Far From Home

FAR FROM HOME

Chapter One

The cohort commanded by Theodosius Valerian Aquila, some five hundred strong, marched out of Camulodunum on a bright, sharp autumn morning. They were leaving, heading for Hadrian’s wall some four hundred miles north and the whole town turned out to cheer them on their way. They made a splendid sight beneath the proud standard. The metalwork of their uniforms glittered in the sunlight, the bronze helmets glowed beneath crimson plumes, their nailed sandals slapped in perfect unison on the hard road. At their head marched Theodosius himself, his black eyes shining with joy, very much aware that the town rulers returning his departing salute were only too pleased to see him go. He had not endeared himself to the powers-that-be during his short term in their city. But his men loved him and the people of the town were full of admiration for his spirit and courage (and not least for his stunning good looks) so their cheers were full of genuine emotion.

And no one amongst the crowd was more moved than the fifteen-year-old servant girl Minna, who had taken a solemn leave of him the night before. They had been friends from childhood, the governor’s son and the servant’s daughter, but their ways had separated as the boy had been schooled for high office and command in the army, and the girl had learned only sewing and cooking and how to stay in her place.

But the friendship had been constant. Minna had loved Theo ever since she could remember. She had known this day of his departure was imminent, and had come out early with the crowd to see him go. Her mistress, the tribune’s daughter Julia, was in the crowd too somewhere, but in the excitement they had soon lost each other. Minna only had eyes for Theo. Pushing and shoving her way through the raucous townsfolk, she was unprepared for the panic that started to overwhelm her as she saw, not only Theo, but all the people most dear in her life departing with him: her brother Cerdic and her sometime friend Draco, both soldiers, Theo’s slave Benoc and dear Stuf, her soulmate from home. Jostled and crushed in the crowd as she fought to keep up with the passing army, her dismay started to choke her. As the men passed through the great Balkerne Gate on to the road heading north, the townspeople started to drop away, but then Minna saw the army horses go by: her own darling Silva whom she had brought up and trained herself, and Theo’s horse, the chestnut stallion Caractacus…it was too terrible, seeing them go! She started to sob, running and stumbling, too tear-blind to see what she was doing. The baggage train rumbled by, the big wagons pulled by oxen carrying all the army gear, the food, the tenting, the slaves and women and all the raggle-taggle that always attached itself to an army on the move. Scarcely knowing what she was doing, Minna made a lunge for one of the last wagons, hauling herself up by the tailboard and clinging on for dear life. She must go too! Even as she hung there the question thumped through her brain: what was she doing? She had gone mad!

By all the blessings of the gods, the wagon she fell into was not the one full of slaves and servants but the wagon that carried the tenting for the camps at night. Reposing comfortably on the top, hands behind his head, was her old friend Stuf. He sat up, caught her arm and pulled her in, laughing at her precipitous arrival. Nothing ever fazed Stuf.

“Oh, Stuf, what have I done?” Minna was half laughing, half crying.

“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” he enquired.

“No, I’m not!” Minna squeaked.

“Well, you can always go back if you change your mind.”

Stuf was always a giver of sane advice. He was in the baggage train legally, employed as a skilled hunter by the goodwill of the army commander. He thought that the same Theodosius Valerian Aquila would not be thrilled to know that one-time servant girl Minna had elected to follow him after he had taken a solemn farewell of her.

“Do you think he will be furious if he finds out?” Minna asked him. “I daren’t show myself!”

“He’s hardly likely to see you here. You’ve got the whole cohort between the two of you. He’s marching in front and you’re in the last cart. By the time he finds out you’re with us, we’ll be halfway to Caledonia.”

Stuf’s innate good sense was always calming. He had never joined the army like most of the young men, but lived his own life on the Essex shore, beach-combing, supplying fish to the women, hunting in the forest. He had never known his parents. He had the quick senses of an animal, and a surprising gentleness considering the harshness of his life. He had elected to follow the army because Theodosius was his friend and he was bored, at seventeen, and looking for something else in his life. Minna had known him since she was a baby. Finding him in the cart she had chosen to scramble into seemed like a sign from the gods that her decision was the right one. All the same, her brain was whirling. She had accepted her farewell from Theo the night before and had only gone out to wave goodbye! She had been quite unprepared for the emotion that had overwhelmed her: to see Theo march out of her life. It wasn’t possible! She had run…

“Oh, Stuf, he will be so angry!”

Stuf laughed. “You are stupid. He will have to act angry, but of course he will be pleased. How could he not be? To have a girl like you chasing him? Everyone knows he loves you. Why else would he have risked his life, fighting Cintus, to save you – and nearly risked his career as well? That was the crux – to risk his career, disobeying orders, when everyone knows his career comes first with him, even before you.”

Minna sat digesting Stuf’s words: everyone knows he loves you. Everyone…yet she scarcely knew that herself. He had never said so, never touched her beyond a brotherly arm round her shoulder…once, under his cloak in the rain, she had felt his heart beating against her own…it made her feel faint now, to remember that. But the way he looked at her, yes…the words he didn’t say, the blood he had shed for her, fighting Cintus, the wild barbarian who had held her captive. It seemed so, to other people, that he loved her. But would he ever tell her so? Minna had loved him all her life, ever since they had played together as children in the fort at Othona.

“I can’t stand being a lady’s maid! Anything is better than that. I had to come.”

“Oh, Minna, will you ever be satisfied? You ran away in the first place because you were being forced to marry Esca – an ugly, ignorant fellow, admitted, but rich enough, with a house to offer you and rich parents. You ran away and were lucky enough to get a job with the tribune’s daughter, with – again – a fine house to live in and good food to eat. Now you’ve done it again.”

“I’ve always run away to be near Theo.”

That was the truth. Stuf grinned.