"Latin" we both said together.
"Who has killed master, mistress" I read aloud.
"What do you think it means" said hunter.
"Not sure, who do we know that was killed in Rome by there mistress", i asked.
"I only know of one famous person , who was killed in Rome, at the moment, Julius Cesar, but he was killed by Brutus, not his mistress", he replied.
"I mean, it is the book of secrets right, maybe the history books have it wrong" I replied touching the paper with my finger.
"Who was his mistress", said hunter.
"Servilia, in fact that was what was started Brutus to want to kill him, see Julius was at a meeting, when Servilia sent him a love note, and some guy or other, got pissed off, he wasn't paying attention or something and asked he read the note aloud, no one knows what the letter said, but it made Brutus so mad, he and a few other council members stabbed Julius like 23 times". I replied.
"yes i vaguely remember something about it in class" said hunter.
"At the time she was like the princess of the people, coming from a well to do family of sorts, she was always campaigning money for this war and that, she and Portia, Brutus's wife kind a hated each other, Brutus was mad over him not able to marry her , in the beginning, but got too in the end, Servilia always stuck by Julius, it was rumoured at one point they, they thought Brutus was his illegitimate son, but the timeline would have put Julius 15 at the time, so they thought Servilia's daughter Junia was probably his instead, it was noted that he gave her a priceless Black Pearl after some war he was in, made a big to do about giving it to her, that's when everyone found out she was his mistress, Brutus was his most honoured, assassin, but he killed himself on the 23rd, freaky, date wise right, anyway Servilia, died a natural death, but to this day that pearl has never been found", I said.
We sat in silence
"Do you think, Marcus wants us to find the priceless pearl" said hunter.
"Maybe" I leaned back on the shelf and tried to think.
"I mean it was on page 47" chuckled hunter.
"I'm, still in shock we actually found the book at this point" I replied looking up the ceiling of the library.
"yes" said hunter and put his fingers though mine and squeezed.
"What to do, what to do" I said, "Fuck it" I said jumping up. "We better put the book back for now,
don't want it getting in the wrong hands, and I also think it will piss off the current president if he comes looking for it".
"Okay, sounds good, then what", said hunter.
"We research the shit out of Servilia", I said.
"What if that's not even the right track", said hunter.
"Well we will see this through first and if it doesn't pan out, then we will change tacks then, k", I replied.
"K" said hunter, and he tied the book back up and placed back in the square shelf, while replaced the books, no sooner had I replaced the last book the shelf ,it disappeared back and the books moved back in place, concealing it.
"Here or back at the hotel room on the internet there", asked hunter.
"Both", I replied.
"Okay" , said hunter.
"Okay ", I said.
We then set about going through as much roman history about Julius and Servilia and family as we could stomach, but as the light started to dim, we decided to continue back at the hotel, so we left.
Somewhere on the fifth floor a librarian watched them leave, as soon as they did, she pulled her cell phone out and dialled.
"Hello", said the man on the line.
"Mr president, there was a breach at the library", said the librarian.
"Report", said the president.
"They located the book and were working on page 47, they were researching something to do with Julius Cesar and his mistress, Servillia", replied the librarian.
"Excellent, ill have my staff work on it from here, stand down, report if they come back", said the president.
Then hung up, leaving the librarian starring at her phone at the abruptness to which the call ended, "But I wanted to tell you who, they were" she said to the dial tone.
Back at the hotel, they spent the better part of the night and the next day doing research.
"So lets recap, on where she was buried, what do we have so far", I said.
"Okay, well, Servillia, was born 42 BC and she died a natural death in Rome in 104 BC, she was noted to have been given a priceless black pearl by Julius Cesar, she can be buried in one of two places , one, the Basilica Pa pale di Santa Maria Maggiore, or two, she lived the rest of her days at the behest of Titus Pomponius Atticus, were he was said to have been buried at the fifth mile of the Appian way, she could have been buried there too", he replied shuffling the pages we had printed.
"Okay, so one thing is present in both", I mused.
"What", said hunter.
"ROME, she's buried in Rome", I replied.
"Oh god, don't tell me we have to take another flight, I'm so tired", replied hunter.
"You can sleep on the plane", I quickly retorted.
"You now plenty of people had tried to look for it, its just a another dead end", said hunter.
"Yes but they don't have this", I replied as I pulled the parchment from my back pocket of my jeans.
"YOU STOLE THE PARCHMENT", yelled hunter.
"What we know the combination now, we can put it back once were finished with it" I crookedly smiled back with a wink.
"God!, we will be eating slop for dinner with your dad, doing our business in toilets with no doors", said hunter, sitting and slumping back on the sofa burying his face to hands.
"Rome it is then", I deadpanned.
"M mine", said hunter into his hands.
"Fine" I replied back.
YOU ARE READING
THE BOOK OF SECRETS BY TRISTAN SNOW
RomanceHunter and I had known each other since we were children, the best of childhood friends that grew to more the older we got, he was my first kiss, my first orgasm, and I had even lost my virginity to him, we had had the same interests and the book...
