After a few more stolen moments they finally dragged themselves out of bed, dressed and walked into the atrium to find Magnus talking with Gaius. Ziri stood by the door gawping at Gaius’ homoerotic artwork that dominated every angle of the room.
‘Good morning, dear boy, and to you, Caenis,’ Gaius said, ‘I hope you both got some sleep, eventually.’
Vespasian grinned as Caenis blushed. ‘Thank you, Uncle. Morning, Magnus.’
‘Morning, sir; Caenis. We’d best be off if we’ve got to go to Antonia’s first.’
A knock on the door interrupted them and Sabinus entered. ‘Uncle, I need your help,’ he said without any greetings. ‘I’m going to see Antonia now and I’d like you to come with me.’
‘Whatever for?’
‘Because there is something that I didn’t tell you.’
‘Go on.’
Sabinus looked nervously at Caenis.
‘I won’t repeat anything that I hear in this house, Sabinus; you can trust me.’
Sabinus sat down and grabbed a cup of wine. ‘Antonia called me to her house yesterday and asked me to meet with her and Herod Agrippa today to threaten him with impounding his grain in Egypt. Of course I couldn’t refuse.’
‘I thought that you would be pleased with a chance at revenge on Herod,’ Vespasian said, unable to see why Sabinus was so agitated.
‘You gave her the idea?’
‘Yes, it seemed a safer way than writing to the Alabarch.’
‘But I was going to write anonymously; Herod would never have known that it was me. If he does he’ll expose me for what I’ve done and I’ll be facing a capital charge.’
‘What’s he got on you, dear boy?’ Gaius asked.
‘The day I saw Pomponius he asked me to sell a stockpile of grain that he’d speculated in and give the money to his heirs. He told me that if anything was surer than his death it was that grain would be going up in price this year. He even told me who would risk buying it; but I didn’t sell it.’
‘Oh, you idiot!’ Vespasian exclaimed. ‘You went and speculated in grain as well, you bought it, didn’t you?’
‘Well, it sounded like an easy way to make money. I’d just come back from the East with a decent amount of cash, enough to buy the votes in last year’s aedile elections and sponsor some games to raise my profile for the upcoming praetor elections, but then I would have been left with almost nothing.’
‘So you poured the whole lot into Pomponius’ grain.’
‘His heirs got their money and I had the chance to make something out of the deal. It was just going to be for a year while the price rose. How the fuck did I know that I was going to be made the grain aedile? As soon as I was appointed I sold it as quickly as possible, but I still made a healthy profit on it.’
‘A grain aedile profiting on a grain deal; that really is a capital offence,’ Gaius agreed.
‘Who did you sell it to?’ Vespasian asked, dreading the answer. ‘Or is that a stupid question?’
Sabinus’ shoulders sagged. ‘Herod Agrippa; how else would he know?’
Gaius’ jowls wobbled in alarm. ‘Why to him of all people?’
‘Because Pomponius had suggested him and I knew him; he was the obvious choice despite what I felt about him.’
‘Who else knows?’
‘Just the Cloelius brothers in the Forum; they transferred the money to me and drew up the bill of sale, which I still have but they’ve got a copy and so has Herod. However, Herod’s been using it to blackmail me; one of the two grain ships that survived the storm was in fact part of his Egyptian stockpile that he bought from Claudius. He’s brought it over to sell on the black market at a huge profit. I know where it is in Ostia but if I impound it, as I should, he’ll make the bill of sale from Pomponius’ grain public.’
‘But then he’ll be just as implicated in grain speculation.’
‘Yes, but he’s not the grain aedile; I would certainly be executed.’
Gaius rubbed the back of his neck and inhaled through his teeth. ‘I fear that assessment is unfortunately correct. So you want me to negotiate a way out of this for you with Antonia.’
Sabinus nodded unhappily.
‘We’d better get going, then.’
‘Yes,’ Vespasian agreed, looking at his brother disapprovingly, ‘let’s get this day over with.’
Claudius was in a high state of agitation as Narcissus showed Vespasian, Corbulo and Pallas into his study. The fact that they were half an hour late, owing to Antonia detaining Pallas once she had been apprised of what Sabinus wanted to tell her, had not helped his nerves.
‘H-H-Herod was very susp-p-picious. I don’t think he b-b-believed me.’
‘What did you tell him?’ Pallas asked, placing Capella’s chest down on the desk.
‘That you were here on legal business of Antonia’s,’ Narcissus replied, saving them all a stammering explanation. ‘He accepted the reason far too easily for my liking. I know he knew it was a lie; being an inveterate liar himself, he can spot them easily. I think that we should abort this.’
‘We can’t,’ Vespasian insisted. ‘Poppaeus will be here soon expecting to do the deal; if he goes away with nothing he’ll become suspicious and if he leaves with the deeds we won’t be able to stop him giving them to Macro.’
‘I could just g-g-go out, as if I’ve forg-g-gotten,’ Claudius suggested.
Vespasian, Corbulo and Pallas glanced at each other and then at Narcissus who lowered his eyes, embarrassed by his master’s pathetic idea.
Claudius pressed on, unaware of what a fool he was making of himself. ‘And then I could write t-to him to apologise, and sug-g-gest that we do it next month, when Herod has forg-gotten all about it.’ He gave a triumphant look as if he had just solved the most difficult problem with a solution of stunning brilliance and finesse.
There was a brief, awkward silence.
‘That is worthy of consideration, master,’ Narcissus responded with such a degree of respect that Vespasian almost believed him.
‘But unnecessary, noble Claudius,’ Pallas assured him. ‘Your mother is at the moment taking steps to, how should I put it? Isolate Herod for the foreseeable future.’
‘How?’
‘That is no concern of ours at the present, only Herod’s. Now I suggest that we go about our business. Narcissus, my friend, you show Magnus and Ziri to the other room and we’ll wait in the triclinium as planned while the noble Claudius greets his clients.’
An hour later they were sitting in silence in the spacious triclinium. The plates of bread, olives, ham and boiled eggs on the table in the middle of the dining room lay untouched.
‘This is starting to play on my nerves,’ Corbulo said, getting up to look through the wooden grille in the door that opened onto the garden. ‘Claudius must have finished with his clients by now.’
Vespasian joined him and looked out to where two chairs had been set either side of a wooden table ready for the meeting with Poppaeus. A slave scuttled into the garden, placed a jug and two silver cups on the table and then disappeared off towards the gate that led to the stable yard at the back of the house.
As the slave closed the gate behind him Narcissus came into the garden with Capella’s chest and placed it on the table. Claudius followed, clutching an armful of scrolls. He sat down and, unwinding a scroll, started to read. His constant twitching and the shaking of his hands added credence to Narcissus’ earlier assertion that his master was less than adept at subterfuge.
‘That idiot is going to ruin this,’ Corbulo hissed as Narcissus went back into the house.
‘Let’s hope that Narcissus will do the talking,’ Vespasian replied, thinking that Corbulo had a point. Then the blood drained from his face as he realised that they had all overlooked a possibility. ‘Shit! What if Poppaeus doesn’t bring his secretary?’ He spun round and looked at Pallas.