Lucius had that pinkness around his nose again. ‘Well, that is irregular, but I suppose it’s possible. I have no particular requirement for Colaphus just now.’
The battering ram looked as if he didn’t want to go. I could not altogether blame him. A gatekeeper’s job is a lonely, draughty one, and if Aulus had met trouble he might do the same. But a slave must do his master’s bidding, whatever it might be.
‘As you command, master,’ he said reluctantly. ‘But you will relieve me when the gatekeeper gets back? Aulus can’t be very far away. After all, we spoke to him not half an hour ago.’
And with a last, reproachful look at me, as if this was all entirely my fault, the battering ram went stomping off to take up his unwelcome duties at the gate.
Chapter Thirteen
Lucius stared after the slave’s retreating back. There was a moment’s silence.
‘You went out to the lane, then?’ I ventured finally, wondering what errand would take him from the house, especially while Marcus and Julia were in town.
When Lucius answered it was with disdain. ‘Of course. I believe I mentioned that there was a messenger?’
My turn to stare at him. A messenger? Why should that take Lucius to the gate? No citizen of his rank would go out to the road to receive an errand boy. More likely the messenger would be required to come in and wait for him — sometimes for a considerable time. However, I could hardly challenge Marcus’s cousin outright.
‘A messenger from your aunt Honoria, I think? And you received him, since your cousin was not here?’ I prompted shamelessly.
Lucius gave a thin smile. ‘Indeed. In this very atrium, in fact. But in view of the seriousness of the news from Rome, naturally I did not encourage him to linger here. I saw that he was given food and drink — he had ridden from Londinium without a stop, except to change his horses at the military inns — and sent him on to Glevum, to try to catch up with Marcus at the garrison if he could. Of course, the messenger doesn’t know the roads, so I escorted him to the gatehouse and personally asked Aulus to point out the shortest route.’
Without even giving the poor lad a chance to rest, I thought, after his long and dusty journey on the roads. However, it was logical enough. The rider would have a travel warrant to speed his way as regards the horses and assistance at the inns, but he would not know the short cut through the lane that passed my house, which — for a single rider — would cut off several miles.
‘And Aulus was at his station then?’ I asked. It was a meaningless enquiry, in the circumstances — obviously he must have been, or Lucius could not have asked him anything — and Lucius treated it with the raised eyebrow it deserved. I hastened to add a more judicious thought. ‘He did not seem peculiar in any way at all? Not ill, or anything?’
Lucius stiffened. ‘What do you mean by that?’ His voice was sharp. Still contemptuous of my idiotic questions, it appeared.
‘I thought — since he went missing shortly afterwards — there might have been some sign of the reason. Did he seem to be his normal self to you?’
Lucius gave me his thin smile. ‘His normal self? I’m not sure what his normal self might be. After all, I hardly knew the man.’
‘Shrewd and grasping and malodorous, and willing to sell information at a price,’ I said. Lucius looked properly scandalised at this — it is not polite to criticise the servants of one’s host. I hastened to explain. ‘You must have realised that the fellow was a spy? Marcus has relied on him for years.’
‘I heard rumours yesterday of something of the kind. Not that I would have used him in such a way, of course.’ He had turned that disapproving fish-gill pink again.
I laughed. ‘Don’t worry, citizen. It would not have been surprising if you had. Most of us have slipped Aulus a little something now and then. Though, naturally, your rank and purse would get more out of him than I am able to. He has been the ears and eyes of Marcus for so long, he is accustomed to being paid more handsomely than I can generally afford.’
Lucius seemed genuinely interested in this. He lost that stuffed and starchy look. ‘You used him, then, yourself‘?’ He glanced at Minimus, and then went on as if the slave boy was not possessed of ears and eyes. ‘Aulus did not strike me as having the qualities of mind to. .’ he paused, ‘to pass on intelligence with much intelligence.’ The pale eyes glinted at this attempt at wit.
‘All the same,’ I said, ‘he is reliable. He does not see the point of everything you ask, but what he does tell you is generally accurate enough. For instance, I wanted to know what vehicles were passing in the lane the other day — the day I think the murder of our corpse took place. He gave me a sort of list. I’m not convinced that it was quite complete — if I’d had money in my purse, I might have learned some more — but I’m certain that what he told me is nothing but the truth.’
‘I see.’ The thin lips smiled. ‘Perhaps I should have questioned Aulus when I had the chance. Or we should have questioned him together, you and I.’
Another jest? He was talking to me as though I were his equal, all at once. I knew I should be flattered by the compliment, but something was niggling in the corner of my brain — a vague feeling that something important had been said, some significant detail which had passed me by. I racked my brains but for the moment I could not work out what it was. Meanwhile Lucius was still smiling in that impassive way of his, waiting for me to answer his remark.
Well, two could play the game of flattery. ‘I’m sure your rank and status would ensure success,’ I said. I didn’t have to add ‘your bribe’ — that was implicit, as we were both aware. ‘Perhaps we could both talk to him when he turns up again.’
‘Willingly. Supposing that he does.’ Lucius arched his eyebrows. ‘Marcus was telling us, just the other day, about the trouble you are having with those rebels in the west, and how it’s feared they might now have a hideout in these woods.’
‘You think he might have been abducted or attacked?’ This was a possibility which had not occurred to me — though perhaps it should have done. What else would have persuaded him to leave his post like that? He would hardly have done so willingly, and risked a flogging for his pains. I thought a moment and then shook my head. ‘Aulus is not the kind of man that brigands set upon — not unless there was a well-armed band of them, at least, and even then he would have laid about him with his club, and bloodied one or two of them for their pains. And the way he roars, it couldn’t go unnoticed in the house. Besides, there’s no sign of a struggle — I can vouch for that.’
‘You don’t suppose that he simply took the chance to run away? He was always complaining about something, when I spoke to him.’
I had to smile at this. ‘And make himself a fugitive, with a price upon his head? Not Aulus. He must have earned his freedom price half a dozen times in bribes, but he’s never shown the slightest inclination to buy his freedom and depart. I think he quite enjoys his position as a spy.’
Lucius seemed unwilling to abandon his idea. ‘In normal times, perhaps. But no doubt, like the rest of us, he was alarmed by knowing that we had an unburied body in the house, just when the Festival of the Dead is coming up. Perhaps he feared the spirits and made a bolt for it?’
I could not see Aulus as a superstitious man — one whiff of his onions would frighten off any ghost! I shook my head again. ‘More likely there was some crisis in the lane and — not finding another servant when he called for one, since there were none about — he left his post to deal with it himself.’
‘Unless you are right and he was suddenly unwell.’ Minimus had been standing by and listening to all this. ‘I remember that did happen to him once before — we found him in the forest, being very sick. He’d gnawed some sort of flower bulbs instead of onions.’