The spring of 98 AD is a time of optimism and business is brisk at Aurelia Marcella’s inn on the road to York in Brittania. Then a wagon arrives bearing a local farmer seeking treatment for a grievous sword wound. Before the farmer dies, he tells Aurelia his family is in grave danger and hints that her sister’s family, living near him, is threatened too. Aurelia sends for her twin brother Lucius, who is a government investigator. Together they head for the eastern coast to find out more, and to check out a shipwreck bearing valuable official cargo. A band piratical Gauls is working the area—are they cover for something worse? Third in the Aurelia Marcella series.