Ferox was surprised at how readily he answered, talking about the Lord of the Hills and his own youth among his people. She listened, asking question after question with no hint of disdain at any of his answers, and when she mocked it was gentle. In the meantime the cavalrymen began to take the boy through some basic riding exercises.

‘None of my family have served in Britannia,’ she said after a while. ‘Indeed I am the first to invade!’

‘And the only one we could never resist, lady.’

The boy was cantering in a circle, and in spite of his back he was shaping up well, better balanced now if still ungainly to the eye.

‘I do not understand why,’ she said, ‘but he wears out shoes faster than any child I have ever known.’ Her tone was fond. ‘His father drives him, wanting him to grow up as a true aristocrat, and the boy is eager to please. Sometimes I wish—’ She stopped, and turned back to look over the hills.

‘Do you like Vindolanda?’ he asked, as much for something to say because she seemed uncomfortable. Then he realised that he had forgotten to address her properly. ‘I do not mean to pry, my lady. Please forgive me.’

She looked up at him, wisps of her golden hair blowing loose across her face. ‘Forgive you?’ She smiled, trying to push the strands out of her eyes and failing. She had on the same drab cloak she had worn to visit the temple. Her eyes looked very blue as she stared at him in silence for what seemed like an age.

‘Well,’ she said at last, ‘there are many ways of answering that. The house is adequate, the household learning my ways – those who did not come with us in the first place. Claudia Severa is a dear thing, her husband a decent man, and there are others whose society is not unpleasant. It is something of a bore to have everyone looking up to me, but I do not suppose there is another woman of my rank closer than Eboracum. Would it shock you to hear that I do not miss the company of my own class?’

Ferox was not sure how to respond. He wondered whether there was opportunity for a compliment, but could not think of one.

‘I do not believe that anything you could say would shock me, my lady,’ he said in the end, feeling that honesty was the simplest response.

‘Really. Then it seems I have grown dull in a very short time.’

‘M-my lady,’ he stammered. ‘I did not mean… That is I did not imply…’