Free The Perfect Concubine by Michelle Styles Page B

day, helping to mend other women’s tunics or weave cloth, knowing her pride had prevented her from trying everything was unbearable. ‘How can you refuse? You owe my family a life debt. You should have captained that ship, not my brother. He switched places with you.’
    â€˜Your brother died by circumstances of his own making. He proposed the change, not me. He’d quarrelled with your father. He wanted nothing more to do with his schemes. Keep your facts honest.’
    Valeria clenched her fists and longed to scream. He was taunting her. He knew of another reason Marcus had done it—for them, because she begged. But she refused to mention that night, and instead focussed on the recent revelation that had finally given her family hope again. ‘Rumour has it that far from being dead, my brother now lives in Cyrene as a gladiator. He’d not have allowed you to suffer such a fate.’
    â€˜He was a better man than I.’ Piso’s lips quirked upward. He was clearly enjoying her discomfort. ‘Obviously.’
    â€˜All I ask is passage to Alexandria. Take me there and I’ll say the life debt is paid. ’
    â€˜Why not use one of your father’s ships to sail to Alexandria? He has so many, and such loyal captains.’ His eyes taunted her.
    â€˜My father is no longer in shipping.’ Valeria kept her head high. The ships were gone. After Marcus’s reported death, her father had lost all sense of judgement, alienating those closest to him, and developing a taste for gaming and high living, a habit that Ofellius had actively encouraged.
    Piso must have heard the Aventine whispers. He probably knew that her father had not spoken a word since he discovered the true extent of Ofellius’s treachery. Dare she refer to it? Valeria ignored the ever-tightening knots in her stomach. ‘As you know, Ofellius cheated us badly.’
    Instantly Piso’s face became a cold mask and she knew she had made a mistake mentioning his name. For the first time since she had heard the news of her brother’s survival, she faced the loss of all hope, for would Piso help her now?
    â€˜It was your father’s choice to back Ofellius,’ he bit out. ‘He knew what the man was capable of doing.’
    Valeria gulped a breath of life-giving air. ‘I also know what the man is capable of. I was married to him.’
    â€˜Some people can’t see beyond the veneer of respectability and having their palms lined with gold.’
    She flinched as the barb struck her but she managed to keep her voice steady. ‘My father knows of his mistake. He has paid for it in the harshest way imaginable.’ As have I.
    â€˜No one held a sword to his back, Valeria. No one beat him within an inch of his life.’
    No, they beat me and when that didn’t work, they beat the one man I adored. Valeria pressed her lips together and held back the words. He didn’t deserve the truth. She didn’t have to prove her worthiness to him. ‘Have you always made the right choices, Piso?’
    â€˜I can look myself in the mirror.’ Piso hooked his thumbs into his belt, giving himself time regain control of his composure. When his steward had announced that Valeria waited amongst his clients with a petition, he should have sent her away, but the temptation to see her again after all these years proved irresistible. Her reasons for coming were no mystery—the entire Aventine buzzed about her quest to find a captain foolhardy enough to brave the winds. He’d even bet his steward that she’d show. The news about Marcus’s survival, however, was a surprise.
    His interest in seeing Valeria was supposed to be purely academic, as one might have for a once-beloved statue—dispassionate and uncaring. But he was unprepared for the intense desire laced with anger that coursed through him the instant he saw her treacherous face again.
    Valeria had destroyed his