How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 21- A Worrying Heart

--Valeria POV--

The last time I saw my mother was almost a month ago.

I vividly remember her telling me that raising a child goes by faster than she would have thought, there was so much she wanted to do with me growing up but it felt like I just kept growing, the same thing was said about my brother, Julius.

At the time, I laughed it off, not taking her seriously but now I'm hit with the realisation that her words were all real. It only feels like I gave birth to my adorable child yesterday and yet here we were... With Evan already learning how to crawl at 6 months.

He knelt on the soft grass in front of me, rocking back and forth and giggling whenever I caught his gaze, his grey eyes sparkling with adorable mischief and laughing with him, I wiped away his drool with a piece of spare cloth.

He didn't exactly know how to crawl yet, but he would rock himself with his hands and legs and would crawl backwards instead of forward. He didn't know how to talk either but I'm guessing he understands at least a little bit of what I'm saying as he would react sometimes by some weird facial expression or weird noise that was closer to cute than weird.

"Are you hungry, Evan?" I asked, putting my hands under his armpits to hoist him up around my waist. Wrapping his arms around my neck, he got comfortable as I kissed the top of his head and turned around to head back into the palace.

I jumped when he suddenly started wiggling about in my arms. "What is it?" I asked and he made one of those weird noises he makes when he's trying to say something.

"Oh?" I laughed, noticing the piece of cloth I usually used to wipe his drool, laying on the ground behind me. "Thank you for telling me," I ruffled his hair, kissing his forehead as he gleamed in pride at his accomplishment.

Holding onto him, I bent down as best I could to pick up the fabric but failed and huffed, glaring at the thing. Whatever, I'll come to pick it up later.

I froze for a second when I noticed the shadow of a man looming over me and slowly tilted my head up, taking a step back while tightening my grip around Evan.

"Here you go," He said, squatting down to pick up the cloth and standing back up to hand it to me. Without a second thought, I slowly took it from his hands and nodded my head in thanks, trying to remember where it was that I saw him.

And then it clicked. Claudius, he's the one that saved me from that massive crowd last year, without him, I would have ended up like a squished bug.

"Ah, you are the man from the market," He nodded his head.

"Thank you for your help. I know that a lot of time has passed since then but I haven't had the chance to see you, but better late than never," Laughing, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and nodded at him, outstretching a hand for him.

"You do not need to thank me for something I was ordered to do," He shook my hand.

"Ordered to do?" I raised a brow and he bit his lip as if saying something he wasn't supposed to. But I don't understand why since I had already guessed by now that Stacius knew about it and was the one that ordered Claudius to come and find me.

Up to this day though, I'm still curious as to how he found out about my plan to leave the palace walls. It was a last-minute decision where Linus and the slave that helped me were the only people that knew about it.

But I try not to think too much about it, ever since that day, I've been extra careful to not get on Stacius's nerves because he's scary when he's angry.

My thoughts were cut short as I noticed a small green leaf fluttering through the air until it landed on Claudius's hair, getting tangled up and unable to continue moving and unknowingly, I outstretched a hand and picked up the leaf.

He blinked, eyes widening in surprise and I realised what I did, nervously laughing and pulling my hand back with the leaf on it. "It got stuck," I showed him the leaf and he visibly relaxed as I threw the leaf away and turned around.

"Once again, thank you for your help on that day. I'll see you around," He nodded his head and I could feel his eyes following me until I was out of his sight.

"Your imperial majesty!" I raised my head when someone called me and saw a guard rushing towards me, a parchment in his hands. He spared a glance at Evan who was fiddling with one of my locks of hair before turning back to look at me.

"A message arrived for you just now," He handed me the parchment before nodding his head into a deep bow and rushing off once more. I stared at the parchment in my hand for a moment, wondering if it was really for me or if there had been a mistake.

"Let's go," I whispered to Evan as we made our way to his room.

Setting him down on the bed, I sat down with him and opened up the parchment, reading over the Latin words in curiosity while successfully dodging his attempts in trying to snatch the parchment away from my hands.

And slowly, with each word that I read, I felt myself growing more and more agitated at the contents of the message... This isn't good.

Shakily, I put the parchment aside and picked Evan up, sitting him down on my lap as I played with his small hands, resting my cheek on the top of his head and squeezing my eyes shut as the words from the letter continued to run through my mind.

This isn't good at all.

In a situation like this, I wonder if Stacius will let me leave the palace? The only way to find out is to ask him, but still... No, I have to ask him, this was, after all, much more important than my freedom since my mother's life was literally at stake.

"Stacius!" I called, rushing into the throne room where only he, Julius and Tiberius were present and upon noticing my presence, he stood up, worry making its way onto his face.

"What is it, flower?" He asked and instead of replying with words, I handed him the parchment and watched as frustration fell onto his face as he read through the words.

"I need to go see my mother. Even if it is just for a little while, I need to see her-"

"No," He cut me off and I felt my chest fall.

Why am I even surprised?

I still had at least a little bit of hope, my mother was his mother-in-law. If she was ill beyond which medicine could save and only had a few days left to live, then there is no way that Stacius would allow himself to keep me away from her, right?

This is one argument that I cannot let him win, I loved my mother too much to let my husband keep me from seeing her and no matter how scary he was when angry, I'll risk it for her.

"Please... I'll take as many guards as I need, or you could come with me, or Julius... I have to see her, Stacius. Do not keep her from me," I stepped forward, clutching tightly onto the fabric of his clothes as he stared down at my trembling self

Please, do not let my fear for this man overshadow my love.

...

KEYWORDS:

Latin- Latin and Greek were the official languages of the Roman Empire, but other languages were important regionally. Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained the language of imperial administration, legislation, and the military throughout the classical period.