back, I’ve sent her to fetch some cooled juice and a warmed towel.”
“You are kind.”
“So. You bring a message from Justinian, no doubt?”
“Justinian is a great admirer of Your Majesty.”
She lifted a long, shapely leg out of the water and regarded the sparkling droplets running off her gleaming skin with approval. I moved quietly around behind her.
“I know.” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “We have corresponded. He is a man of impressive intellect and learning.”
“Indeed,” I agreed.
I stepped forward and knelt at her head, quickly placing one hand over her forehead and the other under her chin. Possibly she expected a kiss. She had time only to take in a surprised breath. In one abrupt move I jerked her head backwards, then thumped it down violently on the edge of the marble bath. Her arms that had flown up dropped back into the water as she went slack. I pushed her unresisting head down and held it under, pressing it down on the underwater bench she had been sitting on. My arms were plunged in almost to my shoulders. She was right, the water was balmy. I held her there until I was quite sure she had stopped breathing. Then I hauled her out and laid her down on her back. It should be absolutely clear that her death had been no accident. A streak of watery blood trickled from her nose into her open mouth.
Then I stood up, shook my arms and wiped them on my short cloak. She lay motionless on her back with her arms and legs spread out; her eyes, astounded by death, stared up at the sky she could no longer see. The setting sun had bled into layers of cirrus clouds across the western hills, which were the colour of deep bruises.
I turned away and walked swiftly down the path, smelling the aromatic scent of rosemary on the light breeze. I did not want to encounter the slave. Since there could be no witnesses I would have to kill her as well. I would do that if necessary, but preferably not.
Fortunately I met no one on the path as I trotted quietly around the villa and down, down, down to the small boat beached on the dark sand. In the dying light the water had turned the colour of wine. No sound came from the island. No sound at all.
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