of one hand on the wrist of the other behind his back, unsure how to respond. “Whoever you have been speaking to has let his mouth run away with him,” he said after a pause.