A Roman Ransom

Chapter Twenty-two

The newcomer was Pulcrus, very pink and out of breath, but smoothing down his hair and uniform, and clearly still conscious of his own good looks. He strode importantly into the triclinium, paused theatrically, and made an exaggerated bow. ‘Your pardon, Excellence. .’ he began.

Marcus interrupted. ‘You have just come from Myrna’s house? Is that correct?’ He flashed a sharp glance at me, as if inviting me to register that he was already taking action on my immediate request.

Pulcrus was taken visibly aback by being greeted with this brusque salutation, and obviously concluded that he was deemed to be at fault. ‘I ask your pardon, Excellence. I’m sorry that I was not here before now, but it was your own command that I should stay until the guard arrived. I rode back as quickly as I could, but. .’

Marcus made an impatient tutting noise, and cut him off again. ‘I did not ask how long it took you to get back. The question is whether you came here straight from Myrna’s house. Am I to take it that you did?’

Pulcrus nodded dumbly.

‘Then you may have important information, which we need to know. Our views about this kidnapping have changed. It seems that Myrna was not a simple victim, as we thought, after all. It seems she may have been a chief conspirator.’

‘Myrn-’ the page began, but then thought better of it and turned the exclamation into a sort of cough. Only his eyes spoke his astonishment.

Marcus fixed him with an iron stare. ‘Myrna! And not only Myrna, but her sister too, it seems. Both this citizen and the medicus have come to the same conclusion, and I cannot ignore their combined advice. I am about to give orders to the guard to bring the entire family in. But, of course, we don’t know where they are. Unless one of them has been back to the house? It didn’t look as if any of their possessions had been removed, and presumably someone will have to return for their things. Did anybody come while you were there?’

I thought privately that if I had that ransom money and something had gone wrong, I might well disappear and leave my possessions exactly where they were — especially if I still hoped to extort more payment by and by. However, I knew my patron better than to contradict him again.

It seemed that I was right. The pageboy was already saying, in an injured tone, ‘There wasn’t anyone at all. In fact I was beginning to wonder when your land slaves would turn up to take my place. I was a bit worried that whoever killed Myrna would come back. .’ He tailed off with a shudder.

‘But of course they didn’t,’ Marcus said unsympathetically, as if he were not the one who had left the boy alone at the scene, without so much as a dagger to defend himself.

Pulcrus managed an unsteady smile. ‘The only person I saw at all was that woman who wanted to buy the medicines. She came by on the road, with a pile of kindling on her back and all the children trailing after her. I did wonder for a moment if she had expected Myrna’s mother to be back, and was hoping to buy that remedy for the child — I thought she seemed to hover for a moment at the gate — but if so she must have changed her mind. Next thing I knew she was walking on again.’

I glanced at Marcus. It was not my place to intervene in this, but that woman was our best link to Myrna’s family. I took a risk and voiced what was in my mind. ‘That might be significant in itself. Do you think she saw you?’

Pulcrus looked from me to Marcus. He seemed to hesitate, as if waiting for permission to reply.

To my relief my patron’s irritation was directed at his slave. ‘Well? Answer the citizen,’ he said.

Pulcrus shrugged. It was not important to him to be polite to me. ‘I don’t know. I suppose she might have done. I was standing where you left me, just beside the door — and of course my horse was in the lane. All I know is that she didn’t come up the path at all — in fact she hurried off as fast as possible and never gave the house a second glance.’

‘So she slipped through our fingers once again.’ Marcus looked vexed. ‘I regard her as suspicious. She must at the very least have known that the house was ransacked when she spoke to us, because she’d just been round the back — and yet she didn’t say a word. I intended to have her brought in for questioning.’

Pulcrus, who had been looking apologetic until now, suddenly became unutterably smug. ‘I knew that, Excellence,’ he said. ‘I heard you say so when you were at the house. So — forgive me — I told the land slaves so, and Malodius has gone off with two of them to try to pick her up. I hope I did the right thing, Excellence.’

Marcus waved a vague hand. ‘Of course you did. Well done, Pulcrus. Remind me to give you a reward — an extra tip or something of the kind.’ The page began to preen until Marcus added, ‘Provided that the woman talks, of course. We can expect her shortly?’

The cocksure swaggering disappeared like smoke. ‘Of course I don’t know exactly where she lives. I pointed out to them the direction that she’d gone, and with all those children she won’t be hard to find. They were all carrying firewood, so they weren’t moving fast. I left Malodius to look for her and rode on ahead. I thought you would require my services.’

Marcus nodded. ‘Then you can wait outside.’

Pulcrus looked almost comically nonplussed. ‘Your pardon, Excellence,’ he stammered. ‘I have a message for you — from the gate-keeper.’ His owner looked like thunder, and he went on hastily, ‘I would have delivered it before: I was about to do it, but you asked me to report on Myrna’s house and obviously my first duty was to answer you.’

‘The message?’ Marcus did not look convinced. ‘I presume it was not urgent?’

‘I don’t think so, Excellence. There is a man to see you, that is all. Not a citizen or anything. A slave-trader by the look of it. He says that you invited him to come. The chief steward didn’t know what to do with him while you were occupied in here, so he’s put him in the atrium to wait. He’s left his cart of goods outside, with Aulus standing by to keep an eye on it. The chief steward says to ask you if he should provide some food and wine, or wasn’t this that kind of visitor?’

Marcus nodded. ‘I was expecting him. Tell the slaves to offer hospitality, but not the finest wine. A few dates perhaps and some of that watered Rhenish stuff I didn’t really like. But see that he is comfortable — he has come all the way from Rome, and he will have been travelling for days.’ He looked down at his amber robe and sighed. ‘I suppose I’d better go and change my clothes — I can’t conduct business in this informal dress. The trader will take it as a sign that I’m not serious, and either try to sell me inferior goods or charge me double for the girl I want. Minimus, go and tell them that I am on my way. Maximus, see that my second-best toga is prepared.’

The two redheads, who had been patiently standing by against the wall with that glazed immobility of all slaves everywhere, sprang instantly to action at his words. They put down the jug of watered wine they had been holding ready to fill their master’s glass again, gave him the linen napkin with which to wipe his lips, and hurried off to do as they were bid.

My patron turned to me with an air of deliberate formality. ‘Libertus, that concludes our interview, I think. You wanted me to bring Myrna’s family in for questioning, and I agree to do so. And I’ll question this other woman too. I would like you to be present when I speak to her. She is obviously more at home in Celtic, and I need your services as interpreter. I imagine that such an arrangement would meet with your approval, too?’

‘I am grateful, Excellence,’ I said with genuine feeling. He had found a clever way of permitting me to talk to the witnesses. Normally I could expect the rulling on my case to be the first thing he did in his role as magistrate. However, since I was to assist him — in an official capacity — with a questioning, any potential hearing against me could be properly deferred until I had discharged my duties. There were several legal precedents for that sort of amnesty, so even the medicus could not object.

However, Marcus’s next words rather modified my joy.

‘Of course, I shall want the medicus to attend me too,’ he said. ‘I will meet you in the atrium as soon as Malodius gets back and I have finished with the slave-trader. I will send for you. Meanwhile, I have important purchases to make. Pulcrus, when we go from here, get the chief steward to summon Philades. I want him to look over this wet nurse with me. And while we are doing that’ — here he turned to me — ‘perhaps it would be wise for you to go back and rest a little while. So, if you will excuse me, citizen.’

And accompanied by his page, he swept out of the room, leaving me and Junio staring after him.

Junio turned towards me with a grin and offered me his arm. ‘Well, master, it seems I should assist you to your room.’

I grunted. Marcus had not actually ordered me to bed, but he had made his wishes clear, and really I did not have a lot of choice. ‘Oh, very well,’ I said. ‘But you can take me for a short walk round the courtyard first. I want to see exactly where one would have to stand to see the other courtyard from this part of the house.’

‘Then put your hood up, master, or you’ll catch a chill.’ I was still wearing the cloak which Junio had brought me, and he arranged it over my head and shoulders as he spoke. ‘It is actually raining now and you’ll get wet otherwise, even if you stay underneath the colonnade.’

I submitted to his ministrations and we hobbled round the court, but I found there was little more to learn. It was clear that Porphyllia’s description was correct and that the only clear sight of the place where the supposed Julia had sat was from the passageway which led into the private wing.

I walked as far as the storage cupboard Porphyllia had told me about. It was a large walk-in affair and I peeped inside, but there was nothing to be seen but neat piles of linen and baskets of supplies.

I would have liked to go through to the inner court and investigate the path that led out to the orchard and the gate. I was about to do so, when the door of one of the apartments opened from within, and a pair of handmaidens came bustling out with bowls of water and a linen cloth, obviously attending Marcellinus in some way, so I stepped quickly back. I did not want to be observed myself.

I was thinking of all the questions which I ought to ask Myrna’s sister, if I got the chance. How long, for instance, did it take a woman to change her clothes? Gwellia could have advised me, perhaps, if she had been here. Where was she? Still at Numidius’s house? Thank all the gods that Marcus still had it under guard — at least Lallius was unlikely to return there for a time. In fact, I had been hourly expecting the arrival of soldiers bringing Gwellia back to us in chains. If only they would do so! Though, I reminded myself, in my present situation it was dangerous for her here. She might well be imprisoned as my conspirator. The sooner I could solve this business, the better for us both. I turned my mind back to Myrna’s sister and the cloak.

I decided to try a small experiment. I said to Junio, ‘I wonder if you could arrange to bring me another cup of mead?’

He looked surprised, and then a slow grin crossed his face. ‘I see. You want to see how long an errand of that kind would take. Well, if you are sure that you can manage from here on your own?’

‘Of course I can. It’s no more than a step or two at most, and Cilla is waiting in the room. She will assist me if I need any help. Anyway, I really want the drink. I’m chilly and the warmth would do me good. I’m sure it would improve my health more than any of the doctor’s wretched medicines.’ I waved him off, and watched him scuttle over to the kitchen block, which was in a separate building at the far end of the court that we were in. Just time, I thought, for Myrna’s sister to slip out of her room, dressed in a servant’s tunic and cloak, drop Julia’s cloak in the courtyard where it would be seen, and be in the orchard with the pile of washing and the child before Myrna came back with the fruit and raised a well-feigned alarm. A voice rang out behind me.

‘You there! Aulus! What are you doing there? Why aren’t you on duty at the gate? Who gave you permission to come and get your cloak? You ugly whoring son of a she-bear, I’ll have you whipped for this. Just wait until I tell your master that I found you here.’

It took me a moment to realise that this was meant for me, but eventually I whirled round — or as near a whirl as I could manage in my current state of health. The voice belonged to Marcus’s chief steward and the man himself was hastening towards me with his baton raised, his plump face puce with fury and his hobnailed sandals ringing on the ground. As I turned to face him, his expression changed. He turned from angry purple to an embarrassed white, his blue eyes almost popping from his head

‘Oh, a thousand pardons, citizen! I did not realise that it was you. Only I knew that Aulus didn’t have his cloak and I thought for a moment. .’ He tailed off in confusion

‘You mean, you didn’t think at all,’ I said.

That flustered him. ‘Of course, I should have looked again before I spoke. I thought you. . he. . didn’t look quite the same as usual.’

‘A Greek understatement, if I ever heard one,’ I replied. It was true. I did not look anything like the gate-keeper, even from the back. Aulus was noted for his size and strength and, granted that the cloak perhaps disguised my lack of width and thinning hair, nothing could alter the fact that I was a good hand shorter than him. Besides, I have thin bony ankles. Aulus was stouter and hairier than a bear.

The steward was still burbling. ‘Forgive me, citizen. Those things I said to you — the insults — it was unforgivable. Please, if there is anything at all that I can do. .’

I found that I was grinning for the first time that day. ‘I have been tempted to call Aulus a few names myself. You have already been more help than you realise,’ I said. ‘You have just proved that it is possible to see what you expect and jump to the wrong conclusions about who you are looking at. Are you prepared to tell your master that?’ Marcus seemed ready to believe me anyway, but I felt that this testimony would improve my case.

‘Of course, citizen, if you insist.’ The steward looked chagrined and alarmed. ‘I suppose that will be strictly necessary? I am afraid His Excellence will not be pleased with me. I have already earned his displeasure once today, by giving that slave-trader the wrong wine to drink, and to make matters worse he’s had another of those wretched ransom notes. And now I have another message which he won’t want to hear. He’s asking for the medicus to attend him in the atrium and examine the wet nurse that he wants to buy. But I’ve looked right through the villa and I can’t find him anywhere.’