Dacius took a quick look at her and reached for his helmet. “I’ll maintain a guard outside,” he said. “In the name of Jupiter, make this quick, or word of it will spread all over Rome.”
“Why did you have to ruin everything?” Fausta demanded angrily of Constantine.
“What are you talking about?” Constantine had already endured more than enough trouble to try his patience that day and this was the final stroke.
“Asking my father for permission to marry me. You should have known the time is not yet. Much is to be arranged first.”
“It was your father who sent for me,” Constantine told her. “He accused me of trying to worm my way into your family by turning your head ”
“Turning my head. Why ”
“Those were his words, not mine,” he said shortly. “And he warned me that the bastard of a Caesar could never aspire to marry the daughter of an Augustus.”
Maxentius’ lies
“The bastard of a Caesar? That’s one of Maxentius’ lies.”
“Your father seemed to believe it.”
“He was only goading you, trying to make you do something he could have you broken for. Don’t you see that they are afraid of you, Constantine?” By now her anger had visibly diminished. “I’m beginning to believe it.”
“The first time Maxentius told that lie about your birth, I had a scribe in Nicomedia copy the certificate of your father’s marriage from his military record.”
“Why?” It was Constantine’s turn to be stunned.
“Because I had decided to marry you. Why else?”
“When was this decision made?”
“Oh, a long time ago, when I was only a child, maybe thirteen or so. It was in Nicomedia, when you and Maxentius finished your military training and I saw you ride and fight the Frankish master of horse.”
“Crocus?”
“I don’t remember his name.”
“He’s the king of one of the Frankish kingdoms on the Bhine frontier now. My father wrote me about it when I was in Syria.” She seemed suddenly to remember what had brought her to his quarters, for her eyes became stormy again. “How could you be so foolish as to ask Father to marry me?”
“It was when he accused me of using you to gain favor with him.”
“And being honorable, you told him the truth?”
“Of course,” he said stiffly. “I love you and want to marry you. Why should I be ashamed of that?”
Her face softened again. “You never told me that before.
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