wax again, to write the letter to Paulinus — who of course returned it when he confirmed that he would come. So we gave it to its owner when we had the chance. What else would you expect?’ She moved as if to go back into the dwelling-rooms.
I stood between her and the doorway so that she couldn’t pass. She had come back of her own volition, but now that she was here I wanted her to help. ‘So how was it delivered to Paulinus and his wife? If you didn’t use Audelia’s mounted messenger?’
Priscilla shrugged. ‘A boy with a donkey in the forum who was looking for a job. We had the directions to the house, Audelia gave us those…’
‘Or rather, the amanuensis told you that she had?’ I corrected.
She ignored the interruption. ‘And the boy rode out with it. What else could we do? We don’t have a private messenger, and with such important people coming there was no house-slave to spare. Anyway, what difference did it make? Paulinus obviously got it — since he not only replied, but came the day that we had settled on.’
I looked at her steadily. ‘Are you quite sure of that?’
She still had not seen what I was driving at. ‘Of course he came here — I don’t know what you mean. Now if you’ll excuse-’
I cut her off again. ‘But how can you be certain it was him at all? Suppose your letter was delivered somewhere else — for example to the rebels in the wood — you would not know the difference. You can’t even be certain what message it contained. The amanuensis might have written anything he liked, and addressed it to anyone at all — saying, for instance, that the Vestal’s relatives were due to stay with you and inviting the rebels to come and take their place. Had either of you ever seen Paulinus in your life before?’
Trullius shook his head, quite stupefied at this. ‘Of course we hadn’t, citizen.’
‘But Audelia had,’ his wife put in, triumphantly. ‘Paulinus and his wife had visited the shrine to pray about their child. I told you that, before.’
Even then I had to spell it out to them. ‘Supposing that it was really Audelia who arrived? Who in this household would have known her face? You and your wife had not set eyes on her before, neither had Lavinia or her nurse, or even the raedarius who was to drive her back.’
Priscilla had suddenly seen the force of this and had turned deathly pale. ‘So she might have been an impostor too?’ She put her cooking-bowl down on a stool beside the door. ‘But what about the driver of the temple-coach in which she came to us? He would have known her, wouldn’t he?’
It was Trullius himself who saw the flaw in that. ‘That might depend on when he saw her last. Obviously the true Audelia set off from the shrine, but she wore a cape and veil when she was travelling and I presume he always did as he did here — drop her where she was staying, together with her guard, and go to the temple to find a bed for himself. So if a false Audelia got into the coach one day, he might not notice until she spoke to him — and from what we witnessed she did not generally do that. The changeover might easily have taken place somewhere.’
‘But surely…’ his wife began.
He shook his head. ‘Provided the substitute was roughly the same build, the coach-driver would see what he expected to, and what he had seen every other day. Why should he start to doubt? All you would need is a second set of robes — or something sufficiently similar to pass a casual glance. That would not be impossible to arrange. No one is going to go up close and start to scrutinize a Vestal Virgin’s clothes.’
‘You mean the murder might have taken place before they got to us at all?’ All at once the woman’s voice was bright with hope. ‘And the real Audelia’s headless body was already in the box?’ Her face fell suddenly. ‘But what about that giant horseman who was riding guard? He would have noticed if someone took her place. He’d been with her from the outset and he is not a fool.’
‘But he didn’t see Audelia after they got here!’ Trullius sounded quite excited now. ‘She was veiled when she arrived and didn’t stop to speak to anyone. You showed her to her room. He went off to the stable, just as he did tonight — and when she found the shoes were missing, she did not come down herself to tell him to go and find them the next day. She sent a message down, by that maidservant of hers.’
‘That’s right! The maidservant! What’s become of her? The one who overlooked the slippers when she packed the box? Puella, was she called?’ The landlady looked at me enquiringly. ‘She had been with Audelia all the way. She would have known if someone was impersonating her.’
I had to confess how Puella had mysteriously disappeared, and had last been seen riding in a farmer’s cart towards Corinium — and that I had chosen not to search for her. A farmer, I thought, rather guiltily. Paulinus was supposed to have a farm not very far from here. Was that significant?
Priscilla was not concerned with that. Her face was quite aglow. ‘You see? That maidservant was obviously a party to the plot. She left the wedding-shoes behind deliberately — on purpose so that the rider could be sent for them. And of course she made quite certain that he set off at first light, before the imitation Vestal had come down herself. So when the impostor got into the coach he wasn’t there, and… Dear Mars and Venus! We brought it down ourselves! The real Audelia was already murdered and headless in the box that you, husband, packed in next to her.’
Trullius was frowning. ‘Another of your theories! What was the impostor going to do? Jump out of the raeda when it was going along?’
Priscilla looked snubbed, but she said, with dignity, ‘Perhaps the first intention was that she should ride all the way and make her disappearance when they got to Glevum gate, but the citizen has just told us that the raeda stopped outside that basket-stall to let the troops go past — it’s obvious she seized the opportunity to slip out and escape.’
‘Dressed as a Vestal?’ Trullius put in.
She was not deflected from her argument. ‘If she took off that long white cloak, she needn’t have been wearing Vestal garments underneath. Especially if she had a wig with her, to hide the bridal plaits — false hair would draw no attention, even out of town. Wigs are becoming very fashionable these days: even poor Secunda had one, if I am any judge. Or perhaps the Vestal hairdo was a clever wig itself! Either way the impostor could quickly change her looks. There would be other people waiting to let the soldiers pass. She could simply have disappeared unnoticed into the crowd and made her way back to the rebels in the wood.’ She turned to me. ‘You’ve solved it, citizen.’
NINETEEN
Of course, I had done nothing of the kind. This theory — which in any case was hers and not my own — was hardly more than guesswork, though I was forced to grant that there were elements of it which did seem plausible.
‘It’s a clever explanation,’ I agreed, putting the silver flask carefully into the pouch-purse at my waist. ‘And you may well be right. But remember, at the moment we are lacking any proof. In fact, at present, that line of reasoning raises problems of its own.’
Now that she had found a version of events which satisfied her, though, she was unwilling to admit that there might be flaws in it. She leant back against the limewashed wall, her hands defiantly upon her hips. ‘Such as?’
There were so many unanswered questions that I couldn’t voice them all. I seized on some at random. ‘Such as who put the poison in the flask, and what became of the original sleeping draught? To say nothing of whether Paulinus and his wife were really who they seemed and — above all — whether Lavinia is safe and how she disappeared. We are still only guessing that the rebel Druids had a hand in that.’
The woman shook her head impatiently. ‘These are mere details, citizen. You have solved the central mystery, the one that you were sent here to investigate. You’ve managed to explain, and rationally too, how Audelia could appear to leave here in good health, ride to Glevum on a public road and end up beheaded in a box without anyone apparently noticing a thing. What’s more, you have lifted a big weight from my mind: you have shown me that this household was most likely not involved and you have demonstrated that it could all have been achieved without the use of sorcery. I shall sleep a great deal better for knowing that tonight. You have made such a good beginning, and in so little time, I’m sure you’ll find the answers to your other questions soon.’ She picked up the cooking-bowl of oil and held it balanced against one ample hip. ‘I’ll take you to the market in the forum if you like, and locate the donkey-boy. He’ll take you to the farmstead where he took the writing-block and you can check
