Ruso and the Root of All Evils

20

By the time it brought Lucius back home, the mule’s coat was mottled with dark patches of sweat. Ruso watched from the porch as it was led away by the stable lad, then glanced at the horizon and saw a second cloud of dust rising from the direction of the road.

‘They’re on the way,’ confirmed Lucius, striding up the steps to the house. ‘Claudia’s gone to town, so his sister’s coming in the carriage with the household steward. I told them you were here, but they’ve sent to town for their own doctor anyway. How is he now? Is he fit to travel?’ He paused. ‘Gaius?’

Ruso shook his head.

‘Oh, gods, he isn’t —?’

‘Just after you left.’

‘He can’t be!’ Lucius hurried past him into the hall. ‘Are you absolutely sure?’

Ruso had heard the question often enough to recognize it as desperate hope rather than an insult to his competence. He limped down the corridor after his brother. Since he was clutching the key to the study door, he was surprised when Lucius opened up and walked in before he got there. Surely he couldn’t have forgotten to lock it?

Ahead of him, he heard Lucius exclaim, ‘Holy Jupiter!’

He should have warned him. Lucius was not used to such sights. Ruso had closed the man’s eyes, but otherwise the body would be lying just as it had died.

On entering the study, though, it was Ruso’s turn to be shocked. ‘Galla! What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

Galla looked up from washing the floor. Severus’ body, now naked, had been rolled over to lie against the wall. She still looked frightened, as well she might.

‘She’s tidying up,’ replied Arria, stepping forward from behind the door. ‘Since the family are on the way and none of you boys seems to know what to do.’

‘But I locked the door!’

Arria held up an iron key identical to the one in his own hand. ‘How do you imagine the staff get in to clean the room, dear? Galla, that’ll do. The master will help you roll the body back and make it decent. You will, won’t you, Gaius? We don’t want to involve any more of the staff than necessary.’

Ruso tightened his grip on the stick. ‘Arria, I told her to leave this room exactly as it was.’

‘I know, dear. But did you really expect poor Claudia to see him in that state? He was a dreadful man, and she’ll be better off without him, but at least we can show some respect.’

‘When I give an order in this house, I expect it to be obeyed.’

Galla was kneeling motionless on the floor between them.

‘You can stop now,’ Ruso told her. ‘Leave the room and don’t say anything to anyone about what you’ve seen and heard in here, understand?’

She nodded, scrambled to her feet and ran.

‘Well, really!’ exclaimed Arria. ‘I was only trying to help!’

Ruso took a deep breath. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Lucius and I will deal with it now.’

‘I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss, Gaius.’

‘No,’ agreed Ruso, as calmly as he could manage. ‘You don’t. Now if you want to help, go and fetch me a clean tunic to put on him. Then watch for his family and when you see the carriage turn in at the gates come straight here and tell me.’

‘That was a bit harsh,’ observed Lucius after the door had slammed behind Arria. ‘She was only trying to help.’

‘She’s done enough helping,’ growled Ruso. ‘Thanks to her, it looks as though we’re the ones who poisoned him.’

‘The ones who what?’

Ruso crouched beside the body. He shifted its arm, crooked its knee to help redistribute the weight and rolled it over towards him. ‘Well, somebody did.’

There was a momentary pause before: ‘In our house?’

‘Of course not. At least, I don’t suppose so. But thanks to Arria, it now looks as if we’ve been trying to clean up the evidence.’

While Lucius took this in, Ruso hauled the body over again until it was back in roughly the right place.

‘He wasn’t poisoned,’ said Lucius slowly.

‘What was it, then?’

‘You tell me. You’re the doctor. Think of the right sort of illness and tell them that’s what killed him.’

Ruso was conscious of cicadas trilling outside the window. As if it were just another lovely day in late summer and there were nothing to worry about. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said.

‘Yes, you can,’ urged Lucius. ‘And hurry up, because they weren’t far behind me.’