Rome in Flames by Kathy Lee

kid brother. He seemed to find it embarrassing.
    But his attitude towards me was changing. He treated me more like an equal these days. Instead of telling me what to do, he would ask what I thought about things. I liked that.
    â€˜What will you do with your freedom?’ Marcella asked him.
    I already knew what he would say. ‘I’m going home. Home to Britain.’
    â€˜But it’s such a long way,’ said Marcella anxiously. ‘Right on the edge of the empire. Will you be able to walk that far? Your leg hasn’t healed properly yet. And Bryn will really miss you – so will we.’ Marcella and Crispus had grown fond of Conan in the time he had been staying with them, and his news came as a shock to them.
    â€˜Oh, I don’t plan to walk it,’ said Conan. ‘I’ll go by sea. It’s spring now, the time when ships set sail. How much will it cost to sail to Britain?’
    Crispus and Marcella had no idea. But they talked to a friend of theirs, a cart driver, who often travelled to the harbour at Ostia. Conan rode down with him to find out what he could.
    When he returned, he came to see me outside Manius’s school. (It didn’t matter if Manius saw him. I had explained that Conan’s master had set him free – I just didn’t mention that the master happened to be me.)
    Conan was looking depressed.
    â€˜I only found two ships sailing for Britain. One of them isn’t taking passengers. The other one is, but it’s far too expensive. Especially for two of us.’ For I meant to go too, naturally, though no one knew that apart from Conan. We’d managed to keep our plans a secret from everybody.
    He said, ‘There’s only one thing to do. I’ll have to walk. I’ll take it slowly and hope that my leg doesn’t give me too much trouble.’ He lowered his voice, even though we were speaking Celtic. ‘Are you with me?’
    â€˜Yes, of course. But how can we find the way?’
    â€˜I talked to some sailors. They said that if we keep going north and west, eventually we’ll come to the far coast of Gaul. Then there’s a short sea crossing to Britain – less than a day.’
    He made it all sound so easy. But I knew it would be a long, exhausting journey . . . dangerous, too. Robbers might attack us in the mountains. I might be captured and punished for running away. We might get lost and walk far in the wrong direction.
    â€˜We’re going to need money to buy food,’ said Conan. ‘Quite a lot of money – we could be on the road for months. Can you get some from the same place as last time?’
    I knew what he meant – steal something. But I didn’t feel too keen on that idea. Tiro always said it was wrong to steal.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It could be risky. Why don’t we just wait until I can save up some money?’
    â€˜But that could take months – years. I can’t wait that long. I’ve got to get out of this city! I can’t stand the stinking place.’
    He was right; the city did stink. As the weather grew warmer, the smell, like a village dunghill, was getting more noticeable. But it wasn’t just the smell that bothered him. Conan hated Rome and everything Roman. Although Crispus and Marcella had been good to him, he couldn’t forget that they were Roman too. He would be happy to leave their house.
    For me, it was different. I didn’t feel as bitter as Conan, but then my time in Rome had been much easier than his. I hadn’t been badly mistreated, or forced to fight for my life. Of course I wanted to go home, but I also felt there was no need to hurry.
    And I knew there was someone I would really miss – Tiro. To leave him would be almost as bad as leaving my own family. I couldn’t even tell him what we were planning to do. Conan insisted on that, for he thought Tiro might try to persuade me to stay.
    Perhaps I