Read The Purple Shroud: A Novel of Empress Theodora for Free Online

shook his head. ‘I think highly of my aims for myself.’
    ‘Good answer. And what will you mosaic?’
    ‘You, Mistress, and the August.’
    Theodora laughed. ‘You don’t even try flattery? Shouldn’t you tell me I’m so beautiful I must be immortalised? That it’s vital I’m seen across the Empire; a symbol of womanly obedience for the fiery wives of Ravenna?’
    All her entourage laughed at that, as she intended them to, and the artist continued, ‘Mistress, I am highly skilled now. By the time the church is ready for the mosaic work, I mean to be great. And so will you.’
    ‘You’re brave – am I not great already?’ Theodora was enjoying this.
    ‘As young as we are, Mistress, you and I still have much to accomplish, to build on. I with my talent, you with your…’
    ‘Gold?’
    ‘And power,’ he agreed. ‘I need the Imperial seal to prove my workshop has the commission for the completed church. Many things may happen between now and then. I need to know I’m promised the work.’
    ‘Where I can command, I hardly need pay as well.’
    Stephen evenly returned her look and said, ‘Where you can pay, the work will be better.’
    Antonina burst out laughing at this and Sophia applauded. The artist was too rugged for Antonina’s tastes and probably too earnest for Sophia, but Theodora knew her friends enjoyed having new men about the place, especially men as interesting as this one.
    ‘Eat with us tonight,’ said Theodora. ‘You may begin your sketches if you like, or I could ask one of my friends to show you the Palace, you can study the mosaics we have here. Sophia probably has something to show that will inspire you?’ She was pleased to see the artist suddenly lose his bravado. ‘What? You’re scared of my friend’s hunger? It’s true her appetites are larger than her half-size frame.’
    Stephen held up his hands and spoke more quietly now, ‘Mistress, I have no clothes for an evening in the Palace.’
    Theodora nodded. ‘I travelled like that, it is freeing – and frightening. Armeneus, find the artist a room and clothing, enough for a few days, he’ll need time to make his sketches. Sophia can give him a tour later. We’ll see you this evening.’
    With that the Empress marched from the room, calling after her that Armeneus should also set up the contract for the artist, make sure the architects in Ravenna knew her wishes, arrange for the seal to be given, then grant whatever the last three petitioners were there for, she didn’t care what it was,she was tired of this now and she assumed everyone else was too. Her women followed in her wake, Armeneus was left to follow her commands.
    Theodora walked quickly through the corridors, hurrying away from a memory of herself at eighteen, betrayed by the friend who had replaced her in her lover’s bed, exhausted, alone, seeking solace in the Church in Alexandria, the last place she would have expected to find comfort, the only place left to her. She charged down corridors and pathways and walked back into herself as Augusta, Empress, as one who might not have all the freedom she wished, but who certainly did have the power – and the right – to make another’s livelihood, possibly his life.

Four
    T he meal was a success. Antonina happily commandeered the visitor, leaving the Emperor entirely to his conversation with Belisarius. Justinian, no soldier himself and painfully aware that his precursor in the purple had been a favourite with the troops, was always keen to have the best advice on military matters. And Belisarius had plenty of ideas, too many for Theodora’s comfort.
    Theodora did not doubt the young general’s courage or his military wisdom or his honed, toned good looks; what she didn’t like was the way everyone else treated him as some kind of demigod. Sittas believed Belisarius one of the best strategic minds of the age, an opinion echoed by Germanus. As Justinian’s cousin, Germanus had been annoyed but accepting