‘You’re good to me,’ I murmured, reaching out to her. ‘You know I won’t stay longer than I need.’
She wriggled from my grasp and gave a knowing smile. ‘And in the meantime, if you have a little time to spare …’
I could see that she was planning some household task for me, repairing the enclosure with fresh pointed stakes or helping the slave boys with the egg-baskets. I said quickly, ‘Not for a moment. I have work to do tonight. Marcus has given me a document to read.’
Gwellia lit a taper and set it at my side. ‘You’ll need this light then; it’s too dark in here. What is it, anyway?’ She peered across my shoulder. ‘Looks like a sort of list.’
‘The names of Ulpius’s associates,’ I said importantly. ‘I am to investigate their probity and wealth.’
‘Well, why don’t you ask Lucius?’ she said. ‘He was a partner, wasn’t he? Surely he could tell you what you want to know.’
It was a good suggestion but there was a flaw. ‘The trouble is, I am to be discreet. Marcus does not want Lucius to know that he has any interest in these individuals.’
She shook her head. ‘But surely the search for Genialis gives you an excuse? If Silvia’s guardian wants to close the business down — and you say he made a public declaration of the fact — then that might concern these people very much. Perhaps it was one of them who sent that messenger to him. They might have a motive for luring him away, or even for seeing that he perished in the snow.’
I nodded thoughtfully. ‘That message never reached him, but in principle you’re right. So I could question Lucius about them on that excuse alone — he need have no idea that Marcus is involved. Thank you, wife. An excellent idea. That could save me hours of fruitless questioning elsewhere.’
I meant it and I showed my gratitude by calling in the boys and weaving egg baskets with them till it grew too dark to work.
ELEVEN
I lay awake a long time, all the same.
I decided that I would tackle Lucius alone by calling on him at his warehouse in the town. I reasoned that — even if he’d been offered hospitality at Marcus’s overnight after delivering Silvia and her luggage to the house — he should be back in his Glevum warehouse by late afternoon. Of course I would have to pay the money-lenders before I went to him, but the docks are famous for working after dark — ships need to load and unload to catch tides and winds — so I calculated that, with luck, I could still arrive in time to find him at his desk. My excuse would be to volunteer to join the search: I could find out what progress had been made so far, and perhaps I could slip in some questions about his trading partners too.
However, it was important that those questions seemed as casual as possible, and only to be related to the search — as though these were people I’d heard of for myself. I must give no hint that I had seen a list: so in the morning, as soon as I awoke, I turned my attention to my reading task. I spent several hours memorizing names and all the other information on the scroll.
Gwellia, gods bless her, did her best to help. Reading is quite difficult for her, but she asked me questions till I had the facts by heart, served me a lunch of quite delicious stew, then gave me a packet of the promised bread and cheese and packed me off to see about the mule.
‘And take a servant with you! Minimus for choice — since you promised yesterday you’d take him the next time you went out. I don’t want you roaming those icy roads on foot. Remember what happened to that poor old herb woman.’ Her voice was gruff, which meant she was disguising tears. ‘Of course it will be different once you have a mule. Those creatures are more sure-footed than a man and they travel faster too. Now, I know I can’t expect you to come home again tonight.’ She brushed aside the servants to tie my cloak herself. ‘But given that you hire the animal, you should be home again quite shortly, shouldn’t you?’
‘Not if I’m to join the search for Genialis,’ I replied, reluctant to see the disappointment on her face. ‘And then there’s Minimus. He isn’t very big, but I doubt that Cantalarius’s skinny animal would carry both of us. So I could only travel as fast as he can walk. Though I suppose that I can drop him back here, on my way past to town.’
The boy’s face fell. I could see that he was fearing that I’d take Maximus again — who was a good deal smaller, despite the name his previous owner had bestowed on him. ‘I could stay in Glevum, Master!’ he proffered, eagerly. ‘That way you would only have to get me there today — and I would be waiting for you every other evening when you came. I could keep the fires burning so the workshop will be warm when you arrive, and make it much easier for you to live in town.’
I made a doubtful face. If I took him with me, the trip to Glevum would take twice as long and if I was to search for Genialis on the road to Dorn, I was not likely to spend much time in the workshop anyway. I looked at Minimus, wondering how to tell him so without upsetting him — and displeasing Gwellia as well — but he gave me such a pleading look that I could not find the words.
He must have sensed that I was wavering. ‘Let me come with you, Master. I promise you’ll be glad. In any case, it wouldn’t be for very long. In a few days’ time the weather will improve, and then you and I and Maximus and Master Junio can all walk together each way every day, just as we always have. In the meantime, I’ll bed down in the shop and attend you when you’re there — and I could deal with any customers who call. You never know who might and you could lose valuable business otherwise. I’ll just take my heavy cloak to be a blanket overnight, then all I’d need is a little bit of food, or a few sesterces to buy a pie or two.’
But Gwellia was already putting extra oatcakes, cheese and hard-cooked eggs into the supper bag and thrusting it into my servant’s hand. ‘A very good suggestion, Minimus. You go with your master. And mind you take good care of him — and of yourself, as well. Now, be off, the pair of you, or it will be too late to bargain for the mule and still get to Glevum before dark. And make sure you check whether it could carry both of you — even if it’s only for a mile or two — that would help you get there before Lucius leaves the docks.’
There was even more urgency than she supposed, of course, since I had other things to do when I arrived, so I nodded and promised that I would. ‘We’ll be home as soon as possible,’ I added in farewell, taking her briefly in my arms. ‘Come, Minimus!’
But the boy already had his cloak around his neck, his sandals buckled and the food bag in his hand. ‘At your service, Master!’ He flung wide the round-house door, scuttled before me to open up the gate, and a moment later he was walking proudly at my side along the lane.
It did not take us long to reach my neighbour’s farm — only a mile or two past my patron’s villa — and when we got there could see the mules, in a small woven pen just inside the palisade. They looked extremely skinny, but still clearly useable, and they were chomping at something in a stone trough by the hedge.
There was no servant at the enclosure gate and we walked in unchallenged past the mules, and into the area where the farm buildings were: mostly store houses, circular, decaying and roughly thatched with reeds. A group of charred remains showed where the barns had been — I remembered that my neighbour had spoken of a fire.
A mangy dog, tied up against a post, gave a half-hearted growl as we approached and strained against his rope, but we were in no danger of it reaching us and that was the only animal in sight. No pigs or piglets wallowing in the sty, no geese or chickens clucking in the mud. A thin trail of bedraggled rain-soaked wisps of hay and a pitiful lowing from a half-ruined shed nearby suggested the presence of a few sheep perhaps — but the sound was so weak that it was heartrending and a glance into the granary pit showed little sign of feed. It was clear at once that the whole farm was in decline — there was not even smoke ascending from the roundhouse roof, whose thatch was in any case in great need of repair. I could see why Cantalarius believed that he was cursed.