Blood Debts Read online

  Cassia pretended not to hear me. “Perhaps you could guard someone all the way to Neapolis,” she said. “It’s lovely there, across the bay from Herculaneum. Beauty you’ve never seen, Leonidas.”

  “I have seen it,” I answered. “I was hired out for games there, years ago.”

  “Oh.” She sounded a bit disappointed, then brightened. “Then you would see it again, but this time we could wander the streets and eat in the best taverns, and climb the hills for the view. Delightful.”

  “Delightful,” I repeated. “When I look for this job, I’ll make sure the employer knows it must be delightful.”

  “You are making fun of me, Leonidas.”

  “Yes.” I kept my face straight. “Or we can return to Rome, and I can sleep.” I was already tired, longing to reach Marcella’s where I could lie on straw and close my eyes. Cassia and Marcella would talk—and talk—and I’d lie back and let their voices drift over me.

  “You are always sleeping, Leonidas,” Cassia said without rancor. “One day, you will have to wake up.”

  “One day, I will,” I said.

  “I have your word?”

  “You do.” I might be infamis, but I honored my promises, and Cassia knew it.

  “That’s all right then.” Cassia turned her face to the road.

  Before long, she started to hum, a clear tune she liked. In another few yards, she was softly singing.

  The words flowed around me to be caught by the breeze and rise into the clear blue sky.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of the new Leonidas the Gladiator Mysteries.

  As you might guess, while this is the first offering in the series, it will not be Book One. The first novel will introduce Leonidas and Cassia and show how they came to know and depend on each other. I’ll go into more detail about the characters’ backgrounds, the mysterious benefactor, and how Leonidas begins to solve crimes.

  I don’t know at the moment when that book will be finished—please check my website: www.gardnermysteries.com or sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/5n7rz to be notified when it is ready for pre-order and released.

  If a vegetarian gladiator surprises you, archaeologists have discovered, by studying the bones of gladiators and other athletes, that their diet consisted mostly of vegetables, with a little starch, like barley and beans, to supplement it. Gladiators were fed the best foods available, as the more robust a man was, the better he performed and the more money could be made from him. Gladiators also had regular massages after their training and the best physicians to look after them.

  I will explore more about the gladiators’ world and more of Rome in the time of Nero in the novels.

  When picturing the Rome of Nero, we have to erase from the city much of what we think of as “Roman” (e.g., the Coliseum, Trajan’s column, the Pantheon as we see it today, and more)—these were great building projects of the later first and early second centuries AD (Hadrian rebuilt Agrippa’s Pantheon, though he left Agrippa’s name on the portico). We must imagine Rome before the fire of AD 64, when warrens of streets were wrapped with wooden and stone buildings.

  Among my research materials for this era, I found mapping projects of early first-century Rome, which helped me follow Leonidas about the streets, and a fascinating digital reconstruction of Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House), which did not exist at the time of this story, but will come into future novels.

  Again, I hope you enjoyed a look into Leonidas’s world. More to come!

  All my best,

  Ashley Gardner

  Also by Ashley Gardner

  Leonidas the Gladiator Mysteries

  (writing as Ashley Gardner)

  Blood Debts

  (More to come)

  * * *

  Captain Lacey Regency Mystery Series

  The Hanover Square Affair

  A Regimental Murder

  The Glass House

  The Sudbury School Murders

  The Necklace Affair

  A Body in Berkeley Square

  A Covent Garden Mystery

  A Death in Norfolk

  A Disappearance in Drury Lane

  Murder in Grosvenor Square

  The Thames River Murders

  The Alexandria Affair

  A Mystery at Carlton House

  Murder in St. Giles

  Death at Brighton Pavilion

  * * *

  The Gentleman’s Walking Stick

  (short stories: in print in

  The Necklace Affair and Other Stories)

  * * *

  Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Vol 1

  Includes

  The Hanover Square Affair

  A Regimental Murder

  The Glass House

  The Gentleman’s Walking Stick

  (short story collection)

  * * *

  Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Vol 2

  Includes

  The Sudbury School Murders

  The Necklace Affair

  A Body in Berkeley Square

  A Covent Garden Mystery

  * * *

  Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Vol 3

  Includes

  A Death in Norfolk

  A Disappearance in Drury Lane

  Murder in Grosvenor Square

  * * *

  Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Vol 4

  Includes

  The Thames River Murders

  The Alexandria Affair

  Mystery at Carlton House

  * * *

  Kat Holloway “Below Stairs” Victorian Mysteries

  (writing as Jennifer Ashley)

  A Soupçon of Poison

  Death Below Stairs

  Scandal Above Stairs

  Death in Kew Gardens

  * * *

  Mystery Anthologies

  Past Crimes

  About the Author

  Award-winning Ashley Gardner is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Ashley. Under both names—and a third, Allyson James—Ashley has written more than 85 published novels and novellas in mystery and romance. Her books have won several RT BookReviews Reviewers Choice awards (including Best Historical Mystery for The Sudbury School Murders), and Romance Writers of America's RITA (given for the best romance novels and novellas of the year). Ashley's books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages and have earned starred reviews Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. When she isn’t writing, she indulges her love for history by researching and building miniature houses and furniture from many periods.

  More about the Captain Lacey series can be found at the website: www.gardnermysteries.com. Stay up to date on new releases by joining her email alerts here: http://eepurl.com/5n7rz

  Follow Ashley Gardner

  www.gardnermysteries.com

  Copyright

  Blood Debts

  Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Ashley / Ashley Gardner

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  Cover design by Kim Killion

  Excerpt of Death Below Stairs © copyright 2018 by Jennifer Ashley

 

 

 
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