‘Your pardon, master, for disturbing you. There is a man on horseback here, whom I think that you should see.’
Lavinius made a lofty gesture with his long thin hand. ‘Doubtless one of the early banquet guests.’ He turned to Publius with a knowing smile. ‘This isn’t Rome, you know. A lot of humbler people don’t have water-clocks or well-positioned sundials, even now. Sometimes people find it very hard to judge the hour — especially if they know good wine awaits them here.’
Publius responded with the expected laugh, but Modesta did not smile. ‘But Master, it isn’t you that he is asking for. He insists he wants Audelia — no one else will do — and he won’t believe me when I say she isn’t here.’
The two patricians exchanged a startled glance, then Lavinius said sternly, ‘Show the fellow in.’ Modesta hurried off to do as she was told.
Publius put his cup down, half-troubled, half-relieved. ‘This must be a contact from the kidnappers. Or perhaps it is a trick. Do you think, Libertus…?’
I never heard the rest, because at that moment the slave-girl reappeared, accompanied by one of the most enormous men I’d ever seen.
NINE
This newcomer was perhaps not quite as old as I am, but certainly he was no longer young. All the same his presence filled the room. He was not simply hugely tall, he was big and muscular, with a neck that was almost wider than his head and massive thighs like the trunks of well-grown trees. His arms were brawny and in one gigantic hand he held a ridiculously dainty leather bag, which made his fingers look enormous by comparison. His short-cropped head was rounder than an earthen cooking pot and his face, which was baked to terracotta in the sun, was weather-etched with lines. He wore big boots, a yellow tunic and a heavy riding-cape. Modesta had said he was a horseman. I found myself feeling a little sorry for the horse.
He looked around the atrium and acknowledged the presence of our togas with a bow. ‘Greetings, citizens.’ He made another vague obeisance towards all three of us, as if two of the company were not marked out by patrician purple stripes. ‘Which of you gentlemen is the master of the house?’ His eyes were small and darting and I saw that he was missing several of his teeth. Not a man I’d care to argue with.
Lavinius stepped forward, all cold authority. ‘I am Lavinius, the paterfamilias of this household and the uncle of that Audelia whom — it seems — you seek. She is not here, as I believe you have already been informed. However, in her absence you may speak to me. What is your business here?’
The rider’s tanned face split in an astonished grin. He would have been ugly, even with the teeth, and the crinkles of amusement creased his wrinkled face still more. ‘I don’t think you can help me this time, citizen. I was sent to bring her these. I don’t think they would fit you particularly well.’ He opened the drawstring of the bag and brought out a pair of yellow wedding shoes, which he dangled by the laces between one finger and a thumb as though they had no weight.
I could see at once what Puella, the missing slave, had meant. They were the most beautiful slippers I have ever seen, the soft dyed leather cut into an intricate design of flowers and butterflies. The colour was extremely delicate and the soles and lacing so beautifully fine that the whole seemed worthy of an empress or a queen. They had not been worn, so the donor who had given them as an offering to the Vestal at the shrine must not only have paid a handsome price for them but somehow contrived to have them specially made to fit Audelia. No wonder the bride-to-be had been keen to show them off.
It was clear to me by now who this intruder was. ‘So you are the mounted guard who escorted Audelia to Corninium?’ I said at once, though it really was not my place to interview the man. Publius looked at me, much as my slaves had looked at the magician in the town, as if I had produced a ribbon from my ear.
The horseman grinned. ‘All the way from the Vestal temple, citizen. Escorting people is my trade these days. Retired auxiliary cavalryman Ascus at your service, gentlemen.’
Lavinius coughed, to indicate that he was in command. ‘Retired, but not a citizen? How did that come about? Did you not get your citizen’s diploma when you left the cavalry?’
Ascus shook his pot-shaped head. ‘Took a wound, and had to leave the force before I’d served my term. Nineteen years, instead of twenty-five. But I used my pay-out to obtain a horse — as you can see — and when I had recovered, I made another life. So here I am. Armed and ready to fend off robbers on the road.’ He looped his other massive thumb and finger through his belt, pushing the cloak back to reveal the cudgel at his side. ‘Of course I am only a civilian now, so it is illegal for me to carry a sword or dagger on the road. But a simple bludgeon is usually enough to deter would-be thieves and attackers on the road.’
I could imagine that. If I were a bandit, that cudgel — in his hands — would certainly have dissuaded me.
Lavinius though, was scowling at all this. ‘But not this time, it seems. Do I understand that at Corinium you abandoned my poor niece?’
The massive shoulders shrugged. ‘I am a hireling, citizen. I do as I am told. She hired me in the first place and I was at her command. She sent me back to get the shoes she’d left behind — and I have done so, as you can see yourself. I told her it was foolish to go on alone — not in so many words, you understand — but she would not listen. She’s a determined lady, as no doubt you know, and she wanted her slippers for her wedding day. Said that the goddess Vesta would protect her; Vesta and that idiot of a driver who brought Lavinia to the lodging house.’ He looked around. ‘Did she not tell you this? I thought I’d find her waiting and impatient for her shoes, but I suppose she was weary and has retired to rest. Not surprising really, jolting all that way in such a springless cart. Still, she promised to reward me if I got here before the feast, so one of the servants had better take these up to her.’ He put the slippers back into the bag and held them out.
No one moved to take them.
For the first time Ascus looked discomfited. ‘Well, surely somebody should tell her that they have arrived? Not that she’ll be specially impressed, I don’t expect, though I have ridden like the hounds of Dis to get them here in time.’ He thrust the bag towards Lavinius. ‘It wasn’t easy following her directions to this place, either. Several times, I had to stop and ask the way.’
Lavinius snatched the leather bag and glared at him. ‘So you haven’t heard what happened to my niece? When your famous bludgeon was not there to help?’
The giant looked at him. The smile had vanished, but the creases in the face deepened even more. ‘She had some misfortune when I wasn’t there? She surely wasn’t set upon and robbed?’ He struck his forehead with the heel of his hand. ‘Dear Mars! I knew it was stupid to let her go alone. They took her jewels, I suppose? Great Jupiter, mightiest and best! She promised me reward — a very handsome jet and garnet ring she had with her — and now I suppose I won’t get paid at all.’
Publius got to his feet, impatiently. ‘Never mind the jewels, my friend, the bride herself has gone — apparently kidnapped from the raeda on the way. And her maidservant has disappeared as well.’ He glared at Ascus, whose mouth had dropped open in astonishment. ‘I wonder they didn’t tell you all this at the gate.’
‘They wouldn’t tell me anything at all. I almost had to force my way inside, before the gatekeeper would call the slave and have her announce to you that I was here.’
The idea that the unhelpful gatekeeper had met his match was enough to make me smile. Publius rounded on me instantly.
‘You think that this is somehow comical?’
‘I was simply thinking, respected citizen,’ I said quickly (I did not wish to lose the best support I had), ‘that the arrival of this rider makes things easier. He is a guard by trade. He can accompany us to Corinium and if we find no information there tonight, tomorrow he can take us to where Audelia left the shoes. I’m very anxious to ask questions of the household there.’
Lavinius frowned. ‘What point is there in that?’
I had forgotten that he had not heard the full story of the shoes. ‘I suspect the loss of the wedding shoes was no mere accident — I believe that they were deliberately taken from her box, precisely in order to divert the guard.’
