The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 11

                                                                ***

        The girl was seething, rattling off empty threats and random arguments to try and get the two veterans to leave the tent. Quintus reorganized the documents on the table, listening as just as many answers to the interrogation were discovered by what the girl didn't say as what she did, and came to the eventual conclusion that there was nothing missing from the table. He then traded places with his oldest friend and watched the raging girl in silence as Sertor Avilius Tacito Severus, masquerading as 'Aetius Vitus', looked over the documents on the table to see if there was anything confidential or important. With neither of them talking to her, and Quintus watching her, she stammered to a halt and glared. Satisfied with nothing of importance being available through what was on the table, Sertor sat on the nearest stool and leaned his elbows on his knees, facing her.

        "Now, girl," he started, holding up a hand to stop her from arguing. "You've prattled many lies, so let's find out if you're also capable of telling a truth."

        "I never lie," she replied, chin high.

        "That's obvious," Sertor answered. "You need to practice to be good at something." He watched her, the moments stretching into minutes, the look of amusement never leaving his face once the twitches and ticks of nervous habit started showing. "Abelardus, report," Sertor ordered.

        "She's from the Idoya Luz line, though not directly as all the daughters are married out of the Legions, so she's a cousin. I would guess her to be the ward of the second eldest son, who is Auxiliary Legate by order of Celsus Calix."

        "He would already know all of this," Sertor gestured to the table, grinning as the girl's jaw snapped closed.

        "There are ties to Naevius in that family which –" Quintus silenced as Sertor held up a hand for him to stop.

        "I think we've made our point," Sertor stood and smiled warmly at the girl. "The only new information would be me, and you'd have had orders to find out what you could because I'm a friend to Quintus Abelardus and everyone in the Idoya Luz family on the Naevius side knows that Abelardus is a friend to Avilius," he chuckled. "Old men are allowed to have more than one friend, girl, and good men often have several."

        Sertor shook his head slowly, almost able to see the thoughts flashing through her mind in the expression on her face. He knew he was lucky that this girl had been sent instead of the son that Quintus had just mentioned, who could have recognized Sertor as they'd met once before. She settled on being prideful for having confirmed that he was just another freeman, well below the position her family aspired to, and haughtily stopped wasting time arguing with him.

        "Shake out her tunics and cloak, Abelardus," Sertor ordered. "Ensure that nothing has been taken from our First File, and set her garments away from anything of his so that when we hold the drape for her she can't take anything else."

        The girl's eyes narrowed into a glare, but she didn't protest against being called a thief. Quintus checked her clothing, removed Ixillius's spare knife from being folded inside her under tunic, then set the girl's clothes on a stool well away from the entrance – and anything else. She was spiteful nearly to the point of spitting as she crossed the tent to go behind the held drape and change. Sertor blocked the way when she tried to stride out of the tent.

        "Are all the Lady's things returned?" He asked Quintus.

        The Optio shook out the tunic and pants and glanced around the tent. He looked carefully at the girl, and then finally nodded once. Sertor stood back and held the flap wide, exposing two boys standing there, listening intently.

        "First File ordered us to listen," the boys blurted out in unison in response to Sertor's questioning look. Quintus chuckled as more children lined up behind the first two. The girl nearly choked. Whatever quip she'd been about to say caught in her throat as she realized that everything had been overheard and she wouldn't be able to cast any lies around.

        Sertor sent the two boys who looked the oldest to return the girl to her family, then come back and tell him the girl's full name so that he could make the requested report to the First File. He sent the rest of the children to discover what the shouting was about, as he assumed that was the reason that his son-in-law had gone away so quickly.

        "Lady Avilia returned with a healer for Celsus Calix," Quintus said quietly, once he and his greatest friend were alone, and Sertor no longer had to pretend at being Aetius.

        "That's what I assumed," Sertor replied, letting the entrance close and frowning at the interior of the tent.

        "Verus ordered him to bring her kit here."

        "He vowed to leave her untouched for the march," Sertor frowned deeper when his oldest friend laughed.

        "In her words when confronted with the same accusation three days ago: that was his promise, not hers," he replied. Sertor finally cracked a grin, remembering his own wife's reply when he'd made a similar promise to her father many years ago had been the same as Dria's was now. He picked up the length of drape that had been cut down, and then climbed on the nearest stool to take down the piece that was still hanging.

        "Tell me, old friend," he said as he stepped down and started to lay out the two pieces of fabric so he could figure out a way to mend them with whatever was lying about. "Which of all your commanders does he remind you of?"

        "You," Quintus replied, grinning that he'd startled his friend with the quick answer. "I saw the similarity when he was still Verus's Optio, and the parallels grew as a Centurion. As First File right now, today he was the same as your first placement as Legate."

        "Is he a good man, Quintus?" Sertor asked quietly, pausing in his repair of the drape to wait for the answer. Quintus took the time to review his thoughts on the matter.

        "He's better than us," he finally answered.