slyly up at me from under downcast lids. ‘Often it’s to keep the fortune in the family. In my case, it is the only reason that we ever met. A woman in my situation — bound to house and hearth — does not in general encounter many men.’
She was quite right of course. Indeed, now that she told me she was a kinswoman I could see a slight resemblance to Lavinius’s wife. Cyra was a good deal uglier — her face was harder and her features sharp, and of course her hair was dark — but there was something about the shape of her face which was not unalike. Secunda was almost what Cyra might have been, given different colouring and a happier life.
However, I could hardly say so, with Paulinus there, so I made a rather unfortunate remark. ‘You were never sent to be a Vestal Virgin then? It seems to be traditional, in your family.’
She dropped her eyes again. ‘I managed to escape that, citizen.’ She spoke with such embarrassment that for the first time it occurred to me to question whether she was quite the innocent that she appeared to be. There was more than one reason why a girl might be turned down for acceptance at the Vestal shrine — and more than one reason why a family might keep a single daughter under lock and key at home. I wondered suddenly if there was something in her past, even, possibly, without her full consent? Some importunate, wealthy visitor perhaps? I tried to force the unpleasant picture from my mind.
My unhappy thoughts were interrupted by a strange noise at the inner door, which instantly flew open and a stumpy girl came in. She was not very old — no more than five or six — and might have been quite pretty, if her little face had not been flushed and screwed into a frown. She stumped across the room, ignoring all of us, and stood with arms folded in front of Paulinus.
‘!!!!!??!!!’ She stamped her foot and gestured angrily towards the inner door, moving her mouth although no sound came out. Another of my private theories turned to smoke at once.
It had occurred to me to wonder, before I’d reached the house, whether this so-called deaf-mute might be Lavinia in disguise — but now that I had seen her I was practically certain she was not. This girl seemed genuinely deaf and dumb. However, there was only one way to be completely sure. I waited until she had her back to me, and then mock-accidentally knocked the metal cup and sent it flying against the great brass pitcher on the floor.
It bounced against the jug with an alarming crash. I muttered an apology, ‘So clumsy. Pardon me! Lucky it was empty.’ But I had learned what I had hoped for. Everyone had jumped and whirled around — except the girl. It was quite evident that she had not heard a thing.
My excuses were mercifully cut short by the sudden arrival at the inner door of a breathless, rather scruffy little slave — clearly the purchase that I’d heard about. He was skinny as a sparrow, though clearly in fair health and cleaner than I’d expected him to be from the description which I’d had before. Someone had obviously bathed him in the stream. His face and hands were noticeably scrubbed, and so were the skinny legs beneath the tunic- hem, although there were still dark marks in the creases of his ears, and his scalp and spiky hair were streaked with grimy black. He paused at the doorway and gazed around the room, his eyes widening with alarm as he caught sight of me.
‘This is the new page that you brought home yesterday? Brave of you to take a child who is quite untrained, though no doubt the parents were grateful for the money,’ I said to Paulinus.
He did his haunted look. ‘How do you know that?’
‘I asked in the market,’ I told him, with a grin. ‘And you were seen at the guest house with him afterwards.’
Secunda had risen serenely to her feet. ‘But of course we were. Come here, Servus. You need not be afraid.’ The urchin came obediently across and stood in front of her. She turned him round to face me. ‘Now bow to our visitor as we showed you how. Don’t alarm him, citizen, he is very shy and has trouble finding words. You are right about the training. He has much to learn and at present he is very frightened, as you see.’ She was quite right. The child was trembling.
‘We are hoping that he might become a companion-help to poor Paulina,’ she went on. ‘Now that we have lost the wet nurse, as you know. But it is too early to expect a friendship there, I suppose. Servus was supposed to be guarding her while we were here with you — we do not commonly introduce her to our visitors — but evidently that has not been a success.’ She bent down to the slave. ‘Now then, Servus, bow politely to our guest, then take that jug and go and fill it at the spring — up in the field where I showed you earlier.’ She turned to the slave-woman who had been waiting by the wall. ‘And Muta, I think you’d better take Paulina back into her room and fetch her slate for her. She likes making pictures, citizen,’ she added, for my benefit, as the slave-woman nodded and took the daughter’s hand.
The child trotted off with her contentedly enough, and Paulinus watched them go with as much paternal pride as if this were a son. I was struck again by the unusual affection in this unlikely house.
The paterfamilias turned to me. ‘Is there anything further that we can do for you? I would offer you a cart to take you into town, but we have none to spare. And it is a long trek back to Corinium, I fear.’
I shook my head. ‘If I set off at once, I’ll be there before dark. I think I know the way.’ It was not difficult in fact, if I kept to the track and did not deviate to either side, I would eventually meet up with the proper Roman road. A long, demanding walk, but not impossible. The prospect made me sigh. If only I had kept the donkey-boy with me!
It was my own fault, I told myself. I had been so convinced that the solution to the mystery was somehow in this house — yet everything had proved to be exactly what it seemed. ‘Thank you for the food and drink,’ I said, and meant it, too. Another outcome of my stubbornness. It was unlikely that I’d get another meal before tonight. I smiled at Paulinus. ‘And for allowing me to meet your family.’
‘Then,’ he said, ‘I will escort you to the gate. I’ll have to get back to checking fodder for the beasts. We don’t have many land-slaves, as you can observe, and there is much to see to if we’re to go to Gaul. Thank you for coming all this way to bring us news.’
And there I would have left it, almost certainly, had the maidservant, Muta, not come back into the room and started beckoning her master urgently.
TWENTY-THREE
Paulinus turned his attention to the slave. ‘What is it?’ he enquired.
She mimed at him, pretending to be a driver of a carriage urging on the horse. Even I could understand the message she was trying to convey.
‘I do believe there’s someone at the gate,’ I said, wondering whether the raeda had been sent to fetch me after all. If so there must be news. Perhaps Lavinia had turned up again? I was about to voice this happy possibility but my words were interrupted by a loud imperious rapping at the door.
I saw the look which flashed between the owner and his wife — a look of total apprehension and surprise. Paulinus closed his eyes. ‘I forgot to let the guard-dog loose again,’ he muttered, in evident distress. ‘Somebody’s managed to come directly up the path.’
Secunda had turned even paler than she’d been before but she said calmly, ‘Then we’d better answer it. Go yourself, Paulinus. It isn’t fair to Muta otherwise. Strangers ask her questions and she can’t explain. Much better if she goes back and looks after Paulina.’
He nodded and went out into the little passageway towards the outer door, from whence the hammering was getting louder all the time. Muta disappeared to tend her charge again, while Secunda and I stood — as if by mutual consent — in silence, listening.
We heard Paulinus saying, ‘I am the householder. Can I be of help?’ And then his startled, sharp intake of breath. ‘Dear Mars! To what do we owe this?’
‘I am looking for a citizen named Libertus,’ said a voice I recognized. ‘I understand he may be calling at the house. I am sent here to inform him that — since Audelia is dead — he is to discontinue his enquiries and return to Glevum with us instantly. The gig is waiting for him at the gate.’
I was already in the passage by this time. I did not need to see the scarlet tunic and the fur-edged cape, to know the visitor’s identity. ‘Fiscus!’ I exclaimed. ‘What are you doing here?’
He looked at me with that expression of disdain. ‘I am sent here to inform you that…’ he began again, with elaborate patience, but I cut him off.
