I leaned back on the couch, finally feeling that some mad nightmare might be ending. I breathed slowly. My troubles were not over, however. The Vestal in whose private apartment I was dallying reached over and stroked my forehead, then offered me wine.
She had a Syrian glass jug on a chased tray. She cannot have known I was coming to see her; it must be her regular nightcap. There was only one goblet. We agreed it would be unwise to send out for another one.
"What do you think?" she asked courteously as I sipped. "I don't know the name, but I am promised it is good."
"Very nice." I did not recognize its vintage either, but whatever the grape and origin, it was more than acceptable. I would like to have tried it on Petro. In fact, I would have liked to show Petro this whole situation and watch him shoot off into a catalogue of howling incredulity. "A gift from an admirer?"
"Honoring Vesta."
"Very devout. So what did Gaia say?" I refused to be sidetracked. "Which of them has threatened her?"
"Nobody will harm her. She is in no danger, Falco."
"You know something!"
"I know she is now safe from anyone in her family. But I cannot say where she is. Nobody knows that. You have to discover the answer."
"Why should I?" My temper was up now. "I have already spent all day on this. I am exhausted, and baffled by the hindrances put in my way. What is the point? If I knew what Gaia was afraid of, I could find her more easily."
"I don't think so, Falco."
The girl continued plying me with wine, but I knew that old trick. Perhaps she sensed it, because she took the goblet from me and had a drink herself.
I grabbed the goblet back, then set it down smartly on its tray. "Concentrate! I thought Gaia might have been troubled by the evil ways of nasty 'Uncle Tiberius.' Did she mention him?"
"Oh, he was a filthy article," Constantia admitted immediately.
"Then whyever would a retired Vestal like Terentia Paulla marry him?"
"Because he was rich?"
"A rich bastard."
"He fooled Terentia into believing that he wanted her."
"He was rich and she was foolish?"
"You are not going to give up?"
"No."
"All right." She had decided to give me something. It might not be everything (few women do that on a first acquaintance, after all; least of all sworn virgins). "Terentia married him," said Constantia, "because he told her she was the one he had always really wanted. She was thrilled. She took him out of misplaced flattery, and a little spite perhaps-because he was the lover that her married sister had flaunted at her for years."
XLIV
I folded my arms and stretched out my boots, crossing my ankles. I was now feeling desperately tired.
What would this have meant to Gaia? Yet more explosions in the family, that was certain. I now understood all too clearly what had been meant when I was told that "Uncle Tiberius" had been an "old friend" of the family.
I knew that Terentia Paulla had retired as a Vestal about eighteen months ago. She had been married for just under a year. This was June. Her sister, the ex-Flamen had said, had died in July last year. "The Vestal's wedding and the Flaminica's death must have virtually coincided."
"Probably so." I sensed that Constantia now wanted to close up. Her bright eyes were watching me. I could live with that, if she liked the novelty of gazing at a handsome dog with tousled curls and an endearing grin-not to mention, of course, the faintly etched brow crease that hinted at my thoughtful, sensitive side.
She made a decent picture herself. She might look severe when she was attired in her religious robes, but she had regular features lit with obvious intelligence; off duty, she was a very pretty girl. As a centurion's daughter or a tribune's wife, she would have been the toast of any legion, and an inevitable source of problems among the men.
Thankfully, pretty girls present no problem to me.
"The Flaminica-Statilia Paulla, wasn't that her name?-died very suddenly, I heard. Do you happen to know what caused it?"
"Apart from fury at her sister's announcement of her marriage?" Constantia bit her lip. "I do know, actually. She had a tumor. She had confided in the Chief Vestal-probably not just to share the tragedy, but to annoy her sister, who was not being made a confidante."
"Had everyone in the family known about the Flaminica's long affair?"
"I should think so. Not little Gaia."
"Does that mean even the Flamen knew?"
"It had always been accepted tacitly. Theirs was a marriage in form only."
"He must have had feelings on the subject. When he talked about his wife was the only time I saw any signs of animation."
"That," said Constantia coldly, "is simply because he blames his wife for dying and robbing him of his position."
"You are very hard." She made no reply. "Was Gaia fond of her grandmother?"
"You mean, did the Flaminica's death upset her? I think the child was closer to Terentia. Terentia has made a big pet of Gaia. I gather she has even talked of making Gaia her heir."
"What about Laelius Scaurus? I thought he was Terentia's favorite?"
"Yes," said Constantia, playing with one of her ringlets. "But he remains in his father's paternal control, so he cannot hold property."
"What's the difference?"
"None, as things are. Gaia is also in the guardianship of her grandfather. But if Gaia were to become a Vestal Virgin, once she came to the House of the Vestals she-unlike her other relations-would be entitled to her own property. She could also make a will."
This was intriguing. "So then if Terentia died, and Gaia inherited, the loot would belong to her immediately and might eventually be left by her outside the family-whereas if Gaia fails to become a Vestal, anything Terentia leaves either to Gaia or her father will be controlled by Laelius Numentinus from the moment of probate."
"While he lives. Then the position of head of household moves down to Laelius Scaurus."
"Whom even his loving aunt may regard as a rather unworldly fellow to be put in control… But if he upsets his father too much, Numentinus could disinherit him."
"You seem very excited by this, Falco."
I gave Constantia my best grin. "Well, it might explain many things. In their huge mansion stuffed full of slaves on the Aventine, the Laelii consider themselves to be living in genteel poverty."
Constantia, a girl with a nature that I could take to, raised her eyebrows. "Poor them!" she said scathingly.
"I am wondering now," I pondered, "whether somebody in her family has hidden Gaia away deliberately, to ensure she should not be selected in the lottery and made financially independent."
"Drastic."
"Money makes people lose their sense of reality."
"Other things can do that."
"Like what?" I asked-and this time when I gave her a grin, it was rather nicely returned.
"Love," suggested Constantia. "Or what passes for it in bed."
Who knows what line of questioning might have developed next? Instead, just at that moment we heard steps tramping the corridor outside.
I leaped up and jumped over to the window on light feet. Constantia laid a finger on her lips. The footsteps went by, apparently only one person; Constantia, who seemed unfazed, may have recognized the heavy tread of one of her fellow inmates. Vestals tend to be solid women; to compensate for their lonely lives, they must be well fed.
The experience reminded me I should not linger. On her feet too, Constantia herself now whispered conspiratorially. "I have enjoyed talking to you, but you ought to go. There is always a chance one of the others will come along for a hot toddy, or to borrow a novel and share a session of girl talk."
"Very nice! Thanks for your help, anyway. I'll be off down my ladder."