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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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(February 78)

Being winter, it was too cold for Horatia to retreat to her usual sanctuary in the garden, but she had a secondary sanctuary where she spent an equal amount of time - perhaps a little more, in the winter. So Aulus came to find her in her own private study, upstairs in the family part of the house, the winter sun coming in through the windows overlooking the garden. He paused in the doorway, quietly watching his beautiful clever wife as she scribbled away in a wax tablet, making notes about something or other, before knocking on the open door, the private pattern of raps used only between themselves.

He smiled as she looked up.

"Working hard, as always, I see," he said. "You've forgotten to have lunch." He stepped aside to allow the house slave who'd accompanied him to enter and set down the tray he was carrying before his master dismissed him.

"It's not like you to forget lunch," he said, settling down on one of the couches set by the wall. "What is it that you've found so absorbing?"

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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Horatia was enraptured in the paperwork she was completing and it had been that way for much of the morning and now, early afternoon. Quintus dozed in a little crib next to her desk. Really she should have handed him off to one of the nurses they employed to care for him, but she liked to glance across at him occasionally - seeing his little cherubic face made her smile, even whilst she was in the depths of dull legal treatises. 

She heard the knock but didn't glance up from her work, finishing her notes before she did. She shot her husband a sly smile as he moved into the room and set aside her tablet. She adjusted it, to make sure it was at the correct angle before she set down her stylus. "I was examining the accounts of a similar charity to the one your sister and I are working on. Lemnus," One of her fathers clients and a lowly clerk in an administrative function of the city, "Helped me obtain them. It's been fruitful - to see where they went wrong and what they dedicated their funds to. I don't intend on making the same mistakes." She sighed and pushed herself up, peering down at Quintus and running a finger along his cheek - content to sleep even with his parents nattering. She moved to join Aulus on the couch. "Very thoughtful of you to send food. You're not busy?" 

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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"Not as busy as you, it would seem," Aulus said with a smile. "You seem utterly enthralled by whatever you're working on - I never knew accounts to be so absorbing. Do you need Xanthos to help untangle it?" His secretary was good at that sort of thing, and equally good at spotting where money could be saved and if it looked as if something wasn't quite right.

"That sounds as if you intend on making quite different mistakes, although I don't think you would make any sort of mistake at all. You are a perfectionist, columbina mea!" He helped himself to a piece of bread, pushing the plate with the rest of the loaf across to his wife. "It is this afternoon, the Senate session is over for the day, I will see my clients tomorrow and so this afternoon I am as free as a bird, and perfectly willing to distract you from your labours, or to listen to you describing your issues. After all, I must have bored you nearly to tears with the Calpurnian Baths, it's only right you should have your revenge."

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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She shook her head, "I like to do it myself, and in any case I would imagine you're keeping Xanthos suitably busy." She chuckled, rolling her eyes at his terrible joke and helping herself to some bread, nibbling at a crust as she tucked her legs under herself. In the privacy of the study she'd forgone the stola she usually wore, instead wearing a plain  but finely crafted sea-foam green tunica with a palla draped across her shoulders to keep away the chill.

"Oh I intend to to draw out my revenge, make it long and twisted and painful." She smiled wryly, reaching for a glass of wine. "But there's very little that's gone wrong enough for me to complain about it." She chuckled. "We're due to meet an agent to explore suitable plots or existing structures we could repurpose, but that isn't until Calpurnia is back from the villa." She shrugged lightly, "So I've just been concentrating on the background work. I don't think it's a surprise that your sister is naturally better at the public facing works, and I the behind the scenes labour." She chuckled and set down her wine, placing her cheek in her palm. "But I'm glad you came up. I...appreciate I can sometimes get a little too focused on a task and neglect my husband." She grinned again, dropping her hand to stroke his wrist. "You have my permission to drag me out of here if that becomes the case." 

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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"Not so busy I can't spare him for a few hours if you do discover you need him to look something over," Aulus replied, reaching for a sprig of grapes, and chuckled at her declaration of making her revenge count. "Surely you must admit the result was worth the effort, though - and the library is one of the finest in the city, if not in the civilised world."

He adjusted his position, reclining respectably on the couch as he watched his wife. Horatia Justina was the epitome of Roman womanhood, in his opinion - beautiful, and with a lively mind.

"Dare I enquire whether you have any particular sites in mind yet?" he asked, finishing his grapes and setting the stalk aside as he reached for his own wine cup.

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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Horatia's lips twitched in amusement and she rolled her eyes, holding up a hand; "If I say they were worth it, will you promise me not to commence another building project for at least the next decade?" She loved her husband, and loved the baths, although hearing about it day after day had grown beyond irksome. She wasn't sure which she resented more; the building update or his perpetual shadow of lictors during his Consulship. At least the former, she supposed, didn't dirty her atrium and bother her slavegirls. 

"Nothing firm yet," She shook her head, "There's an abandoned floor in insula over on the Esquiline we were considering repurposing but it will need extensive work. And funds." She sighed and shifted to stroke his hand. It was not Aulus' money she'd be spending, at least not directly. Financing the project would come from her fathers purse as even as an emancipated woman, she was still reliant on others for funds. She was hoping, however, in time that..."Although we are always looking for sponsors, know any of your good fine Senatorial colleagues that may be interested in sponsoring a school for pregnant young plebeian girls with no other choice?" She chuckled, having already drawn up a list of men she wanted her husband to approach about it. 

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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Aulus couldn't help laughing. "I don't know if I can make that sort of promise," he confessed. "But if I do start out on another building project, I promise that I will do my best to keep all my enthusiasm to an appropriate minimum and that you can ask me to talk about anything else if it gets too much - although I would think that the need to talk about it incessantly is rather less with a second building project than the first."

He set his winecup down, gazing into the ruby depths of the wine before looking back up. "If there's anything in my property portfolio that would be suitable, you do know you only have to say? I'll get Xanthos to give you the list - although knowing you as I do, you've probably already gone all the way through it, twice, and discounted everything on it for one reason or another - not close enough to a bath-house, perhaps, or too close to a bakery, right under the shadows of the Aqua Claudia or who knows what else!"

Well, technically, it was his father's property portfolio, but Tiberius was spending more and more time at Baiae, content to leave his affairs in Aulus' hands. Were he pressed, Aulus would not be able to say his father had very much longer to live, although Tiberius might well surprise them all and live for another decade or more. They could only hope he would!

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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She chuckled and shook her head, cupping her jaw in her palm as she considered her husband in that serene, contemplative way that was so very Horatia. "Well...wherever you are sent as Proconsul, I'm sure, will need new buildings and some attention. That might be marginally more tolerable than another project here in the city." Proconsular appointments were often in the more...unstable outreaches of the Empire. Why she was not exactly thrilled by the prospect of spending several years in some far-flung place, she remembered their time in Raetia with a fondness. It had felt peaceful, despite the chaos that occasionally reigned at the borders. 

She moved to take his hand and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles with a soft, private smile that was always just for his. "I have been through it..." She grinned and released his hand from her lips, holding it instead, her fingers threaded through his. "We're looking for something small at first...unobtrusive. The school will likely be...unwelcome in many districts. People are narrow minded." She frowned. "I've already heard a couple of people mutter that it's not appropriate...but do they want a whole generation of young women with little children, and no prospects?" She shook her head. "People are fools."

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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"People would do very well to think what they would want for their mothers, sisters and daughters," Aulus said with a wry smile. "Of course, a great many of them are probably very conscious that they could not hold a candle to their womenfolk if said women had half the opportunities their men squander. The vast majority of us are well aware that you would run rings around us, given half a chance." He lifted his winecup in salute to his clever beautiful wife. "The rest of us are intelligent enough, I hope, to have made alliances with the women in our lives and to wish to be on the same side."

He knew exactly how strong his marriage was, and that it was not between equals was merely due to the law and the legal system as it stood; he was perfectly aware that Horatia was his equal in every way that mattered. They had weathered so much together, even in the last few years. He wondered momentarily if she realised that he would kill for her, and rather hoped that if she thought about it, it was in the abstract rather than in the very real sense that he both would and could - but actual physical threats to his family were unlikely. The most recent threat had been dispatched swiftly and without the sharp threat of unsheathed steel.

"I shall have to see what words I can put into the right ears and minds to get people to consider that this might be a good thing for them and for Rome," he added lightly, watching the light catch on the blue stone set into the simple wedding ring she wore.

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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She gave him a soft smile and an inclination of her head, no need to say she agreed. She had not been brought up expecting equality in a marriage, and indeed she had not been brought up to think of herself as in any way equal to a man. She knew she was bright and clever, she always had been, but her keen mind had been focused on the womanly pursuits of a girl of her class. It had only been since her marriage, and in particular Aulus' absence that she had moulded it into more practical endeavours. She had never wanted or longed for equality - even if occasionally she found herself frustrated by the confines of her sex, but with her husband she had found it. She had found somebody who listened, who took her opinions on board as readily as he took his own and those of his friends. That had been a light in the darkness for her, and she knew just how lucky she was. 

"Thank you, my love." She smiled softly and stretched her hand to twine her fingers with his, her wedding band shining. "Let me know if you need any information from me - I have summaries written up of the ambitions and aims and more detailed plans somewhere..." She frowned and looked over at her shelves. One had been emptied of its scrolls, and was now dedicated to this project. The small, slight frown she occasionally had when she thought hard knotted her brow before she glanced back at her husband and it smoothed out; "Perhaps we should organise an event here? Ostensibly a dinner for old friends and acquaintances but...we could fundraise as well, of course."

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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"A dinner or some sort of gathering to raise funds for your endeavour," Aulus said with a smile, watching her brow crease in thought and then smooth out. "I'm sure you have a proposal written out, somewhere, a draft where you were getting your thoughts down to clarify them. A neat copy of that would be enough, and I will draft something with Xanthos, and run it past you before presenting it anywhere. It's always best to have some idea of what to say before you're called on to say it, after all." Aulus was a Roman politician, after all, and so much of political life was the ability to stand up and make a speech on whatever the topic at hand was. Presenting his wife's plan to friends was not in the same league as making a speech on the Senate floor, but Aulus was a pragmatic sort who prepared for all eventualities that he could.

He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb as she interlaced her fingers with his. They fit together so well - it had taken work, after his return home, but they fit.

"I would not be half the man I am without you, my dove," he told her fondly. "I hope you know that."

 

@Sara

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Horatia Justina

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She gave him an amused look and nodded. Of course she had a proposal written down and without prompting, she pushed herself up from the couch to move to her desk. On it were orderly stacks of tablets and papers - all arranged with tabs to denote what they were, in several separate perfectly orderly piles. She leafed through them until she found the tablet she was looking for and returned to sit next to him, retaking his hand and passing it over. "Here is the one your sister and I agreed on before she departed for the villa. I have copies, so you are welcome to that one." 

She drew their interlaced hands to her lips and left a soft kiss on his knuckles before she chuckled. "And you know I am not the sort of woman that would take credit for such a thing." She shook her head and settled back with a small sigh, thumb still running over his hand. "Have you heard anymore about a Proconsular appointment?" She knew it was unlikely, he would have told her surely, but it never hurt to ask. She had not worried about it - in the same way she had not worried about Raetia - but it didn't hurt to plan. "Calpurnia will be equipped enough to run the charity by herself when I leave...unless she is distracted with a new husband of course." she quirked a brow. 

 

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Aulus Calpurnius Praetextatus

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"You should take more credit than you do," Aulus told her, taking the offered tablet and setting it aside; he would read it later, when he could give it his full attention as it deserved. "And no, I haven't - not yet. I daresay once Titus Caesar is more settled in his role, I will. Is there anywhere in particular you would like me to petition for - although where I will be sent is in the lap of the gods and the mind of Caesar, of course."

He had no real inclination towards anywhere in particular and there were several places that would offer their own challenges, from the untamed wilds of the lands north of Britannia where the painted people dwelt, to the religious fanatics of sun-scorched Judea and the new sect that had arisen there and had swept up people of all races and backgrounds, although it was most popular among the poor and the slaves.

He couldn't help laughing at Horatia's quirked brow. "I know you well enough by now to see the question you are most deliberately not asking me," he said. "Yes, she is old enough to marry now, and no, I have not arranged a husband yet. I will admit that I was wondering whether Tiberius Claudius Sabucius would make her a good husband? He is of the right class, and he is a thoughtful and perceptive young man."

 

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