It does not help that Philos is kept working until late. Amara hears him come in, the cheerful tone of his greeting, the low rumble of Britannica’s reply, and his exclamation of shock. When he bursts into the bedroom upstairs, Rufina is asleep in the cot, Amara sitting up, arms tight around herself.

“Britannica said Felix threatened you.” Philos sinks down on the bed beside her. “Please tell me he didn’t hurt either of you.”

“He didn’t. But he knows about us. Victoria told him everything.” She grips his hand. “He wants twenty denarii a month, or he will tell Rufus.”

“But that’s almost everything we have!”

“I know.” If Amara had hoped seeing Philos would make her feel better, the look of defeat in his eyes only worsens her sense of powerlessness. “Felix said something else. About Rufina. That if it became known you were her father, she could be enslaved. But that’s a lie, isn’t it? He was just torturing me. A child always takes a mother’s status at the time of the birth, everyone knows that.” At first, she takes his shocked expression as proof Felix has lied, but when Philos only stares, lips parted, and offers no reassurance, she starts to panic. “It’s not true, is it? Tell me it’s not true. A child always follows the mother.”

“Usually.”

“What do you mean, usually?”

“It can sometimes be revoked,” Philos says, his expression more serious than she has ever known it. “If a freed or free woman has an unauthorized relationship with another person’s slave, their union can be declared illegal. That means their children are enslaved to the father’s owner.” He balls his hand into a fist, pressing the knuckles against his lips. “I thought you knew this.”

Amara gapes at him. “Rufina would be enslaved? She would belong to Rufus?”

“Hortensius.” Amara let’s out a cry of distress. “But that’s not going to happen.” Philos grasps hold of her arms, to hold her steady. “We’ll pay Felix. Nobody is ever going to find out.” Amara only stares at him, eyes wide with fear. “And even if we were discovered, it’s a legal process. I cannot imagine Rufus would want the scandal, especially now he’s been elected. It would be so much easier to kill me and leave the child alone. That’s why any involvement from Julia, any public recognition of Rufina’s free status; it all helps protect her.”

“But she can’t be enslaved. She can’t be! I would never let Hortensius take her.” Amara remembers the way Rufus’s father ran his hands down her body, grasping, as if she were standing in the slave market. Imagines him owning her daughter. “I would die before I let him touch her.”