A Coin for the Ferryman

Chapter Twenty-four

When she saw Minimus she waved a fist at him. ‘That’s him — the one who robbed me. And me a widow, too. Thinks he can come and trick me, because he has a fancy horse. Then telling me he was His Excellence’s slave! Well, I knew that it was nonsense, so of course I changed my mind. I’ve seen His Excellence’s messengers in town — all scarlet tunics and fancy capes and things. Give a good price for one of those, I would.’ The woman folded her plump arms across her chest. ‘And that’s another thing. What would His Excellence want old tunics for?’

‘I think he will be glad to see it,’ I observed. ‘If it’s the tunic that I think it is. Did you sell one like it to a passing peasant girl?’

I had confirmed that my patron had an interest in the case, and I saw that the officer had taken note of that, but the woman rattled on without pausing for a breath.

‘Sell it to the peasant girl? That’s what the slave boy asked and I told him then I’ve never sold her anything at all. Of course, I’ve seen her in the forum market with her mother many times — the girl with the peculiar greeny plaits, if that’s the one you mean. In fact, she used to come sometimes and look at what I had. If anyone needed my stuff it was her — that dress she wore had got to be at least a size too small. But I used to shoo her off because she never bought. Where would she get the money from?’

‘She did have money, before she died,’ I said.

‘Not when she came to me she didn’t, citizen. The last time I saw her, she even said as much. She was bemoaning the fact that she didn’t have the means to bribe that fellow in the town who was offering all the street acts a chance to show their skills and possibly be chosen to be sent to Rome. Not that she would have had the slightest chance — she couldn’t sing or anything as far as I’m aware, and anyway he disappeared and most of the acts were disappointed in the end. But she was desperate to try and he was taking anything people offered him, even a few quadrans if it came to it. But she didn’t even have that. So she certainly couldn’t have afforded that tunic — even if I’d had it at the time, which I didn’t anyway. It’s not a cheap item, as I told the lad.’

The commander was clearly impatient with all this gossiping. ‘So, what is the value you claim that you are owed? It was a second-hand tunic, is that what I understand?’

‘But an expensive item, mightiness, all the same. Almost entirely unused, and lovely soft material — flimsy, cut low round the arms and neck, and dyed in the most expensive yellow dye. Granted there is a nasty tear across the back, but it could be mended with a little care. The nicest thing that I have had all year — and he just thinks he can walk off with it.’ She nodded towards Minimus with a spiteful look. ‘Or are you going to pay me what he owes me, citizen?’ She named a price that would have made a statue blink.

The slave boy shot me an apologetic glance. ‘That’s what I promised her. I’m sorry, citizen. But I was certain you’d want the tunic when I saw it on the stall.’

‘Silence, slave!’ The commanding officer was brisk.

‘Speak when you are spoken to and not before. You hear?’ The fat guard gave the boy a shake to underline his point.

Minimus looked appealingly at me. ‘But master! It’s the one I saw Morella wearing that day. I’m sure I’m not mistaken — it’s not a colour or material that you see every day. I thought it would help you and His Excellence with your enquiries-’

‘Silence, prisoner! I am making the enquiry here!’ The commandant gestured briskly to the guard. ‘Take him outside until I call for him,’ he ordered, and without further ceremony the boy was marched away.

‘So there might be more enquiries?’ I saw the woman blanch, and tug at the leather apron she wore. Something had made her nervous, and it gave me an idea.

‘Where did you get the tunic from, anyway?’ I risked a little enquiry of my own. ‘Since the servant says he saw the girl in it, and you agree that it was on your stall today?’

The change in her manner was quite remarkable. ‘I’m just a poor old widow, citizen. I bought it in good faith. If it was stolen, how was I to know? I don’t ask too many questions — in my trade, you don’t. A young man brought it to me, and I gave him a good price. That’s all I can tell you.’

I glanced towards the officer for permission to go on. He had been listening intently, and he signalled his agreement with his brows.

‘This young man you speak of. Would you know him again?’

She shook her head. ‘Not really. It was not a face I knew. Funny sort of accent, that’s what I noticed most — I guessed he’d come from Venta, or somewhere west like that. He clearly was a trader: he had pots and things to sell.’ A reluctant shrug. ‘They were good items — I didn’t haggle.’

‘Items?’ That was the commander.

She nodded. ‘Offered me some sandals — very nearly new. I didn’t put those on the stall, because they fitted me. A little bit small across the top, but good enough to wear.’ She lifted her brown tunic to exhibit them. ‘And those were not Morella’s, I can tell you that! She was still wearing those awful boots of hers when I last caught sight of her.’

‘What do you mean, “still wearing”?’ I pounced on this at once. ‘You saw her in that tunic, didn’t you? And don’t attempt to lie. Remember, we can make enquiries in the marketplace. If you saw her, other people will have seen her too.’

The market woman had turned an unhappy scarlet by this time. ‘All right — I might have seen the girl in something similar, I suppose — if you ask round the market they will tell you that — but how was I supposed to know that this was hers? Anyway, it seems that the previous owner had discarded all the things. The fellow said he’d found them stuffed into a hedge, wrapped in a bit of sack — well, who’d do that if they still wanted them? Stands to reason they’d been thrown away.’

‘You said yourself the tunic was most unusual,’ I said. ‘You must have been suspicious when it turned up for sale. Didn’t you even wonder what had happened to the girl? Especially since you knew her well enough to know her name.’

‘I thought she’d gone off with that fellow she was looking for — and if he took advantage, it was no concern of mine.’ The tone was grudging now. ‘She came to the forum in that tunic late one afternoon, asking everybody where he had gone, and trying to leave messages for him if he came back. That’s when I heard her name. “Tell him Morella wants him and she’s got the money now,” those were her very words. Well, I know the girl was simple, but boasting of money in the marketplace? That was almost asking to be set upon and robbed.’

‘And you thought that’s what had happened?’

She was about to answer when she saw the trap. Knowingly selling stolen goods is treated as theft — and though she was presumably a freewoman at least, and therefore only subject to a fine, there was a case to answer. No magistrate was likely to accept that she believed the goods had really been accidentally discovered in a hedge!

‘I told you, I thought she’d gone off,’ she said defiantly. ‘If she had money, she might have paid the fellow to let her tag along — and he might have let her do it, for a little while at least. He’d do anything for silver, from what I saw of him.’

‘I thought you said she had no money when she last spoke to you,’ the officer put in. He had sat down at his table now, and was looking searchingly at her. The focus of this enquiry had changed dramatically.

But she had an answer. She gave a crafty smile. ‘But that day she didn’t speak to me at all. She’d turned up in that tunic — far too short for her — and a great big bundle of other things as well. She didn’t need to come and look at my poor stall that day. She went and stood by the basilica — where that young man used to stand — and when it was clear he wasn’t going to come, I heard her asking people to pass the message on. Of course I would have done it for her,’ she added virtuously, ‘only I never saw him in the market any more.’

‘Nor Morella either? You didn’t think that odd?’

‘Well, I knew he’d gone to Londinium, with those acts and everything. The ones that did get chosen to go to Rome. Naturally I thought that she’d caught up with him.’

‘Can you describe this young man she tried to bribe?’ The commander was scribbling something on a piece of bark. ‘In case we need to seek confirmation of all this?’

‘Well, of course I can. Big, sandy fellow, with enormous hands. Wears an olive-coloured tunic — wonderful material, you can tell it cost the earth. Ask anyone in the forum, they’ll all say the same. The slave of that visitor from Rome with all the stripes, he was, and supposed to have a lot of influence with him. Not the sort of person you’d want to argue with. So if he’d made her sell the tunic, to pay a little more, it wouldn’t have surprised me. She had her other clothes. I told you, citizen, I bought it in good faith.’ She seemed to feel that she had given a plausible excuse.

It seemed that the garrison commander agreed with her. He had no especial interest in the fate of a peasant girl and he was clearly anxious to be rid of all of us. ‘Well, citizen, are you satisfied with that? Or shall I arrest this woman for selling stolen goods?’ He looked at me with a calculating twinkle in his eye. ‘Perhaps some sort of accommodation might be reached? It would be a valid reason for the slave to seize the article, of course, if he had reason to think that it was dishonestly obtained.’

He was offering a graceful end to this affair. I took his cue before his patience frayed. ‘If she will drop the charges she made against my slave, I will not insist on her arrest.’ I could see her looking hopeful, and I said hastily, ‘Provided that I can take the tunic with me now, that is. It may help us trace the girl. Her father is anxious and — as I think you know, Commander — my patron has an interest in the case.’

The stall-woman had looked as if she might resist my request, but the mention of my patron was enough to change her mind. She licked her lower lip. ‘You’ll pay the promised price?’

‘I think that might be an infringement of the law, until we ascertain that it was not stolen from the girl. Otherwise it is not yours to sell.’

I looked at the commander of the garrison with surprise. I had not expected him to take a moral stand over a second-hand tunic with a tear in it, however unusual it might prove to be, but his next words made it clear that he was seeking to find a compromise that would cost me nothing. ‘I think I will confiscate it temporarily, and have it sent to show His Excellence — you may not realise, woman, that he called here himself today? Concerning a body which was discovered near his house and a young woman who has disappeared.’

The woman let out a fearful shriek at this. ‘A body! So that trader did kill and rob her. I was afraid of that. But I didn’t know it, citizens, I swear by all the gods. I thought she’d gone to Londinium with the other acts.’

The commander was sharpening his pen again by now. He dipped it in the ink. ‘What other acts are these?’

‘He’s got a cart of reptiles with him — or did when he left here. And some sort of comic actor — that’s what the rumours say. They weren’t even local. His master must have seen them somewhere else and chosen them — they only came here to catch up with him. Some of the better acts round here were furious when they knew — but no doubt the chosen ones had offered bigger bribes.’

He made a note of this. ‘So if we want to find this fellow it should not be difficult. . “accompanied by a cartload of snakes”. .’ He sounded sceptical. ‘You haven’t any other information about him, I suppose?’

I frowned. ‘I think his name is Hirsius,’ I said. ‘I’ve heard of him before. A servant of that cousin of Marcus’s who is visiting. And it is true about the entertainment acts. Apparently the Emperor rewards variety and Lucius has been seeking out a few to take back with him to Rome. I believe they may already have reached Londinium — according to a message my patron got today.’ I frowned. ‘Though they have must have made good progress — with the baggage cart as well.’

‘Baggage?’

‘There was a wagonload of luggage too, I understand, some of it belonging to His Excellence himself. He’s hoping to catch up with it before he sails, I think — most likely at the house of the commander of the fleet, where my patron and his wife expect to stay a day or two.’

The garrison commander put down his pen and sprinkled ash on to the document to dry the ink. He smiled. ‘Of course. I have just forwarded a letter to that very house. Well, that explains it. I could send a message there to see if the girl is with the carts, but otherwise there seems little I can do, unless her father wants to bring some kind of charge?’

I thought about the coins. ‘I doubt that very much.’

He pushed away the memo that he’d been scribbling. ‘In that case, citizen, I will restore to you your slave — and you, woman, can go back to your stall. It’s almost closing time. And you will return that belt that you were given as surety. I’ll keep the tunic here until I see His Excellence. Guard!’ The fat soldier put his head round the door. ‘Show this woman and this citizen downstairs, and you can release that servant boy as well. There will be no charges.’

It was a dismissal. The woman puffed off down the stairs to close her stall up for the night, but I stood, considering. I would scarcely have time to reach the funeral guild now, and certainly I could not visit the dancing girls as well.

I turned to the commander. ‘I had another slave — I think I mentioned it? — the one who stopped the horse. He was delivering some letters to you when all this began. Do I understand that he is in the gatehouse too?’

The officer picked up an official scroll and opened it. ‘He did give me the letters, certainly, and the instructions as to where to send them to. They are already on their way. But I think he said he had another errand to perform. Something about the slaves’ guild and a funeral? He said that he would come back here when he’d accomplished it.’

So Niveus had shown some initiative at last! I was still smiling as I went back down the stairs.