Virgin Territory

XII

The trouble with rain is that it’s so bloody depressing. You tend to take warmth and sunshine for granted, then suddenly the skies darken and before you know it, your boredom threshold is rising in direct proportion to the drip of the water clock.

Claudia pulled faces at herself in the mirror. There was only so much time a girl could spend on the essentials-the bath, the manicure, the hair-even though Pacquia had done a marvellous job on her legs, shaving them so gently with the hot walnut shells that Claudia hadn’t suffered one single burn.

But by mid-afternoon the minutes were starting to drag heavily. It was utterly impossible to venture into the hills in this weather, but Old Conky assured her it would be fine again tomorrow, ample time to tackle Aristaeus before catching the boat back to Rome.

Claudia had rummaged through her jewellery box until she found the right phial. Belladonna. Lace that pervert’s wine and the world would be a better place for everyone. Oh yes, everything was working out perfectly. Junius had returned from Agrigentum with good news, in fact, the very best. Claudia’s future was absolutely watertight. Which reminded her. Supersnoop had the hump.

‘You lied to me about Junius,’ he said. ‘You knew damn well he wasn’t due back when you said he would be.’

‘You knew damn well he wasn’t under suspicion,’ she had retorted. ‘That makes us even.’

Tut, tut. She really hadn’t taken Orbilio for a grudge-bearer.

‘How many times do I have to tell you, Claudia? Murder is not a game. Why do you take everything to the wire?’

Good question. One she’d often asked herself. But a gambler is a gambler. We take everything to the wire, Marcus.

But that was last night, when she’d had too much to drink and was feeling benevolent. Why else would she have mentioned seeing Utti at the funeral? Hell, he probably knew the whereabouts of those two deadbeats anyway.

‘You’re up to something,’ he’d said, totally ignoring the Utti thing. ‘I can smell it.’

Bully for you, she thought. But you’ll never know what, because it’s finished with. Over. Gone. Forgotten. Yessir, what I found in Gaius’s papers, what I chased halfway round the world for, hasn’t a shred of evidence to its name. And on the strength of that, she’d honoured Bacchus a little too heavily. The headache this morning had been a real blinder.

‘I’m warning you, Claudia. If I find you’re breaking the law, I’ll clap your fanny in irons, regardless of what’s between us. Do I make myself clear?’

There was only one response you could make to a sanctimonious statement like that and Claudia made it. She put her tongue between her lips and gave him the loudest raspberry this side of Mount Etna.

It had been easy to avoid him at breakfast this morning, but returning from the bath house she’d seen little Vilbia playing in the atrium. So there she was, Claudia, rolling around on the tessellated floor, singing:

‘Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man,

Bake me a cake as fast as you can-’

when a man’s voice cut in.

‘Take the ingredients down from the shelf-’

Claudia’s eyes were staring at a familiar pair of patrician boots. With one fluid movement she bundled up little Vilbia, still chortling and chuckling, jumped to her feet and thrust the squirming tot into Orbilio’s arms.

‘Sod off, said the baker, cook it yourself!’

Whether this wasn’t the finish line he’d learned in the nursery Claudia didn’t know, but for a seasoned representative of the Security Police he seemed somewhat inexperienced when it came to handling the more junior members of society.

‘The mouth goes to the top,’ Claudia had offered helpfully.

Vilbia’s response to his indignities was to turn bright red and scream, although Orbilio had stolen the honours on colour. His anguish was ended only when the child’s nursemaid snatched her charge from his arms with a glare that, in lesser men, would have turned their hair snow white. Sucking in her cheeks, Claudia marched off to her room.

‘Wait.’ He dodged in front of her. ‘I have a few more questions about the family.’

‘I thought you’d solved your case?’

‘I have, but a bit of background information never goes astray.’ He made a brave stab at a grin. ‘You know me. Always like to soak up the atmosphere.’

‘Dreadfully sorry to disappoint you, Orbilio, but the role of informant doesn’t appeal, thank you very much.’ She flashed a devastating smile at Diomedes, passing through the far arch on his way to give Eugenius his massage, and continued talking through her teeth. ‘As it is, I strongly resent you following me out here, invading my privacy-’

‘I did not.’

‘You damn well did.’

He watched the rain drip steadily from the roof-spout into the pool. ‘I didn’t follow you. I followed Sabina.’ Claudia suddenly felt like the fish who’d swallowed a fly, only to find it was on the end of a hook, next stop the boiling pan. A lead weight thudded into her stomach, she could hardly breathe. You followed Sabina?

‘Why?’ That thin little voice sounded a million miles away. ‘If you knew she wasn’t a Vestal Virgin?’

He didn’t even have the decency to look her in the eye.

‘I followed her because she wasn’t a Vestal,’ he said, jutting his chin out. ‘It…seemed odd, her pretending to be one when she wasn’t. Especially when the family thought she was. If you see what I mean.’ Claudia did not see. She did not want to see. In fact, the only thing Claudia wanted at that particular moment was to pass right through the wall and into her bedroom. She couldn’t use the door, Orbilio was blocking the way.

Tell a lie, there was one other thing she wanted. A very stiff drink.

Dear Diana, how could she have let herself believe he’d sailed halfway round the world after her? Claudia Seferius, you really are a silly bitch.

‘What do you know about Old Bedroom Eyes?’ he was saying.

Claudia felt her colour rise. ‘Who?’ she asked sharply. By Juno, she’d be in that doctor’s bed tonight, come hell or high water. She’d put that mattress through its paces.

‘Come on! Ever since I got here, it’s been Diomedes this, Diomedes that. Has he cast a spell on the Collatinuses, for gods’ sake?’

‘If he has, it’s a bloody sight better than casting aspersions the way you are.’

‘Claudia, I know for a fact-’

‘That’s another thing, Orbilio. I’m sick up to here with the patter of your tiny feats, get out of my way.’

And that was when she received a second bombshell because he did, goddammit. He bloody stepped aside.

Claudia stared at the rain hammering hard against the window and ran her finger up and down the glass until it squeaked. Well, she thought. That arrogant patrician is nothing to me. What did it matter if he had more sex appeal than you could shake a stick at? There were other men. Better looking. Younger. Blonder, even…

That was another thing about Supersnoop. By rights she ought to take him with her to Aristaeus’s, except he’d only insist on dragging the man off for trial. In fact, with only Hecamede to give evidence against him, Aristaeus could be out in no time, free to ply his evil trade on other little girls. Oh no. Keep Orbilio out of this and let Belladonna do the work.

But Aristaeus was scheduled for tomorrow, Diomedes for tonight-and in the meantime, Claudia was bored.

Bored, bored, bored.

All four kittens lay piled in one contented, snoozing heap on top of their mother, who half-opened one protective eye every so often, but couldn’t be bothered to move on a wet day like this. Claudia gave her a few strokes between her ears, but the purrs were obviously an effort, so to pass time she decided to inspect the redecorated banqueting room.

Eugenius had ordered new friezes, garden scenes of peacocks and finches, waterfalls and nymphs, but the workmen, who had all but finished the job, apparently couldn’t get over in the rain. The room was deserted. Claudia cast her critical eye over the walls. They looked great from a distance but could they stand close scrutiny? To her surprise, the detail was as skilful as the overall picture. Maybe more so, because once you started looking closely, the eye was drawn to finer and finer detail. Some of the plants were quite astonishing and she wondered whether the painter carried the same honesty through to portraits. Not if he wanted further commissions, she thought.

On a table in a corner, fresh fruit stood piled on a silver tray, apples, nectarines, grapes, figs. There was one peach remaining, and she selected it.

‘That’s my peach. Put it down.’

Examining the skin for blemishes, Claudia turned slowly. A small child, no more than eight, stood in the doorway. A pretty child in all probability, with her raven black hair and slender form, but at the moment she was scowling too ferociously to tell.

‘I said, that’s mine. Put it back!’

Small hands became small fists.

Claudia regarded the child carefully, then held the peach to her nose, testing it for ripeness. Small brown eyes blazed with temper.

‘If you eat my peach, I’ll take that pot, I’ll throw it on the floor and then I’ll tell Mama you broke it.’

Her name was Popillia, she was Linus’s and Corinna’s third child and this was her normal disposition.

‘So?’

‘So,’ she said haughtily, ‘it contains Mama’s new perfume, the one she sent for from Syria. She was showing it to Grandmama, only she left it behind by mistake.’

She advanced purposefully across the room and stretched out her hand.

With delicacy, Claudia picked up the ceramic pot, lifted the lid and sniffed appreciatively. ‘Expensive,’ she murmured.

‘Very expensive,’ the child corrected.

Claudia smiled. ‘All right, you win,’ she said, waiting for the light of triumph to fill those little nutbrown eyes before adding, ‘Pity though.’

She opened her fingers. There was a crash and immediately a pungent aroma exploded in the air. The child’s jaw dropped in amazement, her whole body frozen in surprise. Claudia bit deep into the peach, seemingly oblivious to the juice dribbling down her chin.

‘Don’t forget to tell your mama, will you?’ she said, stepping over the broken shards.

In the atrium, as she licked the last vestige of fruit from the stone, she decided that her first encounter with Popillia had not been the most auspicious of starts. Oh well. Claudia let the stone fall noisily on to the mosaic floor then, with a judicious kick, sent it winging into the pool. The resulting plop was more than satisfactory.

*

‘You’ll do as you’re fucking told.’ The voice of Aulus Collatinus was unmistakable. ‘Don’t think you can come back after farting around for twenty-’

‘You call that uprising in Pannonia farting around? I nearly lost an eye, and when-’

‘Don’t change the bloody subject. I’m telling you now, boy, you can forget coming home with big ideas about taking over.’

‘Taking-? I was only checking to see how much wool had been carded up.’

‘Bollocks! You know sod-all about the spinning process, you’re out to undermine my position.’

‘The old man asked me to do it.’

‘Oh! So now you’re sneaking off to him, are you? Trying to worm your way round the old man so you can take over when he pops off? Well, I’ll not have it, d’you hear me?’

Claudia listened at the door for another few moments, but since the exchange was going nowhere, a series of oh-yes-you-are, oh-no-I’m-not’s, she moved on. They were an argumentative bunch at the best of times, this family, but the rain made them ten times worse.

Orbilio came in, tunic and toga soaking wet, hair plastered over his face, his legs streaked with mud.

Claudia said, ‘Still soaking up the atmosphere, I see,’ to which he gave a very-funny-I-don’t-think grin as he squelched across the tiles leaving a long line of drips in his wake. She hoped he got pneumonia and died.

Fabius and his father were still at it hammer and tongs but, two doors along, altercations of a different kind were in progress. Linus, disgust heavy in his voice, was berating Corinna, this time about her hair. Claudia leaned her ear to the door.

‘You’re making a fool of yourself, all those curls piled up. You look like mutton dressed as lamb.’

‘It’s the fashion, Linus. You said I should keep up with it.’

‘Well, you haven’t been, have you, you silly bitch. Remus, can’t you do anything right?’

‘I try, Linus, really-’

‘The hell you do. You’ve only got to look at Claudia to see what a pig’s ear you’ve made of it.’

‘Her maid’s sick, that’s why she’s wearing a bun.’

‘You make me sick, you know that? The old man’s got you tutors for the children, he’s got you nannies and nursemaids coming out your ears-you can’t complain you haven’t got the time.’

‘That’s another thing, Linus, I never get to see my own children.’

‘For gods’ sake, woman, all I ask is you keep yourself smart, be a credit to the Collatinus name, and you can’t even do that right.’

‘I do, Linus. I am. I mean…but the children, I hardly ever-’

‘Then what’s that ridiculous confection stuck on your head? You look like a common tart.’

Claudia shook her head. If there were prizes for being a berk, Linus would win the crown. Given time, he could probably make it an Olympic event.

It was because she was at the far end of the colonnade, listening at Portius’s door, that Claudia failed to catch the rest of what passed between Linus and his wife.

‘You do it on purpose, don’t you, you selfish cow?’

The back of Linus’s hand lashed against Corinna’s cheek, sending her reeling against the table.

‘You embarrass me on bloody purpose.’

Corinna struggled to her feet. ‘Linus, that’s not true-’

‘Shut up, bitch!’

A fist cannoned into her stomach and she fell, doubled up, on to the floor. His foot rammed into her lower back and she screamed out in agony.

‘Do that once more, you worthless cow, and I’ll give you the hiding of your life.’

Linus directed another kick into her ribs, then pulled her to her knees by the hair. He hit her hard in the mouth. Not once, but twice.

‘You show some respect for the family name.’ He jerked her roughly towards him and bent to look at her, a grimace contorting his face. ‘Croesus, you’re ugly.’ He recoiled. ‘Ugly and scrawny and lazy and stupid. No other man would take you if I divorced you-which I could, you know, any day I choose. So what do you say?’

Corinna swallowed the blood in her mouth.

He twisted her hair so hard, a clump came loose in his fingers. ‘I asked you a question.’

‘Th-thank you.’

A balled fist thudded into her breast. ‘Louder, you ungrateful bitch.’

The room swam and went dark, but Corinna forced herself to rally. She daren’t pass out. Not right now.

‘I s-said th-thank you, Linus.’ The words were slurred from the swelling on her lip. ‘I’m g-grateful for everything you’ve done f-for me.’

Linus let go of her hair and straightened up. ‘So you bloody should be.’

Corinna began to sob uncontrollably, her muscles convulsing, as Linus brushed his hands together and finished off the last of his wine.

‘Well, that should teach you a lesson,’ he said conversationally, as he stood over her and began to untie his loin cloth. ‘Now let’s have a bit of fun.’