"Don't fool yourself," she said, ever honest. "I am watching what you are up to."
I quirked up an eyebrow playfully. "All day?"
"All day," she confirmed soberly.
I smiled and turned back to Maia. "By the way, I saw Petro yesterday."
"Lucky you."
I could tell that Helena thought I had just made it more likely my sister would be wafting down the River Thamesis for pastries and heavy seduction attempts at the Norbanus villa.
I now noticed that Maia's son Marius had been sitting under a side table feeding his dog. The look he gave me was inscrutable.
Where was my own dog?
"I gave Nux to Albia to comfort her last night," Helena said. "You read my thoughts, Helena. Better face it. We think the same way; we're a pair."
"Oh, I know that!" she roared. It caused consternation among the slaves mopping a corridor. I managed a good kick at their water bucket as we walked past. "Marcus-try deciding what you want in life, so we can all get on with it."
I stopped dead and spun her around to face me. The wet tiled floor made her skid slightly and I had to grab her hard. "I was captured. Nothing happened. Don't waste effort wondering what I might have done. Here I am."
Helena scowled. "That's easy to say when you are safe here. What happens when you vanish into the stews and slums?"
"You have to take that on trust."
"Trusting you is rather tiring, Marcus."
She did look worn. She had two young children, one still being breast-fed. Our attempt at taking on a nursemaid had been more trouble than not having one. There had been some respite for her here at her aunt's house, where there was practical help, but all the time she knew- indeed, I knew too-that we would be going home to Rome soon. Our endlessly demanding children would once again be all ours, and when I went out working she cared for them alone. If anything ever happened to me, Julia and Favonia would be her sole responsibility. Our mothers supported her-while causing more stress by bickering with each other. Ultimately, Helena spent a lot of time by herself, wondering where I was and what danger I was in.
Helena was worldly. She knew any man could stray. As soon as she saw Chloris she must have thought my day had come.
I did admit, it must have looked as if I thought that too. I could hardly blame Helena. How was I to foresee that M. Didius Falco, infamous lad about the metropolis, would end up being such a good boy?
Albia was skulking nervously. Do not imagine that rescue from brutal prostitution had made the girl grateful. In the part of my life I never talked about, I had been an army scout. During close contact with the enemy, as the tribes were then, I had had a few dealings with the boot-faced element of British society. The don't-know, not-heard-of-that, never-saw-anything mob were as active here as in the criminal slums below the Esquiline in Rome, and being a conquered people gave Britons special rights in unhelpfulness. Routinely, they made life awkward for anyone Roman, often in very subtle ways. Albia had absorbed all that.
"Albia, you and I need to talk." As I tackled the girl, Helena was shooing away children. They had clustered defensively around their returned friend; I hoped these innocents had no idea of her adventure with the prostitution ring. Nux, convinced as ever that she was the joy of my heart, left Albia's side and climbed all over me. I had made the mistake of sitting down. I was trying to look nonthreatening. When the dog saw I was accessible, she jumped straight up on me. A hot tongue busily licked anatomical crannies that might need a wash. Albia said nothing.
"Now don't look so afraid." Waste of breath. The girl crouched on a stool, expressionless. "Stop it, Nux… down, stupid doggie! Albia, the other night-" It felt about two weeks ago, though it was only four days. "A man was killed. It happened at the Shower of Gold. He was pushed down the well, upside down. He drowned."
Albia still only gave me the wounded, empty stare of the destitute. Her face seemed whiter than ever, her spirit even more crushed.
"You are safe here," Helena told her. Nux abandoned me and rushed over to Helena, clambering up on her lap. Helena subdued the dog with the competence she used to control our children. "Albia, tell Didius Falco if you saw anything that night."
"No." Was that saw nothing, or wouldn't tell?
Nux looked from one to another of us, intrigued.
"Were you in the Shower of Gold, or anywhere near it, that night?" I repeated.
"No." Useless. I was trying to net moonlight.
The more times she denied it, the more I doubted her word. Even if the desperate people did not lie, they withheld information. But if they could get away with it, they lied. Truth was power. To keep it gave them a last shred of hope. To pass it on left them utterly exposed.
"Albia!" Even Helena sounded sharp. "Nobody will harm you if you talk about this. Falco will arrest the men who did it."
"I was not there."
Even though Albia was so uncommunicative, I could tell one thing: she was absolutely terrified.
"Well, that was a dead loss." I tried not to gloat.
"I'm really annoyed with her." At least Helena did not blame me. "Albia's a silly girl."
"She's just scared. She's been scared all her life."
"Well, haven't we all!" From Helena Justina that was a shock. I stared. She pretended she had not said it.
"Now can I go out to play?" I whined.
"Things to do, Marcus."
"What things, beloved?"
"Have a look at the lawyer, say."
"Your friend Popillius?" I hoped in vain for praise that I remembered his name.
"I don't feel friendly towards him and he's not mine."
"Good. I can put up with a lot," I joked, "but if you run off with a legal man, that's it, my girl!"
"Really?" she demanded in a light tone.
"Oh yes." I frowned. "Dearest, you know that I cannot stand lawyers."
The day was looking up. Popillius was presumably slick-aren't they all in their business references?-but I found him in the act of being fleeced.
Helena had to let me out to conduct this next interview. She came with me, however. I waited patiently while she first fed Favonia; it gave me a chance to make snooty remarks about wishing my daughters to lead a quiet domestic life, not to be dragged out to unsuitable venues as they were last night. That enabled Helena to say she wished I could set them a good example then. Thus sniping, though cheerfully, we steamed off in a morning that was still good and hot, to a small rented house where a lawyer had set up in business. Despite a flamboyant chalked sign outside that promised the best prosecutions north of the Alps and tactful, cheap defense speeches, clients had yet to take advantage of the services he offered. I looked for a no-win, no-fee notice but of course failed to find it.
Popillius sat sunbathing in a courtyard, where he waited for all those people who wanted outrageous compensation for wrongs. While at a loose end, he had been found by a British entrepreneur. A shy-looking hopeful had wandered in from the street. He had tufty hair and wide-apart short legs, and had set out a big flat tray of carved jet jewelry and trifles.
There were more of these jet-sellers than fleas on a cat; there always had been. In reality the soldiers in the legions, wanting presents for their girlfriends, snapped up the best-quality stuff while they were up on the frontier. In most parts of southern Britain there was as much chance of buying genuine sea-washed black stuff from Brigantia as of finding real turquoise scarabs beside the Pyramids in Alexandria.
I liked this seller's patter. He owned up that there was fakery in the trade. His cheeky premise was that the best fakes were so good it was worth buying them in their own right. He was promising to let the lawyer corner the market, in the hope he would later make a killing when the fake stuff became openly collectible.
Helena and I watched peacefully. As Popillius set about fetching the cash for his hoard, we parked under what would have been a fig tree if we were in the Mediterranean. Here it was some anonymous bush. Someone appeared to be aware of the concept of shady courtyards with cool pergolas, though if you looked more closely, the yard had been recently used for keeping draft animals. It must have been roughly cleaned up for the lawyer when he wanted to rent.