‘Home? I thought you were taking him to Glevum,’ Georgicus replied.
‘Tell him he can help my wife this afternoon, instead. I probably shan’t go to my workshop now. In any case, I’ll let my son take care of any business today. I’ll just call at my roundhouse and reassure him that I’m alive and well, and leave him to make his own way into town. I’ll have to hurry if I’m going to pay a visit to the garrison. And if I mean to call in at the Funeral Guild as well, in time for them to get here before dark, I really don’t have time to wait for Minimus to come,’ I said, peeling the unwanted leaves and twiglets off my switch.
Georgicus frowned. ‘But that means you will be without an attendant for the day, citizen. Would it not be better for me to fetch your servant here? I’ll find a land-slave to take over from him in the vineyard now. I think I know exactly where this clearing is, and I can have someone down there in no time at all. Your slave is only acting as a symbol, anyway.’
I shook my head. ‘If I’m to catch a courier from the Imperial post today, I must be in Glevum before the noonday trumpet sounds. The commander of the garrison is a friend of Marcus’s. When he knows what’s happened here I’m sure there’ll be no problem about those messages. But it is already later than I realised — look at those shadows — and it will take some time to get to Glevum, even with a mule. The forest paths are still treacherous with mud. Better if I go as soon as possible.’
Georgicus waved a hand at Tenuis. ‘Then why don’t you take him with you for the day? He’s not much use to me. But he could mind your mule for you. Or even take the message to the Funeral Guild and come back here with them.’
Tenuis looked rather terrified at this. ‘I don’t know Glevum, captain. I would just get lost. They would not believe me, either, if I asked them to come. I’d have to have a proper message written down.’
Georgicus looked a little sheepish. The boy was right. He was so young that he was an unlikely messenger, and of course the slave-captain — like most land-slaves — could not really read or write.
‘I’ll see to that,’ I offered quickly. ‘I have a writing tablet at my workshop, and a seal. You can give that to the guild. That should be enough authority. And as for getting lost, I’ll deliver you to the proper place myself. But it will save me time if I don’t have to go inside and talk to them.’ I turned to Georgicus. ‘A good idea, slave-captain. The guild will bring him back to you. And it will not slow me down. Arlina is accustomed to carrying two of us, and Tenuis is even smaller than my slave. Lift the boy up and he can ride with me.’
‘I’ll go and get my land-slaves started with that pyre and that lament, and send your slave back home as soon as possible,’ Georgicus said. He scooped the boy up as though he were a sack and lifted him to sit in front of me, where Minimus had been, though Tenuis was so light and skinny that he seemed no weight at all. I dug my heels in, flicked my switch and Arlina shambled off.
I turned my head to see Georgicus staring after us, looking, I thought, a little bit relieved. He watched me for a moment, raised one hand in farewell, then turned and set off running down the lane with that distinctive loping gait of his.
ELEVEN
I tried hard to talk to Tenuis, as Arlina began shambling down the track. I hoped to gain his confidence, now we were alone, and learn a little more about the men that he had seen at the villa, but it was no use. The boy was obviously unused to being on an animal — I think it was the first time that he’d ever been hoisted up so high — and he was far too terrified to speak. This was going to be a tedious journey into town, I thought.
But we’d hardly turned the corner when I heard a voice.
‘Father!’ It was Junio coming towards us, the promised wood-axe in his hand, and Maximus, my other red-haired slave-boy, at his heels. ‘There you are! Mother and I were getting quite concerned …’
‘We were going to come and save you,’ Maximus added. ‘I’ve got a weapon too.’ He proudly showed me the wooden hammer he was carrying — an old one that I used for hammering stakes into the ground. ‘It’s just a pity Minimus isn’t here. He can use a slingshot wonderfully.’
It was rather touching, given that Junio had seen the corpses in the orchard earlier, and knew what he might be facing if the murderers had come back. But Maximus was an unlikely warrior. Despite his name, he was the smaller of my slaves — the top of his head reached scarcely to my chest — and it was all he could do to hold the hammer high with both his hands. But there was no mistaking his sincerity or the look of grim determination on his face.
I repressed a tiny grin. ‘Thank you, Maximus, but that won’t be necessary now,’ I said, as gravely as I could. I turned to Junio. ‘I think I know what happened at the villa, now, though it’s a rather a long tale.’ Very briefly, I outlined what I’d learned of yesterday’s events.
Junio whistled. ‘So that’s why most of the furniture has gone. The household was first tricked into assisting with the robbery, and then killed because they might identify the thieves. So no one is alive who saw anything at all?’
‘Only this little fellow.’ I nodded down at Tenuis, who was still sitting on the mule in front of me, clutching mutely at my knees. ‘But the killers don’t know that, so he’s quite safe with me.’
‘Why has he got his eyes closed?’ Maximus enquired, and I realised that Tenuis must have had squeezed his lids tight shut ever since we put him on Arlina’s back.
‘Because he’s not used to being on a mule. I’m taking him to Glevum to get the Funeral Guild. But first I’ll have to call in on the garrison.’ I explained my errand there and turned to Junio. ‘You and Maximus can follow me to town and open up the shop. I’ll meet you there when I’ve finished delivering my messages.’
‘But you’ll want your toga, won’t you,’ Junio enquired, ‘if you’re going to call on the commander with that kind of request? Otherwise you will be lucky if they don’t make you wait for hours.’
He was quite right, of course. Wearing that badge of citizenship is not legally required, except in the forum and at public festivals, but my simple tunic marked me as the tradesman that I am. More formal dress would be a good idea. ‘I’d better call in at home and pick it up — though I’ll have to carry it. I’m not going to wear it all the way to town. It will get bedraggled and just be in my way.’ A toga is an awkward garment at the best of times, and always likely to unwind itself into unseemly loops, so a muddy journey on a mule along a rutted, steep and treacherous forest track was hardly an ideal environment for wearing one.
‘But there’s a toga at the workshop!’ Maximus put in, so anxious to be helpful that he interrupted us, which is not generally permitted for a slave. He realised that himself. ‘Please forgive me, master, for speaking out of turn. But don’t you remember, you spilt wine on it before your patron left? We took to the fullers in the town. I brought it back from cleaning yesterday. But you were in such a hurry to get back to see the vines that in the end we didn’t bring it home.’
‘I had forgotten, but it makes life easier,’ I said. It was only my second-best toga, a little frayed around the hems, but now that it was clean it would look respectable enough. ‘I’ll call into the workshop so I can write the message for Tenuis to take and, while I’m there, I’ll get that toga on. Tenuis will have to help me, though he’s not been trained. It isn’t possible to do it on my own and may take some time to get it neatly draped. I’ll have to hurry if I hope to get back to the garrison by noon.’
‘Then you ride on,’ my son replied. ‘I’ll call in and tell Mother that you are safe and well, and Maximus and I will put these weapons down, then follow you on foot. If we’re very lucky we might even find a cart that’s going our way — there’s often someone at this time of day — and I don’t mind paying the driver an as or two to carry us as well. Either way, we’ll see you at the workshop as soon as possible.’