A Roman Ransom (15 page)

Behind her, Junio pulled a face at me. Now that she had started she was like an undammed brook, and would babble on till I stopped her.

‘Well, you have been most forthcoming, and I’ll tell Marcus what you’ve said. Is there anything else of interest that you can helpfully recall?’ I murmured.

The gentle irony was lost on her. She took a deep breath and lunged on again. ‘Oh, lots of things. I told your manservant. In fact, when you come to think about it, you realise there were a whole host of omens of bad luck that day – though, funnily enough, we didn’t notice at the time. But afterwards, when we were talking in the sleeping room, we all remembered just how bad it was. I told your slave.’ She gave Junio a flirtatious look. ‘I tried to tell my own master about it too, but he wasn’t interested.’

‘My master is!’ Junio said, but she really needed no encouragement. She was already launched upon the list of evil auguries.

‘To start with that morning, the butter wouldn’t set – you know what an awful sign that’s supposed to be. Then the master stumbled on the threshold when he left the house – left foot, too, so it would have been safer not to go out at all. Then Julia’s hem got hitched above her feet so that her ankles and her sandals showed – I saw her like that in the court myself – and for any matron that’s an omen of bad luck. The perfume oils refused to mix, as well, and then – about mid-afternoon – the gate-keeper saw a flock of wild birds flying overhead and they circled round the house from left to right. Well! You know what a dreadful portent that is, if the proper sacrifices don’t get made – and of course they didn’t, ’cause the master wasn’t here. And when he came in, he didn’t seem to care. He was too worried about where his wife and child were gone. But you know what they say: “When the geese fly sinister, there’s trouble for the house.” The gate-keeper was grumbling at the time.’ She flashed a winning smile at Junio. ‘Was that the bit you wanted me to tell?’

I glanced at my slave, who grinned back at me, in a way which suggested that his heart was safe. He nodded. ‘I thought the gate-keeper was interesting. That is why I called her in,’ he said.

‘Which gate-keeper was that?’ I prompted.

‘Aulus, his name is. He’s an awful man. Smells of onions, and tries to put his hands on you when you aren’t looking. But I believe his tale about the birds. It fits in with all the other omens, too. He tried to tell the master, I know that. Not that the master took any heed of it. Aulus has been complaining bitterly for days that he offered information, but was given no reward. Anyone in the servants’ room will vouch for that.’ She glanced at me underneath her lids. ‘Will I be getting anything for this?’

‘I told you,’ Junio said promptly, ‘I’ll see what I can do. It all depends on whatAulus has to add. When he’s off duty, we will have him in.’

She tossed her head. ‘Well, he’s off duty now. He must have been relieved, for a little while at least. I saw him going into the kitchens earlier. Looking for more onions, I shouldn’t be surprised.’

I was about to ask about the rota for the watch – whether Marcus had left the gates unguarded, after all, and at what hour the relief arrived and how long he’d be on guard – when I decided I could derive the information with more certainty from the door-keeper himself. I beckoned Junio.

‘Perhaps we should speak to Aulus.’

He had read my thoughts. ‘I’ll go and summon him.’

‘I’ll show you where the kitchens are!’ That was Porphyllia.

I was about to urge that there was no need for this as Junio knew the house but I realised that I’d disappoint the girl, and – more – that if she didn’t go with him, she’d stay with me, and after all her burbling I was worn out as it was.

‘Do that,’ I said, leaning back upon my pillows with a sense of luxury. ‘Oh, and Junio – while you’re there, tip out that goblet in the gardens as you pass. I don’t care to offend the medicus.’

He picked up the offending cup and went to the door with it. Porphyllia was already waiting for him there, and as they went out into the court I heard her asking, ‘Here, what’s that? A potion from the medicus? They say it’s almost magic, what he does. Would he make me a love draught, do you think? There’s a boy I’m rather fond of, but he doesn’t notice me. I’ve got a few sesterces which I’ve managed to put by and if I asked the doctor . . .’

Their voices faded into silence and I leaned back on my bed. I was thinking about Aulus. If I was right, I’d met the man before.

It was the same Aulus, though I was surprised to find him here again. Marcus had transferred him to the Corinium house last year. I had suspected it was the man I remembered as soon as Porphyllia mentioned onions, and when he came into the room there was no mistaking him: a great coarse lumbering bear of a man with a leering manner, shifting eyes and a habit of flicking his tongue out nervously and moistening his thin lips when he spoke.

He did it now. ‘Ah, citizen, it’s you. What do you want with me?’ He eyed me warily. Unlike most other people in the house, I knew about his past. He had been gate-keeper here long before Marcus had acquired the house, and in those days Aulus had combined his duties at the gatehouse with the more profitable business of spying for the state – informing on his previous owner to the authorities. True, the man in question was a most unpleasant person – but the chief authority in this area, then as now, was Marcus Aurelius Septimus himself.

So Aulus had always been Marcus’s private spy, trained to keep an observant watch and doubtless duly rewarded for his services. It was not an arrangement I cared for even then, especially since Aulus was not over-blessed with brains – but he’d fulfilled his double role with a certain cunning relish, and Marcus had used him quite a lot. I’d even had some useful leads from him myself, though I’d had to bribe him for the privilege. So it was particularly interesting now to hear that he was publicly grumbling that he had given information to His Excellence, and had not been paid for it.

‘What do you want, citizen?’ he said again. ‘I’ve got to be back on duty very soon.’

I looked at him. He really hadn’t changed. He had swapped his former ugly cudgel for a more formal sword, and he now sported Marcus’s scarlet uniform and a handsome heavy cloak, but apart from that he was the same old Aulus still, right down to the stench of onions and stale beer. He was born to be brutish and rather underhand, and there was a hint of menace in the way he looked at me. There was no room for subtlety. I tackled him outright.

‘Porphyllia says you have been cheated of your just rewards,’ I said, trying to sound as sympathetic as I could. Aulus was always on the lookout for a
denarius
or two, and I thought this was the best way to gain his confidence.

Aulus was not so easily cajoled. He looked at me with distrust. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard. There was a flock of birds,’ he muttered. ‘Flying left to right. Got to be an omen of bad luck, that has.’

I hauled myself a little more upright. ‘Aulus,’ I said, ‘don’t waste my time like this. There’s something else. Of course there is. Marcus didn’t employ you all those years to have you tell him nonsense about flocks of birds.’

He turned a sullen red. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘there was another thing. I’ve told His Excellence – but he’s not interested. Said it was not significant, since it was not that afternoon.’ He licked his lips again. ‘Of course, if you could see your way . . .’

I ignored the blatant hint. ‘What was not significant?’ I said.

He hesitated, obviously still hoping for a bribe.

‘His Excellence will tell me, if you do not,’ I said. ‘Save yourself a whipping, and tell me what it was.’

He breathed stale onions at me. ‘The fact that there were people lurking in the woods,’ he said at last. ‘At least, I think there were. Julia said she saw them, and she’s no idiot. But when I went to look, there was nobody in sight. I suppose they slipped away into the trees.’

The way he spoke about the mistress of the house was over-familiar from a household slave, but I ignored it. ‘When was this?’

‘That morning, when she came back in the carriage from visiting her friends.’ He hawked and spat, leaving a damp patch on the floor beside his feet. ‘Might have been the kidnappers spying out the house, I thought.’

‘It’s possible, I suppose. Have you told Marcus that?’

He shrugged. ‘I tried to. But His Excellence would hardly hear me out. Said that when it came right down to it, I hadn’t seen anything at all. Me, who was his eyes and ears for years! And he refused to pay a single
quadrans
for my help. I think that he actually believes . . .’ He broke off.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

‘He thought you made it up, to earn a share of that reward?’ I said, and was answered by his shifty, red-faced scowl. I nodded. I would not have put it past the man, myself. ‘I’m surprised that you did not suggest he checked the facts. Other people must have seen them.’

‘I did suggest it, but who was there he could ask?’ Aulus retorted gloomily. ‘The carriage-driver might have noticed, I suppose. But it was not our private coachman. Marcus had our carriage out himself, and Julia had arranged to hire one for an hour or two, so that she could go out when she wanted to.’

I pricked up my ears. ‘Was that unusual?’

He shook his head. ‘She’s used the man before: she books him when Marcus has appointments in the town. Fellow’s got a little business on the Glevum road: a coach, half a dozen horses and a cart or two. I think he has a stable lad, and another man who drives for him as well, but he mostly makes a living hiring himself out. Next time I saw him I asked him if he had noticed anyone in the woods, but he swears he didn’t hear or see a thing. He doesn’t want trouble with his wealthy customers, that’s the truth of it, and of course I can’t force the man to talk. And then I got annoyed and did a stupid thing. I said it was a pity the mistress wasn’t here herself to tell him what was what, but His Excellence got to hear about that and he was furious. He lost his temper, roared at me and refused to pay me anything at all. I’ve even had my duty shifts increased – I’m sure the master had a hand in that.’ He had turned pink and shifty.

I was thinking that in the circumstances it was a wonder that his remark had not earned worse, when Junio (who had been standing by so quietly that I’d half forgotten him) asked the obvious question. ‘What about Julia’s attendant?’ he enquired. ‘The wet nurse accompanied Julia that morning, didn’t she? Surely she could speak up on your behalf?’

I turned to Aulus. ‘By Bacchus, so she did. That’s right, isn’t it?’

He made a scornful face. ‘Of course she could, if only she was here. It was her who got out of the carriage at the gate to tell me what Julia had seen. I didn’t think of that at first – it was only after the master had been quizzing everyone that I remembered it.’ He caught my eye and flushed. ‘All right, so by then he was offering rewards. What difference does it make? By the time I thought of getting the wet nurse to vouch for me, they’d sent her home again. I can’t leave my post and go off to look for her. And Marcus wouldn’t listen when I tried to talk to him.’

‘Well then, I’ll talk to her myself as soon as possible,’ I said. ‘If she bears out what you say, I’ll tell His Excellence myself. She’ll be here in the morning, I believe.’

‘So they’ve arranged to have her back, have they? I wondered if they would.’ Aulus’s ugly face turned pinker yet. ‘She generally gets here about the second hour,’ he went on. ‘You do that. Talk to her. You’ll see. She’ll tell you that what I said is true – in general terms at least.’

So he was already starting to retract his words! I turned to Junio. ‘You can watch out for Myrna when she comes. Make sure she doesn’t speak to Aulus at the gate. I don’t want him coaching her in what she has to say.’

The gate-keeper sneered. ‘Don’t worry about that. I’ll be off duty and asleep by then. She usually uses the back gate anyway – after all, she’s not a visitor. Myrna only came the front way if she was accompanying the mistress anywhere.’

I looked at him suspiciously. Of course Myrna was likely to go round to the back – like any other tradesman visiting the house. But all the same . . .

Junio, however, was ahead of me. ‘Master, I knew you’d want to see her,’ he said. ‘I’ve left instructions with all the gate-keepers that they are to let us know as soon as she arrives tomorrow. Whichever gate she uses.’

I nodded. ‘Well done, Junio. I’m sure that Marcus won’t object if we have a word with her first thing – though obviously we’ll have to keep it brief. Marcellinus will presumably need feeding by that time and she will have other urgent duties to perform. But it won’t take long to discover if what Aulus says is true.’

Aulus grunted. ‘You’ll find out,’ he said. ‘Now, was there anything else, or can I go back to the kitchen and find something to eat? They had a bit of bread and soup for me, but no doubt it’s cold by now, and anyway I’ll be lucky if I’ve time to eat at all. I told you, they’ve increased my duties at the gate, and there’ll be trouble if I’m not back double-quick. I’m on an extra half-shift as it is.’

‘Very well, Aulus, you may go,’ I said, and he stumped out without another word.

‘So,’ Junio said, ‘we’ll see what Myrna says?’

I nodded. ‘I was anxious to talk to her in any case. It seems she was the only slave about that afternoon – even if she was in the kitchens at the time – and I want to hear her version of events.’

In fact, the more I thought of it, the keener to speak to her I was. If we were looking for somebody with links inside the house, but who had the opportunity to come and go at will, Myrna was obviously a candidate. Furthermore, Marcellinus had been cared for, after a fashion, while he was missing from his home. Someone had fed him, kept him clean and rubbed him in hog’s grease as a protection from the cold. Someone who knew about young children, by the look of it. And Myrna might have done that – she had been absent from the house. But why? And what had she to do with Lallius?

I shook my head. It was hard to imagine why the child’s own nurse, who clearly loved him well, should tear off his precious bulla and his clothes, give him poppy juice to keep him quiet and pack him inside a basket in the dark. And what of Philades? Did he somehow know the girl? Had they met before, in Glevum? After all, they had both worked for councillors. Had she somehow been instrumental in the doctor’s being here?