Roman blood

I looked about the room. 'But how did I get here? And who undressed me?' I stooped, groaning, to pick up my tunic, which had slid from the arm of a chair onto the floor.

'Father and I carried you down here from the roof last night. You don't remember? You were like a sack of bricks, and we couldn't make you stop snoring.'

'I never snore.' Bethesda had told me so. Or did she he to soothe my vanity?

Lucius laughed. 'They could hear you all over the house! My sister Tertia made a game of it. She said—'

'Never mind.' I started to slip the tunic over my head. The thing became twisted and tangled as if it had a life of its own. My arms were as stiff as my legs.

'Anyway, Father said we should undress you, because your clothes were so sweaty and soiled from the trip. He made old Naia wash them for you before she went to bed last night. It's so hot today, they're already dry.'

I finally managed to cover myself, none too graciously. I looked out of the window again. Not a breeze stirred the treetops. Slaves were busy in the fields, but the court below was empty except for a little gid playing with a kitten. The light on the paving stones was blinding. 'This is impossible. I'll never make it back to Rome today.'

'And a good thing.' This came from Titus Megarus, looming now behind his son with a stem look on his face. 'I looked in this morning on that mare you rode from the city yesterday. Are you in the habit of driving a horse till it drops?'

'I'm not much in the habit of using horses at all.'

'That doesn't surprise me. No true horseman would have exhausted a fine animal in that fashion. You weren't seriously thinking of riding her back today?'

'Yes, I was.'

'I can't allow it.'

'Then how am I to leave?'

'You'll take one of my horses.'

'Vespa's owner will not be pleased.'

'I've thought about that. Last night you told me that the trial of Sextus Roscius is scheduled for the Ides.' 'Yes.'

'Then I'll come into the city the day before and bring Vespa with me. I'll return her to the stables on the Subura Way myself, and if it might help I'll find my way to the house of this advocate Cicero and tell him what I know. If he wants to call me as a witness at the trial — well, I suppose I'd be willing to show my face, even if Sulla himself is there. And here, before I forget, take this.' He pulled a rolled parchment from his tunic. "What is it?'

'The petition the Amerian town council presented to Sulla — to Chrysogonus, actually — protesting against the proscription of Sextus Roscius. This is the copy the council kept for itself. The original should be kept somewhere in the Forum, but these kinds of documents have a way of disappearing when they might embarrass someone, don't they? But this is a valid copy; it bears all our names, even Capito's. It's doing no good sitting in my house. Maybe Cicero can use it.

'Meanwhile I'll lend you one of my horses. He won't be able to match your white beauty for strength, but you'll only be riding him half as hard. I have a cousin with a farm midway between here and Rome. You can stay with him tonight and ride into the city tomorrow. He owes me some favours, so don't be afraid to eat your fill from his table. Or if you can't wait to reach Rome, you can try to talk him into trading one of his horses for mine and then keep riding like a crazy man until you get to the city.'

I raised an eyebrow, then acquiesced with a nod. The stern look softened. Titus was very much a Roman father, used to giving lectures and imposing his will on everyone in his house. His duty to Vespa done, he smiled and mussed his son's hair. 'And now you'll go wash your face and hands by the well and then join us for the meal. While city folk may have just risen, some of us have been up since cock's crow working up an appetite.'

The whole family gathered in the shade of a massive fig tree to take their midday meal. Titus Megarus had another son besides Lucius, an infant boy, as well as three daughters, all with the same family name plus another to mark their order, in the traditional Roman style: Megara Majors, Megara Minora, Megara Tertia. Though I couldn't quite discern who was a resident and who might only be visiting, joining the meal that day were also two brothers-in-law, one of them married with young children, two grandmothers, and one grandfather. The children ran about, the women sat on the grass, the men sat on chairs, and two slave women moved among us making sure that no one went hungry.

Titus's wife leaned against the tree trunk, nursing the infant;

her eldest daughter sat nearby and cooed a lullaby that seemed to follow the meandering tune of the stream that rippled nearby. One was never far from music in the home of Titus Megarus.

Titus introduced me to his father and brother-in-law, who already seemed to know something about my visit. Together they derided Capito and Magnus and their henchman Glaucia, then drew away from the topic with nods and pursed hps as if to let me know I could rely upon their discretion. Soon the conversation turned to crops and the weather, and Titus pulled his chair closer to mine.

'If you were planning on another look at Capito and company before you leave, you may be disappointed.'

'How's that?'

'I sent Lucius on an errand into town this morning, and on his way back he passed the three of them on the road. Magnus muttered something faintly insulting, so Lucius politely asked them where they were headed. Capito told him they were on their way to one of his new estates on the Tiber to do some hunting. Which means, of course, that they can't possibly be back before sundown, if they come back today at all.'

'Which leaves the house to Capito's wife.'

'Ah, there's the gossip. While Lucius was in town he heard they'd had a terrible row yesterday and the old woman stormed out of the house after nightfall to go to stay with her daughter in Narnia. Meaning there's no one in charge of the estate now except a grizzled old steward Capito inherited from Sextus Roscius. They say the man drinks wine all day and hates his new master. I only tell you this in case you had any unfinished business at Capito's house. The master and his wife and friends all being gone, I suppose that might be an inconvenience to you. Or perhaps not.'

He turned back to the general conversation wearing the subtle smile of a conspirator quite pleased with himself.

In fact, I left Titus Megarus with no intention of stopping again at Capito's house. I had already learned what I needed in coming to Ameria; I even carried in my pouch a copy of the petition Titus and his fellow citizens had submitted to Chrysogonus to protest against the proscription of Sextus Roscius. I hardly bothered to look back on the serenity of the Amerian valley as I left it. My thoughts as I guided my undistinguished mount up the hillside were all of Rome, of Bethesda and Cicero and Tiro; of the people on the street of the House of Swans. I frowned, remembering the widow Polia, then smiled, remembering the whore Electra; and I abruptly swung my mount around and headed back towards Capito's house.

The slave Carus was not pleased to see me. He recognized me with a plaintive look, as if I were a demon come especially to torment him.

'Why so glum?' I said, stepping past him into the vestibule. The walls had been freshly coloured with a pink wash. The tiled floor, checkered black and white, was obscured by drifts of sawdust, and the whole room rang with the unnatural echoes of a house under renovation. 'I should think this would be a holiday for you, with your master and mistress away.'

He screwed up his face as if he were about to tell a He and then thought better of it. 'What do you want?'

'What used to go here?' I asked, stepping closer to a niche containing a very bad copy of a Greek bust of Alexander. It was absurdly pretentious, certainly not the sort of thing the countrified young Sextus Roscius would have kept in his house; more like something you'd find in the home of a highwayman who loots the villas of the tasteless rich.