"Quintus Drusus will be here in two days' time," Gaius said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Two days!" Kyna glared at her husband, outraged. "You did not tell me until this man was but two days from our villa? Ohh, Gaius! This is really too intolerable of you! Every servant is needed in the fields for the spring planting. I have no time to prepare for an unexpected guest from Rome." She glowered fiercely at him.

"He is family," Gaius replied weakly. "Besides, our home is always pristine, Kyna. You well know it."

"The guest chamber must be cleaned and aired. It hasn't been used in months. The mice always take up residence there when it is shut up. The bed needs a new mattress. The old one is filled with lumps. Do you know how long it takes to make a new mattress, Gaius? No, of course you do not!"

"Let him have the old mattress, Mother," Cailin said. "He will leave all the quicker if he is uncomfortable."

"He will not leave," Gaius Drusus said, recovering his equilibrium, and his dignity as head of this household. "I have promised his father that Quintus will have a future in Britain. There is nothing for him in Rome. My cousin, Manius, begged me to find a place for the boy. I have given my word, Kyna."

"You did not approach him first with this silly scheme to marry Cailin off?" she demanded. She was beginning to see the issue in a different light now.

"No. Manius Drusus wrote to me two years ago," said Gaius. "Quintus is the youngest of his children. If he had been a girl it would have been easier, for they could have married off a girl with a modest dowry; but he is not a girl. There is simply no place for Quintus in Rome. The sons of Manius's first marriage are all grown with children of their own. Manius parceled off his lands to them as each married. His daughters were well dowered, and wed as well.