Man Eater

Claudia’s breath came out in a hiss from where she’d been holding it. ‘I need the fresh air.’ Fresh? With that number of wild beasts? ‘What about you? Do you always work this late?’

He held the gate open for her. ‘Work? Oh, you’re thinking about that scene back there with Sergius.’

I wasn’t, but go on.

‘We do that, him and me. I throw pots, he throws insults, then it’s forgotten.’ A big cat snarled as they passed its shed. ‘Quiet, Sheba!’ He paused by the ostrich pen. ‘May I walk with you a way?’

Intense grey eyes bored into hers. For a man who works all day with animals, she thought, you always manage to smell of citron and woodsmoke.

‘Why not?’

In silence they passed along a line of clipped laurels, the imminence of the storm intensifying the scent of the leaves. A flash of lightning silhouetted a rhino against the sky and a bear growled.

‘You have a farm in my homeland, I gather?’

‘Vineyards,’ she corrected. ‘Across the Tiber then half-a-day’s hard ride. Is that close to your stomping ground?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m from the coast, but like most other Etruscans you’ll meet, I was uprooted without a great deal of ceremony.’

She picked up on the sour note. ‘The Emperor’s Land Purchase Scheme strikes again, eh?’

‘Worse than that. I lived in Carrera before Augustus turned it into a marble quarry.’

‘Well, if it’s any consolation, Corbulo, you shifted for a good cause. When you do take those show beasts to Rome, you’ll see half your motherland slapped over the temples.’ The Oil Market is positively dazzling.

‘Don’t start on about the Games, Claudia,’ he said, but this time there was a jocular tone to his words. ‘I’m getting enough of an earful from Sergius. He expects bloody miracles.’

Was it the distant rumble of thunder that made the air electric? Or the proximity of the Etruscan?

‘From what I saw of the elephant, you’ve delivered bloody miracles. Is he really as ill as Taranis says?’

‘Nothing’s ever like Taranis says. I think you’ll find Sergius has miscalculated on the amount of wine an empty stomach can cope with.’

‘They say things come in threes,’ she replied carefully. ‘Fronto, then Coronis. It makes me wonder who’s next.’ The trainer’s face creased into a grin. ‘Well, stop,’ he said. ‘Accidents happen all the time.’

‘Fronto was no accident, and Macer has me pegged for a murderess, remember?’

‘Macer has straw for brains. None of us think you killed Fronto, and Sergius intends to draft a complaint to the Emperor himself when he’s feeling a bit more chipper. Now let’s turn back, those clouds look ugly.’ Claudia couldn’t decide whether the deafening noise was thunder or the thumping of her heart. It wasn’t that she was drawn to him physically-he did not, after all, have the desperate magnetism that, say for instance, Marcus Cornelius possessed by the boatload (as of course did hundreds of others whose names would no doubt come to her later)-but the intensity of those tundra eyes was incredibly flattering, and who doesn’t respond to that? Moreover, he was strong and he really wasn’t bad looking once you got past the double bump that proclaimed his heritage. Most of all, Corbulo looks the type who takes his time-and aeons had passed since Claudia Seferius had felt the slow touch of a man’s hand…

Plus which, unlike an affair with a certain security policeman, there would be no repercussions afterwards. It was certainly something to think about.

‘I’ll venture another hundred paces,’ she said, hoping the rumbles would drown the hoarseness of her voice. What did he see in Tulola-apart from the obvious? ‘Alone, if you don’t mind.’

You don’t associate Corbulo with a role in the harem. ‘I can’t leave you out here.’

He was as far removed from the likes of Timoleon as Neptune from a wood nymph.

‘I can look after myself,’ she assured him. Always have. Always will. ‘Goodnight.’

‘Very well, then.’ He reached for her hand and kissed the back of it. ‘If you insist.’

Surprisingly he did not retrace his steps, but turned to the right instead. ‘It’s you who needs help,’ she quipped. ‘The house is straight on.’

He hesitated. ‘I don’t sleep in the house,’ he called back. ‘My quarters back on to the elephant house.’ There was a moment’s silence before he added, ‘If you should ever want to call on me.’

She walked on up the hill, her thoughts chasing each other like puppies in hay. It made sense-in retrospect. She’d never seen Corbulo with Tulola, simply made an assumption. Which changed everything.