Persona Non Grata (35 page)
Authors: Ruth Downie
Tags: #General, #Fiction, #Historical, #Physicians, #Murder, #Italy, #Mystery & Detective, #Murder - Investigation, #Physicians - Rome, #Rome, #Mystery Fiction, #Investigation
H
OW CAN YOU possibly lecture me about what love is?” demanded Marcia, planting both hands on the study desk and glaring at Ruso. “What do you know about it?”
“Not a lot,” agreed Ruso. “But how many girls get the chance to nurse a hero?”
Marcia wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like ill people.”
“I’m only asking you to like this one,” said Ruso. “Especially as he’s not out of danger yet.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “I’m not saying you have to marry him tomorrow. But if you get up those stairs right away, smile at Tertius and convince him he’s got something to look forward to, I’ll fix your dowry by the end of next week.”
Marcia paused to consider this. “Will you cancel those awful music lessons?”
“Agreed,” said Ruso, who had never seen the point of spending money on them, anyway.
“And I want my own bedroom instead of sharing with Flora.”
“You can have that upstairs room after Tertius has recovered and gone to work at Lollia’s.”
“What? That’s not a room, it’s a cupboard!”
Ruso folded his arms. “That’s my final offer.”
Marcia grinned. “All right, then. I would have looked after him, anyway, you know.”
He decided to let her enjoy her triumph. Nursing Tertius back to health would be a long slow job. “You don’t happen to know where Tilla is, do you? I can’t remember what she said she was doing this morning.”
Marcia extended a finger to poke him in the chest. “That, Gaius, is exactly why you have no right to lecture me about love.”
T
HE DOOR LATCH dropped with a click. Over in his bed, Tilla stirred and opened her eyes. He supposed she had crept in here to sleep off the exhaustion of all the chasing about last night. “Sorry to wake you.”
“I am not asleep. I am thinking.”
This was ominous.
“In my country,” she said, “women can be warriors.”
“Well, in my country, they can’t.”
She said, “There is something I did not tell you about what happened in that bar in Arelate.”
“Do you want me to know?”
She thought about that for a while, then said, “No.”
Outside, two figures were making their way down between the tall rows of the vineyard. Watching Cass slip an arm around Lucius’s ample waist as he paused to inspect a vine, Ruso said suddenly, “What makes a marriage happy?”
“I do not know. I have never been married.”
Should he ask directly, or hint? Allude to his last proposal, or begin afresh? He should have practiced. In the absence of rehearsal, it was best not to try to be clever. He took a deep breath and sat down beside her on the bed. “Tilla, I have something to ask you. Will you—”
“Those insects are not screeching today.”
He swallowed. “It’s the end of the summer.”
“Soon the ships will stop crossing the seas.”
“That’ll be a few weeks.”
“Then I should go now.”
He said, “I can’t take you yet. I’ve promised to look after Tertius.”
“And you have Lollia Saturnina and that old wife with the strange hair,” she said.
“They’re just friends.”
“The nephews and nieces have their mother,” she continued. “Cass and Lucius have each other. Marcia has her gladiator, Galla has Christos, your stepmother has Diphilus—”
“What?”
“Oh, open your eyes, Ruso!”
They both stared at each other in surprise. She had never called him that before.
“I need to visit Claudia this afternoon,” he said, and watched her mouth tighten. “Just to see how she is, and irritate her enough for her to remember why she can’t live with me.”
“I see. And then what will happen?”
He said, “Ennia said there was a stash of money hidden away in Rome.
If that’s true, it would help me shift the family debt. I could go down there and try to track it down—”
“I am not going to Rome.”
“Or we could—”
“I have seen enough greedy people who like to show murder to their children.”
“I—”
“If this is what you call peace, it is not worth it.”
He said, “Have you finished?”
She thought about that for a moment, then said, “Yes. For now.”
“Or, Valens is bound to know some unit in Britannia where there’s a medic’s job out of the reach of the rebels, or warriors, or whatever they’re supposed to be called.”
“They should be called people of honor.”
“Please don’t start that now.”
She said, “I am not the one who is starting.”
He lay back on the pillow with his hands behind his head. “You asked me once if I was ashamed of you.”
“Are you?”
“I’m the one who should be ashamed. I should have introduced you better.”
“And what would you have said?”
He paused. “I would have said, This is Tilla. She is the bravest and most beautiful woman I know, and I don’t deserve her.”
She smiled. “All these things are true.” The smile faded. “I will want children,” she said.
He thought about that for a moment. “I shall expect them to read and write and speak Latin and Greek and be properly brought up.”
“I will teach them to sing the song of my ancestors.”
“Do you have to?”
“All six of them.”
“What is this, a competition?”
He slid his hand into hers and their fingers intertwined. After a moment he said, “You really think Arria and Diphilus are serious?”
“You should encourage him. Then perhaps he will clean out the drains for free.”
“We might not need him,” he said. “Feel that breeze?” He lifted his head to look out of the open window and squinted at the clouds forming in the distance. “I think it’s going to rain.”
Readers who are familiar with modern Nîmes will know the amphitheater, the temple, and the other fine remains that inspired much of this novel, although neither Ruso’s family temple to Diana nor the gladiator barracks survive among them. Fortunately for the good citizens of Ne-mausus, there is also no record of Fuscus, nor of his cousin the senator.
It occurs to me that at some points in this story there may be readers wondering, Why didn’t they just call the police? The Roman Empire was equipped with neither an investigative police force nor a prison system in the sense that we understand them, so unless someone was prepared to step up and bring an accusation, there was no case.
Furthermore, there will be readers who would offer Christians to lions without hesitation. However, the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian were a period of relative calm for the early church: a lull between the persecutions of the first century and the gruesome martyrdoms which took place in Lyon only a couple of generations later.
Anyone seeking a more reliable source than fiction may be interested in:
Roman Medicine
, by Audrey Cruse
Pagans and Christians
, by Robin Lane Fox
Religions of Rome
(Vol 1), by Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price
Gladiators
, by Michael Grant
The Bankers of Puteoli
:
Finance, Trade, and Industry in the Roman World
, by David Jones
Textbook on Roman Law
, by Andrew Borkowski and Paul du Plessis
Voyage en Gaule Romaine
, by Gérard Coulon and Jean-Claude Golvin
But of course the best way to discover Gallia Narbonensis is on foot, armed with plenty of time and a copy of
The Roman Remains of Southern France: A Guidebook
, by James Bromwich.
Grateful thanks for their help in bringing order to chaos go to Mari Evans, Benjamin Adams, Peta Nightingale, and Araminta Whitley, and by the time this manuscript reaches print, unsung but invaluable copy editors will have tidied away many infelicities.
For suggestions and sources on medicine ancient and modern, Roman law, and the Roman remains of Provence, I am grateful to Professor John Scarborough, Carole Page, Dr. Paul du Plessis, and Stephen Young. Any errors are of course mine.
Fellow scribes Chris Allen, Carol Barac, Kathy Barbour, Caroline Davis, Maria Murphy, Jan Lovell, Sian Parrett, and Guy Russell read and reread versions of the early chapters with enormous patience, and Andy Downie put up with lots of grumbling and some very strange and hastily concocted offerings for dinner.
Ruth Downie is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling
Medicus
and
Terra Incognita
. She is married with two sons and lives in Milton Keynes, England.