garden, to come and pour her more Falernian wine. She took a sip and for a long moment made no answer. At last she smiled. 'Very well, here's the story. But you must swear to me by Venus that you'll never divulge this to Antonia. Gaze at her statue and swear it, both of you!'
Davus looked at me and raised an eyebrow. 'I swear by Venus,' I said quietly, and Davus did likewise.
Cytheris laughed. 'Actually, I've been dying to tell someone. It might as well be you, Finder. You see, even though Cassandra wouldn't tell me exactly what she was up to, I had my suspicions that it might be something- well, a bit devious. So I made a deal with her.'
'A deal?'
'I agreed to press her with no more questions and to tell no one of her origins, on the condition that she would do a small favor for me. Perform a favor, I suppose I should say.'
'And what was that?'
'Antonia is the type who can never be left out of any activity she presumes to be fashionable among her sort, whether it's wearing one's hair in a bun or worshipping some new goddess from the East. I knew that sooner or later she would seek out Cassandra, looking to have her fortune told. I'm afraid I couldn't resist the opportunity to stir up a bit of mischief.'
I nodded. 'You suborned Cassandra to deliver a false prophecy to Antonia?'
'I'm afraid so. Was that terribly wicked of me? I told Cassandra: Make it grim. Tell her that not only will Antony abandon her in the end, but so will Dolabella, and she'll grow old and toothless with no companion but that harpy brat of hers. That's why Cassandra came here at once after she left Antonia's house, to tell me that Antonia had finally consulted her and that she'd done as I'd asked. We shared a good laugh about that.'
'I see. Unfortunately, Antonia had Cassandra followed, and she made the connection to you and to your mime training. Antonia's not stupid, Cytheris. I'm afraid she saw through your little scheme to upset her.'
'Too bad. Even so, I think we managed to give her a nasty shock, while it lasted.'
'Perhaps. But once Antonia made the assumption that Cassandra was an actress and a fraud, she made another assumption: that Cassandra was a professional black mailer.'
Cytheris pursed her lips. 'Perhaps. I considered that possibility myself, but I don't think so. The Cassandra I knew in Alexandria didn't have the temperament to be a black mailer. She didn't possess that kind of cruelty.'
'People change.'
'No, Gordianus, people never change; only their roles change. And Cassandra would have been miscast as a black mailer. Still, I can't entirely rule it out.'
'And if Antonia thought she was a black mailer, then so might someone else. True or not, that might have provided the motive for someone to kill her. What do you know about her death, Cytheris?'
'Only what everyone seems to know, that she collapsed in the market and died in your arms. When I learned the news, I wept. Poor Cassandra! The gossips say that she was poisoned. Was she? Knowing what I did about her past, I had to wonder if one of her seizures had finally proved too much for her. Was it the falling sickness that killed her?'
I shook my head. 'No, she was poisoned. Someone murdered Cassandra. Do you have any idea who might have done that, Cytheris?'
'Other than Antonia? No.'
I nodded. 'What about Rupa? What can you tell me about him?'
Antonia smiled. 'Dear, sweet Rupa. I expected to see him at Cassandra's funeral, but he wasn't there, was he?'
'No. Nor did he ever come to my house to see her body. He seems to have disappeared entirely since Cassandra died.'
'I certainly haven't seen him,' said Cytheris. 'He must be in hiding, fearful of sharing Cassandra's fate. Poor thing. It's hard to imagine how he could get along without her. They loved each other so very much.'
I frowned. 'What was he to Cassandra?'
'She never told you?'
I shook my head.
'Rupa was her younger brother, of course! Couldn't you see the resemblance between them? He was with her when Cassandra joined the mime troupe in Alexandria; the master saw fit to purchase them together rather than separate them. A wise move on his part, as Cassandra would have been devastated to lose her little brother. Rupa earned his keep; he even did a bit of acting himself. Nothing that required much talent, or any spoken lines, of course. He was always big, even from an early age, so he played silent guards and hulking gladiators and grunting monsters. He made a very convincing Cyclops in a skit we did about Ulysses. I played Circe. Cassandra played Calypso…'
I sighed. 'I always thought of Rupa as her bodyguard.'
'Which he was. But mostly she protected him. It was always so. Rupa may be big and strong, but the ways of the world overwhelm him, and his muteness is a great handicap. From childhood Cassandra was always looking out for him, taking care of him. I wasn't at all surprised when she told me she had brought Rupa with her to Rome. It's hard to imagine how he could have survived alone in Alexandria. It's hard to imagine how he's surviving now without her. Or do you think-'
'What?'
'Perhaps Rupa is dead, too,' she said quietly.
From the foyer there came the sound of a knock on the door. Chrysippus went to answer it, then returned. 'Volumnius, mistress,' he said.
Cytheris gave a sigh of mingled indulgence and exasperation. 'Tell him to leave his army of bodyguards outside, and show him in.'
A few moments later, a corpulent figure came shuffling into the garden. Famous for wearing showy jewelry, on this occasion the banker Volumnius was notably bereft of ornament-no bracelets, no necklaces, no ring except a plain iron ring of citizenship. In such turbulent times, even a man as notoriously ostentatious as Volumnius knew better than to flaunt his wealth in the streets.
'Cytheris, my rosebud!' he cried. She stood to greet him and submitted to a kiss on her cheek from his fleshy lips.
'But I see you have guests.' Volumnius looked askance at Davus and me. I stood and gestured to Davus to do likewise.
'Gordianus and his son-in-law were just about to leave,' said Cytheris.
'Gordianus? I know the name. Have we met?'
'No,' I said, 'but I've dealt with your agents.'
'Ah, yes. You're another of the fine citizens to whom I've extended a helping hand in recent months. I'm only too happy, in such trying times, to find that I can be of assistance to so many of my fellow Romans.'
My loans from Volumnius, as crushing as they were to me, were surely so insignificant in his account books that I was surprised he knew of them. Did he stay apprised of every loan authorized by his agents, no matter how small? Perhaps. People said there was an invisible thread attached to every sesterce that left his greedy fist.
'I'm grateful for your assistance, Volumnius,' I said. 'And even more grateful for your patience. Times are such that even men of goodwill may not be able to meet all their obligations, at least for a while.'
'Indeed, citizen, patience is a virtue-to a point. And mine will extend exactly as long as this damnable business with Caelius and Milo remains unresolved. After that, once things are back to normal…' He shrugged, which made his shoulders jiggle. 'Eventually, obligations must be met. Order must be maintained. Property rights must be respected and loans repaid. Wise Caesar says so.' He smiled and took Cytheris's much smaller hand in his and kissed it. In that instant I understood why he had agreed to make Cytheris a freedwoman at the request of the love-struck Antony. To please Caesar's lieutenant was to please Caesar. Her manumission was nothing more or less than a business decision.
'As Cytheris says, Davus and I were just leaving. Good-bye, Cytheris. Good day, Volumnius.'
'And good day to you, citizen. Be wise and prosper-so that you may meet your obligations when the day of reckoning arrives.'
