Keeping up to date with the battles between men was near the bottom of her list of priorities right now. She hadn’t even been properly introduced to Brigid or the other goddesses, whose names she didn’t even know.

  She looked around and saw that the other goddesses were still staring at her, Eithne, and Lúnasa. The girl in her arms might be the easiest way to make new friends. That was what new mothers in Rome did. They made friends, since childcare was a communal thing, and Augusta had come to know most of her mother’s new friends very well when she was a child.

  “What’s her name?” a woman from the crowd asked.

  “Lúnasa,” Augusta answered, with much reluctance. She was becoming the centre of attention again. She wanted to run away.

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  “What does that mean?” a young girl, who wasn’t much bigger than Lúnasa herself, yelled in a shrill voice.

  “Lú means small,” Eithne explained, “and nasa means…”

  “To be born,” Augusta finished. “It’s Latin.”

  You’d think Augusta had declared the drinks were on her from the way all these goddesses suddenly began to swarm around her. They started asking questions. About her. About Lúnasa. But most of all about Latin and this strange place called Rome they’d never heard of.

  Amidst all these questions and answers, Augusta realised they were as clueless about Rome and its culture as she was about them. She thought divine beings would know all about the peoples of the world, but that wasn’t the case.

  She cradled Lúnasa further as she backed into the dark wooden bar. This was not the introduction she’d expected, or even wanted.