Page 44 of Of Love and Treason
Phoebe ushered him into the courtyard on the other side. “Catois in his study.” She gestured vaguely across the courtyard. “No one else is here yet.”
“Thank you. It smells like heaven in here, by the way.” Valens crossed the courtyard, sandals snapping on the white marble path. He knocked once on the study door and let himself in.
Cato slouched in a chair, feet on the desk, a medical scroll perched on his knees. Valens set his lute against the wall and claimed the other chair.
“Val, come in, sit down.” Cato’s mouth twitched but he didn’t look up from his reading. He scratched the side of his head, leaving a frizzy bump of curls behind.
“Thank you, I will.” Valens flipped through a stack of tablets, hastily scrawled with notes in mostly unintelligible handwriting.
Cato slowly lifted his chin, eyes glued to the scroll, stretching to read the last few words before finally pulling free. “How is the office of late? Anyone bring in sweets?”
Valens gave a carefree shrug. “Fabius brought in some dates he dried on his balcony. Everyone who tried them went on a mass exodus to the latrines. Thankfully, I’d already learned my lesson after his first batch.”
“Good for you.”
“The speculatores came to question us yesterday.”
Cato’s eyebrows shot up and he swung his feet to the floor. “What about?”
Valens stood, suddenly restless. He paced the room, poking at books and scrolls shoved haphazardly into the bookcases that covered two whole walls. “They’re looking for whoever’s writing the illegally legal marriage contracts.”
“The Cupid?” Cato straightened.
Valens stopped. “Sorry, thewhat?”
“The Cupid.” Cato’s eyes bugged as if Valens had just sprouted wings. “You haven’t heard?Everyone’stalking about him.”
“I haven’t heard him called The Cupid.” Valens wasn’t sure he liked that.
Cato waved a hand, ticking off the names that had found theirway into the everyday gossip of the city over the past month. “Rogue Notarius, Restorer of Rights, Friend of Lovers—I personally like The Cupid. It’s easy, and there’s the whole forbidden-love thing. So who was it?”
“Who was what?”
“The Cupid, did they find him? Was it the scribe in the corner with the crazy teeth?”
Valens frowned and shook his head, mind racing.Everyonewas talking abouthim? He’d heard a few things, but between work and church gatherings and the nightly weddings, he’d not been mingling much with the public.
Cato kept guessing. The one with the hair? The one without the hair? Not the date dryer?
“There’s no one left.” Cato gave up, dropping back in his seat.
Valens rubbed his ear and gave a sheepish smile.
Cato stared at him a moment, then pushed all the air out of his lungs. “No.”
When Valens didn’t deny it, he jumped to his feet. “Val!” His mouth gaped and shut, searching for words beyond his grasp. “That’s a treason charge! It’s execution if they find out.”
Valens lifted his shoulders. “The investigator seemed to think me incapable of such a crime on account of my family. He asked my opinion on who could have done it.”
Cato leaned forward, lacing his fingers and propping his elbows on the desk. “You would accuse an innocent person on your account?”
“Of course not!” Valens shot him a sharp look. “You know me better than that. But I’m not volunteering for the sword either.”
“You have to stop.”
“What can I do, Cato?” Valens raised his hands. “Most of them are ex-legionnaires who have risked the better part of their lives to keep us safe—yet they’re still denied the basic rights of citizenship.”
Cato ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. “The Scriptures command us to honor the emperor.”
