Free Dark Horse by Marilyn Todd

with the scents of mint, coriander, thyme and spicy basil. Sun, shining through the feathery fennel, dappled the lemon balm, and bees buzzed around the hyssop and the lavender. Same old Silvia, she thought. Immaculate and unruffled, regardless of the crisis, be it fire, pirates or - hefting pots of lilies? Her fair hair gleaming in the early morning light, she was sitting on a bench while an oriental
    slave girl sang about unrequited love as she gave her mistress a pedicure.
    'You do know there's a pirate ship in the cove?' Claudia asked.
    'The captain's a Scythian and his name is Jason.' Silvia indicated to the girl to continue singing. 'Apparently his mother's an Amazon and he gets his looks from her.'
    Claudia imagined Jason would get looks from hundreds of women.
    'Aren't you worried about a galley full of barbarian thugs on your doorstep?' she asked. Dammit, this woman was a mother of three. She couldn't always be this detached, could she?
    'He's just taunting us,' Silvia said, holding out her other slender foot for attention.
    'Maybe so, but your brother-in-law has taken the bait.'
    'Then he's a fool.' Silvia picked up the tortoiseshell lyre on the bench next to her. 'Water is Jason's element and Leo should know better than to charge off making a fool of himself.'
    She wasn't serious? 'A boy's dead, Silvia. He's bound to feel passionate about exacting revenge.'
    'Revenge!' Silvia began to strum softly. 'No individual can possibly take on Jason single handed and win.'
    'You're not suggesting Leo lets him get away with this outrage?'
    'Don't be silly, dear.' She might have been talking to a small child. 'We're merely saying it's high time our brother-in-law used his head for a change. Or more pertinently, his family connections.'
    'Trust Leo to have a naval commander in the family.'
    'No, no. His cousin Marcus is attached to the Security Police—'
    'What?' Some spiteful Cressian god is playing tricks with my ears. 'Orbilio is Leo's cousin?'
    'Know him, do you?'
    'We may have met.'
    Silvia adjusted the tension on the second string. 'Well, then, you'll know that with Marcus's clout, we could get troops, boats, artillery, whatever is necessary to rid the Gulf of these desperadoes.'
    Dammit, Claudia should have paid more attention that day Leo
    came calling! Vaguely (now!) she recalled him mentioning that his cousin Marcus had suggested he pay her a visit, but come on - there are an awful lot of Marcuses in Rome and besides she'd been too busy wondering how Hylas the Greek had traced her so fast and worrying what size of dossier the Security Police had been compiling on her doping activities to venture into family histories. Stupid cow! Claudia ground her heel into the camomile. Croesus, she'd even remarked on the family resemblance. Same tall build, same lean physique, same thick, dark, wavy hair. No dimple on the chin, of course, but instead of putting a simple two and two together, she'd been too busy digging an escape tunnel from Rome. Shit! Orbilio had counted on that, dammit. That's how he'd sprung his trap.
    'Younger than Leo by a decade,' Silvia drawled, 'but twice as handsome and ten times as ambitious. Has his sights on the Senate, you know.'
    'Actually I do know.'
    And guess who's his fast track? Given that the more results a man can clock up, the closer it takes him to the Senate, think how much faster his travel when the perpetrators conveniently hand over the incriminating evidence themselves!
    'If only Leo were not so obstinate on the issue of assistance.' Silvia laid the lyre on her lap and fixed her big blue eyes on Claudia. 'Given the laurels he'd win for ridding the Liburnian Gulf of marauders, Marcus would not be sole to resist the challenge.'
    Much less if his cousin got himself killed out there this morning! Dear Diana, a snapping turtle could sink that pathetic little crate, never mind a seasoned warship. What on earth was Leo thinking of? The only good thing that could