Chapter 27: Nevy at Home

It was still raining enthusiastically. There was a stiff breeze from the east, blowing the rain sideways every now and then. It was about ten p.m., in the middle of Senior Week. I was wearing a Roman-style tunic instead of shorts and a tee shirt, which would have fit in a lot better. I was soggy already as I bent over to retrieve my dropped my phone and keys from the puddle they had landed in. We don’t wear undies with our togs in the Much Later Roman Empire, so every time I bent over I felt like Big Chief Rain-in-the-Ass. My beautiful bride was beside me, gasping with the chill of the rain that had already soaked her hair and probably ruined her light wool dress.

“Come on!” I yelled, escorting her to the other side of the car, doing my high-stepping dance through the puddles. I got the door for her and Nevianne got in quickly. I ran back around, jumped into the driver’s seat, and started the car, hoping the heat would kick in soon. “Damn, it’s a nasty night!” I grumbled. I had forgotten quite how nasty.

“It’s a wonderful night!” she corrected me. “Will you show me a Star Wars? Please?”

“How about tomorrow night, babydoll?” I suggested. “I’ve got plans for tonight!”

“We did that last night,” she pointed out, pouting very prettily.

“And the night before,” I pointed out.

“And this morning,” she added.

“This morning was wonderful,” I told her sincerely.

I got a slightly bedraggled-looking smile in return. “Wasn’t it though?”

The wedding had been lovely. We had tied the knot at the legate’s compound at Castra Taurorum, with all our friends and clients and three covens and three turmae of troops in attendance. We had a priestess of Minerva officiate, since one thing I needed was a bit of wisdom. Leofgif and Eadgyth had decorated in blue-on-blue. The bride’s dress was dark blue with a light blue mantle, and her attendants wore a paler blue. Chulëntët was the flower girl and Blæda was maid of honor. Nannakussi was my best man. I had given my Nevianne her rings – iron to wear in the house, gold for public wear. We had both voiced our consent and I had untied the belt of her dress, the Knot of Hercules. So I guess we actually untied the knot. One way or the other, her mother’s worries were over. We had a year or so before she’d start asking about grandchildren.

Drusus, as legate, appointed me as the official Provincial Wizard. I inherited all Palégos’ property, to include land, cash, slaves, and clients. We were rich. We started building a comfortable Roman-style house about a half mile from where the Asa Packer mansion is in our reality stream, which put us in the heart of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. We made a formal tour of the province with the new legate and met more people than than either of us could could possibly remember. It was all kind of dizzying. The purpose wasn’t for us to remember them, but for them to get to know us.