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281 pages

English

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‘Brothers’ is about life in Roman Britain. About betrayal and treachery, about stolen gold and hidden treasure and about forbidden love.
The brothers in this story are native Britons and Roman soldiers and settlers. Some Britons are farmers and traders; some are rebel warriors who hate the Roman invaders.
In the Roman family a boy, Gaius Marcius, is given British slave, Verluccus, for a playmate. Verluccus is branded with a triskele but he runs away. When a man he is captured fighting among rebels and returned to Gaius filled with hatred. Gaius eventually subdues him hand he accepts his lot is slavery.
Serving in the household Verluccus meets and falls in love with Gaia, the sister of Gaius and she does so with him. But she is soon married, and to the brother of a man Verluccus is known to have killed. Their love must be secret. They are parted when he goes to Rome with Gaius and she must remain in Britain with her husband, a Roman military tribune.

Sujets

roman

Sibling

Brother

Romance

Fiction

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Publié par	AuthorHouse UK
Date de parution	19 mars 2021
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781665585309
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

BROTHERS

M. E. TAYLOR

AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK) UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 (+44 20 3695 6322 from outside the UK)

© 2021 M. E. Taylor. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/02/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-8528-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-8529-3 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-8530-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021903676

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Book 1A Present for Gaius
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Book 2Nine years later, deep in the mountains of western Britain
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Book 3Verluccus the Bloodspiller
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Book 4Serving Gaius
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Book 5Serving Marcus
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Book 6Serving Gaia
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

About the Author

“I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good yarn set in a historical context. It is an epic tale of Roman Britain, family conflict, politics and fighting between the occupying forces and rebellious indigenous Celts. Backed up by careful research. I couldn’t put it down. A great debut book. I hope we may look forward to another.” — S. Brown

“Well-written, good historical background, interesting characters. I found the story enthralling and couldn’t put it down. Definitely recommend.” — J. Carter

“…I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down, so exciting and so accurate. I thought the characters were well-drawn, events were believable, and I liked the divisions into sections with different happenings as the story progressed. Great achievement”. — D. G.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am greatly indebted to Derek Gore of Exeter University, to the Devon Archaeological Society and to the Association for Roman Archaeology for the valuable insight into life in Roman Britain without which this story could not have been written.
INTRODUCTION
In the ancient world of the Romans, slavery was legal and considered normal. The conquered were taken into captivity and made to work for their captors; some slaves were bred for the purpose. Slaves were bought and sold in open markets and used by all levels of society. Many were highly skilled. Freedoms were regularly granted to those considered worthy or too useless to continue to feed and clothe. A freed slave over the age of thirty could become a Roman citizen. Many freedmen gained great wealth. In the case of a woman, she would be expected to have produced three children and be thirty to gain her freedom.
BOOK I
A PRESENT FOR GAIUS
1

The boy was taller than he had expected. He must be – what, twelve? At the very least twelve, a good four years older than Gaius. And sullen too, scowling and defiant – not at all the slave for his precious child. Quite unsuitable. Dangerous, most probably. What had possessed his son to choose this creature?
Lucius sighed and groaned aloud; he wrapped his face in his hands. How the gods mocked him. Had they not tormented him enough? He saw now that they had not. The contrast between this rough and brutish young Briton and his own weak and fading child was further cruelty. Gaius, his own dear and most precious son – seven years old last May, sweet natured, tender, and loving, adored by his parents and sisters – his darling Gaius was lying pallid and enfeebled on his bed, stalked by Death himself, and this young ox, this rag-clad, ill-bred, unschooled barbarian, radiant in health and strength, with sun-gilded limbs and a dense ochre mane, was now placed before him as if he were the remedy.
Yet again he sensed the doubt within himself; this was wrong. He was wrong to yield to a child’s coercive tactics. It should be otherwise; Gaius should obey his father and accept his decision – not so stubbornly, so determinedly, oppose him. Was he master of his household or not? Apparently not, and now that he faced the cause of all this madness, he could see that he had been right; the culprit was by far a worse choice than even he had imagined. The contrast between the two boys was more than cruel; it was grotesque – an obscenity.
Lucius was hot and tired and sweaty and thinking how greatly he was in need of his bath. Yet dutiful as ever to the needs of those who depended upon him, had he not postponed his own comfort to attend to this matter and, in doing so, hopefully to restore his son more speedily to health as a good father should? Had he not come straight home from the anniversary parade, the parade held to commemorate that day, the ninth before the calends of October and the birthday of the divine Augustus? Had he not dutifully so absented himself from the traditional banquet? What else could he, as a good father, have done?
The parade had been a rare occasion to don his military attire once again, but now, within his study, he had done no more than cast aside his helmet, cuirass, and sword and slump into his favourite chair before having the boy, his newest acquisition, placed before him for approval. He frowned and scowled also at the absence of his wife, who had not yet greeted his return. It seemed to him that even the pleasure of Aelia’s welcoming embrace was to be denied him until he had complied with his family’s demands. Of course, she must be with their son and not yet aware of his return.
It was the twenty-third day of September in the tenth year of the reign of the emperor Domitian. He, Lucius Marcius Phillipianus, sometimes known to his chagrin as Mollis, or ‘Softy’, son of Consul Quintus Marcius Phillipianus, had recently arrived in the province of Britannia. With him had come his wife, Aelia Paula; their surviving children – ten-year-old Marcia, seven-year-old Gaius, and five-year-old Marcilla-Gaia; and their essential personal slaves. For that much he knew he should count himself fortunate; senators who displeased their emperor were seldom given the option of keeping all of their wealth and their family with them when posted into what, it might as well be acknowledged, was virtual exile. His crime was that he had been at the side of his dying son Lucius when he should have been supporting Domitian in the Senate. Perhaps the death of little Lucius had touched Domitian’s heart, and for that reason alone the family had been spared a worse fate. More than one of his friends had pointed out the advantages of being in the young province of Britannia and the opportunities which awaited him to acquire much land and wealth.
Had he travelled alone, different accommodation would have sufficed for Lucius’ needs, but Aelia had insisted that he would not leave without her and their children; and so he had selected a place for them in the territory of the friendly Dobunni tribe. It was a small and rude but well-situated farm complex. And small it was – much smaller than any of their properties in Italy. To bring Aelia to such a place was for him a matter of great shame. But she was resolute: they would be together wherever Domitian placed him; a good Roman wife could bear any hardship to be beside her husband. And as the vendor had pointed out, the small house had much potential and was ripe for development. And Lucius had great plans for its development.
The farm, the Roman House as it was becoming known, was sited in a prime position tucked into a fold in the wooded hillside beneath the site where the now-deserted hill fort had stood for many decades. There was a fine view across fertile fields and the new settlement and, on a clear day, well beyond the silver coiling bands of the river Sabrina – as far as the territory of the Silures, a less tractable tribe than the Dobunni.
The local name for the place, he had concluded, was unpronounceable but sounded like Daruentum and referred to the nearby oak-covered hillsides. It lay to the south-east of the fortress at Glevum, within an easy walk and a quicker ride. The proximity of the garrison afforded them a degree of security should it be required, and at first it had seemed that Fortuna was again smiling upon them. How mistaken he had been!
His study was a small and ill-lit cubicle into which the exquisite furnishings he had brought from Rome were crammed and badly positioned. There was little room for more than the finely carved and painted chair into which he had slumped, its matching partner, a rather large table inlaid with ivory, a tall lamp holder, and a strong storage chest. Shelves had hastily been assembled to hold his books, ledgers, and drawings and to hide the awfulness of t