Camillus Senior looked embarrassed. 'Falco's work is necessarily secret. Don't be offensive to our guest.' He tried gamely to change the subject: `You look in good form, Marcus. Travel suits you.'
`You should see me in my Palmyrene trousers and embroidered hat…' I sighed. Chitchat on Oriental matters would dodge the problem but not solve it. `Your son is quite right, Senator. I was promised social advancement, and it has been refused.'
Camillus must have heard about it from Helena. As a member of the Establishment he seemed to feel personally responsible. He scratched his nose; light gleamed on a workaday garnet signet ring. `It's a misunderstanding, Marcus. It can be resolved.'
`No, Domitian Caesar gave me a very clear ruling, and when I discussed the matter with Titus last week he was unable to change that.'
`Titus told me,' answered the Senator. `Rulings do tend to become immutable if they involve denying just rewards!' His sense of humour was always refreshingly dry. `Well, tell me if I can help… I gather you're working on the law-and-order issue at present?' So much for keeping the post-Balbinus investigation confidential.
`Yes, I'm on the special commission.'
Camillus noticed my dark mood. `Not enjoying it?'
`Mixed feelings; mixed loyalties.' The conversation had shifted. The Senator and I were talking at a level that now excluded Aelianus. I went back to one aspect of what Camillus had said: `I'm asking myself how much of my personal chat with Titus Caesar he passed on, sir? Has he pre-empted a private discussion I intended to have with you?'
Camillus smiled, waving a hand in acceptance of the fact that he had been told he was to be a grandfather by someone other than me. `I realised Titus was being premature.'
'I'm sorry for it. You know how things work, sir.'
`You had to seize your opportunity,' he agreed. Well, for Helena's sake he would want me to have tried. Our relationship stayed easy. `Are you pleased?' he asked. I let a grin answer him. Then we both stopped looking so delighted, as like dutiful men we both considered the perils to Helena.
'I still think something can be sorted out for you, Marcus.' Vespasian, like any good Roman, had his private clique of friends who advised him; the Senator was one of them, once close, and still consulted. It could be made to work on my behalf if I could accept having strings pulled. The senator knew my feelings about that. `Will you let me speak to the old man?'
`Better not.' I smiled. Even with his personal interest, it was gracious of him to offer. But I had to do this myself. `My new assignment is a complex one. Let's see the results before I call in imperial favours!'
`Maybe you'd better leave my sister alone then,' Aelianus grappled himself back into the discussion even though unsure of its content.
`I note your advice,' I said pleasantly. Suddenly I was too angry to carry on fielding his jibes. `I'm sorry you're distressed. I can see it must have been difficult, coming home from abroad to find that the respectable family you had left behind was now tainted with scandal.' He began to speak. I stabbed the air with my finger. `The scandal I mean has nothing to do with your sister. I refer to the sad mess which brought me into contact with the Camilli in the first, place, when various of your noble relations – now fortunately dead – engaged in a treasonous attempt of staggering ineptitude! Camillus Aelianus, before you embark on public life I suggest you ask your father to explain just how much the Emperor allowed to be covered up.'
The jaw of the not so noble Aelianus had dropped open. Clearly he had not realised I knew about his family's near-disgrace.
`Excuse me,' I apologised briefly to his father, for I normally tried not to mention all this.
`Was the cover-up organised by you?' Aelianus was catching on. But now he assumed Helena Justina had been presented to me in return for my silence.
`My job is to expose things. Still, I'm glad we had this opportunity to clear the air… Philosophical insights are traditionally brought to light by men drinking at a symposium.' Trying to improve the atmosphere, I raised my cup.
Aelianus glowered at me. `What exactly do you do, Falco?' Sometimes I wondered that myself.
`Nice of you to ask this time, before condemning me! I do what's needed – what nobody else is able or willing to tackle.'
`Do you kill people?' He had no finesse.
`Not regularly. It's too much trouble making my peace with the gods afterwards.'
I avoided looking at the Senator. He was sitting very silent. The last time I remembered killing a man, it was a thug who attacked Helena on her father's own doorstep. Camillus saw me do it. But there were other deaths, closely connected to that, which the Senator and I never talked about.
`It's a glorious thought,' Aelianus was still sneering. `Some dogged lone operator attempting to right society's wrongs without praise or pay!'
`Pure foolishness,' I agreed briefly.
`Why do it?'
`Oh, the hope of gain.'
`Strength of character?' The family irony had not entirely bypassed Aelianus.
`You've found me out. I'm a soft touch for ethical actions.'
`And it's a short cut to the women too?'
`The very best of them… You'd better grit your teeth. I know I've found a good one, and I'm here to stay. My relationship with your sister is permanent. And you're going to be an uncle to an informer's son or daughter by next spring!'
Aelianus was still spluttering with disgust when Julia Justa and Helena sailed back to join us.
XLIV
REPAIRING TO THE dining room enabled me to lighten the mood with tasteful praise for a recent repaint (heavy stuff, black dadoes and perspectives in deep red and gold). They must have been taken in by a contractor who dreamed of decorating Oriental tombs.
The Senator's wife declared coolly that we would dine now, without Justinus. She showed no particular emotion after her conversation with Helena about our coming baby; she must have been prepared for it. So much so that she had taken over the skip orphan as if to accustom herself to playing with a child she would rather avoid. Her sole concern now was to get through the celebration without embarrassment. The noble Julia had the suffering air of a woman who was doing her best even though everyone around her seemed determined to ruin her carefully planned day.
She had a fine sense of decency. I made sure I stepped forwards and handed her kindly to her dining couch. In return, Julia Justa politely insisted that I took the couch next to her. I was assuming the air of a guest who was a very close family friend. One reason I did this was to annoy Aelianus by letting him think he had been superseded in his own home and in front of all the slaves and family freedmen and -women – by his sister's unsuitable lover flagrantly adopting the role of a respected son-in-law.
I managed to maintain the fraud of gravitas right up until I caught Helena's eye. I lost control when she winked at me.
Food and wine always help. Besides, it was Helena's birthday, and we were people who all loved her. (Even her tense brother must have cared for her as much as his own right to a scandal-free public life.
The food was probably better than that normally served in that cash-strapped household. I was particularly taken by the lobster dumplings, which came in the first course along with Colymbadian olives and various pork nuggets. Helena and I managed to put in a fair ration of travellers' tales concerning food, enabling us to sidestep the dubious theatrical aspect of our tour in Syria. The centrepiece of the main course was a small whole boar in nut sauce, a dish which I freely admitted rarely featured in the cook's repertoire at my own house.