The Legatus Mystery

Chapter Seven

So I was going home. And Gwellia would be waiting for me. I could still hardly believe it. After years of searching for the woman who had once been my bride, I had been reunited with her less than a month ago, and that was in Londinium. This was the first time I had left her alone in my little workshop-cum-apartment in Glevum, and I had been much longer than I intended. I found that I was worrying about her a little as I hurried back. Would she be anxious because I was late?

Ridiculous of course, but my heart gave a little skip; never, since I had been granted my freedom, had anyone but my slave Junio worried about me — except my patron, when he needed me. As I had said to Marcus, Gwellia was no longer legally my wife, but I found myself hurrying home like a new bridegroom as I turned into the little alley where my workshop lies.

I found myself looking at it with new eyes.

I rent a building in part of that straggling western suburb which has sprung up outside the city walls over the last hundred years. No fine Roman pavements or towering columns here, only a collection of ramshackle buildings huddled together along haphazard lanes, the gutters often running with filth and slime and the stinking mud from the river margins. Perhaps it is not the most congenial of places. But it’s my home, and I’m attached to it. The rooms are humble but adequate, the rent’s affordable, and — despite the presence of a tannery on one side and a candlemaker’s on the other — the place has never actually caught fire or collapsed, as other buildings in the area have been known to do. And my work had prospered. Some of the wealthiest men in Glevum had come here to order pavements — or at least sent their servants here on their behalf.

Why did I suddenly find myself needing to defend it to myself? Because it was not the situation I’d dreamed of for my wife. Ah, well! I picked my way down the alley, waved aside a turnip-seller and his donkey, and under the bold eyes of a woman hawking pies stepped over a large pile of dirt and rubbish in an entry, and came to the open shopfront which was mine. There was nobody about. I frowned.

I had expected my slave boy, Junio, to be attending customers.

‘Junio?’ I stepped over the piles of stone and tile which were my stock-in-trade, and went round the partition to the inner room.

And stopped. I would hardly have recognised the place.

The inner workroom had been scrubbed and swept. The dusty piles of coloured tesserae which usually lay in heaps around the floor had been scooped up and placed in what looked like brand-new baskets and my tools were now ranged neatly along the wall. The shelves in the alcove had been dusted and arranged, and the meagre contents — oil, candles, cheese and bread — looked even more meagre now. Even the table had been washed and the fire — which we’d had such trouble to ignite — had been damped down, the hearth stones had been swept of ash and something was bubbling in a clean pot on the embers.

The place was sweet and clean, and like a home again, although I shuddered to think how much effort it had cost — and how much precious water must have been fetched to do all this. And there was still no sign of anyone.

‘Junio?’ I hardly trusted my voice.

But he did not answer. Instead it was Gwellia who scrambled down from the makeshift space above, her hair full of cobwebs and her arms full of the reeds and rags which formed my customary bedding.

‘Is that you, Jun- Why, Libertus! Master!’ She looked around for somewhere to put down her load and made a sort of modest bob in my direction. It wrenched my heart. I hated this — yet it was a kind of progress in itself. When she first came back to me, she’d had a tendency actually to abase herself in my presence, as her previous owners had demanded. I’d persuaded her out of that, at least, and we’d come to this uncomfortable compromise. It was not a sign of slavery, she argued; many Roman wives greet their husbands in that fashion, and — since it made her comfortable — I’d reluctantly agreed.

She bobbed again. ‘Master, I was not expecting you so soon.’

That semi-curtsy still distressed me, when all I wanted was to take her in my arms. But I knew that would just embarrass her, so I said, ‘Where’s Junio?’ Suppressed emotion made me sound quite brusque.

She misinterpreted it as a rebuke. I saw the look of horror on her face. I’d forgotten how vulnerable she had become. I tried to soothe the hurt. ‘You have been very busy here,’ I said, more gently.

‘It was the rats, master. I found another nest of them down here. I thought. .’ She looked around helplessly. ‘I’m sorry, master. I wanted to make myself useful. Of course, I realise I had no right to touch your possessions or do any of this without your instructions.’

I reached out a hand and touched her arm. ‘But you have done exactly as I asked you to! I insisted that you were still effectively my wife, and you have attempted to behave like one. If I did not wish my habits to be disturbed, I should have instructed you to keep your place.’

She was still looking at me doubtfully. She looked so worn and timid standing there, and so proud of her handiwork, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the first time we cut tesserae again the dust would be as bad as ever.

‘You have done well, Gwellia,’ I said carefully. ‘And I am glad you got rid of the rats. But where is Junio? I left him here cutting tiles for a pavement. He should have them ready for delivery by now. Where is he? Off buying honey-cakes again?’ I was getting too indulgent with that boy, I told myself. He knew that a scolding was the worst he could expect, though many masters would have had him flogged — the maximum legal punishment was death — for leaving the premises except on business for me.

My attempt at teasing only made things worse. ‘Oh, master — husband.’ I could see confusion brimming in her eyes. ‘He has gone to the river for water.’ She glanced down at herself and rubbed her hands hastily on her tunic. ‘I am ashamed to greet you in this way. I had intended to clean myself when Junio came back. .’

‘And here he is, master,’ Junio said, poking his curly head round the partition. I sensed a certain wariness in his manner, although outwardly he was his usual cheerful self. ‘I have another water pail here.’ He came into the room and set it down — a misshapen hammered copper affair with a handle, which I had found once abandoned on a heap, and usually reserved for mixing mortar in. Now most of it had been chiselled clean and it was brimful of water — though not from the river, clearly, since there was no trace of mud in it. This must have come from one of the public fountains, inside the city gates. Junio had had a lengthy walk.

Junio attempted to read my face. ‘I am sorry, master,’ he began at last. ‘I didn’t know. .’

‘I left you here to look after the shop,’ I said patiently. ‘I don’t expect you to go off into the town without permission.’

Junio looked crestfallen, and gazed at the floor. It was Gwellia who spoke. ‘Don’t be angry with him, master. He thought to help me, that’s all. I know fetching water is usually a woman’s job. I was fetching it myself, at first, but he saw me struggling. .’

‘Are you telling me he volunteered? You must tell me what your secret is!’ I smiled. Junio has carried water to the shop for years, but usually he complains at every step.

Junio looked at me uncertainly. ‘Forgive me, master, what was I to do? I knew the lady was your wife, I saw she was having difficulties. .’

‘My back. .’ Gwellia said helplessly.

Of course. I regretted my teasing instantly. I had seen her naked shoulders, and I knew the scars of cruel whip marks they bore, where an angry mistress had once had her flogged till bone and muscle had been laid bare. Gwellia still moved one arm with difficulty. I had a sudden vision of Junio, watching the woman I’d searched for all these years, seeing her struggling with the water pots — and my heart was filled with love for both of them.

For a moment I found myself deprived of speech: there seemed to be something in my throat.

‘I am sorry, dear master, if I’ve done wrong,’ Gwellia said earnestly. ‘But the boy had finished his cutting. Besides, while he was working I couldn’t clear the room. .’ She glanced at me, and added with a smile, ‘I have tried to keep everything separate. All the colours in different baskets. And do not worry where I got those from. I found a denarius under all the dust. It had gone down between the floorboards. It paid for all the rushes and to spare.’

‘No doubt a coin from the Phrygian steward, master?’ Junio said. He glanced up at me slyly but swiftly returned to staring at the floor. He has a witty turn of mind, but I have strict rules about not mocking the customers.

But I had seen his lips twitch, and in spite of myself I was half laughing too. Of course I knew what he was alluding to. The Phrygian had been the particularly pompous and patronising household steward of a patrician customer of mine. He had visited us, with all the condescension of a god descending, and pulled out a purse to pay his master’s bill — with such a flourish that he scattered the contents. That had punctured his dignity. He had sworn by all the furies that he had lost a coin, but we had never found it — though Junio and I had spent an entertaining half-hour watching him scrabble for it in the stone chippings.

‘Then it seems he has donated these baskets for my tiles,’ I said, knowing that I had capitulated. Somehow, with Junio, I find it hard to be strict for very long. Marcus is always mocking me about it. And now Gwellia had joined the household too! One look from her could always melt my heart. I would have to be doubly careful in future, I told myself. The Romans do not esteem any man who is not master in his own household. But I was still grinning like an idiot.

‘Very well!’ I went on, with a pretence at severity. ‘We will say no more about it. This time! But in future, Junio, please don’t leave the workshop unattended without my permission. Suppose a customer had called?’

‘Pardon me, dear master, but a customer did call,’ Gwellia said, with a shy smile. ‘A wealthy gentleman. He wanted you to repair a pavement for him. He must have been in a hurry, because he came in person — offering fifty sesterces if you’d come at once.’

‘And what did you tell him?’

‘I told him you were otherwise engaged today — on important business with your patron.’

I turned to Junio. ‘You see?’ Fifty sesterces was not a princely sum, but it was something: and agreeing a job like that, where a price is fixed, is as good as a contract under law. ‘I doubt if he will venture here again. So, while you were out, we lost an opportunity.’

That was unfair, and I knew it. Junio was often absent from the workshop, usually with me. I did not dare to think of all the similar opportunities that must have escaped us, over the years.

‘But you have not lost it, citizen!’ Gwellia was looking at me with something of the old sparkle in her eyes. ‘I told him that, if he were to increase the fee a little, perhaps you could be induced to see him next.’ She looked at me, smiling openly at my astonishment. ‘I am sorry, dear citizen, if that was a mistake. It is something I used to hear one of my masters say. It always seemed to have the right effect. It did here, too. Now he’s promising a hundred sesterces for the repair if you will call and look at it before tomorrow night.’

‘A hundred sesterces?’ That was a handsome increase. I would never have dared to ask for half as much. I found myself smiling broadly in return. I had forgotten that my ex-wife had such unexpected talents. I attempted to reassert my dignity by saying, judiciously, ‘But it is doubtful I could do it very quickly. Marcus wants me to solve this problem at the temple.’

‘It’s not a very large repair, he says. Some of the outer border of the pattern was made of poor quality tile. He says you would remember the pavement — it is in his entrance-way. You laid a mosaic for him once before, he tells me, in his dining room, and you warned him about this problem when you came.’

‘I did?’ For a moment I could not recall anything about it. ‘Who was this customer? Did he leave a name?’

‘Gaius Honorius Optimus. He seemed to think that it would mean something to you.’

It did. I looked at Junio and we both burst out laughing together. Honorius Optimus was the customer with the pompous Phrygian steward.

‘Well, he can afford a hundred sesterces, master. He used to be a commander in the legions, and he made a fortune out of it. As you know — you’ve seen that great town house of his.’ Junio grinned back at me, obviously delighted at this new turn of events. ‘He must be in a hurry too, to offer double the fee. He always seemed to me a man who’d walk a mile to save a quadrans.’

‘He is. That’s why he had some idiot lay that cheap pavement at his door,’ I said drily. ‘A few more sesterces, and he could have had marble, or proper tiles at least. But these! I could see they were lifting and splitting then — they had not been laid for long, and that was almost two years ago. I offered to replace them at the time, but he refused. I wonder why he’s in such a hurry now?’

‘He’s hoping for an important guest, that’s why!’ Gwellia said. ‘Some imperial ambassador who is visiting the town.’

I thought of the temple and that disappearing corpse, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. ‘There is an imperial ambassador? Here? Now?’

‘Not now,’ Gwellia said, with a smile. ‘But there’s one expected in a little while. Something about a special service for the Emperor at the Imperial shrine.’

‘Surely not Fabius Marcellus!’ I exclaimed.

‘I think that was the name.’ Gwellia frowned with concentration. ‘Of course, it didn’t mean anything to me. But your Honorius Optimus was terribly impressed. Apparently he knew the man, because they were in the army together. Not that they were especially friendly then. They were officers in the same unit — only this Fabius Marcellus person had wealthy patronage, and he soon went on to higher things. From the way your client talked about it, I don’t think he was very pleased at the time — but of course now his old rival’s an imperial ambassador, he’s very keen to claim acquaintanceship.’

‘Gwellia, you are a marvel. You gleaned all this in a few moments’ conversation. Optimus would never had said any of that to me.’

Gwellia smiled. ‘Ah, but he wasn’t really saying it to me. He was talking to some pompous steward he brought with him. I am a woman, and a slave — he hardly noticed I was standing there.’ She looked at me. ‘What are you frowning at, Libertus? Do you doubt the truth of what he said?’

‘Something has just occurred to me. Oh, there’s an imperial legate on his way all right. And his name is Fabius Marcellus. But how in the name of all the gods did Optimus know that? Only my patron and the high priests knew about it — and they only received the communication this morning.’

‘Other people know about it now. He said his wife’s slave heard it in the market-place,’ Gwellia said. ‘Taking back a length of woollen cloth.’

I nodded, impressed again by her talent for deriving information.

‘Then there’s your answer, master,’ Junio put in. ‘The pontifex knew: no doubt he told his wife — and she’ll have sent into the town for cloth. Something very expensive too, I expect, which will have set the whole town’s tongues wagging again.’ He saw my quizzical look and added quickly, ‘Well, you know what he’s like, master, always trying to be as holy as a flamen. But insofar as he’s the flamen, master, she is his flaminia. You know how strict the regulations are, and yet she manages to find a way around them. She has quite a reputation for fashion. He will not let her comb her hair, but last year when the style was for long blond hairpieces, she had a fair-haired slave girl sent in specially from the Rhinelands. She had that combed and curled and wore it as a wig, with a little ritual sprig of fresh leaves tucked into her veil, to keep her husband happy. And her gown is always of pure dyed cloth. I’m sure she’d want a whole new outfit to greet the legate in.’

I nodded. The pontifex was whispered to indulge his younger wife. That was not altogether surprising perhaps, since his hoped-for job depended on it. The Pontifex of Jupiter must have a wife, and if he loses her — to death or desertion — must resign his office. Discreet divorce is not a possibility. A few lengths of costly cloth must seem a small price to pay for the lady’s loyalty. ‘All the same,’ I said, ‘I am surprised the news about the legate’s visit has travelled quite so fast. It’s evident the whole town knows already.’

Gwellia said, ‘Perhaps not quite the whole town yet, citizen. I think, from what he was saying, that Honorius Optimus was one of the first people to hear. And he came here straight away. He said he was anxious to have his entry-pavement repaired before everyone else in Glevum heard the news and wanted to do the same.’

I smiled. That was unlikely to happen now — though it might have done, without this temple corpse. Whenever a dignitary visited the town, there was always competition to entertain him. Sometimes by moving out altogether and lending him a house (though that was a signal honour), but everyone who aspired to be anyone vied to provide banquets, dancers, poets, even lunch — anything, where the host could be seen in the great man’s company. And of course every banquet-giver (and his wife) wanted new murals and decorations, and, if not new mosaics, at least mosaics in excellent repair. A pavement-maker may find himself suddenly in great demand.

But not on this occasion. My patron was at this instant in his apartments, writing a message to the imperial ambassador urging him not to come. I wondered whether I could confirm this contract with Optimus before he discovered the change of plan, especially since Marcus’s commemorative niche would now presumably not be wanted either.

The thought of Marcus recalled me to my duties. ‘Speaking of clothes,’ I said briskly, ‘I must change my own. I am to call on Marcus this afternoon. I shall need my toga. I am to be there about the eighth hour.’

‘How are you supposed to judge what time that is?’ Gwellia asked, practical as ever.

It was a reasonable question. She and I were not brought up to ‘hours’. The Romans operate like that, dividing the period of daylight into twelve equal parts, but I had no fancy waterclocks or time-candles, so I could only gauge the time by the position of the sun. When it was cloudy, like today, it could be very difficult to guess the ‘hour’ — especially in wintertime, as now, since obviously the hours get shorter with the days.

‘I shall simply have to get there as quickly as I can,’ I said. I could wait for Marcus: he must not wait for me. I made towards the staircase. ‘Junio, you can help me into my toga. And bring a bowl. I’ll have some of that clean water to rinse my face. Gwellia, my dear, you can do the same. I know that, until we get to market, you have no other garments of your own, but you will find an old tunic of mine underneath the bedding. It’s rather torn and patched, but at least it’s clean. Well?’ I added, as I saw her stricken face. ‘What is it? What’s the matter, Gwellia?’

‘It’s that tunic, master!’

‘What about the tunic?’ Surely she was not embarrassed by the thought? It was a bit too big for her, perhaps, but otherwise there was little to show that it was a male garment.

‘I. . I’m afraid I’ve torn it up to replace your bedding with. I’ve put down new reeds, and thrown away the old. .’ She gestured to the pile she had been carrying when I came in. ‘I found the tunic. It seemed old and discarded, so I cut the seams and used it to make the bedding comfortable.’

She was biting her lip. And she’d called me ‘master’ again, I noticed. She was calling me ‘Libertus’ only a few moments earlier.

I debated a moment how to answer her. ‘I sometimes wore that tunic into bed,’ I said at last, ‘while Junio washed the other one. I don’t know what I’m going to do instead.’ I raised my eyebrows at her, and she looked at me, blushed, and laughed.

‘What did you do with the old bedding rags?’ I demanded.

There was the suspicion of a pert twinkle in those beautiful brown eyes. ‘What do you think I used to wash the floor?’

There was no possible reply to that, so I made none. I simply went upstairs to change — into an attic where that feminine touch had been at work again.

A little while later, full of a late lunch of bread and cheese and draped uncomfortably in my toga, I was on my way to Marcus’s apartments, with Junio at my heels. Meanwhile Gwellia (dressed rather fetchingly, I thought, in a spare tunic of Junio’s) was making a hasty visit to the cloth-seller’s stall before the market closed. Indulgent of me, Marcus would doubtless say, since I had given her some money for a length of cloth, but I had also asked her to keep her ears open for any more gossip about Fabius Marcellus. If anyone could acquire that kind of information, I told myself, it was my clever wife.