'My master says I am Tilla.'
'Don't stare at me like that, girl! Haven't you learned anything?'
Tilla lowered her gaze and stared at the rings that looked too heavy for Merula's thin fingers.
'You look well, Tilla.'
'I am well, Mistress.'
'Many people have helped you to recover. You should be grateful to them,'
'Yes, Mistress.'
Merula reached forward and raised a tangle of untidily shredded cabbage. 'Is that the best you can do?'
'Yes, Mistress.'
'If you were one of my girls, you would be better trained.'
Tilla resisted the urge to look her in the eye. 'I am not one of your girls, Mistress.'
The cabbage fell back onto the table. 'No,' agreed Merula. 'None of my girls would dare to question the actions of her superiors, or to speak of what did not concern her.'
'No, Mistress.'
'Learn this for your own good, Tilla. Slaves who cannot control their tongues may lose them.'
'Yes, Mistress.'
'Remember my advice. Now go and collect your things. Your master has come to fetch you.'
44
Ruso glanced back to make sure the girl was keeping up. He was glad to get her away from that place. He had explained that he was in a hurry and since they had not yet added up the bill for Tilla's lodgings, Merula had agreed to have it sent over to the hospital. On the way out Bassus had given Tilla a smile that she did not return, said he was sure that they would meet again, and said, 'You won't forget us, will you?'
Tilla looked him in the eye and said, 'I will not.'
Bassus turned his attention to Ruso. 'When d'you think she'll be fit?' 'Not for some time.'
Bassus's grin reappeared. 'You doctors. Never commit yourself, do you?
'Not if we can help it,' said Ruso.
He was swerving out into the street to avoid the painter's ladder when he heard the approaching rhythm of boots on gravel.
He looked up to see a unit of infantry whose front men had now begun to clatter along the flagstoned street behind him. Ruso turned and called, 'Step back!' to Tilla. She might not know that a tired column within sniffing distance of its barracks had all the braking ability of a boulder rolling down a mountain. The painter, seeing their approach, wisely scrambled down his ladder and moved its base closer to the house. A wandering hen jerked its head up, glared at the disturbance, and scuttled out of the way
Tilla stood with her back to the wall as the column began to pass. Judging from the mud, the sweat-streaked hair, and the volume at which the centurion and his optio were berating the stragglers, these men were returning from the regulation twenty-mile full-kit training march.
Several men were looking across at Tilla and grinning. One or two winked at her. Instead of lowering her head like a modest woman, Tilla folded her good arm over her bandaged one and stared back boldly Ruso moved to stand next to her just as the centurion spotted what was happening and bellowed, 'Eyes front!'
'Look away!' Ruso ordered her.
He surveyed the grimy faces of the legionaries trudging past. Any of them could have squeezed the life out of the unlucky Saufeia.
'Tiger stripes,' said Ruso to the gate guard without being asked, swiftly followed by, 'So, have there been any calls for the doctor?'
'Not a thing, sir.'
Ruso handed the man a coin. He beckoned the girl in past the heavy studded gates and led her under the arch. 'I'll organize a gate pass for you so you can do the shopping,' he said. 'Do you understand what your duties are?'
She nodded. 'I cook and clean and mind the dogs.'
'Good.' He unhooked the front door key from his belt and handed it to her. 'What can you cook?'
She looked at him. 'Soup?'
'Fine,' he agreed.
'What in soup?'
Ruso thought about that for a moment. There was unlikely to be much in the kitchen, and if there was, the mice would have found it by now.
'Something tasty,' he said, untying his purse. He picked out three coins and put them into her hand. 'Buy something for breakfast as well.'
Tilla picked up the coins and examined them on both sides as if she wasn't sure they were genuine. 'Soup should start in the morning,' she remarked.
'Well, do your best,' he said. 'I won't be back before dark anyway'
They passed into the main street of the fort. 'This is the sort of route you are to take back and forth,' he instructed her, sweeping one arm in the general direction of the legate's residence. 'No exploring, you understand? Deva is not a place for a young woman to wander around on her own.'
Tilla's head rose. 'If a soldier touch me, my Lord, he will be punished.'
'Perhaps,' said Ruso, without a great deal of confidence, 'but by then it will be too late. Listen to me. Both inside and outside the fort, you are to stick to busy streets where there are plenty of people. If a man pays attention to you, walk away. Don't try to put him in his place. You may get away with boldness wherever you come from, but it won't work around here.'
Tilla said, 'I pray to the goddess to protect me.'
'Well, help her by using a little common sense. Two lone girls have died and I assume you know that at least one of them was murdered?'
'The goddess will punish that man, my Lord. I have put a curse on him.'
'I see.'
'Also, I will put a blessing on my Master.'
'Let's hope your goddess is listening, then.'
The girl smiled. 'She is listening, my Lord. You see already what she do to Claudius Innocens.'
45
The heavy door of the hospital swung shut and the latch dropped with a clank. The skies had cleared into a chilly night. Ruso nodded to the guards as he passed the legate's house. The great man himself was away, but his family would be asleep beyond that grand entrance. In moments of weakness, Ruso envied men who lived in married quarters: men who went home every night to a home-cooked meal and the pleasure of a woman to warm the bed. In such moments he usually took a firm hold of his imagination and brought it to heel by picturing the woman to be Claudia. Tonight, he had no cause for envy. He was going back to warm lodgings and hot food. There would be no one in his bed-he had told the girl to use Valens's room-but there would be no one nagging him in the morning, either.
What a lot of things a man doesn't need.
He shivered, and turned to head toward his supper.
The house was pleasantly cozy, but only the dogs came to greet him. Evidently his servant had gone to bed. He lifted the lamp that had been left burning by the door, and sniffed. Leeks? Onions? It was hard to say. He carried the lamp into the kitchen. Then he cleared a space on the table, laid out the wooden bowl, the spoon, and some bread, which had been placed in the box with the lid weighted down, and settled down to enjoy his first home-
