The Ghosts of Glevum

V

It is not easy to walk across an unfamiliar farm in misty darkness, especially hampered by a toga and without a light, but that is what I was now obliged to do. Marcus’s villa, like most Roman country homes, backed on to the farmland and woods which made up his estate, and the little gate of the new wing gave out on to the orchard, thence to a muddy field and only then into the woods beyond. Mercifully the extension to the house was fairly new, so the orchard had just been fully walled and the guard geese were not yet in place. We did stumble over an ill-tempered sleeping pig, and disturbed a mangy and marauding fox, but there was no cacophony to alert the house and no one came shouting after us.

At last, after what seemed like several hours of slithering and sliding over our sandal-tops in mud, we stumbled into the welcoming shadows of the wood. It was cold and slippery and wet, and twigs and bracken snatched at us as we passed, but very soon there was at least a path. We struggled on — the detour had taken us miles out of our way — until we reached the road, and finally, muddy, wet and exhausted, we saw the roundhouse looming through the murk, the smoke from its welcoming fire seeping through the roof. There was the glimmer of a tallow taper too, and it was no surprise to find that even at this hour my wife Gwellia was up, awaiting my return.

‘Libertus, husband!’ she exclaimed, as soon as I had stooped to pass under the thatched entrance and into the house. ‘Where have you been? And what has happened to your toga and your shoes? Kurso’ — she motioned to the kitchen slave — ‘bring your poor master water and a stool. You’ll find both in the dye-house, where I was dyeing cloth.’

Kurso, whom I had acquired by accident some months before, gave me one of his worried looks and hurried off. He was still so nervous that he hardly spoke — at least to me, although I’ve seen him chatter happily to Junio, and Gwellia finds him indispensable. He had been savagely mistreated by an owner once, and had learned to move backwards more quickly than forwards from an early age.

I watched him go scuttling out into the night, towards the dye-house that my wife had spoken of — another woven wattle hut nearby, in the same enclosure and much like the one we were in, even to the central hearth, except that it was on a smaller scale. It housed Gwellia’s spindles, fleece and looms, and — as I was well aware — an iron vat of some evil-smelling dye. My wife was adept at the ancient crafts, and even now was weaving me a cloak in the traditional Celtic plaid of our old tribe, but I had insisted that the dyes be kept elsewhere and ordered that the dye-house should be built. Much as I love our little home I have spent too long in fine Roman buildings, with windows and partitions everywhere, to sleep in comfort in the same room as a smelly steaming vat of decaying vegetation and hot wool.

Fortunately, once the materials are cut, a skilled group can weave a small hut in a day, and Kurso had shown an unexpected aptitude for mixing daub and waterproofing walls. Within our fenced enclosure Gwellia had a small thatched henhouse now, as well, so we had eggs, and plans for some beehives and raised foodstores too, instead of the holly-pits we used at present. A proper little Celtic dwelling place.

After the events of the past few hours, it seemed a haven of relief, and I was contemplating all this with a smile and allowing Junio to unlace my soggy sandals when Kurso reappeared — without the stool and water — and uncharacteristically burst into speech at once.

‘Master! Mistress! There is somebody there!’

I looked at Junio, who was kneeling at my feet and now glanced up in alarm. He said, before I could frame the words, ‘The guards?’

Gwellia said, ‘What guards?’ but Kurso shook his head.

‘Not guards. It seems to be a boy — a slave. He’s terrified. He’s hiding in there by the fire, and won’t come out. He wants to talk to you.’

‘Golbo!’ I said — a fraction ahead of Junio this time. ‘Leave my sandals, Junio. I had better go and speak to him.’

Gwellia was looking from me to Junio and back again. ‘Husband, you have only just come in. You are cold and wet and tired, and your toga’s torn. I don’t know who this slave is, or what he wants — coming here in the middle of the night — but surely you can at least command him to attend you here!’

I went to her, put my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. ‘Gwellia, my dear, there’s been a dreadful episode. Trouble at the villa — Junio will explain. I must go and talk to Golbo. He may have seen something significant. Give me a brand.’

Kurso picked up a piece of pitch-tipped wood and dipped it in the fire obediently.

‘Did Golbo say why he wanted me?’ I asked, as I took the smoking torch. But Kurso had exhausted his conversational capacities and he simply shook his head.

I gave up and went out into the night and into the smelly darkness of the hut. At first I could see nothing but the cauldron of dye, still sitting on its stones over the embers of the fire. Then as my torch burned brighter and my eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom I made out the dim shape of Gwellia’s loom-beam hanging by the wall — the weight-stones almost reaching to the floor — and there beside it the huddled figure of the slave.

It was Golbo, a cold and frightened Golbo, almost too terrified to speak. He had asked to see me, but as I approached he backed away, keeping the fire between himself and me. I stopped.

‘Golbo — I believe that is your name — my house slave informed me that you wanted me. I cannot chase you round this hut all night. If you have something to tell me, do it now.’

‘Citizen Libertus?’ His voice was no more than a strangled squeak. ‘You are a friend of my master’s, I believe?’

‘Marcus Aurelius Septimus is my patron, certainly.’ I said it softly, but I chose my words with care. A pavement-maker — even if he is a citizen — should not presume to claim friendship with a man of rank. ‘I have been of service to him sometimes in the past.’

Golbo nodded. ‘I have heard him speak of you. That is why I came to you tonight. I–I did not know where else to go, after what had happened in the colonnade.’

A tide of relief flowed over me. Perhaps this affair would be easy to resolve. Golbo quite clearly knew too much, and that’s why he had fled. Whoever murdered an important man like Praxus would not think twice about silencing a slave. But if I could get Golbo to tell me what he knew, I could hide him overnight and go to a magistrate tomorrow to explain the truth. Marcus would be instantly released, and Golbo would be safe.

I was smiling as I said, ‘And what did happen in the colonnade? Somebody sent you for water, was that it? That is what your mistress said to me. She thought it was your master, but perhaps it was not him? Was it someone else perhaps, someone who murdered Praxus while you were away? Who was it, Golbo? I know you are afraid — your testimony could convict the man — but you can confide in me.’

Golbo stared unhappily at the floor and said nothing.

‘By telling me you will protect yourself,’ I said. ‘Once your testimony is known to the magistrates, there would be no point in killing you — that would only make the murderer’s guilt more evident. You would have another witness, too — in me — so nobody could claim you were coerced into making false accusations. And you need not fear revenge. Once Marcus is released he will make sure of that. So speak up, boy. Who sent you to the spring?’

Golbo looked at me in misery. ‘That’s just the trouble, citizen. My owner sent me to the spring himself.’

I stared. ‘Marcus?’

‘Well, not in person, naturally — he was at the banquet with his guests. But he sent the message all the same. It was quite precise. I was to go at once and fill the pail, because the banquet was drawing to a close, and guests might wish to use the vomitorium before the litters took them jogging home. It’s not an unusual request. He does the same thing each time there’s a feast — except that tonight it was a little earlier, and he was displeased with me, it seems. I don’t know why. I tried to keep the room as clean as it usually is.’

‘But you didn’t question the order when it came?’

Golbo looked more wretched than before. ‘In any case I wouldn’t question it. And the message was brought by one of Marcus’s own slaves.’

‘One of his own slaves? You are quite sure of that?’ My mind was racing now. Of course, there is always the possibility of treachery, but in general the loyalty of Marcus’s household is beyond doubt, and his servants would defend him to the death. We had seen that demonstrated that very night.

He nodded. ‘I am quite sure of that. There were slaves in the villa who had come in from my master’s town apartment in Glevum especially to help to cook and serve the feast — I might have been mistaken about them. But this wasn’t one of them. This was a villa slave, called Umbris. I know the man. I was there when Marcus first acquired him — a present from a wealthy visitor.’

I nodded, though it was not a name I knew. Marcus has a multitude of slaves but I would have remembered that one, I was sure. Obviously one of Marcus’s little jokes. The name derives from shadow, and is not a lucky one — except for a household slave perhaps, where silence and unobtrusiveness are desirable. Marcus had a sense of humour sometimes, when it came to naming slaves.

‘So Umbris was. .’ I was going to say ‘a bribe’, but altered it, ‘. . a gift?’

Golbo nodded. ‘One among many, citizen. Many of us were.’

Of course, that was likely to be true. A man in Marcus’s position scarcely needed to go out and purchase slaves from the shifty dealers in the town. The villa was no doubt full of similar ‘donations’, living and inert. There were always people trying to climb up the social scale who were only too eager to offer His Excellence anything he sought — in hopes of some little favour in return. I returned to a more profitable line of questioning.

‘What kind of man is he?’

‘My master thinks very well of him. He works hard and drives others hard: I cannot tell you more about his character than that.’ Golbo gave a rueful laugh. ‘Citizen, he is a senior slave. He works the dining room and I’m a bucket-boy — he’s never deigned to address a word to me, except to give me orders, like tonight. But I could point him out to you. He’s. .’

‘Husband!’ Gwellia’s voice from behind me cut across his words. ‘I beg you, leave this till the morning now. You are soaked through to the skin. You must remember you’re no longer young.’ I turned. She was standing in the doorway of the hut. ‘You’ll be no help to your patron if you’re ill in bed.’

I nodded. It was true that I was chilled and shivering. ‘Very well, Gwellia, my dear. No doubt you’re right. But what about the boy?’ My plans of sheltering him overnight and producing him triumphantly in the courts were all in ruins now. This testimony would seal Marcus’s fate.

‘He’ll have to find somewhere else to go.’

‘My dear wife. .’ I protested. It was not like Gwellia to be hard-hearted in this way.

She softened a little, as I knew she would. ‘Or he can stay here by the fire if you insist. But not inside the house. He is a runaway, Libertus, and I refuse to have him under my roof.’ She saw my look and added urgently, ‘Husband, it is you I’m thinking of. Junio has been telling me what happened at the villa earlier — and I’m concerned. It seems to me that, with your patron in the cells, the guards would be only too happy to press charges against you. If they find you harbouring a runaway, they will have all the evidence they need — and what will happen to this household then?’

She could hardly have mustered a stronger argument, but I still demurred. ‘But if Golbo stays out here. .?’

‘You can say that he came in here to hide without your knowing it — which after all is no more than the truth. That might be some kind of defence. If he’s in the roundhouse, there will be no possible excuse. Oh, Libertus, please do come inside. There is obviously something serious afoot. If anyone comes searching here tonight, it’s better that they find us in our beds.’

This was so manifestly true that I complied. ‘You are right, of course. Very well, I’ll come with you now. Golbo, you can stay here by the fire, where at least you can be warm and dry tonight. There’s clean water in the big bowl by the door, and a pile of fleece. Lie on it and pull some over you. Tomorrow we must think where you can go.’ And what we should do about your testimony too, I thought, although I didn’t speak the words aloud.

And then, at last, I did submit to Gwellia’s urgings and went back into the house, where I allowed my weary slaves to undress me, sponge down my muddy clothes and legs, and help me to my welcome bed of reeds. Then they wrapped me in a woollen blanket and tiptoed away, leaving me to Gwellia and my thoughts.

I couldn’t sleep. Gwellia invited me to talk, but the more I turned the events of the evening over in my head, the less sense any of it made to me. It was Gwellia, in the end, who voiced the thought that I could not allow myself to think.

‘Husband,’ she whispered, when I had rehearsed the same thing for the twentieth time, ‘has it occurred to you that Mellitus could be right? Perhaps it was your patron who pushed Praxus in the bowl. What other explanation can there be?’

‘I don’t know!’ I exclaimed. ‘Yet surely there must be one. I don’t believe for an instant that Marcus murdered him.’ But when I came to consider all the mounting evidence I had to admit the possibility, though I couldn’t bear to contemplate it for long. That is why I didn’t sleep all night, and why — as soon as the first light of chilly dawn broke through the sullen clouds — I slipped away from my still sleeping wife, pulled on my sandals and a woollen cloak, and went out to find Golbo in the hut.

But I was too late. Golbo wasn’t there.