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him, and promised obedience to her father's plan. The marriage rescued the senator and was a way for Valeria to get away from Rome. Marriage would please her father, let her escape her mother, and complete herself. Like all young women, she assumed either her husband would match her dreams or she'd teach him to do so."
    Of course. Women think weddings the end of problems, instead of their beginning. "Why didn't the marriage take place in Rome?"
    "The post was vacant, occupied temporarily by the senior tribune Galba Brassidias. The army wanted the command settled, and Senator Valens was anxious for the money his daughter would bring. The promise was paid, promotion granted, and rather than wait for wedding preparations, Marcus was advised to take the risk of traveling in winter to assume office and clarify command. Talks were concluded in his absence. Valeria followed in March, as soon as the first ships could leave Ostia. Even at that, it was a rough voyage. We anchored three times on the coast of Italy before reaching port in Gaul. All of us were sick."
    I nod. I hate the sea. "Then north through Gaul-"
    "Tiresome. Bad inns, bad food, and bad company. The river barges were fine, but the mule carts wearying and tedious. It was odd to have the days grow longer and yet colder. And at the Oceanus Britannicus the sea sucked in and out."
    "The tide."
    "I'd never seen its like."
    "It took Caesar by surprise when he first invaded Britannia." Why I offer historical trivia to this woman I can't say.
    "I shouldn't wonder."
    I plunge ahead, embarrassed by my own digression. "So you crossed the Channel-"
    "We'd missed the naval galley and bought passage on a merchant ship. We were sick again, and afraid of pirates. The captain kept waving toward the white cliffs of Dubris, trying to impress a senator's daughter, but none of us cared."
    "And came up the Tamesis to Londinium."
    "It was all perfectly proper, as you can see. Except for her riding."
    "Her what?"
    "When crossing Gaul, Valeria became bored. She'd borrow a horse and go trotting ahead in a lady's manner, sidesaddle, accompanied by her bodyguard Cassius."
    "A retired soldier?"
    "Better. A surviving gladiator."
    "And you did not approve."
    "She wasn't so bold as to go out of sight, but a Roman lady doesn't ride a horse like some Celtic wench. As I told her! But Valeria was always a willful child. I warned that she'd ride herself barren and be sent home in disgrace, but she just laughed at me. I told her she'd hurt herself and she scoffed. She said her husband-to-be was a cavalry officer and would appreciate a wife who could gallop. I almost fainted."
    I try to picture this bold and impudent young woman. Was she vulgar? Immature? Or simply impish? "She had learned how?"
    "On her father's estate. He was as hopelessly indulgent when she was a child as he was strict after her menarche. Only I kept any control. She'd have played with wooden swords if her brothers hadn't refused."
    "So she was in the habit of not doing what she was told."
    "She was in the habit of listening to her heart."
    Interesting. Rome's foundation is reason, of course. "I am trying to understand what happened here," I explain. "What kind of treachery."
    She laughs. "Treachery?"
    "The attack on the Wall."
    "I would never call it treachery."
    "What then?"
    "I'd call it love."
    "Love! You said-"
    "Not in the way you think. It began in Londinium "
    V
    "Roman lady!" the peddlers shrieked, lifting their trinkets up into the rain. "Look! The jewels of Britannia!"
    Valeria had drawn her hood against the shouts and spring drizzle. Shadowed and thus shielded, she looked down in consternation and amusement at the little navy that had nosed to the bulwarks of her ship. River lighters and skin coracles surrounded the newly anchored Swan like a ragged noose, their grubby captains screeching offers to ferry the Roman passengers to the stone quay of Londinium. Briton women, their hair tangled and clothes sodden from the damp, held