To Crown a Caesar (The Praetorian Series: Book II) (6 page)

“We’ll get to that,” I reassured him, “but first, how have you been?  Are you a proud father yet?”

That forced a smile to his face.  “I see you got my message.  I had been wondering.  And yes, I am actually.  My wife and I had twins two years ago.  Here,” he said as he reached for his bag.  He pulled out a digital camera, which he held out to display a photograph of two young boys.  They were good looking kids, but they seemed too big somehow, out of proportion with their surroundings.

“How big are they?”  I asked, still squinting at the camera.

Bordeaux gave me a knowing smile.  “I know.  They are going to be huge!” 

I gave the pictures another look, eyes widening.  “If that’s what the kids are like, what about the mother?”

He smirked and manipulated the camera to show me a picture of a lovely woman with fiery red curly hair, and a pale complexion.  Her round face and doe eyes made her more cute than beautiful, but there was no denying her attractiveness.  He switched to a different picture that showed the two of them standing next to one another and I was finally able to see her with some perspective.   She might have been taller than I was.  I looked away from the picture to his smiling face.

“
Oui
,” he said in response to my silent question.  “I have my own little Amazon now.”

“‘Little’,” I said in amusement.  Helena had always been jokingly referred to as an Am
azon by the legionnaires we’d spent time with five years ago because of her height and prowess at war.  “I didn’t know they made women that big.  She could be a star in the WNBA, a model or both.”

“I got lucky,” he said, pulling back the camera to look at the picture, a broad smile on his face.  “I am quite happy.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I started, curious.  “What did you tell her about you?  About all of us?  I mean, how did you explain the camera?  What about marriage?  How did you work that out?”

Bordeaux
put away his camera and leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers together as he laid them on his abdomen.  “Well,” he began.  “It was not easy at first.  I told her there were things I simply couldn’t explain and that she would have to trust me.  It was for her own safety after all.  But once I gave her some of the warm clothes I’d brought, not to mention the medicine and first aid supplies I had, she realized my differences were all for the best.  She loved me the day I gave her a pain killer for a headache.”

“Must be nice to have such a loving woman,” I remarked dryly.

He tilted his head back and looked at me oddly before continuing. 

“It… is,” he said
slowly.  “But it was not easy.  It took a long time for her to bring herself to really trust me.  As for the marriage, I knew finding a priest was out of the question, so I took her rights.  It’s what she wanted.  She hasn’t forced me to worship some random pantheon, but I respected her wishes.  We have been spending the past few years discussing the ideas and concepts of Christianity, and she likes them, and I know my kids will not be trapped into worshiping a set of gods they think might actually smite them.”

“I’m happy for you, Jeanne, I really am,” I said, shaking my head at the table.  “I know you were hu
rting after the Vatican attacks and it’s good you were able to find someone else you can be happy with.”

“
Merci
, Jacob, but you sound almost jealous.  Shouldn’t you and Helena be madly in love still?  In fact,” he said, glancing around the tavern, “how come I don’t see any smartass kids with a good right hook running around?”

I laughed.  “After four years?  I wish.  And Kids?  You’re kidding right?  Besides, we’ve alrea
dy got one.  His name’s Santino!”

“Oh, right,” Bordeaux said with a laugh.  “Still, I hear the tension in your voice.  Is something wrong?”

“I really don’t know.”  I sighed and leaned back in my own chair.  “I feel like I’ve had this conversation a dozen times already in the past few days.  Helena’s just been acting distant lately, and every time I try to get close, she just pushes me away.  I don’t know why.  I haven’t cheated on her or ever given her reason to think I have, but every time a barmaid or other female comes around, she gets immediately jealous.  I don’t know.  Sometimes, I wonder why I try anymore.”

He pulled
his cup from his lips and pointed it at me.  “You try because you love her.  If you didn’t, it wouldn’t bother you so much.  And she loves you, or else she wouldn’t be afraid to talk to you.  If she really didn’t care, she would throw all her problems at you at once, and make you figure them out.  Many relationships are torn apart because many people are simply unable to talk to each other.  It’s all about trust.  If you don’t trust each other, and you won’t talk to each other, then perhaps you don’t belong with each other.  But if you do, and you do, you’ll be just fine.”

“Thanks, Dr. Love,” I said with a half-smile.  “But it really couldn’t have come at a worse time.  We’re going to have our hands full for the next few months.”

“Ah, the plot thickens.”

“Yeah, basically,” I muttered, taking a deep breath.  “Ready?”

“
Oui
.”

“Okay.  First thing’s first then.  What do you know about what happened to Caligula?”

“I heard he was poisoned at a dinner party and that no suspects were ever named.  Agrippina is in control until Nero is old enough to become emperor.”

“Sure i
t’s easy to believe the national propaganda,” I said, “but the truth is, I know who killed him.  It was Agrippina.

He was clearly taken aback.  He didn’t know her like the three of us on the run did.  “How do you know?”

“Trust me, I know.  She was also responsible for Santino and me being captured that day we infiltrated Rome.”

“Interesting,” Bordeaux said, stroking his chin.  “
Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Who are they going to believe?  Me or the new empress of Rome?”

“Ah,” he said.  “I really should not be surprised.  Her taxation policies are strangling many families here in the provinces and her forced enlistment draft is completely unnecessary.  She has made many enemies amongst the Gaulic aristocracy from what I have heard.”

“I know, Jeanne.  That’s not the worst of it.  She’s placed puppet administrators all over the empire.  They fear for their lives because of how Agrippina disposed of their predecessors and do little to counteract her overaggressive policies.  The Senate hasn’t fared much better.  It’s been gutted like a Christmas
turkey.”

Bordeaux shook his head.  “She started off so well.”

I almost smiled at his comment.  “That’s exactly how Caligula started as well.”

He angled his head.  “You don’t think she’s been affected by the
orb, do you?”

I shrugged.  “Who knows?  I’ve recruited some feelers over the years to get an idea of what’s been going on in Rome but I haven’t heard anything about her mental state.  I just think she’s a piece of
merde
head of state.”

Bordeaux smiled at my well-chosen French expletive.  “What makes you think you have the right to do something about it?  Just because she’s a bad administrator doesn’t mean it’s your responsibility to remove her.”

“That’s an excellent question,” I said, collecting my thoughts before I continued.  “It’s an interesting moral dilemma, isn’t it?  Do I have the right?  And I’ll tell you my answer in a word: yes.  It’s my fault she’s in the position, so, yes; it’s my responsibility to fix it.”

“Hunter, no one blames you for bringing us here.”

“I blame myself,” I snapped before staring at the table in embarrassment before returning my attention to Bordeaux.  “Sorry.  This shit has really been weighing on my mind lately.”

“I understand,” he consoled.  “What’s your plan, then?”

“Nero.”

“Nero?  He’s a child.
”

“You have to look at the big picture.  Nero was one of the most despicable tyrants to ever grace the annals of histor
y.  He may have been a half decent administrator, but he murdered thousands, and his vainglorious attitude drove him to focus his imperial power on his own glory, not Rome’s.  Those same feelers I hired have reported that even at four years old, he’s a monster.  Torturing animals, abusing his staff, demanding anything and everything; he’s become the same spoiled brat he was always meant to be.”

“Sounds familiar,” Bordeaux joked lightly.

I smiled for his benefit, but quickly lost it.  “It gets worse.  In our history, Nero was betrayed by his Praetorians when factitious portions of the empire rebelled against him.  His Praetorians did this because by then, it’s what they did.  They controlled who became emperor, starting with the assassination of Caligula and their support of Claudius.”  I sighed, realizing once again it was our interference that led us to this point.  “But four years ago, Vincent had a plan to mold the Praetorians into the ardent defenders of the Caesars they had been under Augustus.  He succeeded.”

Bordeaux nodded.  “The Sacred Band.”

“Yep.  In fact, the entire Praetorian Guard is now more devoutly loyal than maybe even the Pope’s Swiss Guard.”  I threw a hand in the air in frustration.  “Damn it, to be fair, I thought it was a good idea at the time with Caligula showing such promise.  Now?  It couldn’t have backfired more.  Augustus was almost eighty years old when he died, and there’s no saying Nero won’t last that long either.  Who knows what will happen to the future after eighty years of Nero”

“So, what are you going to do?  Kill him when he’s four and can’t fight back?”

“Who said anything about killing?”  I asked, mostly sure he was kidding.  “No, I’m going to kidnap him, hold him ransom and stage a coup that will put a proper ruler on the throne.  It’s the least I can do for Caligula since there’s no one to blame for his premature death than me.”

Just as Bordeaux opened his mouth to respond, a wailing woman burst through the door and made a bee line towards Helena and Julia.  The older Helena still had her arms around the young girl’s shoulders in a consoling manner, but was quickly abandoned when mother and daughter rushed into each other’s arms.  Both were crying tears of happiness
as the mother clutched Julia by the head and kissed her forehead and cheeks over and over.

It was a tender moment and I noticed Helena with a happy but somewhat sad smile on her face,
a few tears running down her cheeks.  She looked over at me and her smile faltered just slightly, but she composed herself quickly and looked back at the reunited family.

But th
eir reunion only lasted a few minutes.  The mother moved to where Helena sat and planted a few kisses on her cheeks, and made her way over to Bordeaux and me, offering us similar thanks as well.  When she reached her hand out to offer me some money, I pushed it away and told her payment was not necessary.  The mother hugged me again and gave me another series of kisses before Julia came over to stand beside her mother.  She kept her distance from us, but there was a small smile tugging at her lips I had yet to see from her.  It was more than I expected from a young woman who must have gone through so much.

With a last few goodbyes, the two women took their leave of the tavern and were on their way, hopefully back to the relative safety of the Italian peninsula.

“I see why you do this,” Bordeaux commented as he watched them leave. “Is it always this happy?”

“Sometimes,” I answered honestly.  “Other times, we aren’t doing things nearly so heartwarming and usually our business transactions end with us getting paid.  We’ve actually accumulated a good amount of wealth
over the years.  Need a lone?”

“No, I’m fine.”  He laughed.  “Do you deny payment often?”

“Rarely.  Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age.”

Bordeaux snorted.  “Wait till you hit fifty, then you can complain.  I’ll be there in a few years,” he informed with a humorous shudder.

I laughed politely and waited to continue our conversation when Helena sat down between us and scratched her long, unkempt hair.

“How have you been, Jeanne?
” She asked.  “Are you a daddy yet?”

So Bordeaux went through the process of showing her the pictures of his family where she commented about their size just like I had.  Her gaze lingered on the picture of his family.

“You have a beautiful family, Jeanne,” she said.  “You should consider yourself lucky.”

Bordeaux glanced side long at me as he heard the same strain in Helena’s voice I used earlier.  “
Merci
.  I already miss them horribly even though I have only been gone a few days.”

“We’re sorry we had to borrow you,” she told him, “but
Jacob thinks this is important.  We won’t take up much more of your time.”  She looked over at me sternly.  “Will we?”

“No,” I said, giving her a look
of my own.  “I’ll try to be quick.”  I looked Bordeaux square in the eye.  “I need you to get the band back together.”

“What?”  He asked, not understanding the Blues Brothers reference.

“I mean, I need you to find Wang and Vincent and get them to join us in our mission.  God knows we could use their help.”