Dark Omens

SIX

Once we were outside in the frosty air again, Lucius took his leave — looking a little discomfited, I thought. Perhaps it was because his servant had set off for Dorn and he was now obliged to walk the streets unattended, but I suspected it was more to do with disappointment over Silvia. Marcus, though, seemed oblivious of any discontent and was happily issuing orders to the various slaves: sending his own pages off to find a pair of carrying chairs and despatching the Syrian to find Bernadus.

‘If you can’t find him in Glevum before the sacrifice, you’ll have to go and find him at his country house. At least, I suppose, you know the way by now,’ my patron said. He turned towards the doorkeeper. ‘I shall leave the other horse in your care meanwhile.’

The man did not seem happy with the task, judging by the doubtful look he gave the beast and the timid way in which he took the reins, but he was trained in obedience. ‘As you say, Excellence!’

‘When Adonisius comes back, and we hear from Bernadus what he wants done with the horse, you can send and let me know — since I am now responsible on Silvia’s behalf,’ Marcus said with a pretence at innocence, though of course was certain what the reply would be.

Bernadus would offer my patron use of it till he returned to town — that is, if he didn’t make an outright gift of it — otherwise he might seem to be discourteous and could never hope to make further progress in the town.

Marcus knew it, too, which was doubtless why he was smiling as he said, ‘I shall be at the garrison praetorium till noon — I’m invited to have a little refreshment with the commander there, to look over the animals for potential sacrifice this afternoon. After the rites, you may enquire for me at home. In the meantime you can tether this creature somewhere here.’

The doorman nodded gloomily, and plodded off with it, obviously hoping to find a hitching point in the alleyway nearby.

That left my little party standing in the street alone with Marcus and the Lady Silvia. My patron turned to me. ‘Shall I see you at the temple later on?’

It would be expected of me, but I glanced up at the sky. The chilly wind had blown away the clouds and a pale sun glittered wanly from an expanse of palest blue. I made a swift decision. ‘I don’t think so, Excellence. With this clear sky, it promises to freeze again tonight, and if we two hope to reach our wives and houses today we should set off soon, before the roads become impassable again. We are — after all — on foot.’

I feared I would offend him, but he simply waved a hand. ‘Then I will say farewell for now. But be good enough to call in at the villa on your way and tell my wife that I shall be detained in town tonight. My duty keeps me here …’ He frowned. ‘On second thoughts, perhaps I’ll ask the commander of garrison if he can spare a horseman to act as messenger. It will be almost dark before you get there, walking, I suppose.’

I bowed. I was relieved to have been spared the need to call myself. For one thing, the villa was not really ‘on my way’ — in fact it was almost a Roman mile further down the lane — and for another I have never been good at hiding things from Julia, his wife. If she had asked me what the nature of this ‘duty’ was, she would soon have deduced that Silvia had undoubted charms. However there was no need to tell my patron this.

I murmured meekly, ‘I would have been honoured to be of service to you, Excellence, of course.’

He gave me a brisk nod. ‘Of course. And later on I shall have need of you. I’ll be home tomorrow and I want to talk to you. I’ll send a slave for you as soon as I arrive.’ He gestured towards Silvia and shook his head, as if to indicate that he did not wish to spell things out while she was listening. I must have looked surprised because he added, with a smile, ‘That little venture that I spoke to you about — I think that I would value your advice.’

I understood his meaning all too clearly now. No doubt he’d want me to look into Lucius’s affairs, to find out what the prospects of a profit were and what kind of men were his associates! I gave an inward groan.

I’d encountered Ulpius’s contacts when he was alive and I was laying that previous floor for him. He’d brought them to admire it: traders and foreign merchants to a man, for many of whom their only home in Glevum was a ship. I could see that this affair of Marcus’s was likely to entail a visit to the docks, and that I would have to go aboard these vessels for myself. It was not a prospect that delighted me. When I was first kidnapped by the pirates in the south and they dragged me from my home, they had forced me to their ship and flung me in the hold, where I’d spent days of terror chained up in the pitching, stinking dark before I was hauled out and sold to slavery. I have hated boats and water ever since.

However, Marcus was my patron and I could only say, ‘At your command, as ever, Excellence.’

‘Very well. I’ll send for you tomorrow,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Now, I see, my pages have summoned me a chair.’ He gestured towards a pair of litters which had just arrived. He turned away and climbed nimbly into the nearest one, with the assistance of his scarlet-suited slaves. ‘The other chair’s for Silvia, of course!’ he called, pulling the curtains closed, and before I could ask him who was to pay for this, the bearers were already trotting off with him, with his attendants scampering along on either side.

I turned around. Silvia was already being assisted up into the second chair by Minimus and Maximus. There was nothing for it! I gave instructions to the litter bearers: ‘To the wine shop opposite the baths. Payment on arrival!’ I winked at Junio and he winked back at me.

‘Very prudent, Father — but we’d better follow them!’ He pointed to the bearers who had already started off and were almost disappearing round the corner of the street. Of course they were strong lads, accustomed to the task, and they moved very fast, so I left Junio to hurry after them, while I — accompanied by my slave boys — puffed along behind.

Perhaps it was fortunate for me that just around the corner, the street was shadowy. The wintry sun had not yet done its work and the pavements were still slippery with slush and heaps of piled-up snow — to the joy of groups of urchins who were using them as slides. More sober pedestrians had therefore taken to the road, and nearer the forum there was still a pressing crowd so I soon caught up with Juno and the litter in the crush. But the litter bearers were happily adept at jostling, using their elbows and their poles to clear a path, so that by following as close behind them as we could, we soon reached the building where the apartment was.

‘You want us to stop at the doorway to the upstairs, citizen?’ the nearer bearer said.

I nodded, still too breathless to reply. The wine shop occupied the lower floor, but there was another entrance way a little further on, which gave on to the stairs. It was, as usual, swarming with people of every age and rank — most of whom were craning to look as we appeared.

‘Take no notice,’ I said to Silvia, helping her to get down from the chair. ‘They are just the people who live in flats upstairs.’

She nodded. ‘From the top floors, mostly, from the look of it,’ she murmured nervously.

She was right of course. There are always several storeys of apartments in a place like this, and the size and status of these establishments decreases dramatically the further up you climb. So elegant apartments, such as Marcus’s, might take up the whole first floor, but the attics are a warren of squalid little rooms crammed to bursting with the free-born poor. There is never any means of heating, in these top-most floors — even braziers are forbidden, lest they cause a fire — but people very often improvize, dragging illicit firewood up flights and flights of stairs, and there are smells of cooking cabbage and telltale wisps of smoke. All this would mean an instant punishment, of course, if the aediles — the market policemen — caught you in the act, so there are often idlers on the landings, or people playing dice, watching all comers with suspicious eyes.

Today was no exception and Silvia drew back a little, obviously alarmed.

I took her by the arm. ‘They are simply curious,’ I told her, hoping I was right. ‘There’s no need to be frightened.’

Junio stepped forwards. ‘Why don’t you wait down here with lady Silvia?’ he said. ‘The slaves and I can go upstairs and tell them we are here — and bring back the money to pay the litter men. That will save you being stared at while they open up the door and they will be waiting for you when you do arrive.’

‘An excellent arrangement,’ I agreed. ‘Tell them to send someone to attend the lady up, as well. I think she would be grateful for a female slave.’ Junio nodded and he started up the stairs, with my slave boys ready to lead the way for him. But they were not required to force a path, in fact — people here were doubtless used to Marcus’s visitors and they stood back quite respectfully to let the toga past.

Silvia watched them and her fingers tightened slightly on my sleeve. ‘Forgive me, citizen. I see that you were right. There isn’t any danger. I always fear the worst. Ulpius used to say it was my greatest fault.’

I still held her elbow and I turned her round until I was looking full into her eyes. ‘And yet, forgive me, it does not apply — it seems — in matters that affect your guardian,’ I said.

She coloured prettily. ‘I’m not sure I understand you, citizen.’

‘Oh, I think you do. Genialis sets off on his own, rides through the bitterest of snow, does not arrive at his destination as arranged — and yet you seem convinced that he is safe. Indeed, you chided Lucius for suggesting otherwise. Yet I think you should prepare yourself for the possibility that your guardian has met an accident.’

She shook her head with vigour. The pretty cheeks were bright vermilion now. ‘Oh, Genialis will turn up safe and sound — people of his type always do.’ She laughed and drew me a little further from the bottom of the stairs, as though she feared she might be overheard. ‘Citizen, may I be completely frank with you? You say I do not fear the worst where he’s concerned. I do! I fear that he is safe. I dare not allow myself to hope that he is dead — though perhaps you find that hard to understand?’

I shook my head. ‘Not as difficult as you might suppose. I imagine that Genialis is not an easy man.’

‘Easy! He is well-nigh impossible! Pompous, vain and selfish — and a spendthrift gambler too. A man more different from my Ulpius it would be hard to find.’

‘Yet they were brothers?’

She made a deprecating gesture with her hand. ‘Half-blood, that is all. They shared a father, certainly, but Ulpius was the offspring of a different wife and was always favoured — even as a child. I think that Genialis hated him for that.’

‘But did his family duty, anyway, by applying to be your guardian?’ I said.

She gave a bitter laugh. ‘Not because he cared for me a jot — he much prefers his pretty Syrian slave, though Adonisius hates the sight of him — and certainly not out of any family duty towards poor Ulpius. He wanted the use of my inheritance, that’s all — and I, poor fool, had no one else to speak for me. Lucius might have done it; he was always good to me, but he is not even a proper citizen — what hope would he have had? Genialis had the stronger case in law …’ She broke off as Junio came clattering down the stairs, accompanied by my servants and — bringing up the rear — a plump and moon-faced female slave of Julia’s.

I faintly knew the woman; she had been a nurse to Marcus’s young son when he was small. I gazed at her, attempting to recall her name.

Junio supplied it for me. ‘This is Nutricia, Father. I believe you’ve met before. I’ll leave her with you while I go and pay the chair.’ And he suited the action to the words.

The slave woman waddled over — it was the only word for it — and bobbed a clumsy curtsy. ‘Why, citizen Libertus! I know your face, of course. I’ve seen you at the villa. Don’t you remember me?’

‘Nutricia! Of course!’ The name derives from ‘wet-nurse’ and I should have known. ‘I did not know that you were still …’ I tailed off.

‘Oh, they keep me out of kindness — or the lady Julia does. I help the household here with general chores and attend on my mistress — and that dear child of course — on the rare occasions when they come to town. But now I am to have another charge, I hear.’ She turned to Silvia, her fat face wreathed in smiles. ‘Though I see you are in mourning, my pretty little lamb.’

Silvia said nothing; she just glanced at me so I answered for her. ‘She is a widow, though she is betrothed again.’ I saw the look of scandal on the nurse’s face and added quickly, ‘Her husband’s brother is her guardian and he should be here, but he has somehow been delayed by snow, so Marcus has taken temporary potestas of her.’

Silvia smiled prettily at this, looking so attractive that she positively glowed and — since the nurse was clearly fond of Julia — I wondered if my explanation had simply made things worse. Nutricia, however, seemed entirely satisfied. ‘How like the master to be kind like that,’ she said. ‘Well now, my lambkin, you come along with me. Nutricia will see that you’re looked after properly. I’ve got the kitchen slaves to warm some water through, and I’ve got some rose petals that I’ve been keeping by, so you can have a nice warm scented wash for your poor feet. Citizen Junio tells me you’ve been travelling for miles!’ She went to lead my charge away from me.

‘I will accompany the lady to the apartment door,’ I said, rather nettled at having to insist, but I was glad enough when Silvia was safely in the flat, out of range of prying eyes and under the protection of the household slaves, so I could hasten back to Junio and the boys.

I found them waiting for me in the street. We hastened to the workshop, my son and I took off our togas while the two slaves doused the fire, and then — wrapped in the warmest cloaks and clothing we could find — set off at last towards our houses and our wives.