Ruso and the Root of All Evils

10

Ruso dropped the lid of the trunk and sat on it as if he could keep the family’s troubles trapped inside. He said, ‘I might have guessed the Gabinii were involved in this somewhere.’

Gabinius Fuscus and his cousin had been friends of their father: the sort of friends who insisted on lending him large sums of money. Their offers were so cordial that Publius Petreius had failed to extract any details about when they would want the cash back, or how much interest they were expecting. Since his death, their unpredictable demands for repayment had been causing the Petreius brothers major headaches. While the brothers had struggled to remain solvent, Gabinius Fuscus had risen to become a senior magistrate on the local city council, and his even wealthier cousin was now a Senator down in Rome.

‘Is it just one of them, or both?’ asked Ruso.

‘Neither,’ said Lucius, propping his elbows on the worn surface of the desk and cradling his head in his hands. ‘Well, both. Indirectly.’

Ruso waited, wondering if Lucius’ inability to define the problem might be part of the reason he had failed to solve it.

‘At least the Senator won’t be bothering us,’ said Lucius. ‘Not in person. He’s too busy down in Rome, trying to find ways of undermining Hadrian.’

‘Good.’

Lucius looked up. ‘No, it isn’t. In the meantime he’s let a shark called Severus loose to manage his estate.’

‘Who’s he?’

‘Some distant relation from Rome, apparently. Everybody reckons they’ve sent him and his sister up here to get rid of them.’

‘And this Severus is the one who’s trying to get the seizure order?’

‘Severus,’ said Lucius, snatching up a stylus and emphasizing each word with a stab of the point into the desk, ‘is a Devious, Vindictive, Lying Bastard.’

‘Ah.’

‘That money was all there, whatever he says. I put it in front of him myself.’

Ruso decided not to interrupt. If he listened for long enough, Lucius would start to make sense.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ said Lucius. ‘You’re thinking, why didn’t you wait while he counted it?’

‘You know what the Gabinii are like.’

Lucius tossed the stylus aside. ‘When your wife’s in floods of tears and your son’s howling in pain, Gaius, it’s hard to care what the Gabinii are like.’

Lucius had been sitting where he was sitting now, counting the money for the latest instalment of the loan repayment, when there was a commotion in the entrance hall. News had arrived that Cass’s brother was drowned. While everyone was absorbing this shock Little Lucius, aged four, wandered into the yard, climbed up a ladder and fell off the roof of the stables.

‘His arm was bent the wrong way at the elbow. The doctor thought he might have to amputate.’

‘Nasty,’ agreed Ruso. ‘Nobody would blame you if you miscounted.’

‘I didn’t!’ snapped Lucius. ‘Severus took advantage. We rushed into town to find a doctor and I just stopped off at the estate to dump the cash on his desk. The evil bastard must have been able to hear the child crying, but he left me standing there while he chatted to his steward. When I told him I was in a hurry he took the money and said, “Don’t let me hold you up; I’ll send the receipt over later.”

‘Ah,’ said Ruso.

‘And he smiled when he said it.’

‘Ah.’

‘Only instead of a receipt we got a demand saying it was two hundred short, and when I didn’t fall for that, he said he’d take us to court.’

‘I see.’

‘I thought the Senator might want to know he’d got a crook running his estate, so I went and told Fuscus what was going on. Fuscus told me to go home and not to worry about it, so I didn’t.’ Lucius cleared his throat. ‘Only he didn’t do a thing. It should never have come to a court hearing, Gaius. Severus was lying. I thought if I called his bluff he’d back down.’

‘Ah.’

‘Don’t keep saying “Ah” in that tone of voice. You weren’t here. And anyway, you’d think local magistrates would back a decent farmer against some fly-by-night from Rome, wouldn’t you? Especially since half of them used to spend the evenings lolling round our dining tables pretending to be Father’s friends.’

Ruso was less surprised than his brother seemed to be. Their father had probably borrowed money from most of the local dignitaries at one time or another. Still, no matter how annoyed they might have been, he could not understand how a small squabble had led to bankruptcy proceedings. There was something else that Lucius was holding back. ‘Just tell me the rest and get it over with, Brother. I’ve had a long day and my foot’s aching.’

The pitch of Lucius’ voice rose, as it always did when he was lying. ‘Tell you what?’

‘Whatever it is that turned a row over the cost of a decent amphora of wine into an attempt to ruin us.’

‘It’s not my fault, Gaius!’

Ruso shifted sideways and stretched his leg out along the trunk. ‘I didn’t say it was.’

‘Now you’re thinking, why the hell didn’t he just pay up straight away when we lost the court case?’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘Because we didn’t owe him the money! I’m not rushing round paying people twice just because they lie to us. What do you think I am?’

‘Ah.’

‘Stop saying “Ah”!’

‘What do you want me to say, Lucius? “Never mind”? “Well done”?’

‘How about, “Thank you”? How about, “Thank you, Lucius, for running the farm and looking after the family while I was off playing soldiers and picking up women”?’

Ruso leaned back against the wall. Somewhere beyond the study door, he could hear the sound of children laughing.

‘If you’d sorted out this dowry business when you were asked,’ persisted Lucius, ‘both the girls would be betrothed by now, and we wouldn’t have had half this trouble.’

Ruso, wondering why they were now talking about dowries, said, ‘I was waiting till we had some money.’

‘By the time that happens, nobody will want them,’ retorted Lucius. ‘If they haven’t already died of old age and frustration, as Marcia points out to me several times a day. And I don’t suppose you’ve brought home any spoils of war apart from the girl?’

‘There might have been time to get some if I hadn’t come rushing home to help you.’ Ruso stopped. Arguing with his brother would only waste more time. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Finish telling me what’s going on.’

‘You keep looking at me as if it’s all my fault.’

‘I’m looking at you in the hope that you’ll get on with it.’

Lucius scrutinized him for a moment, then grunted what might have been assent. ‘The magistrates gave us thirty days to pay,’ he said. ‘I was going to scrape together the cash and pay at the last possible moment, on principle.’

‘I would have done the same.’

Lucius seemed surprised by this unexpected support. He said, ‘I was about to go over there with the money when he turned up here with a greasy grin on his face and said if we couldn’t pay, he was prepared to come to an arrangement.’

‘What did he want?’

‘Access to Flora.’

Ruso stared at him. ‘Flora? She’s thirteen!’

‘Fourteen, Brother. Keep up. He said at that age in Rome she’d be married. I told him he wasn’t in Rome now and to get out before I set the dog on him.’

‘Right,’ said Ruso. Presumably Severus had no idea that the only way the Petreius’ farm dog would injure anyone would be to lick them raw.

‘After he’d gone I realized he hadn’t taken the money with him.’ Lucius ran one hand over his thinning hair. ‘I know, I know. I should have chased after him and made him take it. But frankly, I didn’t want to go near him. I took it over there the next day, and that was when he said it was too late: he was calling in the whole fifteen thousand and applying to Rome for a seizure order.’

‘Because it was one day late?’

‘One day.’

‘Surely he can’t do that?’

‘He can do whatever he likes. He’s one of the Gabinii. Things have got worse since you’ve been away. These days half the town’s scared of Fuscus, and the other half’s probably on his payroll.’

‘Even so, there must be a loan agreement — ’

‘Severus promised me an extension on the loan months ago, but he never put it in writing. Now he can claim that we’re behind with the payments.’

Ruso shook his head. ‘This is unbelievable.’

‘He was enjoying it,’ said Lucius. ‘I could see it in his face.’

‘And Fuscus knows about this?’

‘Fuscus knows everything.’

‘We need a lawyer.’

Lucius shook his head. ‘I’ve tried. We need a miracle. None of Father’s so-called friends can help even if they wanted to. Seizure orders go up to the Praetor’s office in Rome, and it’s way over their heads. The only thing the lawyer could think of was that, since you’re technically Father’s heir, and you’re — well, you were — sort of away on public service, that might hold everything up.’

It was not difficult to guess now who had forged that letter. Severus had found a way to bring him back so that he could be sued.

Lucius said, ‘Are you sure you can’t pretend you’re not here?’

Ruso put his foot back on the floor and reached for his stick. ‘I’m going to clean up and have dinner,’ he said. ‘In the morning I’ll go and pay a visit to Fuscus.’ He held up a hand to forestall his brother’s objection. ‘I know you’ve already tried, but if he knows I’m home and I haven’t called, he’ll be insulted, and that’ll make everything worse. Then I’m going to find this Severus and ask him what the hell he thinks he’s playing at.’

‘It won’t do any good.’

‘Have you got any better ideas?’