She squinted up at us. ‘What do you want now? You’ve no right to keep me here. I’ve told you all I know. I’ll answer to my mistress, if to anyone. She knows I would have guarded Lavinia with my life! Send me back to her.’ Her voice was harsh, almost defiant, but she spoke Latin well. Then she noticed me. ‘Who is the citizen in the toga?’ she enquired. ‘Has he come to harry me as well?’
‘He will ask the questions!’ Priscilla snapped, but she answered anyway. ‘His name’s Libertus, and he’s been sent here by Lavinia’s family to find out what happened and what you know of it.’
It was not quite the truth and I was on the point of setting matters straight but the prisoner forestalled me. Something that might have been a spark of hope flashed into her eyes. ‘Cyra sent you?’ she said, eagerly.
‘She knew that I was coming,’ I agreed. ‘But really I am here at Publius’s behest to find news of his bride. But then I learned that Lavinia had disappeared as well, and I am bound to investigate that matter too, of course.’
The hope — if that was what it was — had died. She looked away and stared dully at the floor. ‘Then I really cannot help you, citizen. As I told these householders, I can’t imagine what would make Lavinia run away. She seemed so happy with her cousin yesterday.’
Her voice had softened, and she spoke with such concern that I was moved to murmur, ‘You were fond of your young charge?’
She raised her eyes. They sparkled in the darkness like a wolf’s. ‘It is no secret, citizen. I adored that little girl. Loved her like I would have loved my own, if it had lived. I swear to you, citizen, I would lay down my life rather than have any harm come to that child. So can you imagine what a shock it was, when I went into the room and found she wasn’t there? When I’d been on guard outside the door all day, as well? I was asked, you know, to fetch a tray for her and when I went back, it was to find she wasn’t there — almost as if I’d been sent deliberately away. It almost breaks my heart — just ask that woman there!’
It was clear that she was speaking with completely sincerity. Yet something was stirring in the cobwebs of my brain. There was something about this account that did not quite make sense, but I could not for the life of me work out what it was. I searched my memory. Surely this version of events tallied exactly with what I’d heard before? Yet I still felt that some important detail was eluding me. I was still puzzling over it when Trullius spoke up.
‘Well, slave, it seems that Lavinia did not run away at all.’
‘What?’ the nursemaid queried sharply.
Trullius raised his hand. ‘It seems more likely, now, that Druids captured her and simply made it look as if she’d made her own escape. What do you say to that?’
‘Druids?’ The nursemaid looked incredulous. ‘How could Druids get into the house? Or get out again? Someone would have seen. I would have seen myself! I was on guard all day outside the door.’
My hostess thrust the lamp in to look more closely at her captive’s face. ‘Not if they climbed up the cloth-rope to the window, when no one was about. That must be what it was! And you must have helped them plan it. I’ll wager you sent a signal that you had come downstairs and the room was unguarded while you fetched the tray and kept me busy in the kitchen area! Come to think of it, I saw you at the time, carrying something out into the alleyway beside the house. I thought it was a chamber pot for the midden-pile. But it was a signal, wasn’t it? Admit it now, and make it quicker for us all.’
Trullius was right about her having theories, I thought — this one almost sounded plausible. I was about to say so, when she spoke again.
‘Though Minerva knows why you’d agree to help them in that way, if you are as fond of Lavinia as you seem to be. More magic, I suppose. If the Druids put a spell on you so that you couldn’t help yourself, then say so straight away. It might go easier for you when it comes to punishment.’
She was offering the slave-woman a convenient excuse, and one which might have stood up at a legal trial, but the nurse disdained it. ‘I’ve never knowingly spoken to a Druid in my life. Why should you think they’d want to…?’ She broke off suddenly, and looked at me again. ‘Is this to do with Audelia, citizen?’
I nodded. ‘We think the Druids murdered her, as well.’
‘As well?’ The voice was sharp with shock, but I quickly realized it was not concern for poor Audelia’s fate. Her only interest was in Lavinia. ‘You mean the child is dead?’ She strained forward and would have struggled to her feet, but her bonds prevented her. Bright tears were glistening in her eyes. ‘Dear Juno! Not Lavinia! Tell me it isn’t true.’
I shook my head. ‘We haven’t found Lavinia, alive or dead,’ I said. ‘But if the Druid rebels have her, I worry for her fate. They are not noted for their mercy, even for small girls.’
She sank back, forlornly, but obviously relieved. ‘You are right, of course. We can only pray she’s safe.’ She nodded towards the owners of the house. ‘Make them let me out of here tomorrow, citizen, and I will help you search. I know the sort of places she would go to hide.’
Trullius’s wife, who had been stooping forward with the lamp, made an exasperated little noise. ‘What? Let her out, when she has been so clearly negligent? She must think me simple, citizen.’
I motioned her to silence and took the lamp myself. I wanted co-operation, not defiance from the nurse. Besides I had identified what had been troubling me. ‘You don’t think she’s dead, do you?’ I murmured to the prisoner in the kiln. ‘You are not grieving, you are talking about places she might hide. What makes you think that she is still alive?’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t explain it, citizen. I’m foolish, I suppose. But… if she were dead, I’m sure I would have known — felt it somehow in my blood and bones.’ The tears were brimming over now, and coursing down her face unchecked. She could not move her hands to wipe her cheeks. ‘I can believe she might have run away, if she thought she was in danger — especially if she could not find me when she looked for me. But when you mentioned Druids and said they’d murdered her “as well”…’ She broke off, shuddering. ‘What did you mean, if not that she was dead?’
‘I meant it seems possible they are involved in this, as well as playing a part in poor Audelia’s death. And — before you ask — we’re fairly sure of that. They deliberately left symbolic tokens with the corpse.’
‘Poor creature,’ the nurse said, soberly. ‘She will be greatly mourned.’ She tried to wipe her wet cheek on her tunic-shoulder, but it would not reach.
‘You knew Audelia?’
‘Not well. I met her for the first time yesterday. I liked her very much. I thought her very kind and beautiful. And surprisingly clever and intelligent, as well, quite capable of signing contracts and understanding them. Just like her young cousin would have been, I suppose, if Lavinia had ever had the opportunity of training at the shrine.’ She gave a bitter smile. ‘But now she never will. And poor Audelia’s dead, you say, and on her wedding day. I hope they build a fitting tomb for her.’
‘This is getting nowhere,’ Trullius’s wife exclaimed. She nudged me in the side. ‘Do you wish me to wake the stable-slaves and have her flogged a bit? That might persuade her to tell us what she knows. My husband would do it for us but he only has one arm these days, and he finds it hard to hold the victim down.’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t think it would help. If this slave cares for Lavinia as much as it appears, she’ll help us all she can without the use of whips. I’m interested in her assessment of the child.’ I turned back to the nurse. ‘Can you think of any way she might be bribed to leave — tempted by an offer, or lured to run away?’
A stubborn shake of the head. ‘Nothing like that, citizen. Lavinia was obedient to a fault.’