Brothers

Book excerpt: ‘Brothers’ is about life in Roman Britain. About betrayal and treachery, about stolen gold and hidden treasure and about forbidden love. The brothers in this story are native Britons and Roman soldiers and settlers. Some Britons are farmers and traders; some are rebel warriors who hate the Roman invaders. In the Roman family a boy, Gaius Marcius, is given British slave, Verluccus, for a playmate. Verluccus is branded with a triskele but he runs away. When a man he is captured fighting among rebels and returned to Gaius filled with hatred. Gaius eventually subdues him hand he accepts his lot is slavery. Serving in the household Verluccus meets and falls in love with Gaia, the sister of Gaius and she does so with him. But she is soon married, and to the brother of a man Verluccus is known to have killed. Their love must be secret. They are parted when he goes to Rome with Gaius and she must remain in Britain with her husband, a Roman military tribune.