Ovid

'Corvinus, have you totally lost your senses?’ she said. ‘Of course Julia committed adultery!'

'Yeah? How do you know?'

'Well…' Perilla was visibly floundering. 'Everyone knows she did.'

'Everyone knows she was charged. I've just told you. The charge was a fake.'

'But Silanus admitted to seducing her!'

'Sure he did.' I was grinning. It wasn't often I was ahead of Perilla, and I was enjoying it. 'That's what he was paid for.'

'What about Augustus? He laid the charge himself. He sent her to Trimerus. Corvinus, she was his own granddaughter!'

'Look, I never said Julia was innocent. I said she hadn't committed adultery.'

'So why was she exiled?'

I opened my mouth — and stopped. I felt like I'd just run into a brick wall. Yeah. Good question. I just wished I knew the answer.

'I don't know,' I admitted. 'Not yet. But I'd swear on the teats of the wolf that suckled Romulus it wasn't for sleeping around.'

Perilla was quiet for a long time. Finally she said: 'Corvinus, I'm sorry I was so dismissive.'

Hey! Apologies? 'That's big of you.'

'Perhaps you're right. Perhaps Julia didn't commit adultery after all.'

I beamed. 'Yeah, well, I can be really persuasive when I get going.'

'No, that's not it. It wasn't anything you said.' Hell. So much for smugness. Straight in the kisser, without so much as the bat of an eyelid. The girl had as much tact as a sledgehammer. 'Only you're the second person to defend Julia that I've talked to today. I'd put it down to an old woman's partisanship but now I'm not so sure.'

One of us wasn't making sense any longer and I was pretty sure it wasn't me.

'Perilla,' I said, 'Why don't you run that one past me again? Maybe I missed something somewhere.'

Just then the slave with the wine tray arrived. Instead of answering Perilla fixed him with her eye.

'Glaucus,' she said. 'Ask Harpale to come out, would you?'

'Yes madam.' The guy poured for both of us and left. I took a careless swallow; then as the wine hit my palate and burst into song I changed my mind rapidly and sipped. This was no swigging stuff. It was real Caecuban, pure nectar from the area around Fundi, and rare as a twenty-year-old virgin in a cathouse. Old Fabius must've laid it down about the time of Actium. Anyone who treated it with less than absolute respect deserved to be boiled in vinegar and rendered for pigswill.

'Corvinus?'

'Hmm?'

'Are you all right?'

'Yeah. Uh…who's Harpale?'

'My only contribution to the investigation so far. You'll see when she arrives.'

I didn't have to wait long; not that I minded with a flask of vintage Caecuban at my elbow and Perilla to look at. Out of the house came an elderly female slave. She moved slowly and I noticed that her right foot was twisted inwards.

'You wanted me, madam?' she said.

'Yes, Harpale.' Perilla indicated a stone bench against the wall next to her. 'Have a seat, please.'

The old woman sat down and placed one hand over the other like a demure kid at her first adult party.

'This is Valerius Corvinus, the gentleman I mentioned.' The slave bobbed her head in my direction. 'Corvinus, this is Harpale. Until my Aunt Marcia acquired her she was the Lady Julia's personal maid.'

Jupiter!

15

'She's beautiful.' I must've been staring at the old girl with a pretty feral grin on my face because she suddenly squirmed on the seat and looked nervous as hell. 'Absolutely beautiful. Where did you find her?'

Perilla frowned.

'I've just told you,’ she said. ‘My Aunt Marcia bought her when Julia was exiled. The estate was broken up and her property sold. Now please behave yourself and stop frightening the poor thing.' She turned to the slave. 'Don't worry, Harpale. He won't do you any harm. That's his natural expression.'

'Cut it out, lady.' I tried to look benign, but the old slave was watching me like a rabbit watches a snake. Her eyes were a pale washed-out blue: candid and slightly stupid. 'I only want you to answer a few questions, Harpale. Okay?'

'Yes, sir.' The woman's voice was light as a dry leaf.

'Fine. We'll start, then. You were the Lady Julia's maid. Was she a good mistress?'

The old woman's smile was surprisingly sweet and innocent.

'Oh, yes, sir,' she said. 'She was really kind. A lovely mistress the Lady Julia was.'

'Did she have many men friends?'

Harpale lowered her eyes. She might not be too smart, but she knew what I was asking, and she stayed quiet so long that I thought I could guess the answer.

'Some, sir. Lit'rary men like the Lady Perilla's stepfather.'

'What about Silanus?'

The thin lips pursed. 'You asked me about the Lady Julia's friends.'

'So?'

'Silanus was round at the house often enough, sir. But not when the mistress was on her own. Only when the master was there. They was very friendly, sir, him and Master Paullus. Not that he came to dinner much. Not that kind of friendly. He'd drop by at odd hours. The middle of the afternoon usually. Or late in the evening. The mistress might be in the sitting-room as well, she often was, but it was the master he really wanted. You could see that, sir. Anyone with half an eye could see that.'

Uh-huh. I glanced at Perilla.

'Tell him about the man with the ring,' she said.

Harpale turned to her. 'Oh, no, madam. He didn't have no ring. That was the point.' The pale eyes shifted back to me. 'He came at odd hours too, sir. Sometimes with Silanus, sometimes on his own.'

I could feel the hairs at the back of my neck crawl. 'Did this guy have a name?'

'Not that I knew, sir. I only saw him the once, and' — her hand sketched a hood or a mantle-fold. — 'his head was covered.'

'What's this about a ring?'

'He wasn't wearing one, sir. At least,' she held out her skinny right hand and indicated the last finger, 'he had the mark, see, but the ring was missing.'

'It could've been in for repair.'

'Oh, no. He never did have no ring, so Davus said.'

'Davus?'

'The door slave, sir. He used to let the gentleman in, of course. Not that he knew who he was either, even though he did see him once.'

'You mean he saw him? Saw the guy's face?'

'Yes, sir. Just that one time, at the end, when the gentleman's hood slipped.'

'But he didn't recognise him?'

'Not that he'd admit to, sir. But Davus was like that, he wouldn't've told anyone, even one of us other slaves. Not if the mistress ordered him not to.'

I saw something I shouldn't've seen and didn't report it.

Like a guy who kept his face covered and visited the traitor Paullus at odd hours? The hairs on the back of my neck were crawling like I had fleas.

'Could the Lady Perilla's stepfather have seen this man too at any time?’ I said. ‘Seen him and recognised him?'

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Perilla shoot me a sharp look. One up for the boys. She obviously hadn't thought of that angle.

'Perhaps, sir. Davus might know that, too.'

'You mean Davus is still alive?' Beside me I heard Perilla gasp: score two. Celestial bells rang. Jupiter, I thought, if you give me this one thing…

'Oh, yes, sir. Davus is alive. Of course he is.'

I sat back in my chair. I could've grabbed the old girl and kissed her, but that would really have sent Perilla up the wall.

'So where is he now? Can we talk to him?'

The candid eyes were suddenly not candid any longer; and they were firmly fixed in the old woman's lap.

'He ran away, sir,' she said. 'Just after my mistress was arrested.'

'Where did he go?' Perilla broke in. Then, when the old woman didn't answer: 'Harpale, please tell us. This is important. You know, don't you?'

'Yes. I know.' The old woman's voice was barely audible, and I could make a good guess why. A recaptured slave gets pretty short shrift: he's branded across the face with a red-hot iron and sent to the mines, or to one of the agricultural gangs. Either way he doesn't live long, if he's lucky. 'I can't tell you where Davus is, madam. That's not my secret. But if you only want to talk to him I'll arrange it.'