Perfiditas
Page 32
On the day she was released, Aidan was waiting for her outside the prison. I had no contact with them after that, but Mossia reported a year later that they were happy and had a young son.
I had the accommodation blocks for the casuals on the Mitela farm refurbished to include partitions and lockable cupboards in the dormitories, a games room and quiet common room. I caught some strange looks from the farm manager, who asked me why I was so concerned, but I turned her questions aside.
After I was passed fit for duty, I took a two-month secondment to the regular Praetorians. The disciplined routine was tough but predictable. I enjoyed my shifts on the palace guard. I saw Hallie recover her joy as well as her grit. The rest of my life had calmed with the regular hours. Julia Sella had been one hundred per cent correct about that. A good lesson to learn.
I went to Apollo’s house for the last time a week before I went back to the PGSF after my secondment. The dozen or so rows of chairs set out in the middle of the atrium were half-filled; scattered with neutral-faced professional dealers, excited private collectors and the curious. The public auctioneer rapped his gavel to stop the murmuring filling the atrium. A latecomer slid in the back row as it began. I bought several lamps and furniture, including the swan-legged table, but waited until the last lot. After a tussle, including with a phone bidder, I acquired the tall portrait. For its black eyes.
I left my under-steward to handle the paperwork and walked over to the glass doors leading to the veranda. The winter frost had persisted until this afternoon, making the grass look like plastic white turf, but pale sunshine struggled through. The river looked like skeins of white and grey silks.
A movement to one side. Nonna’s chauffeur put his arm out to block a figure approaching me.
‘It’s okay, Nic.’ I gave the blonde-haired woman a tight smile. ‘Hello, Hermina. So you couldn’t resist coming either?’
‘I thought I’d pick up some bits and pieces cheaply for the new office.’ Her casual tone didn’t fool me. The tense eyes gave her away. ‘Philippus told me what happened out at Castra Lucilla. Have you recovered?’
‘Oh yes. A boring week in hospital until I discharged myself.’ I grinned at her.
She gave me a slightly more relaxed smile.
‘Well, I’d better go,’ she said and nodded at me. ‘I have a Foundation to run.’
And I had a job to go back to. Whether I wanted it as much as before, I didn’t know.
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...
Praise for INCEPTIO
Book I in the Roma Nova series
“Terrific. Brilliantly plotted original story, grippingly told and cleverly combining the historical with the futuristic. It’s a real edge-of-the seat read, genuinely hard to put down.”
– Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster
“I loved it! Intriguing, unusual and thought-provoking. Karen develops from a girl anyone of us could know into one of the toughest heroines I’ve read for a while. Roma Nova was a world I really wanted to visit—and not just to meet Conrad—vivid and compelling. A pacey, suspenseful thriller with a truly dreadful villain, I can’t recommend INCEPTIO enough.”
– Kate Johnson, author of The UnTied Kingdom
“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
“Gripping. Alison Morton creates a fully realised world of what could have been. Breathtaking action, suspense, political intrigue... INCEPTIO is a tour de force!”
– Russell Whitfield, author of Gladiatrix and Roma Victrix
Coming Soon
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…
Dramatis Personae
Family
Carina Mitela – Captain, Praetorian Guard Special Forces (PGSF), nicknamed ‘Bruna’
Conradus Mitelus – Legate, head of the PGSF, ‘Conrad’
Aurelia Mitela – Carina’s grandmother, head of the Mitela clan
Allegra Mitela – Carina and Conrad’s eldest daughter
Antonia and Gillius – Twins, (Tonia and Gil) Carina and Conrad’s younger children
Helena Mitela – Carina’s cousin
Superbus – An acquisitive member of the Mitelae who has delusions of grandeur
Lucilla Mitela – Student, with hidden talents
Household
Junia – Steward of Domus Mitelarum
Galienus – Under-steward/housekeeper
Macro – Junia’s teenage son
Marcella – Aurelia’s assistant
Military
Lucius Punellus – Adjutant, PGSF
Daniel Stern – Major, PGSF
Julia Sella – Colonel, PGSF, Training & Personnel
Galla – A PGSF guard
Drusus – PGSF strategy group
Fausta – PGSF strategy group
Aburia – Major, appointed head of Intelligence Directorate, nicknamed ‘Tacita’
Sepunia – Senior captain, Intelligence Directorate
Petronax – Head of Internal Security
Carina’s Active Response Team – Paula Servla, Flavius, Trebatia, Maelia, Novius, Livius, Atria
Somna – Head of Interrogation Service (IS)
Volusenia the Younger – Retired deputy legate
Rusonia – Legate’s executive officer
Sergius – Adjutant’s clerk
Porteus – Lieutenant, IS
Longina – Lieutenant, IS
Bad guys
Caeco – A heavy
Sextus – An ingénue
Trosius, Pisentius, Cyriacus – Conspirators
Palace
Silvia Apulia – Imperatrix
Stella Apulia – Silvia’s eldest child
Darius Apulius – Silvia’s second child
Hallienia Apulia – Silvia’s third child, ‘Hallie’
Caecilius – Silvia’s physician
Pulcheria Foundation
Apollodorus – A career criminal, tu
rned mostly legitimate
Pollius – Doctor, ex-member of the Foundation
Hermina – Recruiter and organiser of people
Philippus – Master at arms and transport
Albinus – Technical genius
Cassia – Financials/accounts, ex-Censor’s investigator
Justus – Informer and intelligence gatherer
Other
Mossia Antonia – Owner of prestigious gym
Adianus Hirenses – ‘Aidan’, psychotherapist and part-time masseur
Cornelius Lurio – Commander, Department of Justice Custodes XI Station
Dania – Caupona (bar) owner, Carina’s protégée
Paulina Carca – Friend of Lucius Punellus
Claudia Vara – A lawyer
About the Author
Alison Morton grew up in West Kent, UK. She completed a BA in French, German and Economics and thirty years later a MA in History. She now lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was walking on the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that triggered her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…
Find out more about Alison’s writing life, Romans and alternate history at her blog, on Facebook and chat to her on Twitter.
If you want to join Alison’s mailing list with information about upcoming events, signings, and books, sign-up here!
If you enjoyed PERFIDITAS and INCEPTIO, please do leave a review on the online store you bought this book from such as Amazon, or on reader site Goodreads. It needs only be a line or two, but will be very much appreciated!
Copyright Notice
Published in 2013 by the author
using SilverWood Books Empowered Publishing ®
SilverWood Books
30 Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, BS1 4HJ
www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk
Copyright © Alison Morton 2013
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 novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-78132-124-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-78132-125-6 (ebook)