Tenuis looked at Georgicus, who gave the slave-boy a reluctant nod.
The slave-boy put his boot on and scrambled to his feet. ‘Well then, I did come to the villa. Not for very long.’ A sniff. ‘I only came to see the kitchen slaves.’
I should have guessed. The boy was skinny to the point of being partly starved. ‘Because they give you food?’
‘Occasionally,’ Tenuis said, unwillingly.
Georgicus reacted sharply. ‘What for? You have your slave-ration like anybody else!’
‘But I’m only little, captain. Sometimes the bigger land-boys bully me and take away my lunch. The cook once saw it happen — he came into the orchard when we were working there — and ever since then all the kitchen slaves have been very good to me. If someone takes my food away I come and tap the door, and they generally find a stale crust or something else that I can have. Something that would otherwise have gone out to the pigs — not stealing anything. But I’m grateful just for that. I sometimes think I’d die of hunger otherwise.’
Georgicus was frowning. ‘Who is it takes your lunch? Tell me the culprit and I’ll see that he is flogged.’
The slave-boy shook his head. ‘I don’t know, captain,’ he said, then added, with more truth, ‘and if I did, I wouldn’t tell. They would only beat me and hold me in the well. They say that I don’t deserve the meal because I am no use. But I get awfully hungry, that’s why I came up here even though I knew that I was disobeying you. I’d made up a story to tell the gatekeeper, pretending I had a message about sending down some scraps. But I didn’t see him anyway …’ He trailed off. ‘Great gods! It isn’t him that’s dead? Is that why there wasn’t anyone today to open up the gate?’
I thought of the sorry pile of headless corpses that we’d left lying in the orchard. ‘We don’t know what’s become of him,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t at his post when we arrived today. Nor yesterday, from what you say of him. So how did you get in?’
He made a comic face. ‘The gate was wide open. I was quite surprised, but the court was full of carts, so I suppose that there was lots of movement in and out. They must have been nearly ready to depart. There were a lot of people rushing round with lists, and coming and going into the house with packed-up goods. They were all so busy that they didn’t notice me. So I did a silly thing. I made a dash for it and rolled underneath the nearest cart, thinking I could wiggle over to the arch one wagon at a time and get into the kitchen that way. But when I popped my head out, I realised there were escort guards as well, standing by the wall and watching everything.’
‘Escort guards? With weapons?’ Georgicus looked at me. ‘We thought there must have been. But that did not surprise you?’
It seemed to be the question which surprised the child most. He shrugged. ‘Not really, captain. Of course there’d be an escort for the master’s goods — and he’d taken his own usual bodyguards with him. And that’s clearly what they were. Ugly-looking creatures with clubs and swords and things, all dressed in some sort of livery. Some of them were huge. I hadn’t seen them from the gate — the wall had hidden them. But when I did, I realised that I’d have to give it up. They were keeping a close watch on everything going on, and if I wasn’t very careful they would notice me. I backed off hastily and was just about to shuffle myself round and creep back to the lane, when I saw the little kitchen-boy come out through the arch. He was carrying a jug, obviously going to get something from the storage yard. He-’
I interrupted him. ‘Was this Pauvrissimus, by any chance?’
He looked at me, amazed. ‘That’s right, citizen? How do you know his name?’
‘He was a friend to my own slave, Minimus, who was once a servant here. But go on with your tale. You saw Pauvrissimus …?’
He nodded. ‘He bent down to tie his sandal strap and saw me hiding underneath the cart, though — thank Juno — no one else had done. He put his finger to his lips and gestured to the side wall of the court, obviously meaning I should come round there and he would bring some food. But then the chief steward saw him and shouted at him for taking such at time, so he got up and hurried to the storage courtyard with his jug and when he came back he didn’t look my way again.’
‘So you went to the orchard?’ I glanced at Georgicus.
Tenuis looked puzzled. Then he shook his head. ‘Not the side wall that way, citizen. The other one — beyond the storage yard. It’s high, but there’s a field the other side and a gate a little further down so you can get there from the lane. I knew that’s what Pauvrissimus had meant.’
‘And I suppose he could find a reason to back get into the yard,’ I mused. ‘So that is what you did?’
He nodded. ‘I managed to sneak out again went round into the field, over to where I thought the storage court might be. The wall is high. You can’t see over it, especially if you’re me. But after a while, I heard a whistle from the court the other side. I tried to whistle back, though I can’t do it very well, and a moment later a crust of bread came flying through the air. I picked it up and ate it. And that’s all I know.’
That explained the cut loaf on the bench, I thought. It had not been cleared away. So it could not have been long afterwards that everyone was killed. ‘You were lucky no one saw you!’ I told him. ‘Luckier than you know.’
‘No one except Pauvrissimus, though I expect he told the cook.’ For the first time I saw Tenuis give a shadow of a smile. ‘He couldn’t have smuggled that bread out to me otherwise. All the same, I’m afraid he got a beating over it. I had just started on the bread when I heard a lot of shouting and then a muffled squeal — probably the steward catching up with him.’
‘A squeal?’ That confirmed what I’d been thinking. ‘Oh, dear gods!’ I exchanged a startled glance with Georgicus, who had clearly come to much the same conclusion for himself.
Tenuis misinterpreted my expression of dismay. ‘I couldn’t help him, citizen. I would only make it worse, so I went back to the woods and tried to help the others with collecting up the pile. But I’ll thank him when I see him. He took a risk for me. I just hope he didn’t get into too much trouble for my sake.’
I turned to Georgicus. ‘I think it’s time we told him. We’ll show him what we found — and then we’ll go and get your other land-slaves from the wood.’
The overseer nodded, grimly. ‘I’ll send somebody in with you to tell the Funeral Guild. Then I suppose we ought to find the missing heads. Some of the male land-slaves can institute a search. In the meantime I’ll have some women start on a lament. And there’ll have to be a pyre. There are quite a lot of corpses to be burnt. So there may be a use for that wood-pile after all.’
I shook my head at him. This was not the way I’d meant to break the news to Tenuis. But it was too late. The poor little lad had been listening to all this, and his white face told me that he’d understood exactly what had happened to his friend.
‘Funeral? Heads? Corpses? Oh, dear Juno …’ It was a strangled sob. Blank as a sleepwalker, he took a stumbling step.
I darted forward and was just in time to catch him in my arms before he fell crashing to the paving in a faint.
TEN
It took us some moments — and half a bucket of water from the well — to bring him round again. When he did revive, the poor child looked like someone who had brushed with death himself.
‘It’s true?’ he whispered, sitting up and shaking his damp locks. ‘I didn’t dream it? Pauvrissimus is dead? Someone chopped his head off?’ He sounded as if he could not believe what he was saying, even now.
I reached out a hand to help him to his feet. ‘Among a lot of others, I’m afraid. If it is any comfort, I’ve promised my own slave that I’ll find out who the killers are, and see that they are made to pay for this — and for stealing everything of value from the house.’