“Aren’t you taking a lot for granted?”
“You mean you don’t want to be with me?” Her eyes began to take fire. “I never lack for escorts, you know.”
“I am sure of that,” he said hastily, for this oddly exciting creature had already begun to seize his fancy. “But I also have work to do.”
‘Then it’s all settled,” she said airily. “I need a bodyguard far more than Diocletian does; you have no idea how many men have designs upon me. You will be assigned to me while we are in Rome and then we can be together all the time.” She stood on tiptoe to look into his eyes for a moment, as if searching for something there, then dropped back upon her heels, obviously satisfied with what she saw.
“Some day I’m going to marry you, Constantine,” she announced as she took his arm again. “So you might as well get accustomed to being with me.”
He could not help laughing at her impudence, until he realized suddenly that she was deadly serious.
“How old are you?” he asked.
The daughters of Augusti
“Fifteen, but I have been a woman since I was twelve. The women in my family mature early. Of course, we cannot marry just now,” Fausta continued. “The daughters of Augusti are not like other girls. Their marriages have to be arranged for the good of the state, as your father’s marriage was arranged to my stepsister, Theodora. Tell me, did your mother mind much when your father divorced her?”
Constantine had stiffened a little at the question, but he saw only curiosity, and perhaps a certain concern, in the piquant little face upturned to his.
‘She did mind,” he confessed. “But she loved my father enough not to stand in the way of his being made Caesar of the West.”
“I wouldn’t give up my rights without a fight,” Fausta assured him. “I want everything that is mine in the world, and perhaps a little more.”
“I have no doubt that you will get it.”
“I saw your father at Theodora’s wedding,” she told him. “The two of you are very much alike.”
“Everybody else says so and, since you do, it must be true.”
“Don’t make fun of me, Constantine,” she warned and he saw that she was very serious again. “People who do usually regret it.”
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