Lydia Leonard

52 B.C. Eager to return to Rome after eight long years of war, Gaius Julius Caesar ends his campaign with a resounding triumph in Gaul--and news of a shattering personal loss at home. When his army's gold standard is stolen, Caesar's cousin and commander Mark Antony enlists two soldiers, Centurion Lucius Vorenus and Legionnaire Titus Pullo, to track it down. In Rome, Caesar's old friend Pompey Magnus is counseled by Cato, Cicero, Scipio and other old-guard members of the Senate, who worry that Caesar's popularity among the masses will rattle the patrician status quo, along with their wealth and power. Pompey, too, has experienced a personal loss, which Caesar's niece, Atia, looks to assuage through an offering of her daughter, Octavia. Careful to play both sides of an escalating power struggle, Atia sends Caesar a grand token of her esteem, hand-delivered after a perilous journey by her precocious 11-year-old son, Octavian.

Before setting off for Europe to escape her heartache, Lister invites Christopher Rawson to Shibden to rebuke him for publicly insulting Marian. Later, Lister comes up with a bold strategy to mine her own coal and expose the Rawson brothers' industrial-scale theft. In Scotland, Ann Walker becomes increasingly distressed when she discovers that her brother-in-law, Captain Sutherland, plans to marry her off to his penniless cousin. Lister travels to London with her old flame Mariana Lawton, a trip that exposes crippling memories of their past relationship. Despite his lowly social status, Thomas Sowden plucks up the courage to speak to Mr. Washington about his future with Suzannah.