Free Rome’s Fallen Eagle by Robert Fabbri

his waist, then ease him up.’
    ‘Arm round the waist and ease him up,’ Sextus repeated, as always slowly digesting his orders.
    Marius nodded. ‘Right you are, Magnus.’
    Vespasian watched with concern as Marius and Sextus hauled Sabinus off the handcart they had used to transport him as Ziri steadied it. Sabinus grimaced as the two crossroads brothers supported him and he stood upright on his left foot. A trace of blood had seeped through the heavy bandaging on his right thigh as a result of the rattling journey along the Quirinal. Aided by the brothers he hobbled painfully through the door.
    ‘Take the cart around the back, Magnus,’ Vespasian requested, ‘we’ll need it tomorrow.’
    ‘What about us, sir? Will you be needing an escort in the morning?’
    ‘Yes, can you and the lads be here at dawn?’
    ‘We’ll be here,’ Magnus confirmed as Ziri turned to wheel the handcart down the side alley.
    Vespasian walked through the vestibule and into the atrium to be confronted with a sight he had never before witnessed: his wife and his mistress in the same room. They both looked less than pleased; Gaius was nowhere to be seen.
    ‘Just what has been going on?’ Flavia demanded, her voice shrill with indignant outrage. ‘We’ve both had our houses forcibly entered and our bedrooms searched by men who have worse manners than them.’ She pointed an accusatory finger at Sextus and Marius who were helping Sabinus down onto a couch. ‘Then Sabinus is carted in here, more dead than alive, when he should be, by rights, a thousand miles away. And when I demanded an explanation from your uncle he took one look at me and ran off into his study.’
    Vespasian was not surprised that Gaius had retreated. Flavia reminded him uncomfortably of his mother and he felt a deep sympathy for his father whom he had witnessed facing this sort of tirade many times in his life. An unpleasant thought flashed across his mind: had he married Flavia because she had reminded him, without him realising it, of his mother? He glanced at Caenis, standing so incongruously next to Flavia, and judged from her expression that he could expect little support from that quarter.
    ‘Well, Vespasian? We’re waiting.’ Flavia persisted, putting an arm around Caenis.
    Vespasian winced at the sight.
    ‘What have you done to have caused our privacy to be so rudely intruded upon?’
    Remembering the satisfying results that had followed his father taking the offensive in these situations – admittedly rather belatedly in life – he resolved to do the same. ‘This is not the timefor shouting and recriminations, woman. And there’ll be no explanation! See to it that Sabinus’ room is being made ready and then tell the cook to bring him some soup.’
    Flavia put a hand on her swollen belly. ‘I could have miscarried with all the stress; I will have an expl—’
    ‘You’ll get nothing, woman! Make sure that Sabinus is settled. Now go!’
    Flavia started at the force of the dismissal and then, sharing a brief look of mutual sympathy with Caenis, turned and walked briskly from the room.
    ‘Caenis, see to Sabinus’ bandaging; it needs changing,’ Vespasian ordered, far more curtly than he had intended.
    Caenis opened her mouth and then shut it immediately as Vespasian shot her a warning look; he did not want to shout at her and she understood. She walked over to Sabinus who was by now lying, propped up with cushions, on the couch; the look on his pale face told of just how much he had enjoyed witnessing the colliding of his brother’s complicated domestic arrangements at first hand. Sextus and Marius stood next to him, clearly unsure of where to look or how to escape.
    ‘Thanks, lads,’ Vespasian said, his equilibrium returning. He reached into his purse and pulled out a couple of sesterces apiece for the brothers. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    ‘Thank you, sir,’ Marius mumbled, heading for the door. Sextus grunted something unintelligible