The woman ignored him, her eyes searching the stones ahead of her to find the safest footing. It was all far too slow. The Britons could not be far behind, too many for him to fight, and if their archers got to the crest up there then he doubted any of them would make the cover of the wood.

‘Do you want me to carry you?’ he said angrily, speaking louder than was wise. Ferox started back towards the woman, but the stones slid away under his right boot and he fell, arms out just in time to stop his face slamming into the ground.

The woman laughed, a rich joyous sound, and the centurion silently hoped that her mistress gave her regular beatings.

He got up, and she was closer now so that he heard the snort when he told her to watch him and copy the way he moved, but they went quicker from then on, so perhaps she copied or had worked it out for herself.

Vindex was waiting at the bottom, crouching beside the girl, who was moaning and moving her head from side to side. One hand clutched the heavy necklace.

‘Reckon something’s broken,’ he told them. ‘And it’ll be me if I go on, so you can carry her for a bit.’

‘Wait.’ The slave girl knelt beside her mistress, feeling her left arm. At the touch the young woman’s dark eyes opened and she gasped in pain.

‘Quiet now.’ The slave spoke with all the tenderness of a mother. ‘I know it hurts, but you must be brave.’

The young woman nodded, eyes wide and face taut as she held back her cries.

Beside her the slave had both hands around her mistress’s shoulder. As she studied the injury her face was soft. It was a good face, Ferox thought, looking at her closely for the first time. A few faint lines around her eyes hinted at someone closer to thirty than twenty, although the life of a slave brought age quickly so he might be wrong. Some of her fair hair had worked loose from the pins and blew across her face until she brushed it away. She looked kind and capable, and he began to hope that the beatings were rare.

‘We need to move,’ he said.

‘No.’ Fierce anger was back and the face hardened as the slave girl looked up. ‘I need to fix this and you must help. The shoulder is out of joint.’

Ferox shook his head. ‘There is no time.’

‘Make the time!’

Vindex rolled his eyes, but was grinning. ‘Yes, your highness,’ he said.

‘Come next to me, be ready to move her arm as I tell you when I tell you.’ She turned to her mistress. ‘This will hurt, but it will make it better, so you must be brave.’

‘I’ll try.’ The voice was weak.