Page 27

F elix sat heavily on a stone bench, jaw aching.

Marcus collapsed beside him and gulped down a cup of water.

The boy had been steadily improving at boxing and had just managed to deal Felix a wicked blow to his jaw—though Felix had returned the favor with a strike to the shoulder that sent Marcus reeling into the dirt.

Though Lucretia had consented to boxing lessons being a part of Marcus’s apprenticeship, Felix didn’t fancy incurring her wrath if he were to permanently damage her son.

He tried as best as he could to avoid sending Marcus home with any significant injuries like a broken nose, but sometimes he couldn’t avoid a split lip or bruised knuckles.

“You’re getting better,” Felix said, rewarded by the way Marcus’s face lit up.

“Really? I still feel like an elephant clomping around.”

“Your strikes are getting faster and more precise. You’re starting to build some muscle too.”

Marcus flexed his arm experimentally, then winced, likely due to the soreness in his knuckles. “Thanks.”

“Now, while we rest, tell me what you remember of how ship financing works.”

Marcus took another gulp of water, perhaps to buy time as he thought. “One person gives another person money. To pay for a ship and transport goods.”

“Right. And what happens when the goods are sold?”

“The lender gets paid back with a lot of interest. So they make more than they lent. But…” Marcus’s brow furrowed.

“If something bad happens—if the goods are lost at sea or something—the shipper doesn’t have to pay back anything.

So it’s risky for the lender. They could lose their entire investment. ”

Felix nodded. “But quite profitable if they have good luck.” Maritime financing was how Felix had gotten his start. Then, once he built up capital, he’d purchased ships of his own and slowly grown his operations.

“I mentioned to my mother that you said I might be able to join you on a sea voyage some time,” Marcus said, unwinding the linen wrappings from his knuckles. “She wasn’t happy. She said it was too dangerous. She always worries!”

“Mothers are meant to worry.” Even at this innocuous mention of Lucretia, a little thrill ran through him.

Marcus’s mouth twisted in disdain. “It’s annoying. I’m nearly a man. I don’t need a mother anymore.”

Felix winced. If Lucretia ever heard him say something like that, her heart would break.

He fixed the boy with a stern look. “I’m a man, and I still need my mother.

Do you know when I was starting my business, I consulted her on nearly every decision?

And I’m fairly certain my stepfather’s horse-breeding business would be nowhere if not for her.

” While Felix’s stepfather had an aptitude for horses, his business acumen left something to be desired. “She even solved my father’s murder.”

“Murder?” Marcus jumped to his feet. “Your father was murdered?” He seemed more fascinated than horrified.

Felix nodded. “Regrettably.”

“Oh, that’s not fair .” Marcus slumped back onto the bench with a dejected sigh.

“I always have the parent with the most interesting death. Everyone else’s dead parents are from illness or childbirth or something stupid—but my father died in a shipwreck!

” His eyes shone with pride. “But murder—well, I think that beats shipwreck.”

Despite the grim subject matter, Felix couldn’t hold back a chuckle. His father had died a long time ago, and Felix was at peace with the loss. And even though Cornelius’s death was much fresher, Felix suspected the boy’s “ranking” of deaths was a way to cope with the loss. “I suppose it does.”

“But how was he murdered?” Marcus demanded. “Was he stabbed? Or strangled? Or drowned? If he was drowned, that’s really not so different from a shipwreck.”

“He was poisoned,” Felix said. “In order to cover up a scheme of corruption in the province he was governing.”

Marcus let out a groan. “You win,” he conceded. “You definitely win.”

“Thank you.” Felix accepted the macabre victory with a nod. “Shall we turn from the topic of dead fathers back to our living mothers?”

Marcus rolled his eyes. “Just because your mother is interesting doesn’t mean all of them are.”

“Yours is smart, ambitious, hardworking, and kind.” Also beautiful, soft, and able to make me ache with just a glance .

“Do you know how easy it would have been for her to give all this up after your father died? I certainly tried my best to make her give up. I even proposed marriage to her. She would never have had to work a day in her life if she didn’t want to.

But she was determined to keep your father’s business prospering, all to create a legacy for you. It wouldn’t hurt to be kinder to her.”

Marcus made a disgusted face. “You proposed to her?”

Felix should have known that was what the boy would take away from his speech about Lucretia’s virtues. “A misguided attempt to sway her. She refused without a second thought.”

Marcus made a noise of disgust. “You would have been my stepfather .”

“As I said, it was a mistake.”

Marcus shot him a sidelong glance. “She doesn’t want to marry again, just so you know. I asked, after Father died. She said she had no use for a husband, so I wouldn’t have to worry about being stuck with a stepfather.”

Marcus’s words sent an unexpected pang through him.

But it shouldn’t have surprised Felix that Lucretia wanted to keep her independence, especially after she rejected his proposal.

She had everything she needed—income, a son, an occupation that seemed to bring her fulfillment.

A husband would add nothing to her life.

It certainly didn’t matter to Felix. Their arrangement had nothing to do with marriage. It was just business. But Marcus’s words sat heavy in Felix’s stomach nevertheless.

When Felix returned home after the boxing lesson, his steward greeted him with a letter, bound in a tight scroll and sealed with wax. He recognized that seal; the tiny image of a rearing horse indicated that the letter hailed from his mother and horse-obsessed stepfather.

“Thank you,” he murmured, and took the letter to his study to read it. He broke the seal to find a short message in his mother’s neat handwriting.

From Volusia to her son Lucius:

We have the most wonderful news! Your sister has been blessed with a healthy baby girl.

We are going to spend a few weeks with Herminia and Fulvius.

It would be so splendid if you came to visit to meet your new niece.

We would all love to see you; it’s been too long.

Are you married yet? Being a grandmother is delightful so far, and I would appreciate another grandchild sooner rather than later…

The rest of the letter consisted of updates on the various foals that had been born on their farm, which Felix skimmed.

He was happy for his half-sister, though the difference in their ages meant that they weren’t especially close.

Herminia was ten years younger, born after his mother’s marriage to Maximus.

Herminia had been married two years ago, at the age of seventeen, to a prosperous farmer only a short trip from his parents’ estate.

Well, he would have to make the journey out to see them. He wouldn’t ignore a summons like this from his mother—though it was framed as a request—and in truth it had been too long since seeing his family.

The prospect of a journey reminded him of his earlier plan to search for Lucretia’s guardian, who supposedly lived near his family.

That felt like another life, when he had still been trying to undermine her.

So much had changed since then, and he was grateful he’d never needed to enact that part of his scheme against her.

He'd leave the day after tomorrow. He had a meeting arranged with Lucretia for tomorrow night, and that would give him enough time to make sure Siro and Paulinus were apprised of anything they might need to manage in his absence.