Her mind was busy digesting this when Eugenius rounded on his secretary. ‘And you, you idle oaf, get off your fat arse and chase up that bitumen shipment. You know damned well I can’t dip my sheep until it arrives.’
‘I checked yesterday, Master.’
‘It should have been here yesterday, you dithering fool, now get out there and see what’s holding it up.’
The smirk on Dexippus’s face had given way to an expression dripping with obsequiousness. ‘I’ll see to it straight away, Master. You can rely on me, Master.’
He backed out of the door, and Eugenius swept the papers on his desk onto the floor with a backward flip of the hand.
‘Where’s Acte?’
The question startled her. ‘She’s er-’
‘Dammit, I don’t know what she’s up to lately, didn’t even bother to bring me my breakfast this morning. Have you signed that contract yet?’
Claudia felt she was walking on quicksand. ‘Contract?’ She was stalling and he knew it.
‘You know damn fine what I’m talking about, young lady, and I want to know when-’
He stopped, realizing that he was in danger of overstepping the mark. This was the very reason he hadn’t shown his true colours before, and he wouldn’t risk spoiling his chances now.
‘Pour us both a drink,’ he said, ‘and tell me whether you think that position there is humanly possible, or whether the woman would need to be double-jointed.’
Claudia did not look at the pornographic frieze he was pointing to, neither did she pour the wine.
Eugenius Collatinus knew a challenge when it was dangled in front of him, and his eyes twinkled appreciatively. ‘I like you,’ he said.
‘It’s not mutual,’ she replied, but there was no sting in her voice.
‘You’ll make a good team, you and-Aieee!’ His face contorted and his hands flew to his stomach.
‘I’ll fetch Diom-’ she began, and got no further.
‘Stay.’ There was no mistaking the authority, even through the pain. ‘It’s just the colic.’
Claudia waited until the pains abated before pointing out, purely as a matter of interest, that she had seen colic.
He winced as he gave a short laugh. His face was grey and beaded with sweat. He drank the wine she poured, and they both pretended it was alum water.
‘I like sheep,’ he said eventually. ‘I dip them, I brand them, I clip them, I lamb them.’ He looked very small and shrivelled in his ivory chair. ‘I don’t have to bother about plagues of thistles or how bad the blight will be this year.’
‘Why did you kill Utti?’
‘It’s my poor neighbours who have to worry about weevils in their corn sacks, I just let my sheep graze in their stubble fields.’
‘Let me rephrase the question. Why did you kill Utti?’
‘Where’s Acte?’
‘Who are you covering up for?’
The accusation rattled him. ‘Eugenius Collatinus doesn’t cover up for anybody, my girl, and you’d do well to remember that.’
He drained his glass so fast, wine dribbled down his chin, staining his tunic crimson. Claudia waited. As so often happened with this old man, she met with the unexpected. He banged a wax tablet several times on the table, and a slave came running.
‘Did I hear that red-haired trollop has returned?’
‘You did, Master.’
‘Clap her in irons then.’ When the slave had gone, Eugenius turned to Claudia. ‘You want to know why I executed that ugly, fat bastard? Because he killed my granddaughter.’
A paper-thin hand drummed gnarled fingers on the woodwork. Claudia’s eyes followed them up and down, up and down.
‘Those filthy hands of his had been all over her, he got what he deserved, which is more than my Sabina did.’ The drumming stopped and he leaned forward. ‘She rode in carriages, you know. Fine, fancy carriages whenever there was a special festival.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Eh?’ He looked at Claudia as though she was stupid. ‘We got letters, of course.’
‘Of course. You were saying?’
‘Sabina devoted thirty years of her life to Vesta, that’s a hell of a long time to spend doing nothing except offer sacrifices and make sure the Eternal Flame never whitens to ash. She deserved better.’
‘I agree. You haven’t answered my question.’
Again the change in direction. ‘You were right, it’s not colic. I’ve got ulcers in the intestines, and sometimes it feels like red-hot claws tearing out my liver.’
‘Why won’t you tell the doctor?’
He looked up sharply. ‘None of your damned business! Where’s Acte, have you seen her? Didn’t bring me my breakfast, y’know.’
This was odd. Extremely odd. Surely someone had told the old man about Acte…?
‘Eugenius, look, I’m not sure how to say this-’
‘Probably excited. I’ll let you into a secret, Claudia, just between you and me. I’ve asked her to marry me.’
What? ‘Have you told the family?’
‘She knows how to look after me, I don’t need a bloody charlatan poking about in my innards.’
Claudia was having to absorb so many different shocks, she was in danger of having mental indigestion. To play for time, she bent down and gathered up the rolls and scrolls from the floor.
‘That’s very kind of you, my dear.’ So many shifts of mood, no wonder he was a devil to do business with. He began to arrange them neatly on his desk. ‘I like to keep my accounts in good order,’ he said, ‘and naturally I’ve made provision for Acte.’ He leaned forward and whispered. ‘Another year’s the best I can hope for, but she makes me happy. Don’t tell Dex.’
Still this present tense…
‘Why not?’ The old man cackled. ‘He’s jealous of her, so I wrote the will myself. Find it for me, will you?’
Claudia shot him an old-fashioned look, but was glad of the opportunity to rifle through his papers. Unfortunately there was nothing startling or contentious among them, and she handed him the paper making provision for Acte.
Did he, or did he not, know she had been killed? Had his grief-stricken mind blocked out what it couldn’t bear to face? It happened all the time, but the question was, did it happen to a man like Eugenius Collatinus?
‘I’ll get it witnessed later,’ he said, glancing through the document. ‘You can sign your own contract at the same time.’
‘Oh, can I?’ she asked smoothly, settling herself in the seat Dexippus had vacated.
Eugenius laughed appreciatively. ‘You’re a clever woman, Claudia Seferius.’
She widened her eyes ingenuously.
‘Didn’t take my hint of dismissal,’ he explained unnecessarily. He pretended to fiddle with the scrolls in front of him. ‘You want to know about Utti?’
‘Right.’ At last. We are getting there at last.
He ran his hand sensuously over the lionhead carving on his chair. ‘Let’s start with that little trollop claiming to be his sister.’
‘Claiming?’
Eugenius shrugged. ‘Who knows? Who cares? She stole a horse of mine.’
‘She went to fetch help.’
‘Pah! This has happened before, mark my words. Trace their footsteps and you’ll find a score of butchered women, just like my Sabina, and every time that little whore’s covered up for him.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Tell me what she was doing there yesterday.’
‘Where?’
‘Said she was out for a stroll, but why weren’t they together? How come Utti’s already there?’
‘Where?’
‘The birch grove, where my little Sabina was killed.’ Claudia waited a moment, marshalling her thoughts and resisting the temptation to state the obvious. Finally she said, ‘How do you know he was there?’
‘Utti? Someone saw him.’
‘Who?’
‘Can’t remember.’ He saw the expression on her face. ‘Does it matter?’
Claudia’s eyes continued to bore into his.
‘All right, Marius saw him there. But you can’t convince me it wasn’t that big bastard, because I know it was. Two women have been murdered, both in exactly the same…’