The Lydian Baker

26

I spent the afternoon pottering around the city centre, doing all the little jobs I hadn't had time for these past few days. Like visiting my banker Simon, for example, and screwing some of Priscus's money out of him for expenses. I didn't mind helping the old guy out, but when it came to being beaten up on his account the free ride was over. When I got back Perilla was in the atrium. She didn't look happy. I kissed her, but that didn't seem to help much.

'Problems?' I said.

She threw aside the book she hadn't been reading. I could almost see the steam leaking out from above her earrings.

'Marcus, this is hopeless! You really will have to get rid of that damned bird!'

Oh, hell. Not Nestor again. I knew now how Orestes felt when he couldn't shake the Furies. I took off my mantle and tossed it onto a chair. 'What's he done this time?'

She was up and pacing the room. 'I don't mind so much for myself, but when it comes to insulting my friends I draw the line.'

Uh-oh. 'Ah…we talking general here, or have you someone particular in mind?'

'The latter.' She sat down, finally, on the couch next to me. 'And "particular" is exactly the right word. Euelpida.'

Shit. I saw the problem. Euelpida was one of Perilla's more strait- laced cronies, the wife of a top Lyceum scholar and a mean mind herself. Nestor couldn't have made a better — or a worse — choice. It was eerie.

'She called round earlier for a chat,' Perilla was saying, 'and we went out to the garden.' The 'chat' would've been heavy stuff: I was glad I'd missed it. 'It never occurred to me, of course, that Alexis might have Nestor there. He usually keeps him in his room.'

'And the bastard disgraced himself in front of Euelpida, right?'

'At some length. And in very pungent terms.'

'You remember what he said, by any chance?' I was really interested: Nestor's range of vocabulary was doing wonders for my Greek.

'Not in detail, no.' Sure. Like hell she didn't. Understood it, too: there were red spots high on the lady's cheekbones. 'And I certainly wouldn't repeat it to you if I did.'

Pity; but then I hadn't really expected her to. Some aspects of foreign language learning Perilla doesn't encourage. I lay back and cradled my wine cup. Bathyllus had left the tray out in the hall for me as usual, although there was no sign of the little guy himself. Hardly surprising. When Perilla was in a mood like this even spiders kept a low profile.

'Okay,' I said. 'I'll talk to Alexis later. Maybe we can work something out.'

'You had better. That bird is a liability. A corrupting influence.'

'You think Euelpida is open to corruption?' I gave her my best leer. 'Does Aristoboulus know?' Aristoboulus was Euelpida's husband, a long streak of a guy like an asparagus shoot soaked in vinegar.

'Don't be silly!'

'Yeah, well, you could be right.' I put my arm round her shoulders. 'But speaking of corrupting influences…'

'Now you're trying to fudge the issue!'

'Lady, I never fudge issues.' I nuzzled her ear. 'And I'm sure in Euelpida's case Aristoboulus would welcome some constructive corruption. The poor boob could do with a bit of domestic excitement.'

The sides of Perilla's mouth began to twitch; I was getting through to her at last. 'I suppose,' she said slowly, 'that in retrospect the situation does have its amusing side.'

'That's more than can be said for Euelpida.' I kissed her properly and felt the first small giggle break through. 'What did she say? After Nestor did his stuff, that is?'

'Nothing.' Perilla bit her lip. The lady was still holding on gamely to her Roman matron pose, but the cracks were definitely beginning to show. 'She just ran back inside.'

I stared at her. 'Euelpida? Run?' Jupiter! That I would've loved to see. As far as likelihood went, it ranked with the Academy doing a conga through the Marketplace with Alciphron on spoons.

'Like a hare!' The Roman matron pose finally collapsed, taking Perilla with it. 'Oh, and Marcus, she squeaked! It was so dreadfully embarrassing!'

'Yeah.' I kissed her again. 'Say what you will about Euelpida, the kid's no squeaker.'

'Corvinus, stop it, please!' Perilla was hugging her ribs. 'I've been trying to hold this in all day! It's not funny!'

'Is everything all right, sir? Madam?' I hadn't noticed Bathyllus sidling in. The little guy had evidently decided it was safe to break cover. He was radiating disapproval so hard he glowed.

'Yeah, we're fine, Bathyllus. At least, I am.' I was patting Perilla on the back while she choked into my tunic. 'Behave yourself, lady, you're upsetting the staff.'

'Meton says dinner will be served shortly.' Bristle, bristle: Bathyllus didn't even look at Perilla. 'If you're both ready, of course.'

'Whenever he likes. Oh, and tell Alexis to keep his pal with the beak under wraps when we have guests in future, right?'

'Yes, sir.' He left. I could hear his sniff all the way to the kitchen.

Perilla had finally come up for air. She was bright red, but at least she could breathe now. We settled down on the couch with my arm comfortably round her shoulders.

'I think you've just seriously undermined the empire, lady,' I said. 'Sleep with a knife under your pillow tonight.'

'Nonsense.' She kissed me. 'Anyway, I feel better for that. How was your day?'

'Pretty good, for a change.' I told her about Tiny. 'One gets you ten Smaragdus used him to shift the Baker, and in that case he knows where it's stashed. My only problem now is tracking him down.'

'And getting him to tell you.' Perilla frowned. 'From what you say about this man I don't think you can count on that, Marcus.'

Yeah. I'd made that jump myself. With the best will in the world, the guy was still an idiot. Even if I did find him there was no guarantee I could even make him understand what I wanted. Still, with Smaragdus dead he was the only lead we'd got to the Baker, and without him we could wait another hundred years before it surfaced again. If it ever did.

There was another reason for finding Tiny, too: if I didn't, then sooner or later the opposition would. And when he got the guy into that damned cellar of his, wherever it was, I couldn't see Prince Charming asking nicely.

'So.' Perilla snuggled down 'What are your immediate plans?'

I filled my cup one-armed. 'We wait. There's nothing else we can do. I've got half Athens and the Piraeus on the payroll, and barring some sort of break we'll just have to hope they come through.'

Someone coughed. Bathyllus.

'I'm sorry to disturb you, sir. Madam. Meton reports a crisis. Dinner will be delayed.'

I sighed. A crisis in Meton's book was anything from a full-scale Parthian invasion with four legions massacred to the sauce curdling, in that ascending order. 'Okay, little guy. Just top up the wine jug and we'll sit it out in here.'

'Very well, sir.'

Perilla stayed quiet until he'd oozed off to the kitchen. Then she said: 'Of course, if you're not too concerned about the wine we could always look for a suitable knife.'

'Knife?'

'To put under the pillow.'

Uh-huh. I know when I'm being propositioned. We went upstairs.

We made love slowly while the crisis in the kitchen was resolved. When we'd finished Perilla nestled into the hollow of my shoulder.

'I never asked you,' she said. 'Why the perfume?'

Uh-oh. 'What perfume's that?'

'The bottle you brought me yesterday. What was it for?'

'Nothing in particular. It just seemed a good idea at the time.'

'Really?' I felt her smile. 'I thought it might be an indication of guilt or something.'

'Guilt?'

'I did say "or something".' She reached up and kissed me. 'Not that I'm prying, you understand. I'm just curious.'

'Yeah.'

A pause.

'Euelpida was saying that Aristoboulus has taken to staying out late. Some sort of work party at the Lyceum, or so he told her. She was quite concerned.'

'Is that so, now? And what did you say?'

'I told her not to be a fool.'

I laughed and planted a smacker on top of her grin. 'You want to get dressed? Or should we scandalise Bathyllus some more and go as we are?'

'I'll get dressed, thank you. If you'll let me up.'

I did, eventually. When we got downstairs the crisis was unresolved and there was a woman waiting for me in the hall. 'Woman', not 'lady': Bathyllus is a complete snob over things like that. Sometimes I despair.

'She give a name, little guy?' I said.

'No, sir.' A sniff. 'But she said you'd know her when you saw her.'

'Yeah? What's she like?'

'Young. Quite good-looking, sir. In a common sort of way. Oh, and she speaks Latin.'

Cotile; it had to be Cotile. What the hell was she doing here?

Perilla was looking at me. I swallowed. 'Ah…you want to join us, lady?' I said.

She shook her head and smiled. 'No.'

'Fine.' I turned to the hovering Bathyllus. 'I'll be in the study, Bathyllus. Bring a few lamps and show the lady in.'

It was Cotile, all right. She was nervous as hell.

'Valerius Corvinus,' she said, 'I had to come. I'm sorry.'

'That's okay. No problem.' I pulled up the desk chair and sat her in it. 'You want some wine?'

'No. No, thank you.'

'Have some anyway.' I poured two cups from the jug Bathyllus had left, put one into her hand and took the other over to the reading couch. 'How did you find me?'

'It wasn't difficult. There aren't many purple-stripers in Athens.' We were speaking Latin, and she used the idiomatic word. 'And I'm…off at present.'

'Hermippe let you leave the Scallop?'

'We aren't prisoners. Although we're usually expected to ask permission.'

'Did you?'

She hesitated. 'No. No, I didn't.'

Uh-huh. 'You know I talked to Demetriacus yesterday?'

'Yes. Cleo told me. That's why I'm here.' She gulped at her wine. 'You haven't found your friend?'

'Melanthus? No, not yet.' I paused. 'You know where he is?'

'No.' She looked at me in astonishment. 'Why should I?'

'I just assumed…'

'I told you. I don't know anything about him. Or no more than I've already said.'

'He's not in the building? Hiding out?'

'I don't know. He could be, I suppose. Hermippe and Demetriacus have their own private quarters in a separate part of the house. We girls aren't allowed in there.'

Now that was an interesting tidbit; and I wondered if that was "quarters" singular or "quarters" plural. If Demetriacus and his manageress were an item it might explain a lot.

'Okay,' I said. 'So why did you come?'

'To tell you what I was going to say when Antaeus interrupted us.' She hesitated. 'When Melanthus left Anthe she thought he might have gone down for a chat with Demetriacus.'

'He what?' I sat back.

'Anthe doesn't know for certain, of course. But he often did. They were good friends.' She must've noticed the expression on my face because her eyes widened. 'Demetriacus didn't mention it?'

'No. No, he didn't.' Mention it, hell: he'd specifically said he didn't know the guy. If Cotile was right he was lying through his teeth. And that was interesting. 'You say they were friends?'

'Demetriacus is interested in philosophy. And he wants very badly to be an Athenian gentleman.'

I nodded slowly. That figured: it would explain the careful Greek, for a start. 'An Athenian gentleman? You mean he isn't from Athens originally?' Callippus had said he was an incomer, of course, but like I said that meant next to nothing. The word was a technical term, and always had been.

'No. He's a Cypriot. From Paphos.'

I stared at her. Oh, Jupiter! Jupiter Best and Greatest! 'Demetriacus is a Paphian?'

'Of course. That's why he chose the Scallop's name, for the Paphos connection. He came here about ten years ago and bought the house from Melanthus.'

'Wait a minute.' My brain was spinning. 'Melanthus used to own the Scallop?'

Cotile nodded. 'Anthe didn't know the man's name, but yes. He inherited the property from an uncle. He told Anthe the first time he was with her that the room they were in used to be the old man's study. He found the changes she'd made quite…amusing.' She paused. 'Corvinus, I hope I've done right coming here. Only Anthe is fond of Melanthus. She'd want me to help find him.'

'Yeah. Yeah, sure.' I sipped my wine uncomfortably. 'You won't get into trouble over this, will you?'

'If I'm asked I'll say I was visiting one of our old girls. She's married to an oil-shipper and she lives not far from here. She'll cover for me if necessary.'

'Fine.' I took a gold piece out of my purse. 'This is…'

'No. No money.' Cotile got up. 'I hope it helps, that's all.'

I saw her out.

I hope it helps.

Gods!