‘And these jewellers have been known to handle that sort of thing before?’ I asked. I have been to Corinium many times myself, and I thought I knew the shady little goldsmiths he meant.
He didn’t answer. ‘I was fool enough to swear a contract with them half a moon ago. Before seven witnesses — they insisted upon that. Five gold pieces I promised them. I don’t think the value in denarii would do, even if I had it, which I don’t.’ He looked at me and I could see the desperation behind the angry eyes. ‘When you talked this morning about that cursed girl having a bit of money in her skirts, I never thought of this. I thought she’d got a few quadrans the way she did before, letting some farmer fellow have his way with her.’
‘Morella did that?’ I was so startled I interrupted him. This was a new aspect of her history and not a happy one.
‘Promised to marry her, I expect, though of course he never would. Morella would always believe what people said to her. Just as well I got to hear of it, and gave her the thrashing of her life, otherwise we would have had another mouth to feed, and then I’d never have found anyone to take her off my hands. Always a danger with a girl like that. Why do you think I was so delighted to get her married off?’ He shook his head. ‘Stupid little cow! And now see what’s she’s done. After you left I went out to the tree to make sure my little hoard was safe — and when I dug it up, I found the coins were gone! Not the silver ones — those I wouldn’t mind so much, and in fact I would have paid a few denarii to be rid of her — but, may she rot in Hades, she had to take the gold!’
He was almost shouting in frustration by this time, and the gatekeeper on duty came out to have a look. Perhaps it was just as well for me, because the farmer had seized me by my upper arms and would have shaken me, I think, if the guard had not been there. As it was he let me go and took a step away.
I rearranged my toga. ‘And what has this to do with me?’
‘Citizen,’ he almost bellowed, with anguish in his voice, ‘you found the coins. I’ve got to have them back. She stole them, I tell you — they belong to me. I know what will happen if I can’t produce them when I’m asked. The prospective grooms are wealthy — they understand the law. They’ll claim that I should pay them and the contract stands, or they will take me before the magistrates and lay a charge on me.’
Now I understood why he was so upset, and why he had taken the risk of saying what he had to me. Such a formal bargain is enforceable in court on penalty not merely of a very hefty fine but — since the farmer was not a Roman citizen — probably of scourging and imprisonment as well. And claiming that his daughter was a thief was no defence — her father was her guardian in law, and thus legally responsible for redressing her misdeeds.
So he had taken the risk of coming to find me — and had not been able to come without his wife! No doubt the tribal elders had insisted that she accompany him. Perhaps he honestly believed that he could keep the facts from her, or prevent her from telling her family what he’d done — or perhaps he simply feared the torturers more than he feared the tribe. If the Corinium goldsmiths were the ones I knew, they would pursue him through the courts for everything he had. Either way, his future did not look very bright.
I did not feel disposed to show him sympathy. There were not, in any case, as many coins as he claimed. ‘I have handed the gold pieces to His Excellence,’ I began, and saw the look of horror cross the farmer’s face. I was about to add ‘or rather, to his wife’ when we were interrupted by a distant cry.
There was a muttered imprecation to the Celtic gods, a great deal of crashing through the undergrowth, and there was Morella’s mother waving through the trees, her hood thrown back and her skirts in disarray, her face a mask of horror and dismay.
‘Citizen! And you too, husband! Come at once. The dog has found something I think you ought to see.’
Chapter Twenty
The farmer looked as if he might refuse to move, but I did not wait to argue. I turned without another word and followed the woman as she retraced her steps, crashing almost heedless through the trackless undergrowth, following the broken sticks and bracken which marked her headlong flight through the forest to the villa gates. It was awkward going in a toga, but I stumbled after her, her husband, still grumbling, trailing in the rear.
‘Stupid woman! Now where are we going? Couldn’t you see that we were occupied?’ But there could be no doubt of the direction we were following — each pace brought us closer to the frantic yowling of the dog.
Louder and louder, until at last we reached a clearing in the trees. There was a shallow dip there, screened by low bushes from our vantage point, and on the other side of it I could see the animal, snuffling at something with an excited air. It looked up and howled at its mistress’s approach. She flapped a hand towards the hidden hollow place, but kept her head averted, as if she could not bear to look.
‘There!’ she muttered. I moved forward to look into the dip, and saw what she had seen.
It was Aulus — I knew at once although I could not see the face. That massive bear-like form would have been unmistakable, even if it had not been wearing the distinctive cloak and tunic of the villa guards. He was huddled face downward on the forest floor, pitched forward on his knees as though he had been overcome while kneeling down, and there were fresh bleeding scratches on his legs and thighs all the way from his tunic-hems to his huge sandalled feet. One hairy hand was still clutched to his throat, and there were traces of vomit all round where he lay. Perhaps it was that which had so aroused the dog, which even now was rushing to and fro, its muzzle to the ground, emitting intermittent yelps and growls.
‘I’m very sorry, husband.’ Morella’s mother sounded weak with shock. ‘I could not hold the animal. It got away from me.’ She held out her hands to show the welts the running rope had made. ‘Then, when we got here, it was even worse. It started standing over him and wouldn’t let me near.’
‘Huh!’ The man took a striding step towards the dog, caught the leash and yanked it backwards with considerable force. I felt a momentary sympathy for the unhappy brute as the pull jerked it savagely up on its hind legs, and almost toppled it on to its back. It snarled, snapped at its master, then regained its feet and, deprived of its interesting quarry, sat down on its haunches and gave a whining howl.
However, it was at least now under some control. I ventured past it rather nervously, and picking the cleanest bit of ground I could find I knelt by Aulus and tried to raise his head. His face was never an attractive one, but now — a livid colour, with his eyes rolled back and leaf mould sticking to vomit round his mouth — he was a dreadful sight. It did not need the shocking coldness and the weight to tell me he was dead.
I had never been especially fond of Aulus in his life, but suddenly I found a dreadful sympathy for him. I should miss his grasping avarice and his onion breath, and his massive brutal presence spying at the gate.
‘Is it serious?’ the woman ventured, as though Aulus might simply have knelt down for a rest. She edged a little closer. ‘It looks as though something he ate or drank has disagreed with him.’
‘That is an understatement, madam, but essentially the truth. Aulus has been poisoned, by the look of it,’ I said, ‘though it must have taken quite a dose to topple such a man.’
Even Farathetos was sobered by the sight. He tied the dog’s leash to a tree — which did not please the animal at all — and came to squat beside me in the dip.
‘This is not the dead body that you were talking of?’ He did not wait for me to answer, but did so for himself. ‘Can’t be. That was “murdered and horribly butchered”, you said. And this man could never have been fitted into Morella’s dress.’ He had lost his belligerence, and sounded merely shocked, and I noticed he was speaking instinctively in Celtic now. ‘This is another corpse!’