A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii by Kate Quinn, Ben Kane, Stephanie Dray, Michelle Moran, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Vicky Alvear Shecter

refreshment?”
    “Thank you, but I have messages to send to Rome.” She gives the stallion’s neck a final rub as the grooms lead him back toward his stall. “I should tell the Reds faction director he has his next champion.”
    “Well then, if you will excuse me, I have tradesmen and petitioners waiting, and artists who need pushing if we would not hold a wedding shrouded by drop cloths.” He bows, then shifts his glance to me. “Aemilia, you might check on your mother, but before you do, I believe you have business in the stables.” He gives me a knowing smile. As he turns away, Lady Diana looks at me curiously.
    “What business do you have here? Do you ride?”
    By way of answer, I draw my small crescent moon pendant—the virgin’s symbol—from my pouch and hold it up. The wood is rubbed smooth as stone from all the hours I have fingered it without even being aware I did so. How Mother scolded me for that fidget. “I do not ride, Lady. I hide.”
    She understands at once. “You don’t wish to burn it before your wedding.”
    Perhaps because she is a stranger, and strangely unlike any woman I have ever met, I have the courage to confess the truth. “I do not wish to be a bride so I will not do as a bride should do.”
    She tugs a silver chain out from the red drape of her gown, and I see a crescent moon like mine but made from silver and worn just as smooth. So she fidgets, too. “I didn’t wish to trade this for a red veil, either.”
    “I would be well content if the only thing red I wear upon my head is my hair. How did you avoid being wed?”
    “I knew how to manage my father. He's far too absent-minded to plan dinner, much less my future—and I took full advantage.” She smiles. “The law gives our lives to our fathers to manage, but not all fathers take the trouble. My father stays wrapped in his own affairs, so I am free to breed horses and manage myself.”
    “I know how to distinguish grapes with nearly the same skill as my own father,” I say proudly. “But I will never be a wine merchant, and the vineyard that stands outside this villa will one day belong to Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus, not to me. I fear, Lady, that I have not your knack for managing fathers.”
    “Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus might prove easier to manage than your father. He may be glad of a wife who knows her grapes.”
    Here is a thought. If I must have Sabinus, perhaps I can hold sway with him. For a moment my hopes rise. But they quickly sink again. If Sabinus looked at me as Faustus does, perhaps. I believe I could get Faustus to do anything for me. But I see no hungry lion in Sabinus. I turn my eyes to the little wooden moon in my hand and stroke it lovingly.
    “So you intend to hide it here in the stables?” she says.
    “Yes, though I will miss it sorely.”
    She unloops the chain from her neck and drops her little silver moon into my hand. “Silver doesn’t burn. Keep this one.”
    I look into her eyes, my own dimmed with tears. “Thank you Lady. And perhaps you could keep this for me?” I hold out my little wooden charm. “I know it would be safer with you than hidden in a stall.”
    “What’s safe? I may get kicked in the head by my new horse. Your bridegroom might run off with a tavern maid. Maybe the gods will spare you marriage after all. They did me.” She closes her callused fingers around my charm. “But I’ll keep it for you. Though Diana herself knows I haven’t needed a virgin’s symbol for years.”
    My jaw drops. She laughs and gives a kiss to each of my cheeks. “Until we meet again.”
     
     
    I mean to meet Faustus after dark while the household slumbers. Such an encounter is perilous. Being found with Faustus alone would mean both our ruins. So I must be as careful as possible. I dare not creep out until my nurse is insensible. But she cannot seem to settle into a deep sleep. She moans and groans, tosses and turns, and keeps calling out my name, putting my nerves on edge—so much so that