Ovid

15

'She's beautiful.' I must've been staring at the old girl with a pretty feral grin on my face because she suddenly squirmed on the seat and looked nervous as hell. 'Absolutely beautiful. Where did you find her?'

Perilla frowned.

'I've just told you,’ she said. ‘My Aunt Marcia bought her when Julia was exiled. The estate was broken up and her property sold. Now please behave yourself and stop frightening the poor thing.' She turned to the slave. 'Don't worry, Harpale. He won't do you any harm. That's his natural expression.'

'Cut it out, lady.' I tried to look benign, but the old slave was watching me like a rabbit watches a snake. Her eyes were a pale washed-out blue: candid and slightly stupid. 'I only want you to answer a few questions, Harpale. Okay?'

'Yes, sir.' The woman's voice was light as a dry leaf.

'Fine. We'll start, then. You were the Lady Julia's maid. Was she a good mistress?'

The old woman's smile was surprisingly sweet and innocent.

'Oh, yes, sir,' she said. 'She was really kind. A lovely mistress the Lady Julia was.'

'Did she have many men friends?'

Harpale lowered her eyes. She might not be too smart, but she knew what I was asking, and she stayed quiet so long that I thought I could guess the answer.

'Some, sir. Lit'rary men like the Lady Perilla's stepfather.'

'What about Silanus?'

The thin lips pursed. 'You asked me about the Lady Julia's friends.'

'So?'

'Silanus was round at the house often enough, sir. But not when the mistress was on her own. Only when the master was there. They was very friendly, sir, him and Master Paullus. Not that he came to dinner much. Not that kind of friendly. He'd drop by at odd hours. The middle of the afternoon usually. Or late in the evening. The mistress might be in the sitting-room as well, she often was, but it was the master he really wanted. You could see that, sir. Anyone with half an eye could see that.'

Uh-huh. I glanced at Perilla.

'Tell him about the man with the ring,' she said.

Harpale turned to her. 'Oh, no, madam. He didn't have no ring. That was the point.' The pale eyes shifted back to me. 'He came at odd hours too, sir. Sometimes with Silanus, sometimes on his own.'

I could feel the hairs at the back of my neck crawl. 'Did this guy have a name?'

'Not that I knew, sir. I only saw him the once, and' — her hand sketched a hood or a mantle-fold. — 'his head was covered.'

'What's this about a ring?'

'He wasn't wearing one, sir. At least,' she held out her skinny right hand and indicated the last finger, 'he had the mark, see, but the ring was missing.'

'It could've been in for repair.'

'Oh, no. He never did have no ring, so Davus said.'

'Davus?'

'The door slave, sir. He used to let the gentleman in, of course. Not that he knew who he was either, even though he did see him once.'

'You mean he saw him? Saw the guy's face?'

'Yes, sir. Just that one time, at the end, when the gentleman's hood slipped.'

'But he didn't recognise him?'

'Not that he'd admit to, sir. But Davus was like that, he wouldn't've told anyone, even one of us other slaves. Not if the mistress ordered him not to.'

I saw something I shouldn't've seen and didn't report it.

Like a guy who kept his face covered and visited the traitor Paullus at odd hours? The hairs on the back of my neck were crawling like I had fleas.

'Could the Lady Perilla's stepfather have seen this man too at any time?’ I said. ‘Seen him and recognised him?'

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Perilla shoot me a sharp look. One up for the boys. She obviously hadn't thought of that angle.

'Perhaps, sir. Davus might know that, too.'

'You mean Davus is still alive?' Beside me I heard Perilla gasp: score two. Celestial bells rang. Jupiter, I thought, if you give me this one thing…

'Oh, yes, sir. Davus is alive. Of course he is.'

I sat back in my chair. I could've grabbed the old girl and kissed her, but that would really have sent Perilla up the wall.

'So where is he now? Can we talk to him?'

The candid eyes were suddenly not candid any longer; and they were firmly fixed in the old woman's lap.

'He ran away, sir,' she said. 'Just after my mistress was arrested.'

'Where did he go?' Perilla broke in. Then, when the old woman didn't answer: 'Harpale, please tell us. This is important. You know, don't you?'

'Yes. I know.' The old woman's voice was barely audible, and I could make a good guess why. A recaptured slave gets pretty short shrift: he's branded across the face with a red-hot iron and sent to the mines, or to one of the agricultural gangs. Either way he doesn't live long, if he's lucky. 'I can't tell you where Davus is, madam. That's not my secret. But if you only want to talk to him I'll arrange it.'

I hadn't realised that I'd been holding my breath. Now I let it out.

'Yeah,' I said. 'Yeah. Okay. Any time, any place he chooses. He won't get into any trouble through me, I promise you. In fact I may be able to do the guy a favour or two.'

She was shaking her head.

'No, sir. Thank you but no,' she said firmly. 'Davus is all right, sir. He doesn't need nothing, not now. He'd like to see the mistress cleared same as I would, and if this'll help then he'll talk to you with pleasure. The Lady Julia was innocent, sir. I told them that, even when they broke my leg to get me to say different.' I glanced down at her lame foot. Yeah. That made sense. Against his master, a slave's evidence is only valid under torture. 'The mistress was no whore, sir. No more than her lady mother was.'

Everything went very quiet; so quiet I could hear the sound of the fountain in the ornamental pool inside the house.

Julia's mother, the other Julia, Augustus's daughter, had been exiled too. Also for adultery…

Gods!

'Uh… You mind running over that again, Harpale?' I tried to keep my voice calm. 'Just for the record?'

Harpale was quite composed. She could've been stating the most obvious fact in the world. Perhaps, to her mind, she was.

'Oh, yes, sir,' she said brightly. 'I was a present to the young Lady Julia on her marriage, but before that I was her mother's maid. That Lady Julia was innocent, too.'