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Her mind turned unexpectedly to Cassius. Was he one of her enemies now? He was plain in her distaste for her. He was present at the Pantheon, too. She couldn’t seem to put the question aside. Before she could stop herself, his name slipped from her lips.

‘Show me Cassius,’ she said.

He appeared in the shield, blurry at first, before rapidly taking form. He was talking to Gia.

Claudia could’ve removed her hand and avoided spying on her, but for whatever reason, for many reasons, she couldn’t, didn’t. She was stuck fast, unmoving as she eavesdropped.

‘You can still choose,’ said Cassius. ‘You still have the freedom to walk away. We could leave, right now. They would never find us.’

‘I don’t want to walk away,’ Gia said.

He groaned dramatically. ‘Please, sister.’

‘You’re not listening to me, Cass.’

‘I am. I just don’t like what I’m hearing,’ said Cassius. ‘There is a crucial difference.’

They were in the stony, windowless caverns of the servants’ quarters, in the spartan room Cassius slept in, sitting on two cots that were rammed up next to each other.

‘Look, I’m not an idiot,’ he said. ‘I have travelled, you know. I’ve heard of Sappho. I… I’ve even desired men.’

Claudia tried to listen to their muted conversation over the incessant pounding of her heart.

‘I guessed as much,’ said Gia. ‘You always joke about it.’

Cassius ran one hand through his short hair, self-consciously.

‘Everyone does it,’ he said. ‘No one frowns upon it, as long as we keep it inside our tents. But there’s a reason that every senator has a wife and not a husband.’

‘That doesn’t make it a good reason.’

‘What I’m saying is: I understand, sister. I don’t judge you for that. It is a part of nature. It isn’t you being with a woman that bothers me so much… It’s more, your choice of mate.’

‘Well, that isn’t up to you,’ Gia said.

‘No, but you asked for my opinion and I am giving it.’

Gia sighed heavily, her head in her hands.

‘I can’t give my blessing to it, knowing already how it will end – with you heartbroken, or dead,’ he said.

‘Things end. Doesn’t mean they’re not worth doing.’

‘You’re being so stubborn about this,’ said Cassius.

‘Says you!’

They stared at each other, neither one willing to submit.

‘You have already made up your mind and you barely know her,’ said Gia. ‘If you’d been there when we were in Pompeii, you’d understand. If you knew what we had lived through together. She was there for me when you were gone… when I thought you were already dead.’

‘But I’m not!’ said Cassius. ‘I’m alive, and I am right here, sister. It’s a miracle that we’re not both deceased. We should be free. We could be free. Don’t throw your life away on some young, stupid love. The world is full of pretty people, sister.’

‘Not like her,’ said Gia, firmly. ‘She’s not replaceable, to me.’

‘Everyone is, in the end.’

‘I love her.’