His words tightened an iron strap around her chest, stealing her breath. He was talking about taking Max away from her. She had no legal claim on him. There was nothing she could do about it if his real parents, or someone willing to swear to be his real parents, came forward. She recalled the marks on Max’s back the first time she had bathed him. She couldn’t risk him being given back to people who would mistreat him.
She drew a shaky breath. “Are you really so desperate to win you would take a child from a safe, loving home?”
“Yes,” Rufus said without pause. “I will expect a note from you in two days, Crispina. Containing the names of people Aelius intends to meet with over the coming week. If I receive nothing from you, I will start making inquiries about your boy’s family.”
He didn’t wait for a reply, but turned and left the courtyard, his henchmen following.
Crispina leaned against the wooden beam, shaking all over. What was she going to do?
Movement flickered in the corner of her vision, and she turned to see Max extricating himself from behind a barrel. He ran toward her. She dropped to her knees and caught him in a swift hug. “Are you all right?”
His skinny body shook against her. “I’m s-s-sorry.” He was crying, she realized, which made her eyes burn with tears of her own.
She choked back a sob and stroked his hair. “It’s all right.”
“I t-t-tried to help you b-but—”
“Max.” The sternness in her voice made his tearstained face jerk up to look at her. “You did nothing wrong, do you understand me?” Except trying to attack Rufus, but it was too late to chide him for that.
He gave a slow nod.
“Good.” She gently took his chin and moved his face from side to side. A red mark glowed on his cheek where Rufus’s minion had struck him, and she hoped it wouldn’t bruise. “Did you hear anything of what I was discussing with those men?” She prayed he hadn’t heard Rufus’s threats.
He shook his head and wiped his nose on his arm.
Crispina grimaced, wishing she had a handkerchief. “We merely had a small misunderstanding, but it’s sorted now. Everything will be all right.”
He gave her a narrow-eyed look, and she could tell he didn’t quite believe her, but he didn’t argue.
“But it will worry Aelius greatly if he hears what happened, so we mustn’t mention it.” She needed time to figure out what to do before Aelius found out about any of this.
“You have a lot of secrets,” Max muttered.
“Yes.” The weight of her secrets pressed down on her, but she straightened her shoulders and rose to her feet. “After the election, we’ll tell him everything. About these lessons, and what happened today. I promise.” Once this was over, even if Rufus won, she could face the consequences of her deceptions.
He raised his chin. “All right. But I want to stop and get savillum on the way home.”
The honey-sweetened cheesecake was Max’s favorite thing to get from the food stalls that lined the streets. He seemed to know she would refuse him nothing after what had just happened. “Today, you can have as much savillum as you want.”
A toothy grin lit his face. “Quick, let’s go before they run out!”
Crispina hefted her basket and followed him from the courtyard.
That evening, Crispina sat at her dressing table and buried her face in her hands, finally letting herself feel the stress and exhaustion of the day. She had put on a brave face at dinner. The savillum had put Max in an excellent mood, and he was his normal rambunctious, jovial self at dinner.
The bedroom door opened, and Crispina straightened up quickly as Aelius entered. He glanced over her, brow furrowing. “Are you well, Crispina? You didn’t eat much at dinner.”
“My courses are upon me, I fear.” At least that much was true.
“Ah.” He nodded knowingly, by now familiar with the fatigue that plagued her at this time of the month. “May I help you with your hair?”
“I’d rather do it myself.” She needed a few minutes alone with her thoughts.
Aelius kicked off his sandals and stretched out in bed. Crispina took down her hair and slowly dragged a comb through it. Every instinct screamed at her to tell Aelius what had happened, to share her burden with him. But every time she tried to summon the words, Rufus’s threat returned to her. If he didn’t receive anything from her in two days, he would start trying to take Max away from them.
If she told Aelius about Rufus’s threats, she would also have to tell him about her lessons and about how she had really found Max. She’d have to confess that she’d been lying to him for months. The trust between them would shatter.
Besides, Aelius and Rufus had already gotten into one brawl. If she told Aelius that Rufus and his cronies had laid hands on her and Max, she didn’t want to imagine what his reaction would be. She wouldn’t put it past him to get himself arrested and sued for assault.
