‘So isn’t it likely she simply sold it on — especially if she hoped to join the dancing girls?’ That bashful grin again. ‘Woollen plaid is not exactly the most erotic kind of dress, but it’s still worth money in the marketplace. Lots of stall-holders would gladly pay to take it off her hands, even if it was a little frayed.’
‘Sell it? With all that money in the hem?’ I shook my head. ‘I wonder if Junio’s been able to find out who she was. The gods alone know where she is by now — alive or dead — but it might yet be possible at least to find out where she went to when she left the villa gates.’ I did a little calculation in my head. ‘Though that can’t have been the same day she disappeared from home.’
Suddenly I was anxious to be at the villa too, making enquiries about what the land slaves knew. There was no time to be lost. I seized the jug and rinsed my face in it, and picked up my warm cloak from the hook beside the door. ‘Let’s go and see what Aulus has to say. Go and tell Kurso where we have gone, and he can pass a message to the mistress when she returns.’
Minimus hurried off to do as I had asked. He was quick and eager and we were shortly on our way. As we walked along I coaxed a fuller story from the lad about what he remembered of the day he saw the girl.
The facts were clear enough. ‘I was sent out by the master with a message for the gate — about where the consignment of larks was to be directed when it came. I was on my own for once, because Maximus was acting as the master’s page — Pulchrus had gone to Londinium by that time, and Marcus wanted someone by his side.’
‘What about Niveus?’ I enquired. ‘I thought he was purchased with that idea in mind?’
‘He didn’t join the household until that afternoon,’ Minimus said dismissively. ‘This was still quite early in the day — only a little while after the luggage cart had gone. Anyway, the master sent me out, but when I reached the gatehouse Aulus wasn’t there. I looked out through his spyhole and saw him talking to this young woman in the lane.’ He gave me a sideways glance. ‘Not just talking either. He was standing close to her, one hand pointing down the road, and the other on her rump. She didn’t seem to mind it, surprisingly. She was smiling up at him as though he were some kind of Greek god. That’s why I wondered if she was a. .’ He shrugged. ‘Aulus was quite disappointed when I called out to him, and he had to come and pay attention to my message.’
I grinned, amused by the picture which this conjured up. ‘Well, we’ll get there very soon and then we’ll see what this unlikely Adonis has to say about the girl.’
But Aulus wasn’t there when we arrived. The gate was open, but there was no one in his cell, and a quick search up and down the lane revealed no trace of him. I suspected that he had sneaked off to relieve himself in the undergrowth, instead of waiting for his official break and then trailing all the way round the villa grounds to the slaves’ latrine, but though we called and waited he did not appear.
I frowned. This was unusual. Marcus was a stickler for guarding all the gates — especially since Julia and Marcellinus were abducted a little while ago, held to ransom and only narrowly escaped alive. Marcus had been doubly careful about security ever since. Aulus would be severely flogged if his owner discovered he’d left his post like this.
However, in the absence of a gatekeeper we went in on our own. Still no Aulus, or anybody else. No servants in the front courtyard, or at the entrance to the house. For the first time ever, I walked into the villa completely unannounced.
I let myself into the atrium with the idea of waiting there, while Minimus went off to find a slave and let his erstwhile master know that I had come. Some serious crisis in the family possibly? I could think of no other reason why there should be no one about — usually in Marcus’s villa one could scarcely move without inviting the attention of a pair of matching slaves. I was just wishing I had gone round to the back door of the house and thus been able to speak to Stygius without delay, when I was startled to find that I was not alone.
Lucius was already in the room and, unaccompanied by attendants, was pouring a libation on to the household shrine.
I seemed to be making a habit of disturbing private devotions, I thought, and those of the most unlikely people too! I coughed discreetly to let him know that I was there.
His astonishment was every bit as great as mine had been. He started so violently that he dropped the jug, and it smashed into a hundred fragments on the floor. Little drops of liquid splashed among the shards. He whirled round to face me, his face a mask of marble white. ‘What in Jove’s name. .’
‘A thousand pardons, citizen!’ I was mortified. I did not want to anger my patron’s relative, and the jug that he had broken was a substantial one. Besides, to find him worshipping at the household shrine was even more surprising than finding Julia, and more embarrassing for both of us.
Lucius was not the genius of this house so it was not properly his place to make such sacrifice — and he was just the sort of man who cared about such social niceties. Yet he had clearly intended a substantial sacrifice. There was a scrap of kindling on the altar-top and even a lighted taper standing by, as if he hoped to waft his prayers to heaven in the flame, the way that Christians and other outlandish sects are said to do.
At the moment, though, Lucius did not look especially devout. I heard him mutter, ‘Dis take it!’ in a furious undertone. He pressed his thin lips together very hard, and I noticed that pinched redness around the nose again. However, a moment later, he forced a condescending smile.
‘I did not know that you had graced us with your presence, citizen.’
I began to stammer that there had been no one to announce me at the gate, but he waved my words aside.
‘If you are looking for my cousin and his wife, I fear they are not here. They have already left for Glevum. Marcus has taken my advice, and intends to consult the high priest of Jupiter about the best way of affording this corpse a funeral — today, if possible, and certainly before the Lemuria begins. His wife, of course, decided to go too, to order some new sandals to be made for her before she goes away, and your adopted son has gone with them as well. He was anxious to make enquiries about some girl he wants to find for you — in case she had been noticed passing through the gate.’
I nodded. ‘Splendid. So he traced her family?’
He was not amused. ‘I am not aware of any more details than I’ve told you, citizen. You will have to talk to Stygius — or whatever that oaf of a chief land slave calls himself. All I know is they have gone to town, and Marcus was going to speak to the garrison as well. I made it clear I did not think that that was very wise — involving half the populace in our affairs and starting rumours in the town, instead of discreetly consulting the high priest and quietly disposing of the corpse as soon as possible — but he thought that you would wish him to pursue the matter, and naturally your views took precedence over mine.’ The eyebrows rose a fraction, and the lips compressed. ‘It isn’t altogether how we manage things in Rome. And, of course, it turned out that I was right. It is most unfortunate that my cousin wasn’t here.’
‘Something has come up since he went away?’
The thin face pinched still further. ‘A messenger. A reply to Marcus’s letter to the authorities, with details of the accommodation and the passage he required. But the rider brought another letter for my cousin too — a disturbing message which was already on its way from Rome, and which arrived in this province just in time to catch the courier. You know that Marcus’s father has been very ill?’