‘Severus. As you see, I got your letter.’
The man frowned. ‘What letter?’
Already, Lucius’ description of devious, vindictive, lying bastard rang true. ‘Has anyone been sent to fetch my brother?’
‘You don’t need reinforcements. This is all going to be nice and legal.’ The agent surveyed the boldly painted hall and the little wooden home of the household gods with the air of a man assessing a lot at auction. The bust of Ruso’s father stared back at him from its stand. Ruso hoped that, wherever Publius’ spirit had gone, he was not able to witness this meeting. Even if the whole mess was largely his own fault.
‘All this and a temple too,’ Severus remarked, scuffing at an uneven patch in the mosaic with the toe of one sandal. ‘Always the same, you people. Happy to borrow and then complaining when it’s time to pay up.’ He glanced around at the vacant-faced women on the walls. ‘Look at this lot. No wonder you can’t pay the bills.’
‘We pay our bills.’
‘Not from what I’ve heard.’
‘What we don’t do is pay them twice.’
‘Wake up, Ruso! Your brother’s lying to you. He spent the money himself.’
Ruso glanced around, wondering who was listening behind the closed doors. ‘Shall we talk in the study?’
Would he ever feel comfortable calling it ‘my study’? It was as much as he could do not to call it ‘my father’s …’
Severus seemed to have some difficulty heaving himself off the stool, but once up he headed in the right direction without being told. ‘Hot day,’ he muttered.
‘Want something else to drink?’
‘I didn’t come here to drink.’
Ruso grabbed the stool and carried it into the study. He placed it where his visitor could lower himself on to it without further effort. Then he shifted his father’s chair so that he could get into it without hopping clumsily along one side of the desk. ‘So. We owed the Senator a sum of money, and — ’
‘Let’s not dance around, Ruso. It’s stuffy in here, and I’m not feeling well. Your brother’s payment was short. Very short. I asked him to pay; he didn’t. I got a magistrate’s ruling, and he still didn’t. I’m running out of patience. I was thinking of bringing a few men over to straighten him out. But, since you’ve turned up, I’m prepared to do it through the law.’
Ruso wondered what Claudia could possibly have found attractive about this charmless lout, who seemed to think he was doing them a favour by trying to bankrupt them. ‘Lucius tells me he paid in full.’
‘Course he does. Prove it.’
‘I can’t prove anything,’ he said. ‘Neither can you. But I spoke to Fuscus this morning. He thinks you’ll want to change your mind very soon.’
Ruso had been hoping for a reaction to Fuscus’ name, but Severus did not seem to be concentrating. He was frowning and fingering his mouth as if he was not sure it belonged to him.
Ruso said, ‘I’m prepared to agree a second payment in order to get this thing settled.’
Severus cleared his throat, spat on the floor and said, ‘First I want an apology to the wife.’
Ruso blinked. ‘You want me to apologize to Claudia?’ That would be interesting. He could imagine what tales Claudia had told about him.
‘Not you, you fool,’ retorted Severus. ‘She’s not interested in you.’ He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. ‘Or me. Not since that woman — what’s her name? — Arria. Not since Arria came round pouring poison in her ears.’ Ruso, who still had no idea what his visitor was talking about, thought he detected a slight slur in the voice. ‘S’not my fault,’ continued Severus. ‘Stuck here in the provinces with a complaining sister an’ a bunch of bumpkins who don’t know a good offer when you hear it.’ He looked up at Ruso as if he knew there was something else important to tell him but could not quite remember what it was. Finally he said, with more emphasis than was necessary, ‘Nobody upsets my wife!’
‘I didn’t know Arria had upset your wife,’ confessed Ruso, wondering how Severus was managing to appear drunker by the minute and whether he would remember any of this conversation when he sobered up. ‘I’ll see she apologizes.’
‘She had no business running to Claudia like that. I made that offer in …’ Severus appeared to be searching for an elusive word, then brightened as he caught hold of it. ‘Confidence! I made that offer in confidence. Confidence and good faith.’
‘Ah,’ said Ruso, reaching for a stylus and wondering whether Lucius knew that Arria had got herself involved in this somewhere. ‘Let me make a note of what we’ve agreed.’
‘I was only trying to help.’
‘Very good of you,’ said Ruso, prepared to humour him if it led to a signed agreement. ‘I’ll just write this down and we won’t need to involve Fuscus.’ Or too much political campaigning.
‘I’m a decent man.’
‘Of course.’ A decent man who swindled debtors out of money they didn’t owe.
‘I knew you’d understand!’ exclaimed Severus with unexpected warmth. Ruso glanced up and decided the sickly grimace was intended to be a smile. ‘Other men don’t know what it’s like,’ continued Severus. ‘Day after day. Night after night. Nothing you do ever good enough.’
Light was beginning to dawn. ‘Claudia?’ suggested Ruso.
‘Bloody woman. And Daddy. And then my sister. Always something wrong. Now that sister of yours, not the loudmouth, the other one …’
‘Flora,’ prompted Ruso, choosing to ignore the painfully accurate description of Marcia.
‘The older one’s as bad as mine. Want a nice quiet girl. Man could be happy with a nice quiet girl like that.’
‘You’re telling me you were offering to marry Flora?’
‘Nice, quiet, fertile girl. Thash what I need. Make some money, go back to Rome. Be a fine upstanding famly man.’
‘Nobody here was aware that you were making a marriage offer. Or that you were in a position to do so.’
Severus frowned and pondered that for a moment. ‘Teshting the water. Seeing how the land lies. Look before you leap. Try before you buy.’
‘Try before you buy?’
Severus gave a vague gesture of rejection. ‘No thanks. Don’t feel much like it right now.’
‘You’re saying my family misunderstood your intentions?’ said Ruso, confident that Severus’ intentions had been to see what he could get away with and repressing an urge to punch him on the nose.
‘That interfering old cow went and told Claudia.’
‘Arria didn’t realize the high regard you had for Flora.’ So high, indeed, that since the man had been refused access to her, he had decided to wreck the lives of her entire family. ‘We’ll pay what we owe you as a result of the last judgement, and you’ll drop the court case. Are we agreed?’
Severus flapped a hand towards him. ‘Whatever you like.’
As Ruso seized a pen to scrawl out this surprising agreement Severus added, ‘Nobody insults my wife! Only me.’
‘I’ll get a couple of people in to witness it, and you can tell Fuscus over dinner tonight that it’s already dealt with.’
‘Bloody awful paintings in your hall. Nuff to make anybody ill.’
‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like some water?’
‘I said no, din’ I?’ Severus rubbed a trail of drool away from his mouth and mumbled, ‘Feel sick.’
Ruso leaped up, hopped over to the door and shouted, ‘Someone fetch a bowl!’
‘I’m ill!’ gasped Severus, as if he had only just noticed. ‘Fetch a doctor!’
‘I am a doctor. Have you eaten anything unusual?’
Ruso had barely established what Severus had eaten for breakfast when the breakfast itself rose up and reappeared for inspection.
‘Too late,’ observed Ruso as Galla the nursemaid stood helpless in the doorway, clutching a heavy bowl and a cloth. Severus heaved again and toppled sideways off the stool. Ruso grabbed him just in time to stop his head hitting the desk.