‘And how did the body get to the villa?’
‘I have thought of that. We know no horses were hired after the procession, but during the procession — no one has asked about that. On a horse a man would have time to return here, hide the body in the hypocaust and get back to Glevum before the rites were over. But suppose Daedalus cheated him, or simply took fright and ran? That leaves Andretha with a hundred denarii missing, and no chance of his own freedom. Andretha cannot do more than report a missing slave; that would draw too much suspicion to himself. But certainly he is anxious to find Daedalus.’
I nodded. ‘That is possible,’ I said. ‘Yes, certainly it is possible.’
‘But. .?’ Junio said, looking crestfallen.
‘It might be a little conspicuous, galloping across the country with a dead centurion across your saddle,’ I pointed out.
‘Then perhaps they both came here alive, but only Crassus rode. That would make sense. If Andretha walked here and rode the horse back, he would not have to pay for the hire, either. Crassus would have done it.’ He stopped. ‘Though I suppose there would be scarcely time, especially if he had to return the horse. He had to be there in time to shepherd the others onto the cart.’
He sounded so disappointed that I felt moved to say, ‘All the same, you reason well. That is why I wanted you to look at this roundhouse. Here it is.’ I added the last words as we turned the corner and Junio saw it for the first time.
It looked more ruinous than ever. I saw it suddenly through Junio’s eyes: a collapsing, pathetic old straw hut, hardly more than a hovel. No wonder Crassus had kept his pigs in it.
Junio looked at it thoughtfully. ‘That was someone’s home,’ he said.
There are times when I recognise why I love that boy.
I told him all I knew about the place, and showed him the piece of scale-armour from my pouch. ‘I found this here,’ I said.
He took it from me and turned it between his fingers. ‘It must have come from Crassus’ shirt. See how the hole has broken away where it was sewn or riveted to the cloth? That proves that Crassus came in here before he died.’ He caught my eye and amended himself. ‘It proves that Crassus came in here. Or at any rate that his armour did.’ He grinned. ‘Is that better reasoning?’
‘Somebody’s armour did, at any rate,’ I said, and his grin broadened.
‘What other soldier would it be?’ he said, playfully. ‘You don’t believe in Aulus’ conspiracy, do you? Although he did say that the roundhouse was used for “other purposes”. Shall we look inside? We may find something else.’
He led the way, turning up his nose at the fish heads. The stink seemed to have become worse than ever. He looked at the bloodstain and the fleas, but apart from that we found nothing, although we spent a long time searching.
At last he kicked over the little pile of rotting bedding. ‘That piece of scale-armour must have come from Crassus. I wonder what he was doing here? Checking on his property perhaps. I don’t believe what Aulus said. Rufus and Faustina might have come here “for other purposes”, but I can’t imagine that any soldier ever did. How would they know about the roundhouse? They wouldn’t go up and down this lane, when there is a perfectly good gravelled one not a mile away.’
I did not have time to answer. With the perfect timing of a spectacle in the amphitheatre there was the sound of hooves passing in the lane. More than one horse, too, and moving at a fair pace. Junio shot me a startled look and hurried to look out of the door-space. A slow, reluctant smile spread across his face.
‘Well?’ I said, straightening up painfully. I had been examining the bedding.
‘Soldiers,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t know how many, I only saw the last one before he turned the corner. But several. Cavalry.’ He grinned again. ‘If I didn’t know you better, I would think you had arranged it, simply to prove me wrong.’
‘I wonder what they are doing here,’ I said. ‘I am sure Marcus would have mentioned it if he was expecting them. Perhaps we should go back to the villa. He will have had his shave by now, and there is nothing more to be discovered here. I found this.’ I showed him a hairpin which I had picked up from the floor.
Junio grinned. ‘So there has been a woman here!’ He examined it for a moment. ‘Fine metal — too fine for a slave. No, it isn’t Faustina’s after all. Very well, I admit it. Aulus was right. So now we know what our soldier was doing in the straw!’ He looked at me thoughtfully. ‘Regina’s, do you think?’
‘It could well be.’ I too had been struck by the workmanship. ‘I think it is.’
Encouraged by my find, we resumed our search with fresh enthusiasm, but we discovered nothing.
‘Poor woman, whoever she was,’ I said at last, swatting at a biting flea. ‘This can’t have been a pleasant love-nest. Unless the fleas came here later, on the pigs. Perhaps they did. We don’t know if Crassus kept his hogs here before or after Regina left.’
‘I keep forgetting about Regina,’ Junio said. ‘I wonder where she is? She is an expert on poisons, too, of course. Listen! What’s that?’
He hardly needed to ask. It was the sound of hooves. From the other direction this time, and only a single horse. I looked at Junio. He looked at me. The horse stopped, there was the sound of dismounting armour, and footfalls at the door.
We stood facing it together, like a pair of naughty schoolboys awaiting the paedagogus. The cavalryman seemed to fill the narrow doorspace. He ignored Junio and spoke directly to me. ‘You are Libertus, the pavement maker?’
I gulped. If Marcus had sent for me, there would have been a formal message, greetings, repeated verbatim. I did not like the sound of this. A thousand petty misdemeanours floated across my memory. The time I had helped myself to a couple of carrots from an army supply cart on the road, the night I lied my way past the sentry at Glevum after the gates were shut. Had my favourite joke against the garrison commander somehow come to his ears, or (I felt my heart sink through my sandals at the thought) had Governor Pertinax suddenly fallen from Imperial favour? If he fell, Marcus fell, and then I too could expect to be hauled off to Glevum in disgrace. Or had Marcus simply finished his shave and become impatient of waiting? I found my voice. ‘I am Libertus.’
‘Citizen. You must return to the villa at once. There is something which they think you should see.’
Better, but not good. Who were ‘they’? If the man had meant Marcus he would certainly have said so. Being messenger for the great confers status of its own, as I knew myself.
‘Very well,’ I said. ‘I am coming. Help me to the path, Junio.’ Under cover of leaning on his arm, I slipped the armour scale and the hairpin into his hand. If there was trouble, I preferred to have my evidence in safe keeping. It was much quicker returning down the lane, and it seemed a very short time before we were back at the villa gates.
There were five soldiers in all; the other four were waiting with their horses just beyond the gate. I was about to speak when Aulus came hurrying out to meet me, wearing an air of conspiracy even more overpowering than he was.
‘A word, citizen.’ He drew me aside, away from my escorting cavalryman.
I allowed myself to be shepherded to a verge under the trees, where Aulus bent forward, towering over me, and whispered urgently into my ear. The smell of sweat and stale beer was staggering. ‘I hope that I did right, citizen, in telling them where you were. I know you meant to be alone.’
I braved the odours to look him in the face. ‘How did you know where I was?’
‘I saw you come down the back path, earlier, and go into the trees. I thought at first you were looking for Paulus. When you didn’t come back, I guessed you had gone to the roundhouse.’
That answered my question at least. It was not easy to get past Aulus.
He gripped my arm. ‘Then the soldiers came, asking for Marcus. They had orders to report in person, but I said that you were working for him, and he would be angry if you were not informed at once. He knows they are waiting — he will be here himself in a moment — but he doesn’t know what they have brought. Better that he learns it for himself, and I thought you should see it first.’