Free The Champion by Carla Capshaw

before setting her ceramic mug aside. “I learned a lesson in the evils of pride.”
    Alexius waited. She glanced away while another slave brought them a loaf of fresh bread. “As I told you, I was elated that I’d won,” she continued once they were alone again. “The boys were well-trained and represented the best families in society. Had I gone home and kept the victory between me and my father, all might have been different. Instead, I let my childish impulses run away with me. When I was called forward to collect the laurel diadem that proclaimed me the victor, I convinced myself I needed it as proof for my father. The judge insisted I push back my hood and reveal my identity. By then, I’d begun to regret the decision to go in front of the multitude who’d come to witness the contest. I tried to leave, but it was too late. One of our neighbors, my father’s fiercest rival, recognized me.”
    “He called you out in front of your father?” “Worse. He understood what I did not and sought to humiliate my entire family by using me. He made agreat show of exposing my identity to everyone in attendance and declared that I was a hoyden whose father wasn’t man enough to control her.”
    Alexius’s jaw clenched tight from the effort to remain seated and listen.
    “After that day, the gossip about me spread like an infection. At best, I was called unfeminine. At worst, they considered me wild and unnatural for wanting to compete with the males. The taint of that day followed me and grew out of proportion. By the time I reached a marriageable age a few years later, no acceptable family wanted to risk teaming their son with a supposed troublemaker who might seek to best him. As for older men and widowers, they want a placid wife, not a woman with a muddied history like mine.”
    “What of your broken engagements?” he asked, disgusted by her ill treatment. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve had, what…three?”
    “Four,” she despaired to admit. “My suitors were the dregs of the acceptable families with more status than coin. They considered marriage to any woman with a decent dowry. Unfortunately for my father, the first two broke off with me when I disagreed with them on several political issues. The third took offense for reasons I have yet to fully understand. I took offense at the other.”
    “Last night?” he prompted, unable to imagine Tibi capable of offending him in any way.
    “Yes.” He heard the mix of pain, embarrassment and bitterness in the whispered word. Her eyes downcast, she shredded a chunk of bread as she spoke. “Lepidus—”
    “Catulus Lepidus?”
    She nodded. “He accosted me in the garden while theother guests watched the games. He claimed I should be grateful for his willingness to try me since I’m a…a worthless girl no one wants.”
    Alexius burned with white-hot rage. His chair scraped back on the bricks. “I’m going to break the fool’s neck.”
    “No!” Tibi lunged forward in her seat and clutched his wrist from across the narrow table. “The betrothal was ended and I’m free of him. You mustn’t involve yourself or resort to violence on my account.”
    Her pleading eyes knocked the fire out of him. He sank back into his seat, his breathing heavy. What had he been about to do? Leave her while he followed his anger in pursuit of a vendetta? Shame replaced his rage. Had the monster claimed more of him than he realized?
    She held his hand until his breathing returned to normal and he allowed the contact because even that small connection was addictive. “You need someone to champion you,
agape mou
.”
    The slight flare of her eyes was the sole indication she’d heard his endearment. “My cousins—”
    “Are not here. They might not arrive for days. Besides, they’ll want to pray about the situation. Who knows how long
that
will take.”
    She bit her lower lip. “You don’t approve of their ways?”
    “I don’t disapprove.” He chose his words