Poseidon_s Gold

XIV

If I was ever to solve the soldier's murder I needed to take a more direct hand. Petronius Longus had warned me to keep away from Flora's. I had no intention of obeying him. It was lunch-time, so I turned my feet straight towards the caupona.

Wrong move: I was compelled to go past. One of Petro's troopers was sitting outside on a bench beside the beggar on the barrel. The trooper had a pitcher and a dish of soggy stuffed vine leaves, but I knew what he was really doing there: Petro had told him to make sure I didn't get in. The man had the nerve to grin at me as I passed by, faking a nonchalant expression, on the far side of the street.

I went home to Ma's house. My second mistake.

'Oh Juno, look what's straggled in!'

'Allia! What have you come for-a bodkin or a pound of plums?'

Allia was my second-eldest sister; she had always been Victorina's closest ally, so I was as low in Allia's affections as the grit in an empty amphora, and she had never featured at all in mine. She must have been here to borrow something-her normal occupation-but luckily she was leaving just as I arrived.

'Before you start on about Festus-don't!' she informed me with her regular brand of truculence. 'I know nothing about it, and I really can't be bothered.'

'Thanks,' I said.

There was no point in attempting to argue. We parted company on the threshold. Allia lurched off, big-boned and slightly ungainly, as if she had been mishandled during the birth process.

Helena and Ma were sitting at the table, both fairly straight-backed. I threw myself on to a coffer, ready for the worst.

'Allia has been telling us some interesting stories,' Helena announced bluntly. That would be the Marina incident. It had been useless to hope she would never find out.

I said nothing, but saw Helena lock her teeth on the left-hand side with an angry overlap. I was angry myself. Encountering Allia always felt like reliving several hours of childhood-the dreariest part that normal memory sensibly wipes out.

Looking tired, Mother left me alone with Helena.

'Stop looking so shifty!' At least she was speaking.

I drew a long breath, surreptitiously. 'You had better ask me.'

'Ask you about what, Marcus?'

I wanted a chance to explain things away. 'Ask about whatever poisoned thistle Allia planted in the melon field.'

'I'll find you some lunch,' said Helena Justina, pretending she had not heard this magnanimous offer.

She knew how to punish me.