Page 20 of Of Love and Treason
He took the tile and flipped it over, squinting at the misspelled words written on the back in rudimentary scrawl:WIL YU MAREE ME?
Valens looked up. “I don’t understand.”
“Hector wrote it hisself.” She beamed and Hector looked down,ears reddening. “He gave this to me when we was just children. Before he joined the legions.”
“We grew up next door in the same insula across from the Baths of Decius.” Hector raised his chin. “Our families are still there. We’ve known each other since... forever.”
Lillith looked at Hector. “Loved each other our whole lives.”
Hector took her hand and squeezed it, his gaze on her blazing with affection.
Valens cleared his throat, reminding them of his presence.
Lillith took a steadying breath and kept her voice low. “Hector joined the legions—he’s been fighting in Germania for twenty-five years and only been home four times.” She brushed the back of her hand over her cheek and met Valens’s eyes with a look of determination. “He said he’d marry me when he got out, so I waited for him—do you know how hard that was on my pater? I’m an old woman and a burden to my family.”
“Prettiest old woman I ever saw.” Hector tugged her against his side. She elbowed him but couldn’t hide her smile.
This is a trick. A test of loyalty.Valens glanced around. No one appeared to be watching him. Perhaps Hector would report on him later.
Lillith continued. “Hector’s term ended a month ago and he got home last night. He came to my parents’ apartment and asked me if I remembered the note he wrote all them years ago when we was children.” She smiled. “I did, because I kept it tucked away under my pallet.”
Hector turned his gaze on Valens, the soft love his eyes held for Lillith hardening to anger. “I kept my vow to serve the empire.” The muscles in his jaw bulged as he struggled to keep his voice down. “I served myfulltwenty-five-year term. I wasn’t the one stabbing myself in the foot so I could get an early leave—and this is how the emperor repays my service? By denying me the right ofconnubiumand the ability to rear legal heirs?” His voice dropped to a pitiful whisper.
Valens’s heart pinched. Emperor ClaudiusII Gothicus would not remain popular with his troops by enforcing such laws. To forbidlegionnaires to marry while in service was one thing, but to deny them still once they completed their service? Cruel.Still, this is only a test.When most Romans were used to couples acting married without a contract, he wondered why these two insisted on one. Yes, definitely a trap.
Lillith lifted her chin. “I didn’t wait all them years to be a kept woman or a wife byusus. I will hold my head high and be a proper wife and shut up all them whispers they speak behind my back. All the gossip about why no one wanted me.” She sniffed and looked away.
“Have you heard the screams of barbarians in the night as they surround your camp? Held your friend as he dies in your arms?” Hector leaned forward. “I risked the best years of my life for the emperor, for the empire—foryou. Soyoucould sit at this desk and scribble and live in peace and safety with your wife and family.”
Valens lowered his chin, shame flooding him. How could he refuse this simple request from a man who had risked so much?Trap. Trap. Trap.“I have neither wife nor family.”
Hector nodded as if the admission were just. “Then you know how it feels to spend your life alone. You know the longing to hold the one who loves you in your arms every night. The aching loneliness that eats at your gut and keeps you awake long after the world sleeps.”
“Yes,” Valens admitted in a whisper. “I know it well.” He saw a spark of hope in their eyes and took a breath. “But you are asking me to commit treason—punishable by death. Would you risk your lives for this?”
“I’ve risked my life already.” Hector crossed his arms, showing off jagged red scars. “And I’d do it a thousand times over to be with my Lillith.”
Valens ran both hands through his hair. The power to grant their request lay in the pen and ink at his fingertips, yet he sat powerless to pick them up. “I—I’m sorry.” He gripped the edges of his desk. “I cannot break the law. But the edict will not remain forever.”
“An hour feels like forever when you’re separated from the one you love.” Hector stood and took Lillith’s hand. “But you’d never know that, would you?”
Lillith snatched the tile from the desk, as if Valens might try to keep it, and secured it in her purse once more. She sent a look of mingled sadness and anger in Valens’s direction.
“I hope you fall in love.” Her words, spoken softly, felt like a curse.
Valens watched them leave, nausea circling his gut. He dropped his forehead into one hand and told himself he’d won. He’d passed the test and his supervisor would be over soon to congratulate him. So why did he feel so guilty? Why the heaviness in his chest that told him he’d done something very wrong?
He shoved back his chair and stood, aware of the sweat sticking his tunic to his back. He could use some fresh air. Two clerks marched past his desk, arms full of scrolls. His colleagues worked steadily around him, unaware of the trial he’d endured and passed. Valens caught the eye of his supervisor, Orane Haldas, who stalked between the notarii to ensure everything ran as it ought and to lend his advice on questions of the law. He raised his eyebrows in a look that told Valens to get busy.
Valens resumed his seat and hailed the next person in line. Fresh air would have to wait. He spent the rest of the day writing documents for three warehouse rent adjustments and the sale of an inn. As afternoon reached for evening, the patrons waned, and as Valens prepared to leave, Haldas stopped him. Surely to congratulate him.
“The merchant Ganesh Musa Ravi sent a messenger asking for you to meet him at his villa to organize the sale of an apartment block.” Haldas swiped a dingy cloth over the sheen on his bald head. “He’ll see you first thing in the morning, so take your things with you now. Good evening then.”
Haldas moved on and Valens offered his “Good evening, sir,” to his back.
Still disturbed by the couple, and humming a discordant tune, Valens gathered a roll of parchment, a reed pen, ink, and his official notarius seal. Before dropping it into his satchel, he turned the brass stamp over to study the image of the emperor. The bearded profile of ClaudiusII Gothicus stared straight ahead, looking rather pleased with himself. It looked curiously like the old stamp and profile ofthe previous emperor, Gallienus. Only the name and beard differed. Valens dropped it into his bag and marched outside with a glance at the sky, hoping he would not be late again.
Lalia and Rue launched themselves at Valens the moment he and Beatrix entered the dining room. Marius, Martha, and their sons and daughter-in-law sat on the dining couches.
