Death at Pompeia

Twenty-Two

The bar was heavy and it took a moment for my slave to heave it into place. When he had finished, he gestured to the Neptune and made a wry grimace. ‘Master, I’m glad you’ve come. I haven’t dared sit down. I had the feeling it was watching me.’

It was a relief to laugh, but I knew what he meant. This was a house of secrecy and spies. The feeling was made all the more oppressive by the distant wail of the lament and the insistent plangent twanging of a lyre. I found that I was moved to whisper, as I said, ‘Have you seen anyone since the steward left?’

He shook his head. ‘He was going to tell the family that you were here, he said, but he has not been back. Oh, but here’s Pulchra coming for us now.’

And indeed the stout maidservant was bustling towards us down the court, though her face did not look very welcoming. Her greeting, when she reached us, was not encouraging. ‘The mistress isn’t very happy that you’ve come. She says she did as much as possible for you yesterday. It isn’t right, you know. Interrupting a family during mourning rites.’

‘I am still working to clear Pompeia’s name,’ I said. I didn’t mention that I also had to clear my own. ‘And we now have two murders, not just one, to solve.’

She made an impatient little clucking noise. ‘Well, Pompeia didn’t murder Antoninus, did she, citizen? She was fast asleep and guarded the whole afternoon. She never left the house. Nor did Helena Domna either, come to that — and nor did my mistress — till you sent for her, by which time Antoninus was already dead. The whole of the household are witnesses to that. And you questioned them all yesterday about Honorius. So I don’t know what you hope to gain by coming here like this.’

‘Pulchra,’ I said gently, ‘you love Livia, I think?’

She glowered at me uncertainly. ‘Well, of course I do. I’ve known her all her life. And who wouldn’t love her — Juno bless her little heart? Even her pompous husband thought the world of her.’

‘So you can’t think of anyone who’d tried to poison her?’

The scowl vanished and she stared at me, surprised. ‘Whatever do you mean? Who’d do a thing like that? And how could it happen, in a house like this?’

I nodded sagely. ‘That is what I’m trying to find out. But it occurs to me, that it’s remotely possible. Livia took some medicine in the mornings, didn’t she? Against the morning sickness, I think Maesta said. And she opened a new phial of it, only yesterday. Did anyone handle it but Livia herself?’

‘I don’t think so, citizen.’ She pulled her lips down at the corners in a sort of a grimace. ‘I broke the seal and poured it out myself.’ She looked at me, aghast. ‘You think that Maesta might have substituted poison in the phial? And that Honorius took it by mistake?’ She shook her head. ‘I really don’t see how. The master would never deign to take anything like that — and you could not have missed it. The stuff smelt horrible. Besides, I saw her drink it, and she was quite all right.’

‘And the watered wine that she took afterwards, to take the taste away? I remember that you mentioned that she always needed some.’

She had turned white, as if the notion had shocked her to the core. ‘She did think that there was something a little odd in that — but then she often did, when she’d been taking that revolting stuff. Made me have a taste of it, and Honorius too — though it tasted perfectly all right to me. But she insisted that Honorius should go and test the wine, in case there was something the matter with the batch. He laughed at her, but he did it all the same.’

So that was the solution to that riddle, I thought. ‘And what happened to the jug that she’d been drinking from?’

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t really know. She sent me out to test the water in the well. The wedding guests were already beginning to arrive. Oh. .!’ She gave a little gasp. ‘You think it was that wine that might have poisoned him — and not the stuff in the new amphorae after all?’

I nodded. This was a new theory and I was pleased with it. ‘I wondered what it was that made him decide to test the wine — one doesn’t generally do a thing like that. But Livia thought there was a problem — tasted something unusual, perhaps — and she persuaded him. .’

She seemed pleased. ‘Of course. He would taste every amphora in the house, if she’d requested it. But wouldn’t he have died a little earlier, in that case?’

‘A small dose, especially diluted with water in a jug, might have taken a little while to take effect — and that would still tie in with the events of yesterday.’

‘So you think it was my mistress that the murderer was really aiming at? Dear Jupiter, I hadn’t thought of that. You’re very clever, citizen.’ She frowned. ‘But how can that be right? I tasted the mixture in that jug myself, and so did she — and we’re as alive as you are, aren’t we, citizen?’

She clearly had a point. I shook my head. ‘There’s something missing in my thinking, and I don’t know what it is. But I do think it may have been related to Livia’s medicine. You see now why it is important that I came?’

‘Of course you had to, citizen. I can see that now. I’ll go and tell my mistress what you have just said. Then I’m sure she’ll come and speak to you herself.’ She made to go but I put out a quick restraining hand.

‘I don’t want to frighten her. Just tell her that I think I’m on the right track, and keep on guard yourself. Oh, and tell her that I’ve brought that writing block. I think I have established whose it really is, and that Antoninus had no right to it. So I can hardly keep it, when he sent it to me. She ought to have it, if anybody does.’

Pulchra’s plump face beamed with happiness. ‘There now! Aren’t you generous? What a nice idea. I thought she was overhasty giving it to you. Even if it isn’t hers, it’s so like the one she lost she ought to have been pleased to have it — that’s what I would say!’

‘But the initials on it show that it was sent to Anton. .’ Minimus began, but I gave him a fierce look and silenced him. He went and stood by Neptune in something of a sulk, but I had other plans.

‘Go and tell the doorkeeper I’d like a word with him,’ I said. ‘About Antoninus and his dealings with the house. Ask the steward to send him a relief.’

Minimus nodded and trotted unwillingly away. I took advantage of a private conversation with the maid. ‘Just before you go and bring your mistress here, there’s one other question I’d like to put to you. Pompeia tells me that her sister liked your mistress very much. Would you agree with that? There was never any jealousy between the two of them?’

Pulchra looked at me in mock reproach. ‘Not a bit of it, citizen. Why, they were as close as — ’ she looked around, as if she was seeking inspiration in the colonnade — ‘as that fellow Remus and his twin. You only had to see them together to know that.’

‘You went with Livia to visit her stepdaughter, I suppose? I can’t imagine she’d have taken any maid but you.’

Pulchra grinned proudly. ‘You’re right there, citizen. She wouldn’t go without me, not on a trip like that. She took me every time, and I was glad to serve — despite that awful journey, which always jolted me till my poor old teeth were rattling my head. It’s a long way, in a carriage — especially in the rain, when it’s harder for the heavy luggage cart to keep up behind. We couldn’t do what the master sometimes did, and go ahead by horse.’

‘And on that final visit, was that what he did?’

She shook her head. ‘The mistress was hoping she was you-know-what — ’ she patted her own ample stomach to show me what she meant — ‘so he decided that he would travel in the carriage too. I’m lucky he didn’t make me follow in the luggage cart — that would have been a trial.’ She gave another grin. ‘But it was worth it when we got there.’

‘In what way worth it?’

‘They made a proper fuss. Honoria always did when Livia came to stay. Turned out of her own beds, more than once, and made Miles do so too, so that the master and mistress could have the nicest sleeping rooms. Even I was given a private cubicle. They put on banquets and entertainment every night, and always gave the mistress an expensive gift.’ She gave me that hostile glowering look again. ‘And see how the master repaid them for all this!’

‘You did not like Honorius very much?’

‘I did not, citizen. I’ll say it, now he’s dead. Livia was too good for him, and that’s the fact of it. And as for his mother — oh, but here she comes. I’ll go and get the mistress, excuse me, citizen.’

I could not blame her for avoiding Helena Domna’s company today. The older woman’s stony countenance was a match for any statue in the colonnade. She was still draped from head to toe in black, though today devoid of any jewellery. She was attended only by the page and she was not so much leaning on her stick as carrying it as a sort of potential baton in her hand. Remembering her prowess with the wedding fan, I promised myself that I would keep a wary eye on it.

The stick, however, could not have been more stinging than her words. ‘Pavement-maker! The steward informed me that you had come back. Presuming on your vaunted patronage again? Well, I hope you have something of importance to impart. Did you imagine that you’d be welcome here?’

I took a swift decision. Attack, I concluded, was my best defence. ‘Not as welcome as Antoninus, I suppose.’

There was a silence. Then: ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Only that he was a fairly frequent visitor. And at such unsocial hours, I understand. The other night for instance.’

The grim face hardened further. ‘And what of that? It was my son Honorius that he came to see.’

‘And now they both are dead. Is that coincidence?’

There was a sudden spark of colour in the sallow cheeks. ‘I heard that Antoninus had collapsed and died. It’s most unfortunate.’

‘And just before I was due to visit him,’ I said, softly. ‘Was that a coincidence as well? Or was there somebody who knew that I was going to call on him — and that he had something he was going to tell me when I arrived? Something that they’d rather I didn’t hear?’

She turned away, the fingers gripping more tightly round the stick. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Oh, I think you do.’ I was insistent now. ‘You knew that I’d been asked to call there, didn’t you? Not immediately — as one might have thought — but later on. Now why would Antoninus stipulate a thing like that? So there was time to pay him off, if a sufficient bribe was to be offered him? And who — apart from you — knew what was in that note?’

‘I don’t have to answer this,’ she said. ‘Besides, it is pure conjecture. You have no proof at all. In any case, the note was sent to you — why should he suppose that I should even learn of it?’ But she had waved the page away, so he was out of earshot, I observed.

‘Because he sent a writing tablet that he knew would catch your eye — indeed, the eye of almost anyone living in the house — because it looked like one that Livia had lost.’

She stamped an impatient foot at me. ‘But, fool, how could he know that I would see it — as I said before?’

‘He made sure that it was delivered to me here. I would obviously receive it in the company of you or Livia. I’ve heard that Antoninus had a little trick of taunting people with the evidence he had — and I think that writing tablet was a case in point. He let this household know he had it, and that was itself a threat.’

She looked at me stonily. ‘It was no threat to me. I simply knew that Livia had lost one like it, at one time — through her own stupidity. Carelessly left it where a thief could get at it, though it was a rare and valuable thing. She never did appreciate the fine things in this house. .’ She broke off as hurrying footsteps echoed in the court and Minimus came hastening back to us, nodding to signal that his mission was complete.

I gestured to him to remain where he was, beside the figure of Minerva in the court. I turned to Helena Domna. ‘Fine things? Like that statue where my servant’s standing now?’ I said.

That silenced her. For a moment, anyway. She slashed at the pathway in frustration with her cane, and when she spoke again her passion frightened me. ‘Get out of my house — you tradesman — before I throw you out. Mourners or no mourners, I will have it done. What right have you to come here and insult me in this way?’ Her voice was rising to an impressive pitch. ‘Get out, do you hear me? Seize him, page, and thrown him out of doors.’

Given that page was no more than eight years old, and that even Minimus could have felled him with a single blow, it was not a realistic prospect. The poor lad gazed at me, then galloped off towards the atrium as fast as he could go, shouting as he did so, ‘Mistress! Steward! Come!’ It echoed round the courtyard, and even the tuneless wail of the lament, which had been issuing from the atrium all this while, momentarily faltered before it rose again.

Livia burst into the courtyard, from the little passage to the front part of the house. She was accompanied by Pulchra and the steward too. ‘What is this disturbance? Libertus, is it you? And mother-in-law, whatever is the meaning of this irreverence? You, of all people, to disturb your son’s lament!’

Helena Domna had recovered a little of her lost patrician poise. She glared at me with baleful hatred in her eyes. ‘This upstart pavement-maker is accusing me of personal involvement in this sordid affair concerning Antoninus. He insulted me. I simply ordered that he be removed, but all that useless little page could do was shout for help. But now that you have come you can throw him out yourself. You should have had him locked up yesterday, when I suggested it. I will not be insulted in my own home like this.’

Perhaps it was that last remark that saved the day for me. Livia bridled. ‘But, Helena Domna, I am mistress here. If Libertus has accusations, then we should hear him out. But not here in the courtyard. Let us go inside. In the triclinium would be the best, I think, where there are seats enough for all of us and the steward can bring us some refreshments while we talk.’

And with quiet dignity, she turned and led the way.