The words hung in the air between them and Brutus stared, his thoughts whirling. How much had his mother guessed of their intentions? All their lives were in danger if even a single one of her girls listened at the walls.

“Wait here,” he said, striding to the door.

The sudden movement brought Cassius and Suetonius almost to panic. Brutus flung open the door and saw his mother seated down the corridor. She rose to her feet and walked to him.

“Are you part of this?” he said, his voice low.

Her eyes glittered. “I have brought you together. The rest is up to you.”

Brutus looked at his mother and saw her coldness was a mask.

“Listen to them,” she said again as he hesitated.

“Are we alone?” he asked.

She nodded. “No one knows they are here, or that they are meeting you. This is my house and I know.”

Brutus grimaced. “You could get us all killed,” he said.

Her smile mocked him. “Just listen to them, and be quick,” she said.

He closed the door then and turned to face the two senators. He knew what they wanted, but it was too much to take in at once. “Go on,” he said again to Suetonius.

“I speak for the good of Rome,” Suetonius replied in the old formula. “We want you to join us in this.”

“In what?” Brutus demanded. “Say the words or get out.”

Suetonius took a slow breath. “We want you for a death. We want you to help us bring back the power of the Senate. There are weak men there who will vote in a new king if they are not restrained.”

Brutus felt cold with an unnatural fear. He could not demand they speak the name. He did not know if he could bear to hear it.

“How many are with you?” he said.

Suetonius and Cassius exchanged another glance of warning.

“Perhaps it is better for you not to know at this time,” Cassius said. “We have not heard your answer.”

Brutus did not speak and Cassius’s face hardened subtly.

“You must answer. We have gone too far to let it rest now.”

Brutus looked at the two men and knew they could not let him live if he refused. There would be archers outside to cut him down as he left. It was how he would have planned it.

It did not matter. He had known from the beginning what he would say.

“I am the right man,” he said in a whisper. The tension began to ease from the pair. “There must be some trust in this, but I do not want my mother involved again,” Brutus went on. “I will rent another house for us to meet.”

“I had thought—” Suetonius began.