The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 5

        Max stomped around, snorting at her overly cautious – in his horsy mind – ministrations and checks. She gave him a final pat on the neck and chided him for being such a guy.

        "Ready to walk back to the front of the line?" she asked the big horse in English, slipping the impromptu bridle off his head. He snorted on her. "Thanks, asshat, now you got boogers all over Ixillius's cloak, too."

        She elbowed his head away and started walking beside the now moving line, staying down in the grass. The big stallion nickered quietly and caught up to pace with her, trying to come up on the side closest to the armored men.

        "Nice try, Max," she muttered at him, pushing him to the side closest to the trees.

        He laid his ears flat and bared his teeth over top of her head, to the cautious amusement of the 6th and 4th, but at least unwillingly stayed where she shoved him to. She worked at untying the knots in the scarves and rope, separating the parts from each other, watching Max and quietly giving commands to stay beside her whenever he looked like he was going to get too aggressive. She finally got all the knots out and looped the rope around his neck like a leash, the same as she had the first night he'd been in Bonna, the same as she'd done whenever she'd led him anywhere for the past two years she'd known him. Big Man calmed down almost immediately so Alex gave him another pat.

        She was wrapping the silk scarves back around her arms, not having anywhere else to put them and missing how warm they'd been, when Max had startled her by quickly dodging behind her and stomping toward the line. She yelled at him and commanded him back toward the trees, seeing the guy Verus had been talking to for the last few minutes now nervously standing at the side of the road, looking like he wanted to approach her but didn't want to get close to the brute that just lunged at him. Alex grinned at the man's dilemma.

        "Big Man, hold," she told Max in English, then ground tied him took a single step toward the relieved looking stranger. "Hello," she said, switching to Latin. She was well out of arm's reach, forcing the man to either get closer to her and Max, or to speak loudly enough that everyone walking in the line behind him would hear.

        She watched the murmurs quickly pass forward and Verus looked back from where he marched beside Ixillius. The First File frowned over his shoulder and quickly spoke to Ixillius. Alex easily saw her husband, a head taller than everyone else and as shockingly blond as most of the locals, step out of line and start back to where she stood, looking clearly angry even across the small distance.

        "Lady," the stranger replied, choosing to speak loudly and nodding politely. "I see some of the rumors about you may be true."

        Alex folded her arms together and arched a single eyebrow at him. He was posturing, she could easily tell. She was immediately annoyed, and already on a short fuse from how sore the ride through the mud had made her and from thinking about the best way to go back across one more time. She was looking forward to spending the day in the cart tomorrow, and had been quietly contemplating how to hide that fact from Verus so she could continue to irritate him. Misery loves company.

        "I know very well the man you claim to be your father," he stared down at her, as if waiting for a rebuttal.

        "And?" she asked, staring back at him flatly. She noticed in her peripheral view that Ixillius had composed his features to blank as he neared, his blue eyes cold and his posture tensely relaxed as he stopped nearby.

        "And Aquilus Naevius has proposed many women, many ways, to attempt the same claim. This is, by far, the most elaborate." Alex didn't catch all the words, but enough to understand why Ixillius immediately bristled. "How badly will you fail this test, I wonder?" the man asked, surprising her by switching to heavily accented – but clear – Russian, then obviously gloating at the shocked look on her face.