A Pattern of Blood (14 page)

I looked at Flavius. He was supporting himself on his left arm and unconsciously holding his pie in his right hand, but, as in the case of Lupus and the wine, that told me nothing. It is considered polite in most Roman circles for a man to eat and drink with his right hand, and to reserve his left for more intimate duties.

Flavius was looking at me expectantly. I said quickly, ‘You have known Councillor Lupus a long time?’

‘He is ex-Councillor Lupus, now,’ Flavius reminded me, with a certain relish. ‘That is why he hated Quintus Ulpius so much. That and some argument over that secretary of his. He was telling me about it in the garden – though I confess I was scarcely paying attention. You wouldn’t have done so either, in my place. Listening to Lupus rehearsing his miseries is a famously tedious business. And that is why it is difficult to answer your question, citizen. I have known him, from a distance, for many years, but I have, shall we say, avoided his acquaintance.’

‘You did not need his support in the curia?’ I suggested. Most men with large estates would court a magistrate, however tedious, if it would assist them to gain contracts and avoid taxes.

He was unabashed by this. ‘Naturally, I sent him tribute if it was expedient,’ he said, ‘but I had other friends on the council. Quintus Ulpius was one of them, until this business with Julia. You heard about that?’

I was on dangerous ground here. ‘I heard that she had been your wife,’ I said carefully.

Not carefully enough. ‘Had been my wife!’ he snorted angrily. ‘She should
still
be my wife! By Jupiter, Greatest and Best, she was promised me by her father, Gaius Honorius, when I lent him money to buy a forest. As soon as she was old enough, he said, and sure enough, the day she was twelve he brought her to my house, and gave her a handsome dowry into the bargain. And now, of course, I’ve lost that too.’

‘A
manus
marriage?’ I said. I was surprised. That form of legal wedding was almost obsolete, but if that was the case, Flavius certainly had a claim. Of course his bride was very young – we Celts do not usually marry off our daughters while they are still such children – but twelve is the legal age under Roman law, and it is always fashionable, among the socially aspiring, to do in Britain as they do in Rome. In any case, her youth made no difference. In a manus marriage, the wife legally passed into her husband’s power, and so did her property. She might even have been fictitiously ‘bought’ by her husband, in front of the magistrates, in which case she was undoubtedly his. ‘Can you prove that?’

He shook his head. ‘There was no legal ceremony. And I cannot prove “usage”, either – Julia was too clever for that. She has made a point of sleeping away from home for three successive nights every year – so she has avoided legally passing into my family. She claims ours was a free marriage, and therefore she can leave it when she chooses. Her father would have supported me, but he died of a fever years ago, and her brother became her official protector. He has never liked me. He made no secret of it – he was always encouraging her to run home, and I’d have to send after her and woo her back.’ He looked at me mournfully. ‘Great Jupiter the Mighty, I’d have sought a divorce myself twenty times over if Julia were not so beautiful.’

Or so rich, I thought uncharitably.

Flavius, though, had not finished his complaint. ‘The things I had to promise! I tell you, citizen, I spoiled that woman. I allowed her to go to the baths every day, during the women’s hours, though it costs twice as much for a female: I let her have pets, and visits to friends, and yearly outings to the theatre: I even permitted her to learn an instrument and play at banquets which I gave. What more could a man do? And still she was not satisfied.’

I was trying to imagine what Gwellia would have said if I had confined her to such dubious pleasures, but I managed to smile encouragingly.

‘You know, she used to complain of my breath, and I spent a fortune on sweeteners to please her. Liquorice root, ginger, dried fennel – I tried everything. I even used ground dogs’ teeth and honey to polish my teeth, but still she grumbled that I smelled of fish pickle and old wine. And then of course she met Quintus. After that she never came home again. I believe he went to a sorcerer and had her charmed away. Well, he needn’t think he can get away with it. There are laws against things like that.’

There were. The picture of the soothsayer flitted across my mind. ‘And that is what you came here to see him about?’

‘Of course it is. Or perhaps I should say “was”.’

‘I see.’ I looked at him for a moment. ‘Then what was it you wanted Rollo to do for you?’

I have never seen a man’s expression change so quickly. The smile faded, and he turned whiter than my toga. ‘Rollo?’ he stammered. His distress was so dramatic that I wondered for a moment if it had been caused by the pie. ‘How did you know about that?’

I smiled, in what I hoped was an inscrutable fashion. ‘A courtyard has ears,’ I said. I sounded like a rune-reader evading an answer, but I did not wish to implicate the page. Flavius obviously didn’t know that Rollo had spoken to me. ‘So,’ I went on, ‘what have you done with the boy? Where have you sent him?’

I was not expecting an immediate reply. I was prepared for hedging and evasion, but I was not prepared for Flavius’s startled look.

‘But citizen,’ he said, in surprise. ‘If you have informants, surely you must know. I asked Rollo to call on me last evening, but he did not come. I wanted him to take a message, it is true, but he never arrived. I supposed that Julia had learned about it, and forbidden him to come.’

‘You wanted him to take a message?’ I repeated.

‘A message, a letter. To Julia. Isn’t that what this inquisition is about?’

‘You wrote to Julia?’ I said. I was surprised. It is not usual for a man to send letters to another man’s wife, especially not when he is a guest in the same house. But then, I remembered, Julia had refused to speak to Flavius. I was interested to know what this famous message had said. ‘Where is the letter now?’

‘It was nothing. It is not important now. I have destroyed it.’ He picked up the goblet of watered wine from the table and swallowed the contents at a gulp.

‘Destroyed it?’ That was unlikely. Writing materials are too precious to destroy.

‘Erased it, then,’ Flavius conceded sulkily.

So it had been written on a wax tablet, I thought. That was interesting. Probably a small writing block, folded in two halves and fitted with a lock and hinge so that the message was private. Just the sort of tablet on which someone had scratched the words ‘Remember Pertinax’. I was suddenly very anxious to see it.

‘And was that,’ I enquired sweetly, ‘what you were hiding under your pillows when I came in?’

Flavius assumed a look of injured innocence. ‘But there is nothing under my pillows, citizen. Have your slave search them, or see for yourself.’

For a moment I was taken aback. The tablet, I thought, must be in the room somewhere. Flavius had intended to give it to Rollo, and he had not left the triclinium. My eye lit on the napkin. Of course! I seized one corner of it and swept it away, revealing what Flavius had hidden under it.

The little writing tablet was an expensive thing: the frame was made of carved ivory, the metal clasp finely worked. Flavius sat up and buried his head in his hands. He looked a defeated man.

‘Well?’ I demanded, like the governor demanding tribute.

He shrugged. ‘See for yourself, citizen.’ I was the one being accorded the social courtesy now. ‘It is nothing. I was trying to send a letter, but I did not send it, and I have erased it, as you see.’ He opened the tablet. It was true: the scratched message, whatever it was, had been obliterated by rubbing the wax with the blunt end of the stylus, which was created for exactly that purpose. ‘I don’t suppose I shall ever deliver it now.’

I took the tablet from him and handed it to Junio, who had been waiting patiently at my side all the while. ‘Put this inside your tunic. I think we should show it to Julia. Perhaps she can throw some light on the matter.’

Junio obeyed. To my surprise, Flavius made no protest, although the frame alone must have been worth many sesterces. Indeed, he seemed almost pleased that I had taken it. His face cleared and he said, with urgency, ‘Yes, do. Give it to Julia, citizen. I meant her to have it. I would have sent it to her yesterday, but Rollo didn’t come.’ He frowned. ‘What happened to him, I wonder?’

I didn’t know. And suddenly I found that worrying.

I got to my feet. ‘I don’t know, citizen. Excuse me, I must go and look for him. It may be urgent. Come, Junio.’

And bowing ourselves out as hastily as respect allowed, we went back to the atrium.

Julia was there, overseeing the selection of dark green herbs and foliage which a maidservant was arranging in a large bronze vase. Another slave girl stood by with a pile of other branches to choose from.

Julia looked up when she saw us, but her greeting was addressed to me alone. ‘Good morning, citizen.’ She was arrayed this morning with stunning simplicity in a long-sleeved white tunic, unadorned except for a simple girdle under her breasts and a funeral wreath upon her brow. She looked shaken and pale, but she had defied popular convention, and there had been no ritual clawing of her face or tearing at her hair. Instead she was the picture of dignified grief.

I looked at her with approval. ‘Greetings, lady.’

She turned to me and gave me one of those smiles of hers. I could see why Marcus preened in her presence: that smile would make any man feel like Hercules. She looked me confidently in the eyes. ‘Does this look well enough, do you think? I am no expert on such things, but you have an artist’s eye.’

It was blatant flattery. A Roman woman, especially a beautiful one, does not usually initiate idle conversation with a comparative stranger, even in her own house, unless she is setting out to charm. And she could not really want my opinion. I am hardly an expert on floral art.

It was hard to know how to reply. Roman funerary green is too sombre for my taste, especially when displayed in a heavy vase in a huge bronze bowl on a black shale table. And I was anxious to look for Rollo. But Julia was irresistible.

‘It has a pleasing symmetry,’ I said, and was rewarded with a look of as much admiration as if I had personally carved the finest statue in Corinium.

The slave girls began to clear away the excess leaves and rub down the table top with juniper oil to give it a sheen and prevent the shale from splitting.

‘Now, citizen,’ Julia said, looking me fully in the face again with those disturbing eyes, ‘you are my guest in these doleful hours. What can I do to serve you?’

‘Lady, forgive me for disturbing you, but there is a problem with which I should like your help. You know the page, Rollo?’

She furrowed her lovely brow. ‘Rollo? My husband’s pet page? The little fellow in the embroidered tunic? I know him, of course.’

She had made a pretence of thinking hard, but the readiness of her answer surprised me. In many a household of this size a woman would not be acquainted with all her slaves by name, especially not the handsome little page. Rollo had told me that normally he served Quintus exclusively, probably in ways of which Julia was modestly unaware. Yet Julia identified him with confidence. ‘Have you seen him this morning, lady?’

She looked surprised, and I could see her examining the question. She favoured me with another of her glowing smiles. ‘I could not say for certain. I have not noticed him.’

I was oddly disappointed in that reply, although it is hard to see how I could have expected anything different. To Julia, of course, the presence of a slave was no more remarkable than the presence of any other piece of household equipment – a footstool, say, or a cushion. In fact, I thought with an inward smile, I was guilty of something of the sort myself. I was classifying this present meeting as a ‘private conversation’, though I had Junio with me and she was attended by a pair of her maids.

I looked at the girls, waiting dispiritedly in the corner with the vase. Junio was right; they were remarkably plain. Once again, I had that feeling of disquiet. In a household of this kind, where money could buy the prettiest girls in the whole province, there was something very deliberate in this choice, like placing a fine statue against an ugly arch. Julia, I thought, had no need of such a frame – she would have looked handsome between the prettiest slaves in the Empire.

She was giving me one of those smiles again. ‘You wish to find Rollo?’ She signalled to one of the girls. ‘Fetch me the chief slave. He will know where the boy is. Unless, citizen, one of my handmaidens can serve you . . .?’

Perhaps she did guess at Rollo’s functions. I shook my head, and the handmaiden vanished.

‘I am sorry, pavement-maker, that you have had such a welcome to our house. Quintus, I know, was so anxious for that mosaic floor in the hot room.’ She fluttered her lovely eyes at me. Her lids were touched with saffron and her brows and eyelashes tinted black with some dark powder. ‘I hope that you will still consent to design it for us, if Quintus leaves money for the caldarium in his will.’

‘I should be highly honoured,’ I said, keeping my voice controlled. Inwardly I was dancing votive flings. What fool would refuse such a prestigious commission, offered by such a beautiful woman? Especially when it gives him an opportunity to look for his wife. ‘Honoured,’ I said again.

‘We shall know if there is money when the will is read this afternoon,’ Julia said. ‘I imagine he will have endowed the baths. And some memorial games. Quintus was very fond of chariot racing and watching the gladiators. He would like to leave something spectacular for the town to remember him by.’

I nodded. The greatest heroes of a
civitas
, at least to its citizens, are those who have provided the biggest shows and the most lavish public banquets to be celebrated on their account. Better men, who bequeathed less roasted horsemeat and fewer fights, were often swiftly forgotten.

‘You do not think that Ulpius had altered his will in any way?’ I found myself asking. When Julia smiled at you like that, you felt that you could ask her anything. ‘I heard he had recently threatened to disinherit his son.’