Page 30 of Royally Roma
That seemed like a dubious prospect at best, seeing as he was currently regarding her with such intensity that she suspected he could grind coal into diamonds merely by the set of his jaw. But a girl could dream, couldn’t she?
“Moving on...” She forced her lips into a grin and turned her back on the remains of the House of the Vestals. If he mentioned virgins, chastity, flogging, or anything else remotely related to sex, she would ignite. And Rome didn’t need another Great Fire. “There’s one last thing I’d like you to see.”
“One last thing,” he said as if the words somehow hurt him. But they didn’t. She knew they didn’t. They couldn’t possibly. “Let’s proceed, then.”
She led him down a gravel path and blinked against the mist. The rain had stopped for the most part, but a fine, swirling haze had settled over the ruins, bathing everything in soft, ethereal color. Julia had always liked the Forum best in this light, when ghostly shadows seemed to move among the relics.
She stopped when they reached a modest-looking niche in the stone walls. “Here we are.”
Mano stood with his hands in his pockets and stared at the alcove.
“So this is the grand finale?” he asked, clearly unimpressed.
Julia grinned to herself. “Go inside.”
He shot her a questioning glance and stepped into the darkness. Julia followed him into the narrow space between two curved crumbling rock walls. She breathed in the familiar scent of rubble, soil, and sand. It was one of her favorite smells. She’d done enough digging in Italy to know that scent held the promise of other worlds. Years upon years of secrets.
For centuries the Romans had been building new monuments, completely new civilizations, directly on top of one another. Rome was a city of layers, divided by nothing but sand. She’d been on digs before where her spade had made contact with something solid after a mere two feet of digging. Marble columns. Temples made of gold.
Sometimes Julia dreamed about the people who lived in those hidden worlds. There was a romance to the past that helped her forget the mess of her present circumstances. But her passion for history was more than just an escape. Those people had been real. They deserved to be seen and remembered.
“Here we are.” Without even realizing it, she’d dropped her voice to a near whisper.
Despite the humble mound of dirt piled in the center of the dank alcove and the fine green layer of moss on the walls, there was something sacred about this place. Holy.
Rocks held the mound in place, but the stones were barely visible through the soil, as if the earth itself was trying to swallow up the past and keep its secrets. But that would never happen. Not here.
The mound was covered with flowers—long stemmed roses, modest carnations, and lush bouquets wrapped in cellophane. A red candle in a shallow brass dish burned near the edge of the pile, dripping wax onto the soil. Other mementos had been left behind as well—scraps of paper, two bright yellow Roman lemons, and a child’s stuffed toy. A row of dull gold coins had been placed near the edge of the relic, faceup to show the profile of a man with a laurel wreath situated atop his head and an inscription—Caesar IM P M, which stood forCaesar Imperator, Pontifex Maximus. Replicas, of course. An actual denarius from the Roman Empire was a rare find indeed.
Julia glanced at Mano standing beside her and realized he’d gone very, very still. Eerily so.
“What is this place?” he asked. His voice was rough, as if he’d just been awakened from a deep sleep.
“I know it looks like a pile of dirt, but it’s much more than that. This is Julius Caesar’s tomb, the place where his body was cremated.” She pointed at the mound rising out of the soil. “This was once an altar.”
“And the flowers?” He stooped to pick up a stray cluster of flowers from the ground—a bouquet of violets tied together with a frayed purple ribbon—and placed them gingerly on top of the pile. Then he picked up the stuffed teddy bear and stared at it for a long, silent moment.
Julia wasn’t sure whether she should answer him or step outside to give him some privacy. She’d hoped to get a reaction out of him, but this wasn’t at all what she’d expected. He seemed almost mournful.
“People from all over the world come here and leave flowers, notes, and little trinkets,” she said.
He bent and inspected a few of the small pieces of paper half-buried beneath the piles and piles of bouquets. Roses, peonies, and wisteria. The handwritten notes weren’t just in Italian but other languages, too. They always were.
“I wanted to bring you here since you took such offense to the disparaging things I said about the emperors while we were at the Colosseum. I thought you’d get a kick out of knowing that Caesar was...is...so beloved.” She searched his face for a trace of pleasure, a glimmer of a smile.
Nothing.
He’d disappeared into himself. The faraway look in his eyes suggested he’d gone someplace else, someplace where Julia couldn’t follow.
And despite every logical thought in her head that warned against it, she wanted to go wherever he’d traveled. As drawn to his commanding presence as she’d been since the moment she’d first seen him, she found this glimpse of hidden vulnerability even more compelling. She felt as though she were seeing the real him, the man beneath the posh clothes, the charming accent, the skillful mouth, and the provocative advances.
And he was forbiddingly beautiful.
She looked away. It was all too much to handle. The secrets behind his eyes made her heart thud hard against her rib cage. The idea that she could see his inner self made her eyes go blurry.
She needed to get out of here.
She stepped outside the shelter of Caesar’s temple and back into the drizzle. After a moment or two, Mano followed.
