by Marilyn Todd
‘So, er, you’re not marrying Terrence, then?’
And who’d have thought that playing with a couple of cats would have made a grown man grin from ear to ear? Honestly, she’d never understand these patricians!
‘No, but I gave him his ring back,’ she said, rubbing the sapphires on her skirt. ‘Right in the eye as it happens.’
‘Dammit, Claudia,’ the baritone was suddenly gruff. ‘You could have been killed.’
Or worse, she thought. ‘Didn’t you know? I’m indestructible, Marcus.’
‘Oh, yes. Absolutely.’ There was a twinkle at the back of his eye now. Sunlight, presumably. ‘But you’re still faced with the same old problem, you know. Widow, with your two State-allowed years of mourning well past.’
Bugger. She’d forgotten about that, and that’s the trouble with bullies these days. You just can’t rely on them. If only Terrence had browbeaten her into announcing their engagement, she’d be off the hook. Another reason to hate him!
‘Of course, there’s a simple solution.’ Orbilio hobbled over to the side of the pool and clutched the rim for support.
‘Really?’ She was all ears. ‘What’s that?’
‘Mmmf…unnnnng…tththth.’
‘Say that again?’
He beckoned her over with a weak hand. ‘I said, mm-ung-ung…’
‘Orbilio, I know you’re weak, but you’ll have to speak up.’ She stood on tiptoe and moved her ear close to his mouth. ‘I didn’t catch a word.’
But it only goes to show, you can’t trust the Security Police, either. He wasn’t weak, just pretending. There was nothing at all feeble about the lips that crushed down on hers. Or the arms that wrapped around her.
I, Claudia
How far would you go to protect your secret? Would you lie? Would you steal? Would you kill..?
Having connived her way into marriage with a wealthy wine merchant, Claudia quickly grows bored, so when her secret gambling debts spiral, she hits on a resourceful way to pay off the moneylenders. Offering “personal services” to high-ranking Romans. That is, until her clients start turning up dead.
When the charismatic investigator, Marcus Cornelius Orbilio, starts digging too deep for comfort, Claudia is forced to track down the killer herself. Before the authorities or her husband find out what she’s up to.
Virgin Territory
This can’t be right. When you marry a man for his money, you expect him to leave you a pile of shiny gold pieces when he dies. Not some hillside in the middle of nowhere, covered with vines. How’s a young widow supposed to pay off her gambling debts now?
So when Eugenius asks Claudia to chaperone his granddaughter home to Sicily she jumps at the chance to make money. It should be easy. Sabina, she is told, has recently completed thirty years’ service as a Vestal Virgin. Or has she?
Claudia quickly suspects she’s escorting an impostor. Then a woman’s brutalized body is discovered.
And the lies just get thicker and thicker...
Man Eater
It’s not every day a man’s blood drains out over you, and you watch the light die in his eyes. Memories like that stay with you for ever. Just like being framed for his murder.
On the eve of the Roman festivities, the last thing Claudia wanted was to be heading out of the city. But even hedonistic young widows must put business before pleasure when their vineyards are threatened with arson. Taking a shortcut through the Umbrian countryside, her cart is forced off the road, and her beloved cat goes missing in the skirmish. Refusing to leave without her, Claudia accepts the hospitality of Sergius Pictor and the menagerie of wild animals he is training for the Games.
That night, a stranger knocks at her bedroom door, with a knife sticking out of his belly. And before the first ray of dawn, Claudia is the prime suspect for murder.
Wolf Whistle
A killer is stalking the backstreets of Rome. Newborn babies are being snatched at night. A small boy is abandoned.
With insurrection bubbling, the authorities don't have the resources (or the inclination) to follow up. But it was Claudia who found Jovi crying in the streets, close to one of the ripper’s victims. Claudia, who feels responsible for this little boy. Claudia, who followed the tattoo that linked the victims, marking them as the “children of Arbil.”
And it is Claudia who discovers that Arbil the Babylonian is not a loving father. Not at all.
Jail Bait
A deadly contagion has sent most of Rome’s wealthy citizens fleeing to the country, but for Claudia, the plague is the least of her worries.
To pay off her loans, she borrowed 3,000 sesterces from Sabbio Tullus. Borrowed as in broke into his depository to get it, but surely that was no reason to set the authorities on her. To avoid arrest, she seeks refuge in the beautiful lakeside resort of Atlantis, where she meets the charismatic Cal. A little flirting in tranquil surroundings seems an ideal way to pass the time—except, within hours, Cal is dead. And he’s not the only one.
Suddenly, Atlantis proves ten times more dangerous than the disease-ridden streets Claudia left behind.
Black Salamander
‘If we’re going to make a new order for Rome, sacrifices have to be made. We have set the assassination date for the Ides of July.’
What better opportunity for an ambitious young widow than an invitation to join a prestigious delegation to Gaul? First the fanfare as the procession leaves Rome, then a breathtaking journey through lush Alpine meadows. And let’s not forget the promise of riches for delivering a certain pouch, sealed with the sign of the black salamander.
When a rockfall strands the group on the Helvetian border, leaving five people dead, Claudia soon realizes this was no accident. With no intention of waiting to be picked off one by one until the rescue party arrives, she sets out to escape.
But there are those who will go to any lengths to stop her. Plunging her into a deadly game of high treason, in a land where warriors still hunt human heads and wicker-man sacrifices are far from rare. Too late she discovers that the worst part about betrayal is that it doesn't come from your enemies…
Dream Boat
‘Kidnapped? What do you mean the silly cow’s been kidnapped?’
Claudia didn’t believe for one second that her stepdaughter had been abducted, and she was right. But when Flavia’s stupid prank costs a young man his life, this was anything but funny. Frustrated and furious, Claudia turns to the one man who can help—only to find Marcus is under house arrest after a body is found walled up in his house.
She eventually tracks Flavia to an Egyptian cult in the hills, whose leader bends the members’ minds to his own sinister will. But worshipping the Barque of Ra is one thing. When one of the cult members starts believing he is the incarnation of Seth, brother of Osiris, God of Chaos, the Dark Destroyer himself, the game turns very dangerous indeed.
Second Act
The corpse in the shallow grave couldn’t find rest. ‘You’ll never get away with my murder,’ she cried. ‘They’ll find you in the end. One way or another, they will find you. And then you’ll have to pay.’
But her killer has no intentions of being caught. Joining a troupe of travelling actors (aren’t all killers actors at heart?), there’s no better place to hide out. Until the group is invited to spend Saturnalia with Claudia Seferius.
Dark Horse
The demon stirred. Its sleep had been long, but in its sleep it grew restless. It had smelled the blood of its past in its dreams. Now it wanted to taste it.
When Claudia is caught doping racehorses, an island in the Adriatic seems the perfect refuge. Shaded by figs and pomegranates, Leo’s villa is surrounded by plunging cliffs, sandy coves and hillsides scented by carpets of wild herbs. Then a pirate ship anchors in the bay, and almost immediately a fire breaks out, an apprentice is murdered, and sinister messages are delivered on the point of a spear.
Too late, Claudia discovers that three hundred miles isn’t far enough from Rome to escape
the law.
Or a bloodlust that goes way beyond evil.
Widow’s Pique
Five generations under the eagle. Butchers under the skin.
When the King of Histria invites Claudia to visit, she assumes the contract he wants her to sign is for wine. How wrong can she be? Virtually a prisoner in a land where brutality is ingrained, she is deeply suspicious of the recent run of bad luck that has befallen the King’s family. And where is he? If the King was so desperate to meet, why will no one take her to the Palace?
And why, when she witnesses a murder, does no one believe her?
Stone Cold
He waited until she bent down to gather a handful of bilberries. The woodland floor was soft and springy. His feet made no sound.
Claudia was ten when her father marched off to war and never came home. Now it’s time to uncover the truth about his disappearance.
The search takes her to the dark forests of Gaul, where Druid Law rules and human sacrifice is still practiced. Staying at the villa of the narcissistic Marcia, Claudia notices that several young women have disappeared from the local area. And while suspicion falls on a mysterious character who lives in the forest, she isn’t convinced. Nor has it escaped her notice that each victim is unblemished and in the fullness of bloom.
Just like Claudia…
For the Upcoming Scorpion Rising
‘No.’ The Spaniard drew a deep breath and held it. The Scorpion did not send me here for the money.’ He held Claudia’s gaze with penetrating brown eyes. ‘The Scorpion sent me to kill you.’
Blackmailed into investigating the murder of a child, Claudia is plunged into a bizarre world of nature priestesses, who have no use for men other than as slaves. But there is discord within this secret society and, as the conflict spreads, she cannot accept that an outsider was responsible for the little girl’s death.
But while Claudia works to uncover the truth, a sinister force moves in the background. A master of disguise, the Scorpion is the spearhead of an uprising designed to unite the tribes against Rome. No one crosses this man and lives. Especially fiery young Roman women…