‘That’s my business,’ said Lysias, with a guarded expression.
‘Or if you can’t go, it isn’t!’ I jested merrily.
He just glared, but this was a good conversation with him.
To while away the rest of that afternoon while Thalia was having her meeting, I looked around the menagerie and inspected how it was run. Members of the public were being allowed in to look at the beasts. A very beautiful young woman called Pollia was taking their entrance money. She was dressed like an acrobat in a short skirt that showed her legs a lot, at least as far as her Diana the Huntress boots. I could tell she didn’t really want to do that job, so I offered to take over. I like to be helpful, if I have nothing else to do.
Pollia rushed off happily. Before she went, I saw her giving Hesper a squeeze and a kiss. I made a note that Hesper must be her boyfriend or her husband. In my opinion anyone that beautiful could have done better for herself.
Although I was not yet investigating a crime, I knew that in any new circle of acquaintances you should take notes of who belongs with whom, because it may be useful to know if anyone is cheating on someone. You then don’t say the wrong thing at social gatherings. That is easily done unless you concentrate hard. So I decided that once I had access to my note tablets in the tent again, I would devise a chart of people who were linked to each other. I could write down all those I met. Once I learned their names and something about them, I would draw lines between the ones I noticed were particularly friendly with each other.
While I was taking the menagerie’s entrance money from the public for Pollia, I realised that the entertainers ought to charge a larger ticket price. I had several times visited the imperial vivarium at Laurentum, where a collection of wild elephants roam about the sand dunes; Laurentum is a coastal town not far from where we have our seaside holiday villa. The point is, I knew how much it costs to be admitted to see the imperial elephant herd, so I reasoned that we could ask for almost that much money. Not quite as much, because these were not the emperor’s animals. On the other hand, nobody had to travel anywhere to see them, they were conveniently here in Rome.
I didn’t ask Lysias, but when I took over I just raised the ticket price myself. It wasn’t written anywhere. When people arrived they were told what they had to pay. Nobody argued when I said my new cost. I told everyone they must now apply my new price. Although they looked surprised, they seemed to accept what I said.
The entertainers were lucky to have my expert knowledge. To make the increased price good value, I gave visitors a short lecture on the animals they were going to see, and I showed them around myself, making sure they learned as many useful things as possible. People ought to have an educational experience, not just stand by the cages with their eyes popping, waiting to squeal if some wild beast roared at them. That is no benefit at all.
Roar did roar. His body was half-grown but his roar was already stupendous. I liked him.
As the afternoon wore on, the public stopped coming. I was tired and growing bored. I really wanted to go to get my note tablets, to start all the new charts and lists I had invented. Also, I thought it was high time someone kept accounts for the menagerie ticket money. Thalia still never appeared again, so I wandered closer to her tent. Perhaps she had just forgotten to come and fetch me.
I had asked Lysias who Soterichus was and what my mother was discussing with him.
‘He’s an animal importer from North Africa. He supplied the damned giraffe that sickened on us. Thalia will be having a go at him over that, then trying to extract a refund. We know he wants us to take a crocodile off his hands as quid pro quo. Nightmare. Can’t be trained to perform and they are too bloody dangerous. She won’t fall for it — at least I damn well hope she doesn’t.’
As I mooched about looking at the tent, I noticed the door flaps to the round entrance part had been lowered, though the tapes down the edges were not actually tied up. I was thinking about squirming close and peeking through the flaps to see what was happening inside.
While I was planning my move, I had one of my big ideas. North Africa is where Egypt is.
I went back to the menagerie and asked Lysias what part of North Africa the beast supplier had come from.
‘Alexandria, I suppose. They all do.’
So that was when I solved the mystery. Soterichus must be ‘the man in Alexandria’ that Falco and Helena Justina spoke about. I knew then why I was forbidden from interrupting. Thalia wanted to stop me meeting him. The man who was in her tent with her must be my real father.
4
I assumed Thalia and Soterichus must be doing ‘what men and women do’ which is what my sisters say to keep it a secret from me. I think I know what it is, though I have never seen it happening. Julia and Favonia explained that this is how people make babies, so I wondered if my mother would have another one. Since I had three sisters already, two of them very annoying, I didn’t need more and even though silly people sometimes suggest I must want a little brother, they are wrong.
I decided to go in and put a stop to this.
I strolled up to the tent humming, so it would seem as if I was breaking the strict instructions by accident, while very busy thinking about other things. When I went inside, I saw that what men and women do is to sit on cushions with a low table in front of them, containing little drinks cups for visitors, like the silver ones Father has for dealers at his antiques warehouse when he is trying to make them pay too much for items. There was also a large bag of money and tablets of lists. I had not known that making a baby is a financial transaction, though I suppose it makes sense. Father is always saying that bringing up his children costs him a lot of money.
I might ask my mother how much she paid Soterichus for me. She seemed too busy at the moment to ask. She wasn’t taking much notice of me coming into the tent because she had Jason coiled around her and he was fidgeting.
I was disappointed in Soterichus. He was an unhappy-looking man with a big belly and a red face. Although his beard was stubbly, otherwise he had very little hair, with what remained being crinkled and greyish. He was dressed in a long brown tunic, with deep, brightly coloured braid on the hem. He wore battered old sandals through which big ugly toes were visible, with thick snagged nails, and he had several bangles on his hairy arms. All his skin was the colour of burnt wood and he smelt like the menagerie.
Thalia didn’t seem too bothered by me appearing in the tent. She was still trying to organise Jason more suitably around her. ‘This is my lad. Say hello nicely to Soterichus.’
‘Hello,’ I said, not nicely because I was so displeased to learn I had been fathered by a glum man in horrible sandals. ‘My name is Marcus Didius Alexander Postumus. Postumus is supposed to mean I was born after my father had died.’ That was if my father was my grandfather Favonius.
I was watching Soterichus closely, but he made no reaction to being told he was dead (if it was him). He just gave me a nod, as if a no-account person had been introduced to him, then he seemed to be waiting to return to his transactions with Thalia. She looked put out; she was concentrating on the python. You would think if he was arranging to have another baby Soterichus would want to inspect me, to see how well the first one had turned out. Or perhaps he could instantly tell from my impressive demeanour.
I decided to bide my time before letting them know I knew he was my father.
‘Do you want to fetch your ferret, darling?’ asked Thalia, in a kindly voice. By this she was indicating to Soterichus that she was a good mother. It was the first time she ever said ‘darling’ to me, though Helena does. Falco calls me Scruff although I am not scruffy at all, but a neat person unless I have happened to get dirty; He says his nickname is ironic.