How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 38 - A World Beyond The Walls

--Valeria POV--

It had been six months since I last saw the palace.

Six months since I left behind marble halls, gilded ceilings, and the weight of a crown that had never truly felt like mine. Six months since I watched the capital disappear behind me beneath the cover of darkness, with my son in my arms and no destination in mind.

Sometimes, I still woke up expecting to find the familiar walls of my chambers surrounding me. Instead, sunlight spilled through a small wooden window, warming the humble room that I had slowly come to call home.

It was smaller than the dressing room I once owned in the palace, the roof leaked whenever it rained too heavily, and the floors creaked beneath every step, but somehow, it was perfect, and life had become astonishingly simple.

Though that did not mean it was easy.

I had never learned how to do any of these simple tasks, and growing up, servants had always appeared before I realised I needed something, meals prepared themselves, clothes folded themselves, and floors somehow remained spotless without my ever wondering how.

Out here, I quickly discovered that none of those things happened by magic. The first loaf of bread I baked was so hard that even the village dogs refused it. I ruined more dresses learning to wash clothes than I cared to admit. And the first time I attempted to light the hearth by myself, I very nearly filled the entire house with smoke.

I had cried more than once from sheer frustration. Not because I wished to return to the palace, but because I had realised just how little I knew about living.

"Ouch!" I hissed, going to rest a hand against the gentle curve of my womb. It turned out that six months ago, I had been struggling on the journey because I was pregnant with my second child. Unexpected, but not something I found myself resenting.

"You are kicking me with more force than your older brother ever did." I mumbled, rolling my eyes at the thought of this child being as energetic as Evan. And that in turn, made me think of Stacius. It would be a lie to say that I was not terrified; he had been with me every step of the way with my first pregnancy, but now he did not even know about our second child's existence.

I still loved him, and I suspected that I always would. Leaving him had never meant I stopped loving him, it simply meant that loving him was no longer enough for us to survive one another.

Originally, I had planned to flee abroad, but travelling overseas while pregnant, and with a young child was incredibly dangerous, it was a risk I was not willing to take. Besides, Rome is my home, I can disappear into familiarity here, and Evan can learn his culture freely.

"Aurelia, are you still not finished with hanging up the washing?"

Snapping out of my daydream, I looked over my shoulder to the elderly woman who was tutting at me, coming to help me by picking up a blanket and throwing it over the washing line.

Aurelia was the name I chose to go by since I arrived here. Valeria Juno Aurelia Caesar is my full name after all, so it did not feel unfamiliar when I was called by it.

"Six months you've been here, child, and you still hang washing as though it is negotiating with you." She continued to complain as she helped me, instilling a small laugh from me.

"I have learnt it, I am simply taking my time because this pregnancy is taking up all my energy." I defended to which she only tutted again.

Livia was an elderly widow, it was thanks to the help of villagers like her that I was able to survive. I may not have been able to hide that I was a patrician, and how could I have? My hands were too soft, my speech too refined, and even the way I stood demonstrated years of careful etiquette that was drilled into me.