I nodded. Junio was trying to humour me, but he had a point. I had been too fuddled to think of that.
‘It should not be too difficult to find them,’ Junio went on. ‘Glevum is a big place, but it will be hard for them to remain hidden for long. They will have to eat, and with looks like that they will be conspicuous. A pair of big red-headed strangers might pass as traders once or twice, but sooner or later they will attract attention.’
I managed a faint smile. ‘No doubt they are having to steal to eat. Egobarbus had no money when he arrived. He could not even afford to pay the coach-driver, and I do not imagine Felix ever paid him.’ I sketched in the events I had learned of at the gate.
‘You think that is why they robbed you? In order to buy food?’
I didn’t, but before I could say so the urchin, who had been dragging along behind us in the expectation of a tip, suddenly stepped forward and tugged at my toga sleeve.
‘Your pardon, citizen. . the money you promised. .’
I stopped my stumbling progress and looked at him bleakly. Was I to be subjected to threats, I wondered, now that the child had worked out that I had no money with me? ‘What is it? You will get your money. Marcus Septimus will engage for me.’
A pair of too-wise eyes flickered shiftily in the grimy face. ‘I have no doubt of that, citizen. He promised me money when I arrived with my tidings. No, it is about the red-haired men. I think I could tell you something about them — at a price.’
I glanced at Junio, but he was looking impassive. ‘Go on.’
‘How much is this information worth?’
Of course, that depended on what the intelligence was. Yet from the cunning look in his eye I suspected that if I refused to pay, the boy would try to sell his information elsewhere — perhaps to the red-haired slaves themselves. I was debating how much money to offer when Junio, who remembered what it was to be young, and besides had not been shaken up by a street attack, solved the problem for me.
‘A whole basket of food — bread, cheese, fruit and meats — plus a hot pie and a honey-cake from the street vendor. Just for yourself, in exchange for your information. What do you say?’
I breathed again. That was a reward I could find (albeit with difficulty) from my own resources if necessary. And it might be necessary. My patron pretended to disapprove of my offering bribes for information, although it was a method he often employed himself. I might easily have to put up the reward myself.
And Junio was right. The offer of immediate food was of more value to this pauper child than money, which he might have been bullied out of or, worse, accused of having stolen himself. A good meal, when you are starving, is quickly put beyond the reach of thieves.
‘Settled!’ The boy’s eyes were luminous with greed.
‘Well then?’ I demanded.
‘I’ll see the basket first!’ the child rejoined. I reflected again on the wisdom of this scheming little innocent. He had lived too long in the back streets of Glevum to give anything on trust.
I nodded, and we limped the rest of the painful way towards the building where Marcus had his rented apartment.
It was a sumptuous suite of rooms, the finest in Glevum. It occupied the whole of the first floor of a large building, but — like most other apartments — still suffered the inconvenience of being contained vertically between a wine shop at street level and a cluster of smaller flats above, and over that again a collection of squalid crowded rooms in the attics under the roof. The communal staircase, as usual during daylight hours, was crowded with comings and goings.
With Junio still supporting my arm, we picked our way through the throng: malodorous honest inhabitants from the upper floors, stiff official supplicants and messengers having business with Marcus, and the usual sprinkling of the slightly nefarious and simply curious. At the door of the apartment, a smartly tunicked slave admitted us, and leaving the urchin to attend us on the stair Junio and I made our way into the spacious room where Marcus and his new wife were waiting to greet me.
It was a fine room, with balconies and tiled floors, painted plaster frescoes, woven rugs, mirrors and braziers. Marcus was reclining on a gilded couch and his lady, as is the custom with women, sat on an upright chair beside him, looking more beautiful than ever in a glowing deep blue over-tunic girdled with gold. The silver-blonde wig was elegantly coiffed, and a cluster of jet beads at her lovely throat was her only other adornment. A greater contrast to the unfortunate Phyllidia could hardly be imagined.
As I was ushered in, still leaning on Junio, my patron rose to greet me. His face was a portrait of the most flattering alarm.
‘My dear old friend. I rejoice to find you safely here.’ Junio was right about my reception. An attendant slave was commissioned to fetch me a stool, another to bring food and wine, and Delicta, who had once had a private physician in Glevum and prided herself on her medical knowledge, herself ordered salves and warm water and maidservants to bind up my wounds.
I felt like a visiting emperor as — waving aside my proffered obeisance — Marcus oversaw the siting of the stool and watched solicitously as I lowered myself onto it. ‘You were attacked, I hear?’ Junio, in deference to my shaken state, was motioned to stand behind me. Normally he would have been sent away to wait in the servants’ quarters.
‘Attacked and robbed,’ I said ruefully. ‘I had found something I wanted to show you.’
‘You see?’ Julia Delicta turned to her husband with a smile which would melt bronze. ‘Attacked and robbed, just like my unfortunate slaves this morning.’
Marcus gave me an awkward smile. ‘Delicta is convinced there is some group of itinerant robbers abroad, and these events are part of a pattern. Unlikely, don’t you think, on the evidence of just two attacks? And in different towns?’ He picked up a jug of wine and a morsel of bread from the laden trays which had miraculously appeared before us and, to my surprise, dutifully placed a little of each on the household altar. Then he took his place on the couch and picked at a date himself. It was a formal signal that I could eat, and (having had my head, hands and feet bathed by Junio in the bowl provided) I did so ravenously.
Secretly I was amused. The arrival of Delicta had already effected a change in the household habits. Such strict social conventions had never been observed before when I had eaten informally with Marcus.
The lady herself ignored the refreshments, as well-bred women do. Instead she said firmly, ‘These are just two attacks we know of. There may be many more. We have seen this before in Corinium. Some family of thieves moves in on market day and mingles with the citizens. Then, when they have filled their pockets, they disappear.’
‘But this attack was not in Corinium,’ Marcus said in a tone of amused patience, raising his eyebrows slightly in my direction.
Delicta was not to be subdued. ‘Of course by the time the authorities are searching for them, they are far away. What more likely than that they should come to Glevum? I tell you, husband, if you do not apprehend the culprits swiftly, they will move on to the next town and never be caught. And they have robbed me of two valuable slaves and some expensive goods. I am your wife. They must be brought to justice.’ She turned the torchlight of her smile on me. ‘Do you not agree, Libertus?’
I may be an old man, but when a woman like Delicta looks at me in that confiding way, I am almost ready to agree to anything. However, I had the presence of mind to say, ‘I believe, lady, that this attack was directed at me personally. I have come to think they wanted what I was carrying. It was of no value to thieves, but I had found something which I thought might throw some light on the events surrounding the death of Felix.’ Briefly, I outlined the finding of the supposed ‘tail’ pieces and the empty phial.