The Roman's Revenge

by Caroline Storer

  “Livia,” he breathed, lowering his face so his mouth came to rest against her ear, “Livia wake up. Wake up my love. Wake up so I can tell you how much I love you….”

  “Livia. Livia. Wake up.”

  The words sounded so far away as they permeated the cloudy fog of Livia's brain. At first she ignored them, wanting to go back to sleep, needing to go back into the arms of Morpheus. Go away. Leave me alone.

  “Livia. Livia. It is I, Metellus. Wake up my love. Come back to me, don’t leave me.”

  Livia smiled. Metellus wanted her. How lovely. Slowly she opened her eyes, needing to know that what she’d heard wasn’t a dream; that Metellus did want her.

  Unfortunately, her inner peace was shattered when she was seized by a violent burst of coughing, that caused her eyes to start streaming, and all thoughts of Metellus faded.

  “Here. Take a sip of water.”

  A hand lifted to cup the back of her head, lifting it slightly before she felt the metallic rim of a goblet press against her lips. Greedily she sipped the welcome liquid as it soothed her burning throat. She recalled another time when someone had given her water, tended to her needs and instinctively she knew that it was Metellus who administered to her. But before she could open her eyes to thank him, she felt the cool comfort of a wet cloth being placed over her streaming eyes.

  “I'm going to wash your face. It is covered in soot.” The soothing words became action, as the cloth skimmed over her skin, and it was only when the cloth was removed she was finally able to open her eyes. What she saw caused her heart to pound. Metellus was kneeling next to her, watching her with a concerned look on his face, lines of fatigue, and something she couldn’t define, etched on it.

  “What happened?” Her throat still hurt, and it was an effort to get the words out. But she needed to know, “Verenus. He…he…”

  “I know,” Metellus said interrupting her faltering words, taking both her hands in the warmth of his, “I know everything. Now, please do not distress yourself. It is all over. You are safe now.”

  “Safe? Are…are you sure? He…he tried to kill me.”

  Metellus's mouth pulled tight with anger, “Shh, Livia. Trust me it won't happen again.”

  Livia stared up at him, saw the determination in his eyes, the truth reflected in the fiery depths, and a huge surge of relief came over her. Metellus would protect her.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, smiling up at him before she closed her eyes as a wave of fatigue suddenly overwhelmed her. She needed, wanted, to sleep so badly…

  “No, Livia! You must not go back to sleep.”

  His voice held a tinge of panic, and Livia felt something tap against the side of her face. Frowning in annoyance, she shook her head trying to dislodge the worrisome touch.

  “Livia. Wake up please. Elisha needs you.”

  Elisha! The baby's name was enough to bring Livia out of her stupor, and she once again opened her eyes, blinking against the bright light from the afternoon sun. Squinting, she focussed on the man in front of her, “Elisha? She is well? Unharmed?”

  She saw Metellus smile, a slight lift of his mouth, “Aye, she is well. But I am worried about you. You must sit up.”

  He leaned forward, and placed a hand under the small of her back, exerting enough pressure to lift her up. With his other hand he swung her legs so she came to a sitting position. She noticed, rather absently, that they were in Verenus’s atrium.

  A shiver of fright assailed her, and she looked around her, “Verenus? He…he is gone?”

  Metellus nodded. “Gone. And he will never return. I promise you. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

  She heard the earnest tone in his voice and nodded. The small movement set off another coughing fit and she gasped for breath, relieved when Metellus passed her the goblet of water once more. She took it from him, her hand touching his, feeling the tension in it. Looking up at him she saw the worried look on his face as he watched her. Her insides clenched with something she couldn't identify, and her eyes locked with his. For a moment neither of them moved, as they both stared at each other.

  “Take a sip.” The words were whisper soft, and Livia shivered at the intensity of his voice.

  Once she had taken some more water, she handed the goblet back to him, “Thank you. You are most kind.”

  A ghost of a smile flitted across Metellus's mouth. “I think I once told you, kindness is not one of my strong traits, my love.”

  “Did you rescue me? All I remember is being in a small room and there was smoke.” Her head shot back up and her eyes once more met his. “Oh! You just called me your love.”

  “Yes. Yes, I did, didn't I?” His eyes bored into hers, dark with intensity, with a passion she hadn't really seen before. “I've been a fool, denying the love I feel for you. Rejecting yours. I'm sorry Livia,” he said, his voice low, unsteady. “I'm sorry for not believing you. This is all my fault. My fault for pursuing revenge which was outdated and wrong.”

  “It doesn't matter.”

  “It does matter,” he said forcibly, “It matters a lot. But I'm asking for one more chance. The chance to make things right between us.”

  Livia looked deep into his eyes, knowing his words were heartfelt. His hands were warm where they held hers in the strength of his. Mesmerised she smiled, “I love you Metellus, I have since the first moment I saw you.”

  He nodded, and she saw him swallow with difficulty before he said, “I love you, Livia. You make my life whole. You give me purpose, a reason to live. I thought I'd lost you, and I never want to feel that sense of despair, or hopelessness, ever again. My pride stopped me from telling you how I really felt. And my desire for revenge blinded me to everything.”

  Metellus leaned forward, and pulled her head closer to his. “Can you forgive me?” he whispered against her mouth, “Forgive me my stubborn pride and arrogance? Give me one more chance to let me show you how much I want you? How much I love you. How much I’ve always loved you.”

  Livia lifted her head, her lips whispering across his, “Kiss me, Metellus. Show me how much you love me.”

  It was all the inducement Metellus needed, and he lowered his lips to her. The kiss was soft, warm and of such sweet tenderness it communicated a lifetime of promises, and Livia’s heart soared, before her free hand slid around the nape of his neck pulling him even closer.

  Eventually, Metellus pulled away from her, looking at her with an intensity that caused a flood of longing inside her. Pulling her into his embrace he held her tight, his mouth next to her ear as he whispered, “Livia. My love. My life. You make me whole.”

  EPILOGUE

  Metellus stopped pacing the corridor and rested a hand on the cool marble of one of the columns. With the other he rubbed the back of his neck in weariness, before he brought it round to rub his face.

  The two day old growth on his face told him everything he needed to know.

  Sudden silence from the room in front of him caused him to still, and his heart pounded in fear and trepidation. At long last Livia’s cries of distress had abated. He wanted to barge through the door, take Livia from the bed and ride away with her, taking all the pain she was going through away from her.

  But he couldn't of course. He was a man, and she was a woman. A woman who was trying to deliver their child.

  Only the babe hadn’t come. Metellus refused to think what might happen, what had happened to Livia's mother; although he had promised her he would look after the child if-

  “No!” He shouted in the stillness of the corridor, and refusing to heed his mother’s warning not to enter the bedchamber, he pushed open the doors and strode in. He stopped midstride when he heard a loud wail. At last! The baby had come, and relief shot through him. But relief turned to guilt when he encountered his mother’s censorious frown.

  But he ignored it, and walked over to the bed. Livia lay there, holding a red faced bundle in her arms. She lifted her head and smiled up at him. “We have a son, Metellus. A
healthy son.”

  Metellus swallowed the lump of emotion which suddenly appeared in his throat. All he could do was nod. He’d never felt so powerless in his life, and Antonia took charge once more, shooing him out of the room.

  “Leave. We need to finish off in here.”

  Heeding his mother’s orders Metellus left. Once again he paced the corridor outside the bedchamber for what seemed hours, but could only have been minutes, until, finally, his mother came out of the room.

  With a smile she said the words he’d been longing to hear, “Livia is asking for you.”

  Metellus found himself unable to speak, so he just nodded before entering the bed chamber once again…

  “He looks like you.”

  “Really?” Metellus looked down at his sleeping son, who was cradled in the crook of Livia's arms. “He looks all crumpled and red.”

  Livia laughed softly, not wanting to disturb the baby. “Like I said, he looks like you.”

  Metellus grunted with humour, a smile on his face before his expression sobered, and he looked deep into her eyes. “I…I thought I was losing you. You were in so much pain.”

  “I know. It was a long hard birth. The midwife was worried I think. But I got through it, and we have a fine healthy son. A beautiful brother for Elisha.”

  “I never want to put you through that again. I couldn't live with myself if-”

  “Don't torture yourself, Metellus,” Livia said, lifting her hand and gently cupping the side of his face, “I am fine, truly. And in all honestly we will probably have more children. Unless you have grown tired of me of course…” Livia asked, an impish smile on her face.

  “Never!” Metellus growled, leaning forward to repeat against her lips, “Never.”

  Livia smiled up at her adoring husband. “Good. We have our whole lives ahead of us. Now kiss me husband.”

  Later, when the baby was fast asleep, and Livia and Metellus were wrapped in each other arms, Livia asked quietly, “Have you thought of a name for him?”

  Metellus nodded, “I thought of Lucius Augustus. In memory of both our father's.”

  Livia nodded her approval, not moving her head from where it had been resting on Metellus's chest. “That is very noble of you. It is a fine name.”

  “I have something to tell you.”

  Livia stiffened when she heard the serious in his voice, and lifting her head she looked up into his face, her eyes questioning.

  “Verenus is dead.”

  Livia gasped, raising herself up onto one elbow to look at Metellus fully. “How?” She whispered.

  Metellus shrugged. “I do not know the full details. His body was found on some rocks. It appears he fell off a cliff.”

  “Where?” Ever since that fateful day, when he had tried to kill Livia, there had been no sign of Verenus. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. Livia knew Metellus had paid people to try and find him, but it had been a futile exercise. Verenus’s wealth had paid for his disappearance it had seemed. And even though she had begged him to forget about his uncle, Metellus had refused to stop looking for him.

  “The man I hired – Spurius Proba - found him living on Capri.”

  “Capri!” Livia exclaimed. “So that’s how he was able to remain undetected.” Living so far away from Rome, and on an island as well, he would have been virtually impossible to find.

  “You…you said he fell from a cliff?”

  Metellus nodded, “His slave told Spurius Proba he’d found him lying on the rocks late one afternoon. He’d gone for a walk in the morning, and when he hadn’t returned for some time they went in search of him.” He shrugged, “The slave said he was ill, his mind gone. Had been for weeks apparently.”

  “Do you think he took his own life?” Livia asked, after a long silence had fallen between them, each of them caught up in their own thoughts and memories.

  “Yes. I think so.” His voice was flat, emotionless.

  “Does Antonia know?”

  Metellus’s lips pursed, “Yes. I told her earlier.”

  “And how did she take it?”

  Metellus looked away for a moment, deep in thought, before he returned his gaze to hers. His grey eyes met her anxious ones, his lips lifting in a slight smile before he answered, “She took it all rather well, considering.”

  Livia nodded. “Good.” Livia released the breath she hadn’t been aware of holding, relieved to hear Metellus’s words.

  For a while, after Antonia had found out that it had been Verenus who had effectively murdered her husband, the older woman had been eaten up with guilt, blaming herself for persuading her husband to return to Rome. She had been convinced that if they had all stayed in Alexandria her husband would still be alive.

  She had begged Metellus’s forgiveness, never suspecting Verenus capable of doing such evil. She had, she told them, been so grateful to Verenus for helping her after Lucius had been killed that she had trusted him implicitly, blindly accepting his offer of a home and stability for them both. She’d never for one moment realised the depth of Verenus’s anger and hatred toward her, and Lucius, for causing him the humiliation of being jilted on his wedding day.

  It had taken a considerable amount of time and effort on Metellus’s and Livia’s part to convince her that she was not to blame for Verenus’s actions. Thankfully, Livia’s advancing pregnancy had also helped ease some of Antonia’s guilt, as Livia had begged Antonia to help her when it came to the birth.

  Livia sighed, “I'm sorry, Metellus. I know what he did was wrong. But he was good to you, and your mother, for many years.”

  Metellus smiled, taking hold of her hand, his thumb rubbing the sensitive underside of her wrist in an unconscious gesture, “Trust you to see the good in people, Livia. But it was all false wasn't it? A lie. For whatever reason his sick mind conjured up it suited him to keep my mother and I under his protection. But thanks to you, I was finally able to see through my blind loyalty to him and see him for what he really was – a man eaten up by jealousy – revenge. As I was before your love healed me. I could never forgive him for what he did to you – to us.”

  “I know Metellus. I know. But we have our whole lives ahead of us. Nothing can come between us now. Nothing.”

  Livia felt the tension leave his body at her words, and leaning forward she took his face between her hands and kissed him, wanting, needing, to take away the pain he was feeling deep inside.

  “Ahh, Livia. What would I do without you,” he said breaking away from her loving mouth and hands. “You are my love, my life. Never change. Never.” And then he leaned forward, pulling her compliant body to his and kissed her deeply, expressing his love for her without the need for words.

  Also by Caroline Storer …

  The Roman

  Caroline Storer

  Being a poor sleeper, I’ve been making up stories for years now to try and exhaust my mind, and get some much needed sleep. It doesn’t always work as the stories then demand to be written! I write mainly Historical romances, but I’ve also written Contemporary romances, Romantic Intrigue and I’ve also tried my hand at Futuristic and Time Slip romances. I live on the beautiful island of Anglesey in North Wales, with my wonderful husband, Colin. By day I’m an Environmental Health Officer, where I get to meet lots of interesting people – all grist to the writer’s mill.

  http://carolinestorer.blogspot.co.uk/

  @CarolineStorer6

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