For a moment Cynric stared at him, then threw back his head with a roar of laughter that turned heads all over the room. "You’re in love!” he laughed again. "I should have recognized the symptoms. Isn’t my own girl locked away behind those very walls?”
"But you’re a kinsman,” said Gaius seriously. "They’ll let you talk to her. Can you arrange something for me?”
"Why not?” Cynric grinned. "I’ve never seen any reason to keep the priestesses all penned up. That’s like something you Romans would do. Dieda won’t see or speak to me since she went in there, but my foster sister is not a prisoner. I will see what I can arrange for you.” He drained his wine cup. "Be at the edge of the path leading to the Forest House three days from now, an hour after noon.”
As Eilan waited in the woods near the Sacred Grove in the unusual brightness of the early summer sunlight, she was surprised to find that she was trembling. At first, when Cynric had spoken to her of a meeting with Gaius, it had seemed like the answer to an unusually fervent prayer. But she soon realized that the most dangerous thing in the world is an answered prayer. Her chances of keeping the meeting a secret were slim indeed. And no one would believe her if they were discovered.
In the end she had gone to Caillean for advice.
"There is nothing that you can do, since you have bidden him here, but to meet him as has been arranged,” Caillean had replied. "But I am going to be within earshot every moment; so that if I am later asked I can swear that the two of you have exchanged no word that could not be spoken in the presence of the parents of either of you. Do you accept that?”
Eilan had bowed her head, then turned to go. In truth, she was even a little relieved. If she must speak to him in the presence of the priestess, there would then be no question of his asking of her anything…dangerous.
"Wait,” Caillean had said. "Why did you bring this to me? Surely you could not imagine that I would approve!”
"I am doing nothing that betrays my vows.” Eilan faced the other woman directly. "But I know how idle tongues can embroider a tale. I believe that you would advise me as you thought right, whatever you might feel!” And then she had turned once more, and gone. But she remembered with some satisfaction the flush of color that had stained the other woman’s cheeks.
And so she waited, knowing that with the implacable watcher she had nothing to fear. If she had earlier been asked whether she was afraid of Gaius she would have unhesitatingly answered no; but as the shadows shortened, she became frightened, then terrified.
"Oh, Caillean.” She turned to the other woman, who sat upon a stone at the edge of the clearing, working on a piece of embroidery. "What am I going to say to him?”
"Why should you ask me? I am hardly the person to advise a maiden on her dealings with a man,” Caillean replied with a sardonic smile.
Eilan sighed. As time passed she realized that it would take a while for him to come all the way from Deva. But as she waited, she found her hand stealing into Caillean’s.
Was she meddling in an affair which was, after all, none of her concern? No, she told herself firmly. It was clearly her duty to find out all she could about the child’s surviving relatives. Thus fortified, she waited; and her heart began to pound when at last she saw his shadow upon the path.
It was the first time she had seen Gaius in the uniform and helmet of the Roman Legion; she was struck by how well it became him. He seemed taller under the crimson crested helmet, and the color set off his dark eyes. He came into the clearing and stopped short. If he was surprised to see two women instead of one, it showed only in the momentary flicker of his eyes. Saluting them, he lifted the helmet from his head and tucked it under one arm.
Eilan found herself staring. She had never before had more than a momentary look at a Roman officer in full uniform; and it emphasized the differences between them. And yet, she thought, by their laws we are all Romans. It was like a revelation to her.