It had been hours now that they had been negotiating the terms of their marriage, but Gaius just couldn't shake the feeling that Vespasius had grave misgivings. Perhaps he should have first given his fiancée the opportunity to speak with her adoptive father before contacting him as head of his family. Of course, Vespasius did not show his concern for his daughter, nor did he deny Gaius' desire to marry her - after all, Gaius was the most powerful man in the state and Vespasius' nephews in particular benefited from his demands. Of course, he would see to Vespasian's admission to the senate and an appropriate province for Sabinus and would continue to promote their carriages. If Aurelia's suspicions about Macro were confirmed, he would offer Clement the post of praetorian prefect. In hindsight, it would have been smarter to marry Aurelia straight away rather than adopt her into a semi-suitable family first. But at the time, not only her future, but above all his, had been much darker and more uncertain. Back then he hadn't wanted to drag her into his world and hadn't noticed that she was already in the middle of it. Somehow this woman had managed to become his world.
Conveniently, Aurelia's inheritance was frozen in a state account and could only be transferred after a marriage was concluded. Briefly they toyed with the idea of simply transferring the money to a state treasury, but that would leave Aurelia dependent on him for all time. If something were to happen to him - which was unlikely in his position, but not impossible - his wife would be left empty-handed. So, they decided to leave their inheritance in the account so that no one would be able to take it. Gaius had enough money himself.

At some point, Vespasius' stomach growled so loudly that they interrupted the negotiations, which had been satisfactory for both of them so far and attended to the needs of their bodies. On the way back, Gaius ran into his grandmother. Actually, he had expected her to ask him first about the negotiation with Vespasius, but she remained silent and eyed him anxiously.
"Were Aurelia and Sabinus not successful?" he asked calmly. Her face lost its colour. Sluggishly she shook her head. Her expression closed up.
"No, in fact they were very successful," she replied expressionlessly. "I just wonder how we can use this knowledge for our own purposes. Can you read through the transcript Caenis made of what they said?"
Curious, Gaius nodded and followed his grandmother into the library. Without comment, she handed him some wax tablets, which he began to skim at the same time. Incredulous, he read through the words again and again as soon as he reached the end of the tablets.
"She really did it," he murmured softly, and a small, proud smile played around his mouth. His avia nodded gravely.
"Aurelia sees in Gemellus the possibility of getting to Macro," she explained thoughtfully. "I am of the opinion that Macro will eliminate Gemellus immediately if he has the slightest suspicion of us. What do you think, my dear?"
"I cannot take action against Gemellus without a trial," he reasoned aloud. "We need more than the testimony of a whore authenticated by my fiancée and her cousin. People will say we falsified the evidence"
She agreed with him and only then inquired about the negotiations, which he described truthfully. Satisfied, she smiled.
"Then you should resume them slowly" she advised him. "Perhaps you can conclude them already today"
Nodding briefly, he turned and hurriedly left the library. His hope to meet Aurelia on the way to or even in his grandmother's study was disappointed. Vespasius sat alone at the table with a wine goblet in his right hand. Although he had had to wait for Gaius, he was as polite and courteous as ever.

In the ninth hour of the day, they had been able to come to a satisfactory agreement on all important points, so that only the matter of Gemellus still affected Gaius' good mood. Because Drusilla was still unofficially under arrest in his palace, he was in no hurry to return to this place with his curious sisters, whose questions he dreaded. But even more he dreaded the thought of Drusilla conspiring with Macro and Gemellus against him. Of his sisters, she had always understood him best. Could he have been wrong about her? Had he only imagined this sibling closeness between them?
Depressed, he strolled through the narrow corridors of the villa and Vespasius' words rushed past him unheard. Somehow, they reached the atrium and there they parted ways. Vespasius returned inside the house to Antonia, Gaius stepped out into the street and made his way to his palace. He had to face his sisters now. Clemens emerged from the shadows at his side.
Furious, Agrippina braced her arms at her sides while Julia crossed hers stubbornly in front of her chest.
"Did you really think that just because you are now Rome's first man, you could just disappear for days without a word and when you just as suddenly reappear out of nowhere, we would rejoice without question?" hissed Agrippina angrily. But Gaius only rolled his eyes. Pregnant women were always more stressful than usual. While his mother had been pregnant with Julia, he had avoided her as best he could on their journey through the East.
"I had my reasons," he explained irritably, trying to push past them. His sisters only glowered at him. Frustrated, he ran his hand through his hair. He looked around uneasily, but apart from Clemens, not another soul seemed to be following the conversation. Calmly, he promised to explain everything to them later. Drusilla's statement was more important right now than his other sisters' concern. He might have guessed that they would not be satisfied with the quickly scribbled lines he had hastily written before his departure.
After a brief exchange of glances, they reluctantly stepped aside, and he entered Drusilla's chambers. Motionless, she lay in her bed. She stared at the ceiling with empty eyes. Only when he sat down beside her on the edge of the bed did she return his gaze.
"Are you here to punish me?" she croaked in a rough voice, and he shook his head. Abruptly, life returned to her body, and she sat up with a jerk. With difficulty she asked him why he had come then. Gaius calmly reached for the cup that was on her bedside table and handed it to her. Greedily she emptied it. Slowly she put it down and examined it attentively.
"I'm here because I want to hear your side of the story, sister," he admitted. Uncertainly, she pushed one of her loose strands of hair out of her face. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and began to tell in a low voice how Gemellus had spoken to her. The boy made clear to her every little change in Gaius' behaviour. It was mainly inanities like his blindness to all the seductive glances that women and men alike gave him, or moments of inattention at feasts and games that made one think the Princeps was in another faraway place in his mind. Through Gemellus, Drusilla began to observe her brother, who hosted ever more ostentatious games, plays and feasts, but at the same time buried himself deeper and deeper in his duties and responsibilities. He avoided Aurelia's name as well as any memories of her. Not for a moment did she avoid his gaze. In her amber eyes he saw nothing but sincerity.
"The longer I watched you, the more I saw you suffer. You've already suffered your whole life, brother. I just wanted to help you forget some of your burden even for a few moments," she concluded, sinking into herself. She closed her eyes, breathing with effort, but she could not hide from him the trembling that gripped her body more and more violently. Gently, Gaius placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I believe you, sister," he said quietly. Immediately Drusilla fell around his neck in relief. The trembling of her body slowly subsided. After a while he pushed her for sure, smiled brightly at her and said, "Put on something decent! I want you to attend my party tonight"
Serenely, he strolled out of the room, brushed off the annoying questions of his sisters waiting outside the room and strode to his chambers without haste. There was still so much to prepare before his fiancée could step over the threshold of his palace for the first time.
After giving all the necessary orders, he sank down on the hard bench of the sweat room and allowed himself a moment of rest.

An hour before the first guests would arrive, Gaius was already dressed for his feast, sitting on the chair in his study and impatiently drumming his fingers against the wood of the armrest. Finally, the door was opened and one of his secretaries led his sisters in. They stood tensely in front of him. With a curt wave of his hand, Gaius dismissed his slave, behind whom the door closed immediately. He quickly asked them to sit down.
"Now will you tell us why and where you just disappeared to?" asked Agrippina as she sat down on one of the chairs.
"I asked you here before the feast because I have important things to discuss with you," Gaius replied calmly, leaned back in his chair and began to tell them matter-of-factly in broad strokes about the plot against him. With every word Drusilla's face lost more colour.
"He tricked me," she murmured more to herself, Julia grasping her hand and squeezing it gently.
"That still doesn't explain why you dropped everything to disappear somewhere without telling anyone," Agrippina interjected, running her hand thoughtfully over her stomach. Would Aurelia and he also have children one day, he wondered, and had to stifle a smile at the thought. Now he had to keep at it and not get lost in his daydreams about her again.
"I was in Cosa," he admitted. His sisters fell silent. While Drusilla's brow furrowed and Julia's lips twisted into a fine, knowing smile, Agrippina thoughtfully wrapped an unruly curl around her finger.
"We have no estates in Cosa," she thought aloud. Realising, she snapped her eyes open, sat up straight with a jerk and eyed her brother warily. "What on earth are you doing in Cosa?"
A fine smile played around his lips. His sweet little ambitious sister had hit the nail right on the head. He had indeed lost something to Cosa and now finally brought it back home. Instead of a reply, he calmly returned her penetrating gaze.
"You spoke of important things, brother," Drusilla interrupted the silence and Agrippina turned to the speaker first. "Do you have any more news?"
Gaius nodded. Then he sat up straighter, looked deeply into the eyes of each of his sisters and announced, "I am to be married."
While Agrippina and Drusilla immediately bombarded him with questions, Julia looked at him silently. His little Julia, who had been placed in his arms, a seven-year-old, not an hour after her birth, to be presented to the waiting army camp. She had screamed the whole time until they handed her over to her older brother. When he looked down at her smiling, she became very still, reached out her little hand to him and fell asleep smiling. Maybe she wasn't the loudest of his three sisters, but she was the most sensitive and the smartest. Of course, she had already added up the facts and seen them through.
"Aurelia," she said, and the two older sisters eased away from their brother and fixed them waiting. Gaius nodded slightly. Encouraged by the brotherly affirmation, she straightened and, turning to her sisters, continued, "Gaius has become engaged to Aurelia."

Until his secretary arrived and explained in a low voice that the first guests had arrived, Gaius told his sisters all about his stay in Cosa and the events at their grandmother's house.
Together, the siblings left the study and greeted the first senators with their wives in the spacious atrium. Now everyone played their part: they laughed, cracked jokes, talked and yet they could only listen to the senators with one ear, as they eagerly awaited the arrival of their soon-to-be family member.
At last, the great doors of the hall were opened, and their grandmother strode in with Vespasius. Behind them, flanked by Vespasian and Sabinus, walked leisurely Aurelia. Immediately all eyes were on her. Her robes were blue, her jewellery beautiful and simple. Her golden hair fell open over her shoulders in shining waves.
The three did not speak, they did not touch, but they exuded such fascination that one simply could not look away. The three of them formed the rising trio of Rome, even if so far this was a fact only for the Julians. The other noble families of Rome would find out in the course of the evening.
There was such a tremendous interest after Aurelia's person that as soon as she arrived, she was engaged in conversation with the richest and most distinguished matrons of Rome. Each of them possessed unmarried sons of marriageable age. Out of the corner of his eye he watched his girl and again and again he caught her sneaking glances at him.
When all his guests were finally gathered, Gaius had enough of the secrecy. Since he was already in the centre of the room, he cleared his throat and immediately the conversations around him came to a halt. With a warm smile he welcomed them all.
"But I have invited you to no ordinary feast," he continued with a smile. "Tonight, is of great significance to me and I am very happy, my friends, to be able to celebrate my engagement with you today. Today I can proudly present to you my beautiful bride"
His eyes found his beaming girl. Smiling, he reached out his hand to her. With a beaming smile on her lips, she strode to him and elegantly placed her left hand in his. With a snap of his fingers, a slave handed him his mother's ring. With a nimble movement, he slipped it on her left middle finger as was the custom, for from there a vein led directly to her heart.
With a triumphant smile he turned back to his guests and ended his little speech with the words: "Aurelia Vespasia"
Aurelia beamed up at him. In her beautiful face he saw nothing but love and warmth. Gently he pressed a feather-light kiss to her forehead. Immediately his sisters rushed over, hugged Aurelia and showered the couple with congratulations. The other guests followed with equal enthusiasm. Her hand rested in his the whole time.
At one point, a familiar figure limped towards them and offered stuttering congratulations. With a friendly smile, Aurelia thanked the man and was about to turn to the next, when Gaius leaned down and whispered in her ear: "This is my uncle Claudius"
Immediately she was wide awake and scrutinised his uncle's flawed appearance. For his intellect and sophistication could not hide his other physical shortcomings, such as his legs of varying lengths or the trembling that always afflicted him.
"So, you are Aurelia Vespasia," his uncle stammered, and Aurelia nodded at him with a smile. "My nieces have told me a lot about you, but your beauty simply cannot be put into words. It is a great pleasure to meet you."
"Thank you. I recently read your history book and I was enthralled" she replied, and the tension slowly drained from his uncle's face. Delighted, he plunged into conversation about his greatest passion: history. As Gaius had suspected, his uncle's quirks and mistakes did not bother Aurelia one bit. Attentively and patiently, she listened to him and discussed as passionately as she did wisely. She was so engrossed in the conversation with his uncle that she did not even notice how Gaius excused himself to talk to his other guests.
Behind him, a female voice called his name softly and he turned around in surprise. There, with her piled-up curls, thick make-up and elaborately draped dresses, stood Macro's wife Ennia. As always, her skin gave off such a perfume smell that was only surpassed by Tiberius. She was a beautiful woman, even if her beauty was contrived and strained, unlike Aurelia's.
"She's a pretty young thing, your bride," Ennia commented, eyeing Aurelia who was talking animatedly with his uncle and sipping her goblet of wine. "What do you know of her?"
At that moment Aurelia raised her head and looked him in the eye. Her happy smile warmed his heart. Apologetically, she placed her hand on his uncle's arm so that the sapphire flashed in the candlelight. Uncle Claudius said a few words to her, then she came up to Gaius as beautiful as a young goddess.
"Anything," he replied without taking his eyes off her. Before Ennia could ask another question, Aurelia joined them and eyed the other woman with polite interest. But Gaius did not even think of introducing the two women to each other, but only nodded roughly in Ennia's direction, took Aurelia's hand and joined his sisters.

At last, he felt alive and happy in his own home. After the meal and the dances, his guests gradually made their way home. At one point he stood alone with Julia in the atrium and, looking into the tricinium, was disappointed to find it empty.
"She's upstairs, brother," Julia said with a smile and with a wink she disappeared towards her chambers. Hastily he went in search of his girl.
Between the billowing curtains he finally discovered her standing on his favourite balcony. Silently he stepped out to her and stopped, enchanted. She gazed dreamily up at thestars. A fine smile graced her lips. A light breeze played with her long hair and thin dress. She did not seem to notice the coolness of the evening air, so absorbed was she in contemplating the sky. What had he done to deserve so much beauty in his life?