Medicus

44

Ruso glanced back to make sure the girl was keeping up. He was glad to get her away from that place. He had explained that he was in a hurry and since they had not yet added up the bill for Tilla's lodgings, Merula had agreed to have it sent over to the hospital. On the way out Bassus had given Tilla a smile that she did not return, said he was sure that they would meet again, and said, "You won't forget us, will you?"

Tilla looked him in the eye and said, "I will not."

Bassus turned his attention to Ruso. "When d'you think she'll be fit?" "Not for some time."

Bassus's grin reappeared. "You doctors. Never commit yourself, do you?

"Not if we can help it," said Ruso.

He was swerving out into the street to avoid the painter's ladder when he heard the approaching rhythm of boots on gravel.

He looked up to see a unit of infantry whose front men had now begun to clatter along the flagstoned street behind him. Ruso turned and called, "Step back!" to Tilla. She might not know that a tired column within sniffing distance of its barracks had all the braking ability of a boulder rolling down a mountain. The painter, seeing their approach, wisely scrambled down his ladder and moved its base closer to the house. A wandering hen jerked its head up, glared at the disturbance, and scuttled out of the way

Tilla stood with her back to the wall as the column began to pass. Judging from the mud, the sweat-streaked hair, and the volume at which the centurion and his optio were berating the stragglers, these men were returning from the regulation twenty-mile full-kit training march.

Several men were looking across at Tilla and grinning. One or two winked at her. Instead of lowering her head like a modest woman, Tilla folded her good arm over her bandaged one and stared back boldly Ruso moved to stand next to her just as the centurion spotted what was happening and bellowed, "Eyes front!"

"Look away!" Ruso ordered her.

He surveyed the grimy faces of the legionaries trudging past. Any of them could have squeezed the life out of the unlucky Saufeia.

"Tiger stripes," said Ruso to the gate guard without being asked, swiftly followed by, "So, have there been any calls for the doctor?"

"Not a thing, sir."

Ruso handed the man a coin. He beckoned the girl in past the heavy studded gates and led her under the arch. "I'll organize a gate pass for you so you can do the shopping," he said. "Do you understand what your duties are?"

She nodded. "I cook and clean and mind the dogs."

"Good." He unhooked the front door key from his belt and handed it to her. "What can you cook?"

She looked at him. "Soup?"

"Fine," he agreed.

"What in soup?"

Ruso thought about that for a moment. There was unlikely to be much in the kitchen, and if there was, the mice would have found it by now.

"Something tasty," he said, untying his purse. He picked out three coins and put them into her hand. "Buy something for breakfast as well."

Tilla picked up the coins and examined them on both sides as if she wasn't sure they were genuine. "Soup should start in the morning," she remarked.

"Well, do your best," he said. "I won't be back before dark anyway"

They passed into the main street of the fort. "This is the sort of route you are to take back and forth," he instructed her, sweeping one arm in the general direction of the legate's residence. "No exploring, you understand? Deva is not a place for a young woman to wander around on her own."

Tilla's head rose. "If a soldier touch me, my Lord, he will be punished."

"Perhaps," said Ruso, without a great deal of confidence, "but by then it will be too late. Listen to me. Both inside and outside the fort, you are to stick to busy streets where there are plenty of people. If a man pays attention to you, walk away. Don't try to put him in his place. You may get away with boldness wherever you come from, but it won't work around here."

Tilla said, "I pray to the goddess to protect me."

"Well, help her by using a little common sense. Two lone girls have died and I assume you know that at least one of them was murdered?"

"The goddess will punish that man, my Lord. I have put a curse on him."

"I see."

"Also, I will put a blessing on my Master."

"Let's hope your goddess is listening, then."

The girl smiled. "She is listening, my Lord. You see already what she do to Claudius Innocens."