‘You can try, Caius. But you know I’ll be ready for you. If you touch anybody nearly or remotely connected with me, I’ll destroy you.’
In the corridor outside, I put my hand out and touched the wall. I took several deep breaths before I walked on.
Galba glanced at me. Her assured air had vanished. ‘Juno, Countess, he really hates you.’
‘No, what Caius hates is that I stand in his way. He hungers and thirsts after power. He wants to control people’s lives and doesn’t care what or who he breaks on the way. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not stupid or lazy. Our biggest problem will be when the Prussians let him out and he lands back in Roma Nova in fifteen years’ time.’
Outside the prison, I shook my head to dispel the negativity. The sharp air contained a hint of spring freshness and I took several breaths.
A saloon car drew up and a young man stepped out and handed me the keys and a wallet of papers. I turned to Galba and smiled.
‘Can you give this man a lift back to the city?’
She frowned for a brief moment. ‘Will you come back to the legation before you return to Roma Nova?’
‘Of course.’
I waited until the legation car had disappeared and the dust from its tyres had settled. Turning my back on the prison, I started the hire car and drove towards the east of Berlin. I turned off the Frankfurter Chaussee down a minor road, then a narrow unmade track through the trees. In the farmyard, I cut the engine, but this time I didn’t need to look round. He was sitting there on a wooden bench, reading a book, utterly relaxed. His dark curly hair fell forward almost over his eyes. He looked up, smiled a lazy smile, laid the book down and walked towards the car. I was out already, meeting him halfway. He stretched out his hand, took mine and raised it to his lips.
ALSO BY ALISON MORTON
INCEPTIO
Book I in the Roma Nova series
New York, present day. Karen Brown, angry and frightened after surviving a kidnap attempt, has a harsh choice – being eliminated by government enforcer Jeffery Renschman or fleeing to the mysterious Roma Nova, her dead mother’s homeland in Europe.
Founded sixteen centuries ago by Roman exiles and ruled by women, Roma Nova gives Karen safety and a ready-made family. But a shocking discovery about her new lover, the fascinating but arrogant special forces officer Conrad Tellus, who rescued her in America, isolates her.
Renschman reaches into her new home and nearly kills her. Recovering, she is desperate to find out why he is hunting her so viciously. Unable to rely on anybody else, she undergoes intensive training, develops fighting skills and becomes an undercover cop. But crazy with bitterness at his past failures, Renschman sets a trap for her, knowing she has no choice but to spring it…
PERFIDITAS
PERFIDITAS
Book II in the Roma Nova series
Captain Carina Mitela of the Praetorian Guard Special Forcesis in trouble – one colleague has tried to kill her and another has set a trap to incriminate her in a conspiracy to topple the government of Roma Nova. Founded sixteen hundred years ago by Roman dissidents and ruled by women, Roma Nova barely survived a devastating coup d’etat thirty years ago. Carina swears to prevent a repeat and not merely for love of country.
Seeking help from a not quite legal old friend could wreck her marriage to the enigmatic Conrad. Once proscribed and operating illegally, she risks being terminated by both security services and conspirators. As she struggles to overcome the desperate odds and save her beloved Roma Nova, and her own life, she faces the ultimate betrayal…
SUCCESSIO
SUCCESSIO
Book III in the Roma Nova series
Roma Nova – the last remnant of the Roman Empire that has survived into the 21st century – is at peace. But Carina Mitela, the heir of a leading family and an officer in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces, is not so sure.
She senses danger crawling towards her when she encounters a strangely self-possessed member of the unit hosting their exchange exercise in Britain. When a blackmailing letter arrives from a woman claiming to be her husband Conrad’s lost daughter, Carina knows the threat is real. Trying to resolve a young man’s indiscretion twenty-five years before turns into a nightmare that threatens to destroy all the Mitelae and attack the core of the imperial family itself.
Carina faces a terrifying opponent – one she is uncertain she can defeat. Her career and marriage in ruins, and physically broken after failing to capture her nemesis, she must not only draw on her deepest reserves but also accept help from the next generation. With her enemy holding a gun at the heir to the imperial throne, Carina has to make the hardest decision of her life…
COMING SOON
INSURRECTIO
Book V in the Roma Nova series
“The second fall of Rome?”
Aurelia Mitela, imperial councillor in Roma Nova, scoffs at her intelligence chief when he throws a red file on her desk.
But 1980s Roma Nova, the last province of the Roman Empire that has survived into the twentieth century, has problems – a ruler frightened of governing, a centuries-old bureaucracy creaking for reform and, worst of all, a rising nationalist movement with a charismatic leader.
Horrified when her daughter is brutally attacked in a mass demonstration turned riot, Aurelia tries to rally resistance to the growing fear and instability. But it may already be too late to save Roma Nova from meltdown…
PRAISE FOR AURELIA
Book IV in the Roma Nova series
“Morton raises the bar on her Roma Nova series with a thrilling and intriguing history of what might have been. Effortlessly weaving fact and speculative fiction, AURELIA explores a 1960s that is at once familiar and and utterly different – a brilliant page turner that will keep you gripped from first page to last. Highly recommended.”
– Russell Whitfield, author of the Gladiatrix series
“Yet again, Ms Morton delivers a fast-paced story set in a world slightly – but fundamentally – different from our own. Roma Nova as a country does not exist – not really – but Ms Morton paints this alternate world of hers with such colours, such details, that by the time the book has ended it comes as a surprise to return to a world without Roma Nova, without strong, impressive women like Aurelia Mitela. I am already looking forward to the next instalment – in fact, I crave a next instalment!”
– Anna Belfrage, author of The Graham Saga
“Meticulously researched. Wonderfully imagined. Alison Morton’s Roma Nova will stay with you long after you have closed the pages.”
– Liesel Schwarz, author of Chronicles of Light and Shadow
“Brilliant! Alison Morton’s alternative world of Roma Nova – a feisty soldier heroine plunged into the depths of criminal conspiracy, and mind-blowing action all the way to the tense finale. Aurelia is a fabulous read.”
– David Ebsworth, Historical Novel Society award-winning author
PRAISE FOR THE ROMA NOVA SERIES
INCEPTIO
“Tense, fast-paced and deliciously inventive, Alison Morton’s INCEPTIO soon had me turning the pages. Very Dashiell Hammett.”
– Victoria Lamb, author of The Queen’s Secret
“Grips like a vice – a writer to watch out for.”
– Adrian Magson, author of the Harry Tate spy thrillers
PERFIDITAS
“Alison Morton has built a fascinating, exotic world! Carina’s a bright, sassy detective with a winning dry sense of humour. The plot is pretty snappy too and gets off to a quick start which made it easy to keep turning the pages.”
– Simon Scarrow, author of the Eagle (Macro and Cato) series
“The attention to detail is superb, as is the believability of this alternative history existence. It is a skilfully and intelligently written story, with first-class production and presentation.”
– Historical Novel Society
SUCCESSIO
“Alison Morton has done it again. SUCCESSIO is the latest in her
series of powerful tales of family betrayals and shifting allegiances in Roma Nova. Once again, I was gripped from start to finish.”
– Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster
“I thoroughly enjoyed this classy thriller, the third in Morton’s epic series set in Roma Nova.”
– Caroline Sanderson in The Bookseller
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Even before she pulled on her first set of combats, it had never occurred to Alison Morton that women couldn’t serve their country in the armed forces. She joined a special communications regiment and left as a captain, having done all sorts of interesting and exciting things she can’t talk about.
Walking on 1st century mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) created by the complex, power and value-driven Roman civilisation made her wonder what a modern Roman society would be like if run by strong women, possibly military women.
The Roma Nova alternate history thrillers are the result.
Find out more at www.alison-morton.com, follow her on Twitter @alison_morton and sign up to Alison’s newsletter www.alison-morton.com/contact/newsletter/
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Published in 2015 by the author using SilverWood Books Empowered Publishing ®
SilverWood Books Ltd
14 Small Street, Bristol, BS1 1DE
www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk
Copyright © Alison Morton 2015
The right of Alison Morton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-78132-383-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-78132-384-7 (ebook)
AURELIA (Roma Nova Book 4) Page 29