Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Antoinette May Read Free Book Online

scrambled to save his daughters from the lottery, Augustus swore that if either of his granddaughters were eligible, he'd propose her name."
    I heard a sharp, bitter laugh and turned. Mother had come down the path and now stood behind us. "He only said that because Agrippina and Julia were safely married. The emperor was forever holding up ideals of morality, though everyone knew he'd left his own wife and baby daughter to steal Livia--a mother with a young son--from her husband."
    "Hush, Selene," Father warned, glancing in my direction.
    I hadn't missed a word, each a precious piece to the puzzle. The ancient scandal explained the dowager empress's hostility toward Agrippina, Augustus's granddaughter from that first marriage. Apparently it even extended to our remote branch of the family. Hadn't she anything better to do than persecute poor relations?
    "The empress thinks she's so clever, but her plan won't work. Marcella's too old," I reminded them. "The order will refuse her."
    Mother sat down beside me. "The Chief Vestal won't quibble once she feels the weight of Livia's purse."
    I hesitated, searching for words. Marcella had been my window into the adult world. Talking to a parent was much harder. "The whole idea is wrong. Marcella is not a--a virgin."
    Mother's white face flushed. "You are so young, it's difficult to speak of such things, but you've learned so much already..." She sighed. "It's true, initiates are young children. One would scarcely question their virginity. All that's required is that they not be deformed, deaf, or dumb. Both parents must be alive and neither one a slave. So you see, in all respects but one, Marcella is qualified."
    "But," I argued, "that one is the one. Livia is cheating the goddess."
    Mother shrugged helplessly. "A fine point that doesn't trouble the empress."
    "What about Agrippina? How can she just stand by and watch this awful thing happen?"
    Mother shook her head. "I believe Agrippina is genuinely sorry about the wretched Vestal business, but Livia has played cleverly upon her ambitions. She promises a brilliant marriage for Caligula while threatening a terrible scandal if the affair is not settled to her satisfaction. None of us wants a scandal, but poor, dear, foolish Marcella. Her life is over-- over ."
    I put my arms around Mother who had quietly begun to sob. "Must she remain a Vestal forever?"
    "It might as well be forever. The term of office is thirty years. At the end of that time a Vestal may return to the world, but few do. Most remain in service to the goddess until they die."
    "Thirty years!" I exclaimed. "Marcella will be an old woman."
    "Indeed."
    I cast frantically about. There was no way, no one...and then it came to me... Caligula ! If anyone could help, it was he. It hadn't taken me a day in Rome to realize that Caligula was the only grandchild the empress gave a fig about. The mere thought of him made me ill. But what choice did I have? A decision had been made. He alone might change it.

     

    W HEN I FOUND MY WAY TO THE SUMPTUOUS APARTMENTS ASSIGNED TO Caligula, I waved away the attendant slave in the foyer, and, taking a deep breath, pushed open the door to the cubiculae . Caligula lay sprawled across a massive sleeping couch, his shoulders propped against a bank of pillows covered in leopard skins. A wave of revulsion swept over me as I looked at the crumpled sheets. They were black silk.
    Caligula grinned at me. "Well, hello, Claudia! Do you like my room? Your sister did."
    "What you did to her was horrible."
    "Marcella didn't think so." Caligula folded his arms behind his head, that awful mocking smile broader still. "So why did you come?"
    "Because of you, the empress wants to punish Marcella. She's forcing her to become a Vestal."
    "Really! How amusing." Caligula smirked delightedly as his fingers absently played with the fringed pillow behind his head. "My first deflowering and now the maid is to be turned into the ultimate virgin. That makes me a sort