poured the sauce was chilling. This caught Antonia's attention.
'At least Little Boots was spared this unpleasant incident,' she said. Her favouritism for her youngest grandson was never far from the surface, and Little Boots always knew how to exploit it.
'They spared me their prayers, Grandmother, but they didn't spare me an insult,' he piped up.
'Little Boots — what a thing to say!' Agrippina admonished him.
'Why did my welfare count for nothing with the priests, then? And Nero and Drusus's welfare counted for everything?'
Drusus groaned at his brother's predictable sulking. 'Because you still piss the cot?' he suggested.
Little Boots threw a finger bowl at him.
'Ow!'
Agrippina was suddenly on her feet and Little Boots shrieked as he found his earlobe pinched between her sharp fingernails. 'Mother — let go!'
She looked to me. 'Iphicles, will you conduct Little Boots into the atrium and instruct him on how to conduct himself at the evening meal?'
The two youngest girls shrieked with mirth again but ceased when Agrippina turned her glare upon them.
I bowed. 'Yes, domina.'
Agrippina released her youngest son and Little Boots shot off from his place on his grandmother's couch and ran from the room. 'He may be twelve, but he is not too old for the rod,' Agrippina said to me.
I bowed again, deeper this time, and followed the boy. I found him in the atrium with a murderous look to his face. 'Are you really so idiotic, domine?' I reproached him.
He was enraged by my choice of words and went to strike me.
'Stop it,' I said. 'Just stop it.' I grabbed his wrists so that he couldn't lay a blow on me, but he was surprisingly strong for his age and we grappled a moment longer before he gave in. I released him again. 'There.'
'The priests insulted me,' he pouted.
'Who cares if they did?'
' You should care!'
'I'm thrilled they ignored you, and do you know why? To be ignored is to be safe from Sejanus — and from Tiberius, too. Look at the trouble Nero and Drusus have gained for themselves. To be overlooked is to see our destiny come to pass.'
He looked at me levelly. ' Our destiny? Are you the second king too?'
As ever with him, I knew when to upbraid and when to assuage. 'Of course not, Caesar,' I said, knowing that he would love me calling him that. 'My role is only to serve.' I gave my deepest bow, knowing also how well he enjoyed physical displays of devotion. But when I righted myself, I saw that his expression was unchanged.
'I'm surprised you notice me at all.'
' Domine?' I said.
'You have no time for me at all nowadays.'
'I labour tirelessly for you.'
'I wonder.'
' Domine, please, stop all this and come back to the dining room.'
'You say you work tirelessly for me, Iphicles, but how do I know? You tell me nothing of what you actually do.'
I hissed into his ear, mortified that someone might overhear him. 'If you knew, you would be endangered by it. To keep you ignorant is to keep you safe.'
'You promised me that I'd be helping.'
'You are helping,' I claimed.
The murderous look returned to his face. 'Don't treat me like a child, Iphicles, or you'll regret it.'
I took an involuntary step back from him and he instantly liked the effect his words had on me. At least he was smiling now, so I tried again, phrasing with extreme care. 'When the next plan is in place, domine, I will tell you all about it and then you can participate in it with me.'
'With you and fat Lygdus?'
'Your jealousy is so insulting — ' I began.
He kicked me viciously in the shin. 'So I'm jealous of a fat eunuch slave? Jealous of a turd without any balls? You insult me, Iphicles — you offend me like the filthy slave you really are. And you haven't got any balls either, have you?'
'Little Boots!'
We span around. The entire family had entered the atrium. Sosia and Silius were about to go home. A fierce, loaded look passed between Little Boots and me before he responded sullenly to his mother. 'What?'
A violent pounding on the front door of Agrippina's house shocked us all from the exchange.
' Open in the name of the Emperor! '
Agrippina and Antonia blanched. Had the accident with the priests' prayers led to Drusus being marked for arrest?
'Not my son…' Agrippina murmured.
'This is madness — I'll talk to them,' Antonia said quickly.
Agrippina rushed to Drusus and clutched him to her. He gave a terrified whimper as he realised what was happening. 'Am I being arrested?'
The pounding came again. 'Open up — this is Tribune Naevius Sutorius Macro of the Praetorian Guard!'
'No!' Agrippina cried out.
I alone saw the little thrill that took Livilla's face.
Drusus burst into sobs. 'I did nothing! It was all the stupid priests!'
'Courage, boy,' said Silius, wrapping his street cloak tightly across his dining tunica. 'All is not lost. There are means to appeal.'
'They'll kill me first!'
A crash came from the door as the guards started battering it with a wooden ram. The household's slaves began to shriek from everywhere in the house.
'Stop it! Control yourselves!' Agrippina shouted at them.
Antonia gathered herself to her full dignity and strode as far as the salve mosaic that marked the spot on the floor between the atrium and the entrance hall. Her voice carried like an arctic wind in her rage. 'This will now cease!'
The slaves stopped their cry and the guards stopped their battering.
'You will leave this house!' Antonia commanded the men on the other side of the door.
There was a brief silence, during which Sosia moved towards Agrippina, taking her hands to comfort her. Drusus tried to choke back his sobs. We could hear the low voices of the guards conferring outside.
I saw Antonia's strength falter slightly. She was as terrified as any of us but she fought hardest to cover it. She was a model to Rome, after all. 'I am Antonia of the Julii,' she called out again after a moment, 'and you will tell my brother-in-law the Emperor that his family loves and honours him. If he has been fed falsehoods regarding treason, then we will refute those falsehoods with dignity — and not with arresting guards. We will see him face to face in the comfort of his tablinum, as befits his family.'
'Thank you,' Agrippina whispered to her mother-in-law.
Antonia looked over her shoulder and gave Agrippina a small nod of reassurance to her. 'They will not dare do this,' she whispered.
The front door groaned on its pivots as the guards struck it again with the ram.
'You defile this home!' Antonia screamed at the men outside. 'How dare you insult us like this!'
In the terror of the moment I noticed Little Boots. He gave me a look that was reckless and defiant; he was excited by what was happening and not frightened at all. I realised what he meant to do. 'No!' I hissed at him.
He sprang past his grandmother and into the entrance hall.
'Little Boots!' cried Agrippina.
I could only stare in dread, my hopes of controlling him gone. He was not a boy, and he planned to prove it to
