Read Online Caesar's Women by Colleen McCullough - Free Book Online

close to the flame of a prostitute's toga and yet contrived to appear unimpeachably respectable. Yes, she was clever! Thick and so black its highlights shone more blue than red, her hair was pulled back from a center parting to meet a separate wing covering the upper tip of each ear, the whole then knotted into a bun on the nape of her neck. Unusual, but again respectable. A small, somewhat pursed mouth, good clear white skin, heavily lidded black eyes fringed with long and curling black lashes, brows he suspected she plucked heavily, and—most interesting of all—a slight sagging in the muscles of her right cheek that he had also noticed in the son, Brutus.
    Time to break the silence, since it appeared she was not about to do so. “How may I help you, domina?” he asked formally.
    “Decimus Silanus is our paterfamilias, Gaius Julius, but there are certain things pertaining to the affairs of my late first husband, Marcus Junius Brutus, that I prefer to deal with myself. My present husband is not a well man, so I try to spare him extra burdens. It is important that you do not misunderstand my actions, which may seem on the surface to usurp duties more normally in the sphere of the paterfamilias,” she said with even greater formality.
    The expression of aloof interest his face had displayed since he sat down did not change; Caesar merely leaned back a little in his chair. “I will not misunderstand,” he said.
    Impossible to say she relaxed at that, for she had not seemed from the moment of her entry to be anything other than relaxed. Yet a more assured tinge crept into her wariness; it looked at him out of her eyes. “You met my son, Marcus Junius Brutus, the day before yesterday,” she said.
    “A nice boy.”
    “I think so, yes.”
    “Still technically a child.”
    “For some few months yet. This matter concerns him, and he insists it will not wait.” A faint smile touched the left corner of her mouth, which seemed from watching her speak to be more mobile than the right corner. “Youth is impetuous.”
    “He didn't seem impetuous to me,” said Caesar.
    “Nor is he in most things.”
    “So I am to gather that your errand is on behalf of something young Marcus Junius Brutus wants?”
    “That is correct.”
    “Well,” said Caesar, exhaling deeply, “having established the proper protocol, perhaps you'll tell me what he wants.”
    “He wishes to espouse your daughter, Julia.”
    Masterly self-control! applauded Servilia, unable to detect any reaction in eyes, face, body.
    “She's only eight,” said Caesar.
    “And he not yet officially a man. However, he wishes it.”
    “He may change his mind.”
    “So I told him. But he assures me he will not, and he ended in convincing me of his sincerity.”
    “I'm not sure I want to betroth Julia yet.”
    “Whyever not? My own daughters are both contracted already, and they are younger than Julia.”
    “Julia's dowry is very small.”
    “No news to me, Gaius Julius. However, my son's fortune is large. He doesn't need a wealthy bride. His own father left him extremely well provided for, and he is Silanus's heir too.”
    “You may yet have a son to Silanus.”
    “Possibly.”
    “But not probably, eh?”
    “Silanus throws daughters.”
    Caesar leaned forward again, still appearing detached. “Tell me why I should agree to the match, Servilia.”
    Her brows rose. “I should have thought that was self-evident! How could Julia look higher for a husband? On my side Brutus is a patrician Servilius, on his father's side he goes back to Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder of the Republic. All of which you know. His fortune is splendid, his political career will certainly carry him to the consulship, and he may well end in being censor now that the censorship is restored. There is a blood relationship through the Rutilii as well as through both the Servilii Caepiones and the Livii Drusi. There is also amicitia through Brutus's grandfather's devotion to your uncle