“Then I would have been on the Emperor’s side.” Longinus smiled reassuringly and patted the back of her hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll not let myself get trapped. And soon now, either way the dice fall, we’ll be the winners.” He stood up and quickly lifted her to her feet. Leaning over, he pulled down the light coverlet. “But for now, my dearest,” he said, as he gently pushed her down and lifted her legs to the bed, “let’s forget them all; let’s make what’s left of it our night.”
57
Once more she felt herself floating upward in a dark morass of confused and tangled dreaming. Then as she seemed to burst through the heavy waters to the surface and a sudden effulgent light, she sat up, eyes blinking and sleep drained from her.
The knocking and calling were restrained but insistent from Tullia’s side of the door. “Mistress! Oh, Mistress! Mistress!”
She sprang from the bed. “Just a moment, little one, until I can draw back the bolt.” The movement and her exclamation awakened Longinus; precipitately he sat up in bed. “Tullia’s returned,” she explained to him, as he blinked sleepily. She opened the door. “Bona Dea, you’re breathless,” she said to the girl. “What’s happened, by great Ceres?”
“I’ve run all the way from the Hasmonean Palace where I left Joanna....” She paused, breathing hard. “Mistress”—her face flamed with new excitement—“Jesus is alive! He’s come from the tomb alive! He did it, Mistress! He really did it!”
“Sit down, Tullia,” she said calmly. “You’re excited, little one. Calm yourself. Longinus told me that the Galilean was not in a trance; he said he knew he was dead; he said....”
“He was dead, Mistress, I know. But now he’s alive again! He’s alive, Mistress, alive!”
Claudia shook her head dubiously. “I don’t doubt that you think so, but when a man’s dead....” She paused. “And you’ve been under such tension, so troubled....”
“But I’m no longer troubled, Mistress,” Tullia said calmly. “Nor have I lost my reason. He is alive. Mary of Magdala talked with him at the tomb. We’ve just come from there, Mistress.”