Above her, although she couldn’t see it through the blur, the sky would also be blue. Not this dreary, twilight blue, it would be vibrant, fresh, the colour of speedwells. There might be a few clouds streaked across it. Mares’ tails. Light, white, dancing clouds. Skittish clouds. Happy, silly, carefree clouds.
Clouds filled her eyes and dribbled down her cheeks. Dammit, I can’t even see the bloody sky. Talk about irony. He gets the quick death, I just hang here until his stupid, stupid ribbon chafes through. She glanced down into the white froth and shuddered.
‘Claudia Seferius, what the hell are you doing there?’
Sweet Janus, the trees are talking back! Wildly she flung her head from side to side. This is not happening. It is not, not happening.
‘Couldn’t you see I was in trouble back there at the villa?’
Overhead, the wavy mop of Marcus Cornelius Orbilio was being saturated in the spray. He seemed to be securing one end of the mare’s reins over a branch, though the concentration couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.
‘I-’ She cleared her throat. ‘I knew you’d be fine without interference from me.’
The tears down her face turned into a watercourse. I should have known Corbulo couldn’t fell you with just one stick, she thought. For once, he’d underestimated his man. Patricians? Soft as sand, he’d have said, not stopping to consider whether any broke the mould. Whether any worked out at the gymnasium with weights. Whether any had muscles strong enough to repel the odd whack with a vaulting pole…
‘Now I suppose you expect me to come down there and rescue you?’
Claudia gulped back her tears. ‘On one condition, Orbilio.’
‘Oh?’
‘That after this, you leave me alone and I never have to set eyes on you again.’
Carefully he looped the rest of the reins round his shoulders. ‘You’ve got yourself a deal,’ he shouted, testing the knot.
Claudia pinched her lips together. That was the thing about Marcus, she thought, dangling in mid-air above a 500-foot drop while thousands of gallons of water thundered past.
He was such a godawful liar.