The Warrior's Princess

  ‘So, you know more about it than Carmella!’ Kim looked at her askance. ‘Why didn’t you tell us before?’

  Steph shook her head. ‘I read them for myself. I never do it for other people. Sometimes I use them to meditate. You choose a card and think about it and explore it and then perhaps wonder why that particular card came up. It is amazingly helpful. A sort of potted session with a counsellor-stroke-psychotherapist. I don’t do it better than Carmella, it’s just that she does it differently. She is a natural. But a natural in a good way. She is not reading from a crib sheet. She is I would guess someone who has always done it. Who was taught by her mother or grandmother or someone like that.’

  Kim shook her head, smiling. ‘Her grandmother. Who was incidentally a good Catholic.’

  Steph inclined her head. ‘Because it is not evil.’

  ‘No, but I doubt if the church approves.’

  ‘Whatever. But the way she does it, she tunes in to whoever she has been asked to read for. She listens to some inner voice.’

  ‘So the dangerous man was real, not her responding to the crowd?’ Will pushed his plate away.

  ‘As it happens I think it was.’

  ‘Which brings us back to Dan.’

  ‘Perhaps it wasn’t Dan she was talking about. That is the problem: the interpretation of what she said, not the fact that she said it.’

  ‘I think you are talking yourself round in circles, Steph.’ Will stood up yawning. ‘Will you forgive me if I follow Jess’s example and go to bed? The heat is getting to me a bit.’

  When he had gone Kim poured Steph another glass of wine. ‘Did you bring your cards with you?’

  Steph shook her head. ‘I don’t even know where they are. Packed away at Ty Bran somewhere.’

  Climbing to her feet Kim went to the sideboard and brought out the pack Carmella had used on that first evening. She put them down in front of Steph. ‘See what you can do.’

  Steph shook her head. ‘I told you. I don’t do readings.’

  ‘No. Pick a card. Meditate on it. About Jess.’

  Steph reached out for the cards. She shuffled them and cut the pack then picked up the top card and turned it over. It was the king of cups.

  Jess sat up with a jerk of fear and sat staring into the dark. She could hear the first rumbling of a storm in the distance. Was it the storm that had awakened her? She could hear the raindrops now, in the courtyard below the open window. The room was stiflingly hot. With a groan she threw back the sheet and sat up in bed. A flash of lightning lit the window and in that fraction of a second she saw a figure silhouetted against it. She screamed.

  There was a slight click and a scraping sound, then silence save for the pattering of the raindrops. She scrabbled for the switch of the lamp and turned it on, trembling. The room was empty. Throwing her legs over the edge of the bed she padded over to the window and looked out into the dark. Another flicker of lightning illuminated the clouds overhead. It was enough to show her an empty garden. She leaned on the low sill to scan the paths and looked down at her hands suspiciously. They were wet. She stared down at the floorboards. Was that a footprint or just rain splashing in from the stone architrave? Her own feet were bare; the faint imprint there on the old oak was of a ridged sole larger by a couple of inches than her own feet.

  ‘Jess?’ There was a gentle tap at the door behind her. ‘Jess, can I come in?’

  Steph crept into the room. She too was barefoot; her hair dishevelled from sleep. She was wearing a pair of cotton pyjamas. She glanced round. ‘I thought I heard you call out.’

  Jess grimaced. ‘I did. Sorry. I woke myself too.’ She paused. She had been about to say she had heard someone in the room but already she had changed her mind. The print was almost dry. In seconds it would be gone. Perhaps it had never been a footprint at all. ‘The thunder must have woken me up. The rain has made the floor all wet.’ She leaned out to close the shutters. As she did so she saw a figure on the gravel path below. A flicker of lightning illuminated his face clearly. ‘Dan!’ she breathed.

  ‘What?’ Steph had heard. ‘Jess, for goodness’ sake! Dan has gone.’ She came and leaned out beside her. ‘Where? There’s no one there!’

  Jess shook her head. ‘Of course not. It was a shadow.’

  ‘Idiot!’ Steph put an arm round her fondly. ‘Come on. Do you want to get something to drink?’

  Jess shook her head. ‘I didn’t wake everybody, did I?’

  ‘No, of course you didn’t. My room is next door and I was awake anyway.’ Steph headed back towards the door. She paused. ‘You’ve got to stop imagining things, Jess. Relax. Enjoy Rome. Dan’s long gone.’

  Jess overslept next morning. There was no sign of her when Steph wandered into the kitchen in search of coffee, and no sign of Will and Kim either. Presumably they too had been wakened by the storm which had long ago spent its fury in the distant hills. The sky was once more a clear intense blue as Steph reached for the jar of coffee beans. Pouring the coffee into a mug from the huge glass-fronted dresser she sat down at the kitchen table and pulled her mobile out of her pocket. ‘Megan? How are you? Can I ask you a favour? My house plants have lost their babysitter.’

  In the Welsh farmhouse Megan glanced at the ceiling in exasperation. Her voice however betrayed no hint of impatience as she answered, ‘Of course. I’ll go and water them. How is Jess? Rhodri rang yesterday. He told us he was worried about her.’

  Steph took a sip of coffee. ‘Really?’ she said cautiously. ‘Did he say why?’

  Megan took her time before she answered. ‘Is Jess there in Rome with you now?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did she say what happened?’

  It was Steph’s turn to be careful in her choice of words. ‘She didn’t say anything happened particularly. I think she found it a bit of a strain being there on her own. She said it was a bit spooky.’

  ‘And yet you expect me to go up there on my own to water your plants!’ Megan retorted.

  ‘You’d be more than a match for any ghost, Meg!’ Steph laughed.

  ‘Yes, I probably would,’ Megan agreed dryly. ‘And anyone else who happened to be around.’

  Steph put down her mug. ‘Was there anyone else up there then?’

  ‘I think she had one or two visitors. I wasn’t here. She had gone by the time we came home.’

  ‘But did Rhodri say something?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Megan!’

  ‘He said it wasn’t his business.’

  ‘What wasn’t?’

  ‘Well, he didn’t say, did he!’

  Behind her Steph heard the kitchen door open. Jess appeared, bleary-eyed. ‘Hi!’

  ‘Megan, I’ve got to go.’ Steph grinned at Jess and pointed towards the coffee pot.

  ‘Rhodri said he might look you up. He’s got one more performance then he’s finished in Milan. He’s coming to Rome on the way back.’

  Steph wrinkled her nose. ‘Did you give him my number?’

  ‘I did.’ Steph could hear the laughter in Megan’s voice. ‘I knew you’d be pleased to see him!’

  ‘What was that about?’ Jess asked as Steph tossed the mobile onto the table.

  ‘Rhodri. Megan said he might look us up on the way back from La Scala. I suppose I’ve got you to thank for that sudden interest in our activities?’

  ‘I can’t imagine why. I doubt if he would want to see me again!’ Jess scowled. ‘Where are the others?’ She had seated herself at the end of the table and was sipping her black coffee.

  ‘We’re here!’ Kim appeared in the doorway behind her, laden with brown paper bags. ‘We went to get hot rolls for breakfast. How did you all sleep? Did you hear the storm?’

  Will sat down next to Jess. ‘Are you OK?’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’

  ‘You look very white.’

  ‘Thanks for the concern.’ She gave a wry smile as she returned her attention to the coffee. ‘And yes, the storm did keep
me awake.’

  Kim pushed a plate towards her. ‘Here. Have a roll. And some butter and jam. Did you know your sister was a tarot reader?’ She plumped herself down in the wooden armchair opposite Jess and studied her face eagerly. ‘It is really bizarre. She is better at it than Carmella!’

  Jess shook her head. ‘I remember you went on a course ages ago. You never told me you still did it, Steph! Somehow I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Good. Don’t.’ Steph frowned at Kim.

  ‘It’s true though,’ Kim added, ignoring the sharp kick from Steph under the table. ‘She showed me last night.’

  ‘And what did the cards say last night?’ Jess was tightlipped suddenly. ‘That I am mad?’

  ‘Jess!’ Steph protested. ‘Of course not.’

  ‘But the card she turned over was the same old card. The king of cups!’ Kim said. ‘Weird or what.’

  Jess blanched. ‘I don’t believe any of this.’ She stood up. ‘I’m not hungry. This coffee is enough for me. I’m going out. If we’ve nothing planned for today I thought I might do some more sketching. Indulge my fantasies a bit. Find myself a Roman ghost or two to talk to.’ She headed for the door. ‘I’ll see you all this evening.’

  Will caught her up outside the front door. The street was fresh and clean after the storm of the night before, the air much cooler. ‘Look, Jess, don’t rush off like this. It’s idiotic. No one is trying to stitch you up. And no one is getting at you for being interested in Eigon. Can I come with you?’

  Jess stopped in her tracks. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I would like to spend the morning with you.’

  She looked at him suspiciously. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Quite sure. I’m at your service. And I’ve brought a camera in case you need any photos of the topography.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Learning the language of research, eh?’

  ‘I’m doing my best. To be honest, I don’t care where I go. I just like wandering around and I like your company. I’ve always liked your company, Jess. You know that.’ He looked away uncomfortably. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Delete the last remark.’

  ‘It’s deleted.’ Jess resumed walking slowly. ‘OK. Let’s go. I want to head over towards the Forum again. I have a goldsmith’s house to find.’

  And that was impossible. Wherever the jewellers’ quarter was it probably wouldn’t have been in the Forum, she realised that at once. They paused before the columns of the great temple of Saturn. ‘I think this is one of the buildings left which dates from Eigon’s time. It was old when she was here,’ Jess said hesitantly. ‘She must have stood near here before Claudius with her father.’

  Will reached for his camera. ‘So it is two thousand years old?’

  ‘More. I think it dates from some time before Christ, according to my guidebook. Though it’s been renovated. It must have been.’ She swung her bag off her shoulder and fished out the book, pushing her sunglasses up onto her forehead as she riffled the pages. ‘It’s hard to get one’s head round the age of all this stuff.’ She glanced up at him. ‘It’s all so confusing, remains from so many different periods all jumbled up next to each other. I think most of it is too recent to interest me at the moment!’ She smiled. The heat was intense by now, the air already dusty, the memory of the storm long gone.

  ‘Like only nineteen hundred years old?’ He snapped a few shots of the great columns in front of them as a hooded crow flew to perch on the battered marble architrave, staring down at them. He returned his camera to its case. ‘Jess, all this Roman stuff. Eigon.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s all a bit weird. When we – when you and I – were together you didn’t talk about ghosts then.’

  ‘I hadn’t seen a ghost then,’ she said defensively. ‘I don’t blame you for not believing it, Will. You’ve seen nothing, after all. But I do blame you for not taking my word about Dan. You still don’t, do you, not really. I would have expected you to back me up on that one.’ She turned away from him, suddenly afraid she was going to cry and headed down the crowded path.

  He hurried after her. ‘Jess! Wait!’ The crowds parted to let them through, uninterested in a lovers’ tiff, closing behind them again intent on their own sightseeing.

  He caught her up. ‘Jess, I want to know what made him do it.’

  ‘You can’t know.’ She turned on him fiercely. ‘No one can.’

  He studied her face. ‘If Dan raped you, Jess, I am going to have to kill him.’

  She hesitated, half-believing him for a moment. Then she let out a small ugly yelp of laughter. ‘No, thank you, Will. You don’t have to go that far. I look after myself now.’

  ‘Not very well, by all accounts.’ He caught her arms and pulled her to face him. ‘Jess, I still care, you know. You and I can’t have what we had together without something remaining.’

  She pushed him away sharply. ‘I know that but I don’t need you to gallop off on a white charger to defend my honour –’ She broke off with a gasp.

  ‘What?’ Will swung round, following the direction of her gaze.

  ‘Dan!’ she whispered. ‘There. Watching us.’

  ‘Where?’ Will was scanning the crowd.

  ‘There!’ She pointed at a flight of steps nearby.

  Will ran up the steps and turned to stare down at the crowds around them. People milled in all directions. Tourists, hot and perspiring in summer dresses and colourful shirts, sunhats, dark glasses, water sellers, guides. The stream of people around the Forum was a never-ending tide swirling in and out amongst the pillars and stones. ‘I can’t see him. Where was he?’

  ‘Right where you’re standing.’

  ‘Are you sure it was him?’ Will scanned the crowd again.

  She shrugged helplessly. ‘It was only a glance. He was wearing dark glasses. I could be mistaken.’ Her face was pale but she felt a quick surge of anger. She was making herself sound ridiculous. ‘I am so sure he is following me, Will. I don’t think he’s gone at all. He threatened me. He wants to frighten me.’

  Will nodded. ‘I won’t deny that’s the way it looks.’ He sighed, staring round again. ‘Well, whoever it was is long gone now. I suggest we head somewhere we can get a cold drink. It is getting too hot out here. Are there any buildings left that Eigon knew which still have a roof on or do you want to go back to the palazzo and rest?’

  Eigon was standing in the atrium. She had heard her sister’s voice again in the night, the little plaintive cry coming to her over miles of land and sea and time.

  Can we stop playing now? Eigon? Where are you? Please come back. I’m frightened.

  She shivered miserably at the memory. It was a long time since she had dreamed of Gwladys and Togo. Those dreams were full of the rushing wind and the flare of torches in the darkness of the hillside. More often she dreamed of the gentle hills of her mother’s home before they began following her father to the battlefield. Those were dreams of sunlight and laughter, and the happiness of innocence. With a sigh she pushed her sister’s voice gently away. She was near the open doorway into the gardens, listening to the gentle splattering of the water from the fountains. The trees, turning gold and russet with the autumn were drooping with the heat; she could smell the needles of the pine on the still air. Melinus had walked outside and was standing by the stone bench, talking to Pomponia Graecina. They hadn’t seen her.

  ‘How is he?’ Melinus looked grim. For a moment Eigon thought they were discussing her father.

  Pomponia shook her head. ‘May the gods protect us all. It seems he will not last the day.’ She lowered her voice and Eigon strained forward to hear. ‘They say he ate poisonous mushrooms. It seems Agrippina has at last succeeded in doing away with him.’

  ‘And who will succeed him?’

  ‘Agrippina’s son. Who else? I think we will find that Nero is already trying on the Emperor’s golden wreath. The second his stepfather breathes his last Rome will have a new Emperor. A child on the throne, if you please, and not even the rightful heir
, Britannicus.’

  ‘A child with powerful connections. And a child on the verge of manhood.’ There was a moment of intense silence. ‘Will Nero honour Claudius’s safe conduct for this family?’ Melinus asked at last. The politics of Rome did not interest him apart from any threat immediately impinging upon this household.

  Eigon took another small step closer, anxious to hear every word.

  Pomponia Graecina shrugged. ‘Their safety is, to my mind, guaranteed by Caradoc’s illness.’ She had taken to using the family’s name for him. ‘I doubt if anyone considers him a threat as he is at present. Nero’s advisers will have other far more pressing worries in the Senate. Claudius’s followers will no doubt find themselves suffering the same fate as his own if they are not very careful and a new set of masters will rise to rule the Empire.’

  Melinus nodded. He was leaning on his staff, staring down into the square pool at his feet. The surface of the water was like glass. ‘I see troubles a plenty ahead for Rome and for us here.’

  He had spoken to Cerys earlier. When she had realised the implications of what he told her she had been distraught. He frowned. Emotion made him awkward. He had no idea how to comfort her.

  ‘But surely the new Emperor won’t go back on Claudius’s word?’ he said thoughtfully.

  ‘Who knows what he will do.’ Pomponia Graecina sniffed and raised an eyebrow. ‘Will Caradoc ever recover, do you think?’

  Melinus shook his head. ‘I have used every piece of knowledge I possess. And I am teaching Eigon everything I know.’ He gave a half-glance towards the doorway and Eigon shrank back out of sight. ‘She learns fast. She is an intelligent girl and more importantly she has the blessing of Bride. She is a natural healer with hands which give her genuine power but even she, alas, does not seem able to rid him of this fever. It may be that it is his destiny to die here and be reborn in another life at home in Britannia. Only the gods know what lies in store.’ He paused. ‘If there are any gods out there I have not invoked you must tell me of them.’